On November 10, 1919, the US Supreme Court ruled in Abrams v. United States that the federal government could criminalize speech if it was of a type tending to bring about harmful results, in this case, resistance to the United States war effort. In a powerful dissenting opinion, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes countered that even [...]
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On November 10, 1982, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev died of a heart attack. He had served as leader of the USSR from October 1964 until his death. Following his death, the Soviet Union cycled through three more leaders during the 1980s until Mikhail Gorbachev allowed the country to dissolve in 1991. Read an obituary of [...]
November 9 is the International Day Against Fascism and Anti-Semitism . On November 9, 1924, American gay activist Henry Gerber and several associates formed the Society for Human Rights, the first gay rights organization in the United States. The Society received a charter from the State of Illinois in December but was disbanded in July [...]
On November 9, 1970, the Supreme Court voted 6-3 in Massachusetts v. Laird not to hear the case of the state’s anti-draft law. Massachusetts had passed a law, which allowed its citizens to decline to fight in any undeclared war, even if the person was drafted. The law was passed in opposition to the draft [...]
On November 8, 1994, Oregon passed the Death With Dignity Act by voter initiative, becoming the first US state to legalize physician-assisted suicide. Read the Death With Dignity Act,
On November 8, 1793, the revolutionary government in France opened the Louvre for the first time as a public museum. Learn more about the history of the Louvre.
On November 7, 1973, Congress passed the War Powers Act, overriding President Nixon’s veto. Read the War Powers Act and review a summary of Congress and the War Power: Constitutional Anchor or Anachronism?, a seminar held at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars on October 15, 2001.
On November 7, 1956, the United Nations General Assembly approved Resolution 1001, which called on the United Kingdom, France and Israel to pull all of their military forces out of Egypt. The Resolution came during the Suez Canal crisis, during which Israel invaded Egypt with the support of the U.K. and France, after Egyptian President [...]
On November 6, 1962, the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 1761, which condemned Apartheid in South Africa and called on member states to boycott the country. The resolution also set up a Special Committee against Apartheid.
On November 6, 1917, the state of New York adopted a constitutional amendment granting equal voting rights to women.
