1455	King Henry VI is taken prisoner by the Yorkists at the Battle of St. Albans, during the War of the Roses.
1804	The Lewis and Clark Expedition officially begins as the Corps of Discovery departs from St. Charles, Missouri.
1813	Composer Richard Wagner was born in Leipzig, Germany.
1856	U.S. Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beats Senator Charles Sumner with a cane for Sumner’s earlier condemnation of slavery, which included an insult to Brooks’ cousin, Senator Andrew Butler.
1859	Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Canon Doyle was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
1861	In what is generally regarded as the first Union combat fatality of the Civil War, Pvt. Thornsbury Bailey Brown was shot and killed by a Confederate soldier at Fetterman Bridge in present-day West Virginia.
1863	Union General Ulysses S. Grant’s second attack on Vicksburg fails and a siege begins.
1868	The Great Train Robbery took place near Marshfield, Ind., as seven members of the Reno gang made off with $96,000 in cash, gold and bonds.
1872	The Amnesty Act restores civil rights to Southerners.
1882	The United States formally recognizes Korea.
1907	Actor Laurence Olivier was born in Dorking, Surrey, England.
1908	The Wright brothers register their flying machine for a U.S. patent.
1939	Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini sign a “Pact of Steel” forming the Axis powers. Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler
1947	The Truman Doctrine was enacted as Congress appropriated military and economic aid for Greece and Turkey.
1960	A magnitude 9.5 earthquake, the strongest on record, struck southern Chile. Approximately 1,655 people were killed and 3,000 injured.
1967	The children’s program Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood premiers.
1972	The island nation of Ceylon became the republic of Sri Lanka with the adoption of a new constitution.
1985	Baseball player Pete Rose passes Hank Aaron as National League run scoring leader with 2,108.
1987	An Iraqi missile hits the American frigate USS Stark in the Persian Gulf.
1990	In the Middle East, North and South Yemen merge to become a single state.
1990	North Yemen and South Yemen merged to form the Republic of Yemen.
1992	Johnny Carson hosted NBC’s “Tonight Show” for the last time after nearly 30 years in the job.
1998	Voters in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland cast ballots giving resounding approval to a Northern Ireland peace accord.
2002	A jury in Birmingham, Ala., convicted former Ku Klux Klansman Bobby Frank Cherry of murder in a 1963 church bombing that killed four black girls.
2002	The remains of Chandra Levy, a federal intern who had beem more than a year, were found in a Washington, D.C., park. (An illegal immigrant from El Salvador was convicted in 2010 and sentenced to 60 years in prison.)
2011	A tornado devastated Joplin, Mo., claiming at least 159 lives and destroying about 8,000 homes and businesses.

Today in History facts are from various sites including, but not limited too: the History Channel, The New York Times, WHG Historynet.com, and HistoryOrb.com.

Danny Escobedo

The second case which paved the way was Escobedo v. Illinois (1964). After being arrested as the prime suspect in the murder of his brother-in-law, Danny Escobedo was taken to the police station where he immediately asked to speak with his attorney. Police started their interrogation and refused to let Escobedo speak to his lawyer. Escobedo’s attorney arrived and was refused access to his client. After fourteen hours of interrogation, Escobedo was allowed to speak with his attorney—after already implicating himself in the murder of his brother-in-law. The Supreme Court reversed the conviction and held that the Sixth Amendment guarantees the right to counsel, to everyone.

From the inception of this country, men have fought to protect the rights of the individual. Our Founding Fathers guaranteed certain rights in the Bill of Rights; however, there were no provisions ensuring that every citizen was made aware of these rights. In Miranda v. Arizona (1966), in a 5-4 split decision, the Supreme Court put an end to this erroneous pattern, which had established itself as normalcy in the criminal justice system. Chief Justice Earl Warren delivered the following opinion of the Court: “The person in custody must, prior to interrogation, be clearly informed that he has the right to remain silent, and that anything he says will be used against him in court; he must be clearly informed that he has the right to consult with a lawyer and to have the lawyer with him during interrogation, and that, if he is indigent, a lawyer will be appointed to represent him.”

The above opinion would be worded differently and become known throughout the nation as “Miranda rights.” Simply put, police officers were “required…to advise suspects of their rights and then to desist from questioning if suspects asserted those rights.” Of course there are other ways to obtain confessions other than by browbeating someone unaware of the fact that they have the right to remain silent. An example of this would be Brown v. Mississippi (1936). It was not until Brown v. Mississippi that the Court ruled that an involuntary confession could not be extracted by violence. In this particular case, the confessions of three defendants were procured through whippings and by stringing one of the defendants up by his neck from a tree. In a unanimous decision, the Court determined that this was a clear violation of the Due Process Clause and reversed the convictions of the defendants.

Ernesto Miranda

Over the next several decades the Court would add other forms of coercion to the list of ways in which police had illegally obtained confessions. In Payne v. Arkansas (1964), the Court held that a suspect’s confession could not come at the hands of psychological brutality. After not having counsel for three days, and hardly having any food, the Chief of Police told a suspect in custody that “there would be 30 or 40 people there in a few minutes that wanted to get him,” that was unless he wanted to confess. The Chief of Police assured him that if he confessed, that he could offer the suspect protection. Sure enough, an immediate confession was given.

While all the aforementioned Supreme Court cases would play an important role in establishing suspect’s rights, Miranda v. Arizona would be the first in a series that concretely define the protected rights of a suspect. Like a waterfall, the following two years would bring case after case, cascading against (and drowning) the criminal justice system that had masterfully maneuvered around the rights of the individual. The following year, in Miller v. Pate (1967), the Court reversed a conviction on the basis that the state could not convict a criminal, whose conviction was based on false evidence. In the same year, in Enstminger v. Iowa, the Court required that states are required to provide full trial transcripts for defendants seeking appeals. Another case occurred in 1967 which further supported the individual’s Fifth Amendment right—Sims v. Georgia. In this case, the Court held that the state has the responsibility to prove that confessions were not a result of coercion.

Other than Miranda v. Arizona, the case during this two-year time period that was most controversial, which “managed to offend both law-and-order groups and advocated of special youth courts,” was In re Gault (1967). It was in this case that the Court held in an 8-1 decision that juveniles should receive full rights that adults received under the Fourteenth and Sixth Amendments, including: due process, the right to confront witnesses, and the right to counsel.

Due to the heightened concern of terrorism in the United States, the Legislative and Executive branches have recently started removing individual’s rights for those suspected of links and ties to, or involvement with terrorist organizations. Some of the more interesting cases have been those which have ruled that activities taking place at Guantanamo Bay are unconstitutional—Hamdan v. Runsfeld (2006) and Boumediene v. Bush (2008) are both examples of these. If history does repeat itself, I believe that big action should soon be expected from the Supreme Court. As individuals’ rights are taken away for what—at the time—is best for America, it is up to the Court to return those rights in a timely fashion.

996	Sixteen year old Otto III is crowned the Roman Emperor.
1471	King Henry VI is killed in the Tower of London. Edward IV takes the throne. Edward IV
1536	The Reformation is officially adopted in Geneva, Switzerland.
1620	Present-day Martha’s Vineyard is first sighted by Captain Bartholomew Gosnold.
1790	Paris is divided into 48 zones.
1832	The Democratic party holds its first national convention.
1840	New Zealand was declared a British colony.
1863	The siege of the Confederate Port Hudson, Louisiana, begins.
1881	The American Red Cross is founded by Clara Barton.
1892	The opera “I Pagliacci” by Ruggiero Leoncavallo was first performed, in Milan, Italy.
1924	Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb, two students at the University of Chicago, killed a 14-year-old boy in a “thrill killing.” Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb
1940	British forces attack German General Rommel’s 7th Panzer Division at Arras, slowing his blitzkrieg of France.
1941	The first U.S. ship, the S.S. Robin Moor, is sunk by a U-boat.
1951	The U.S. Eighth Army counterattacks to drive the Communist Chinese and North Koreans out of South Korea.
1956	The United States exploded the first airborne hydrogen bomb, over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.
1959	The musical “Gypsy” starring Ethel Merman opened on Broadway.
1961	Governor Patterson declares martial law in Montgomery, Alabama.
1970	The U.S. National Guard mobilizes to quell disturbances at Ohio State University.
1979	Former San Francisco City Supervisor Dan White was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the shooting deaths of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk.
1980	“The Empire Strikes Back,” the second movie in the “Star Wars” series, was released.
1991	Former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a suicide bomber.
1999	Susan Lucci, star of the ABC soap opera “All My Children,” won her first Daytime Emmy Award for best actress in the 19th straight year she was nominated.
2008	David Cook won the seventh season of “American Idol.”

Today in History facts are from various sites including, but not limited too: the History Channel, The New York Times, WHG Historynet.com, and HistoryOrb.com.

1303	A peace treaty is signed between England and France.
1347	Cola di Rienzo takes the title of tribune in Rome.
1520	Hernando Cortes defeats Spanish troops sent against him in Mexico.
1674	John Sobieski becomes Poland’s first king. John Sobieski
1690	England passes the Act of Grace, forgiving followers of James II.
1774	Parliament passes the Coercive Acts to punish the colonists for their increasingly anti-British behavior. The acts close the port of Boston.
1775	North Carolina becomes the first colony to declare its independence.
1784	The Peace of Versailles ends a war between France, England, and Holland.
1799	Napoleon Bonaparte orders a withdrawal from his siege of St. Jean d’Acre in Egypt.
1859	A force of Austrians collide with Piedmontese cavalry at the village of Montebello, in northern Italy.
1861	North Carolina becomes the last state to secede from the Union.
1861	The capital of the Confederacy was moved from Montgomery, Ala., to Richmond, Va.
1862	President Lincoln signs the Homestead Act, providing 250 million acres of free land to settlers in the West.
1874	Levi Strauss begins marketing blue jeans with copper rivets.
1902	The United States ended a three-year military presence in Cuba as the Republic of Cuba was established.
1927	Charles Lindbergh took off for Paris from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, N.Y., aboard the Spirit of St. Louis on the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. Charles Lindbergh
1930	The first airplane is catapulted from a dirigible.
1932	Amelia Earhart took off from Newfoundland for Ireland to become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
1939	Regular trans-Atlantic air service began as a Pan American Airways plane took off from Port Washington, N.Y., bound for Europe.
1941	Germany invades Crete by air.
1942	Japan completes the conquest of Burma.
1951	During the Korean War, U.S. Air Force Captain James Jabara becomes the first jet air ace in history.
1961	A white mob attacks civil rights activists in Montgomery, Alabama.
1969	U.S. and South Vietnamese forces captured Apbia Mountain, referred to as Hamburger Hill by the Americans, following one of the bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War.
1970	100,000 people march in New York, supporting U.S. policies in Vietnam.
1971	The album “What’s Going On” by Marvin Gaye was released.
1989	Comedian Gilda Radner died of cancer at age 42.
1993	The final first-run episode of “Cheers” aired on NBC.
1995	President Bill Clinton announced that the two-block stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House would be permanently closed to traffic as a security measure.
1996	The Supreme Court struck down a Colorado measure banning laws that protect homosexuals from discrimination.
2002	East Timor became an independent nation.
2009	Suspended NFL star Michael Vick was released after 19 months in prison for running a dogfighting ring.

Today in History facts are from various sites including, but not limited too: the History Channel, The New York Times, WHG Historynet.com, and HistoryOrb.com.

1535	French explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail for North America.
1536	Anne Boleyn, the second wife of England’s King Henry VIII, was beheaded after being convicted of adultery.
1568	Defeated by the Protestants, Mary, Queen of Scots, flees to England where Queen Elizabeth imprisons her.
1588	The Spanish Armada set sail for England.
1608	The Protestant states form the Evangelical Union of Lutherans and Calvinists.
1635	Cardinal Richelieu of France intervenes in the great conflict in Europe by declaring war on the Hapsburgs in Spain. Cardinal Richelieu
1643	The French army defeats a Spanish army at Rocroi, France.
1780	Near total darkness descends on New England at noon. No explanation is found.
1856	Senator Charles Sumner speaks out against slavery.
1858	A pro-slavery band led by Charles Hameton executes unarmed Free State men near Marais des Cygnes on the Kansas-Missouri border.
1864	The Union and Confederate armies launch their last attacks against each other at Spotsylvania, Virginia.
1921	Congress sharply curbs immigration, setting a national quota system.
1935	The National Football League adopts an annual college draft to begin in 1936.
1935	T.E. Lawrence, also known as “Lawrence of Arabia,” died in England from injuries sustained in a motorcycle crash.
1962	Actress Marilyn Monroe performed a sultry rendition of “Happy Birthday” for President John F. Kennedy during a fundraiser at New York’s Madison Square Garden. Marilyn Monroe
1964	U.S. diplomats find at least 40 microphones planted in the American embassy in Moscow.
1967	U.S. planes bomb Hanoi for the first time.
1967	The Soviet Union ratified a treaty with the United States and Britain banning nuclear weapons from outer space.
1992	Mary Jo Buttafuoco was shot and seriously wounded in Massapequa, N.Y., by her husband Joey’s teenage lover, Amy Fisher.
1992	The 27th Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibits Congress from giving itself midterm pay raises, went into effect.
1994	Former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis died in New York at age 64.
2001	Apple, Inc. opened its first retail stores, in Tysons Corner, Va., and Glendale, Calif.
2004	Specialist Jeremy C. Sivits received a year in prison and a bad conduct discharge in the first court-martial stemming from abuse of Iraqis at the Abu Ghraib prison.
2005	“Revenge of the Sith,” the final chapter of the “Star Wars” saga, opened in movie theaters.
2011	Katie Couric, the first regular solo anchorwoman of a network evening newscast, signed off the “CBS Evening News” for the last time after five years. Katie Couric

Today in History facts are from various sites including, but not limited too: the History Channel, The New York Times, WHG Historynet.com, and HistoryOrb.com.