On December 2

On this day in ...

... 1823 (185 years ago today), in his 7th annual message to Congress, U.S. President James Monroe declared:

[T]he occasion has been judged proper for asserting, as a principle in which the rights and interests of the United States are involved, that the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers ...

This Monroe Doctrine, proclaimed with respect not only to the United States but also to countries throughout North and South America, has persisted as a tenet of U.S. foreign policy. A contemporary invocation occurred in December 1984, when Dr. Robert Gates, the current Secretary of Defense, who's slated to remain so in the next administration (as posted above), but then Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, wrote a letter to his superior in which he cited the doctrine to justify U.S. support for the contras who were fighting Nicaragua's Sandinista government.

... 1977, the chief magistrate of Pretoria accepted findings that South African security forces were not to blame for the death of Steve Biko, 30, the leader of the Black Consciousness Movement who "died of extensive brain injuries sustained" 5 days after "a scuffle with police" who were interrogating and detaining him. No trial ever has been held respecting the apartheid-era incident, described in jarring detail in Donald Woods' book Biko (1978) and depicted in the film Cry Freedom (1987).

On August 18, ...

... 1997 (10 years ago today), Beth Ann Hogan became the 1st woman to enroll at the Virginia Military Institute, a 158-year-old institution of higher learning. Her enrollment followed nearly a decade of legal wrangling: resolving a sex discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice, the Supreme Court required the publicly funded academy to admit women. In her opinion for the Court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote that the Equal Protection Clause requires that gender-based classifications be supported by an "exceedingly persuasive" justification. As for the 17-year-old from Junction City, Oregon, Hogan left after her 1st semester of study; nonetheless, as indicated by the photo at right, VMI's website now prominently features its female cadets.
... 1977 (30 years ago today), authorities of South Africa's apartheid government arrested Steve Biko, leader of the Black Consciousness movement, and detained him pursuant to the country's Terrorism Act. Weeks later Biko died while in custody. A book chronicled the abuses that Biko suffered during interrogation, but the 1st official report to find government agents responsible was that of the post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission.