Tulsa race riot began

On May 31, 1921, the Tulsa race riot was touched off after a black elevator operator was alleged to have attacked a white woman in an elevator in downtown Tulsa. Armed whites attacked, burned and looted the local black business community of Greenwood in violence that killed more than 300 people and destroyed more than 1200 homes.

Learn more about the Tulsa race riot. A special commission set up by the Oklahoma legislature decades afterward submitted this report [PDF] on the riot in 2001.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt born

Carrie Chapman Catt, suffragist, womens' rights advocate and co-founder of the League of Women Voters, was born on January 9, 1859.

Visit the Carrie Chapman Catt Childhood Home.

Great Britain's first income tax introduced

On January 9, 1799, British Prime Minister William Pitt introduced Great Britain's first income tax. The tax was announced the previous December as a means of raising money for war against Napoleon. Pitt's successor, Henry Addington, repealed the tax when hostilities subsided in 1802. Addington then reinstated the tax during the following year when fighting was renewed. The Addington tax model later became the model for the modern British income tax. Learn about the history of income taxation in Great Britain from Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs.