Category: Today

On July 31, 1703, Daniel Defoe — who would later become famous as the author of “Robinson Crusoe” and other literary works — was placed in a pillory for the crime of seditious libel. The sedition pertained to a satirical pamphlet he had published, “The Shortest-Way with the Dissenters; Or, Proposals for the Establishment of the Church.” The mob pelted him with flowers.

On the same date in 1912, Milton Friedman was born. Friedman would go on to become one of the most influential economists of the 20th century, and one of the most effective advocates of free markets, as well. His books include “Capitalism and Freedom” and two famous collaborations, “A Monetary History of the United States” (with Anna Schwartz) and “Free to Choose” (with his wife, Rose Friedman).

On July 30, 1980, the Pacific Islands nation of Vanuatu gained independence — it had previously been a French-English colony, New Hebrides — with foreign government aid from a variety of First World nations, placing as prime minister the very statist Walter Lini. Lini’s first act was to send troops to crush the Nagriamel secessionist movement on the island of Espiritu Santo, imprisoning its leader, Jimmy Stevens (pictured), in August.

On July 16, 1931, Ethiopia’s Emperor Haille Selassie I signed a new Constitution. Not exactly a model of classical liberal limitations on government, the new document proved that the emperor was in keeping with the time, which was a period of weakening constitutional limits in America, Europe, and Britain. A flavor of the document can be gained by its most “rights-oriented” measures:

Art. 22. Within the limits laid down by the law, Ethiopian subjects have the right to pass freely from one place to the other.
Art. 23. No Ethiopian subject may be arrested, sentenced, or imprisoned except in pursuance of the law.
Art. 24. No Ethiopian subject may, against his will, be deprived of his right to be tried by a legally established court.
Art. 25. Except in cases provided for by law, no domiciliary searches may be made.
Art. 26. Except in cases provided by the law, no one shall have the right to violate the secrecy of the correspondence of Ethiopian subjects.
Art. 27. Except in cases of public necessity determined by the law, no one shall have the right to deprive an Ethiopian subject of any movable or landed property which he owns.Art. 28. All Ethiopian subjects have the right to present to the Government petitions in legal form.
Art. 29. The provisions of the present chapter shall in no way limit the measures which the Emperor, by virtue of his supreme power, may take in the event of war or public misfortunes menacing the interests of the nation.

On July 14, 1789, Paris citizens storm the Bastille. On the same date nine years later, in America, the Sedition Act prohibited the writing, publishing, or speaking false or malicious statements about the United States government. The passage of this repressive law spurred the formation of the first opposition party in the United States, with Thomas Jefferson as its leader and figurehead.

On July 11, 1977, Martin Luther King, Jr., was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

On July 10, 1832, U.S. President Andrew Jackson vetoed a bill to re-charter the Second Bank of the United States, in effect ending formal central banking in the United States until the establishment of the Federal Reserve in 1913. There were many, many regulations placed upon banking, however, and rumors of free banking in America have been severely exaggerated.

July 6 serves better as a “Today in Tyranny” marker than anything positive, at least when you consider these events:

1415 – Jan Hus was burned at the stake.

1535 – Sir Thomas More was executed for treason against King Henry VIII of England.

1887 – David Kalakaua, monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaii, was forced at gunpoint by Americans to sign the Bayonet Constitution giving Americans more power in Hawaii while stripping Hawaiian citizens of their rights.

1939 – The last remaining Jewish enterprises in Germany were closed.

July Fourth — American “Independence Day” — events include:

1054 – A supernova was spotted by Chinese, Arab, and possibly Amerindian observers near the star Zeta Tauri, remaining, for several months, bright enough to be seen during the day. Its remnants form the Crab Nebula.

1776 — The Second Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence, thus formalizing its policy of secession from the rule of the Kingdom of Great Britain.

1803 — The Louisiana Purchase was announced to the American people.

1804 – Nathaniel Hawthorne, American author of “The Scarlet Letter,” “House of Seven Gables,” “The Blithesdale Romance,” and other classics, was born.

1826 – Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, died a few hours earlier on the same day as John Adams, second president of the United States, on the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the United States Declaration of Independence.

1826 – Stephen Foster, composer of “Old Black Joe,” “Beautiful Dreamer, and many other classic American songs, was born.

1827 – Slavery was abolished in New York State.

1831 – Samuel Francis Smith wrote “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” for Boston’s July 4th festivities, set to the tune of Great Britain’s national anthem, “God Save the King/Queen.”

2009 – The Statue of Liberty’s crown re-opened to the public after eight years of closure that resulted from security concerns following the September 11, 2001, attacks.

July 3 marks the 1947 birthday of Dave Barry, American columnist and author.

Five years later on the same date, Puerto Rico’s Constitution was approved by the Congress of the United States.