In 1954, the Supreme Court issued a momentous ruling that clarified how the American legal system handled charges of discrimination. In Hernandez v. Texas, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment applied to all racial and ethnic groups facing discrimination, effectively broadening civil rights laws to include Hispanics and all other non-whites.

The defendant, Peter Hernandez, was a Mexican American agricultural laborer, part of the influx of such workers that had come to Texas during and after World War II. Hernandez was convicted of killing a man in cold blood in Jackson County, Texas, but his legal team, which was drawn mostly from one of the oldest Latino civil rights groups in the nation, the League of United Latin American Citizens, appealed. They pored through the records of jury selections in Jackson County, an area with a substantial Hispanic population, and found that not one of the roughly 6,000 jurors selected over the previous 25 years had a Hispanic last name. Citing the Fourteenth Amendment, which had been passed in 1868 and guaranteed equal protection under the law to all African Americans, Hernandez’s lawyers claimed he had been deprived of equal protection because discrimination prevented him from being tried by a jury of his peers.

Source: history.com for the complete

The 1971 May Day Protests were a series of large-scale civil disobedience actions in Washington, D.C., in protest against the Vietnam War.

These began on Monday morning, May 3rd, and ended on May 5th. More than 12,000 people were arrested, the largest mass arrest in U.S. history.

Members of the Nixon administration would come to view the events as damaging, because the government’s response was perceived as violating citizens’ civil rights.

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The 1992 Los Angeles riots, sometimes called the 1992 Los Angeles uprising, were a series of riots and civil disturbances that occurred in Los Angeles County in April and May 1992. 

Unrest began in South Central Los Angeles on April 29, after a trial jury acquitted four officers of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) for usage of excessive force in the arrest and beating of Rodney King, which had been videotaped and widely viewed in TV broadcasts. The rioting took place in several areas in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, as thousands of people rioted over six days after the verdict’s announcement.

Widespread looting, assault, and arson occurred during the riots, which local police forces had difficulty controlling due to lack of personnel and resources. The situation in the Los Angeles area was only resolved after the California National Guard, the United States military, and several federal law enforcement agencies were deployed to assist in ending the violence and unrest.

By the time the riots ended, 63 people had been killed, 2,383 had been injured, more than 12,000 had been arrested, and estimates of property damage were over $1 billion, much of which disproportionately affected Koreatown, where the bulk of rioting occurred. LAPD Chief of Police Daryl Gates, who had already announced his resignation by the time of the riots, was attributed with much of the blame for failure to de-escalate the situation and overall mismanagement.

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1670 – The Hudson Bay Company was founded by England’s King Charles II.

1776 – France and Spain agreed to donate arms to American rebels fighting the British.

1797 – A mutiny in the British navy spread from Spithead to the rest of the fleet.

1798 – The black General Toussaint L’ouverture forced British troops to agree to evacuate the port of Santo Domingo.

1808 – The citizens of Madrid rose up against Napoleon.

1813 – Napoleon defeated a Russian and Prussian army at Grossgorschen.

1853 – Franconi’s Hippodrome opened at Broadway and 23rd Street in New York City.

1863 – Confederate Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson was wounded by his own men in the battle of Chancellorsville, VA. He died 8 days later.

1865 – U.S. President Andrew Johnson offered $100,000 reward for the capture of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

1885 – The Congo Free State was established by King Leopold II of Belgium.

1885 – The magazine “Good Housekeeping” was first published.

1887 – Hannibal W. Goodwin applied for a patent on celluloid photographic film. This is the film from which movies are shown.

1890 – The Oklahoma Territory was organized.

1902 – “A Trip to the Moon,” the first science fiction film was released. It was created by magician George Melies.

1922 – WBAP-AM began broadcasting in north Texas.

1926 – In India, Hindu women gained the right to seek elected office.

1926 – U.S. Marines landed in Nicaragua to put down a revolt and to protect U.S. interests. They did not depart until 1933.

1932 – Jack Benny’s first radio show debuted on NBC Radio.

1933 – Hitler banned trade unions in Germany.

1939 – Lou Gehrig set a new major league baseball record when he played in his 2,130th game. The streak began on June 1, 1925.

1941 – Hostilities broke out between British forces in Iraq and that country’s pro-German faction.

1941 – The Federal Communications Commission agreed to let regular scheduling of TV broadcasts by commercial TV stations begin on July 1, 1941. This was the start of network television.

1945 – Russians took Berlin after 12 days of fierce house-to-house fighting. The Allies announced the surrender of Nazi troops in Italy and parts of Austria.

1946 – Prisoners revolted at California‘s Alcatraz prison.

1954 – Stan Musial of the St. Louis Cardinals set a new major league record when he hit 5 home runs against the New York Giants.

1960 – Caryl Chessman was executed. He was a convicted sex offender and had become a best selling author while on death row.

1965 – The “Early Bird” satellite was used to transmit television pictures across the Atlantic.

1969 – The ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) made its maiden voyage.

1970 – Student anti-war protesters at Ohio‘s Kent State University burn down the campus ROTC building. The National Guard took control of the campus.

1974 – Former U.S. Vice President Spiro T. Agnew was disbarred by the Maryland Court of Appeals.

1974 – The filming of “Jaws” began in Martha’s Vineyard, MA.

1982 – The British submarine HMS Conqueror sank Argentina’s only cruiser, the General Belgrano during the Falkland Islands War. More than 350 people died.

1993 – At Washington’s National Gallery of Art, an exhibit of 80 paintings from the collection of Dr. Albert C. Barnes opened.

1993 – Authorities said that they had recovered the remains of David Koresh from the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, TX.

1994 – Nelson Mandela claimed victory after South Africa’s first democratic elections.

1999 – In Panama, Mireya Moscoso de Grubar, of the Armulfista Party, was elected president.

2002 – It was reported that Phyllis Diller had retired from touring.

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