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1806

Sold

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Truth’s master, Hardenbergh, dies and her family are separated. Neely, whom Truth remembered as harsh and violent, buysTruth at an auction with a flock of sheep for $100.

By then my father, Bomefree, who had been tall and straight in his youth, had grown old and sickly. No one wanted to buy him. Although my mother could have been sold, they decided to free her so that she could care for my father. The people who bought the hotel allowed my parents to continue to live in the cellar…As the enslaved became old and infirm, they became less useful to their owners, and too expensive to be kept and cared for. They were often, therefore, set free and left to care for themselves. This was especially heartless when their children had also been sold away and were not around to help look after them.

1826

Escapes slavery

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Truth escapes with her infant daughter, Sophia, leaving behind her other children because a New York emancipation order did not permit their freedom until they had served as bound servants into their twenties.

I did not run off, for I thought that wicked, but I walked off, believing that to be all right.

A family lets Truth move in with them and settles her remaining one year service account with her master, Dumont, for $20.

1971

Establishes ACLU Women’s Rights Project

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Ginsburg establishes the ACLU Women’s Rights Project. This was the major, and sometimes the only, national legal arm of the growing movement for gender equality, recognized as the spokesperson for women’s interests in the Supreme Court, and the “premier” representative of women’s rights interests in that forum. The Project works to enforce women’s statutory rights, including the rights to equal employment opportunities guaranteed under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act6 and the Equal Pay Act. Early cases challenge the constitutionality of sex discrimination, specifically measuring the constitutionality of sex-based classifications and striking down discriminatory Social Security regulations.

27 Oct, 1985

Pollard boasted of working for Israeli Intelligence

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Marshall, a friend of Pollard’s and co-graduate from Stanford, says that Pollard bragged about working for Israeli Intelligence, although his claims seemed contradictory. Pollard claimed frequently to be a colonel in the Israeli military and to have worked for Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency. However, while still in college, Pollard also said he was a captain in the Mossad.

That discrepancy indicated he wasn’t telling the truth all the time. [He] was unusually well-informed and quite articulate and made what might otherwise have been an outlandish series of claims quite convincing.

Marshall says he concluded at the time that Mr. Pollard might indeed have some connections with Israeli intelligence but that he probably had ”embroidered” his role. He also says Pollard was ”a committed Zionist, but fairly liberal” on certain questions of Middle East politics.

He described himself as part of an Israeli officers’ group that favored more open channels of communication with Egypt.

6 Mar, 1992

Michaelangelo Virus

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McAfee tells journalists that a virus dubbed “Michelangelo,” which completely wipes the hard drive of infected computers, will be activated on as many as five million PCs. His declaration causes a near-panic in the computer-using world. But by March 7, nothing has happened. He is blamed for creating a false threat to sell more of his anti-virus software. Sales reportedly “skyrocket”  with more than half of the companies in the Fortune 100 having purchased McAfee software.

12 Jul, 1997

Decides to sell Trump Plaza casino

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Trump decides to sell Trump Plaza, one of his Atlantic City casinos, saying it could sell for as much as $1 billion. He says he will use the money to decrease his company’s $1.7 billion debt. The company’s stock has fallen 59 percent in the last year as casino revenues have remained stagnant. He says the decision is not a sign that he is losing interest in Atlantic City.

There is a thirst to come into Atlantic City, but it’s very hard to get land and it takes a long time to build from the ground up. I just feel, in a nutshell, that Atlantic City is hot, that I have the best properties and this is a good time to sell…We don’t need other markets. A lot of the Las Vegas developers, they now want to come into Atlantic City.

23 Oct, 1998

Sign Wye Agreement

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Netanyahu and Arafat sign the Wye River Agreement. The agreement is a land-for-peace deal which is signed after a 21-hour discussion between the two parties mediated by US president Bill Clinton. Jordan’s King Hussein, is also in attendance, assisting in the negotiations. Netanyahu:

The agreement benefits both sides and leaves me brimming with some confidence that Israel and the Palestinians could reach a final accord, though I guarantee you it will not be easy.

 

29 Nov, 2001

Mission approved

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NASA selects the New Horizons proposal from Southwest Research Institute for a mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt System. Director of SRI space studies:

We’ll be exploring frontier worlds near the edge of the planetary system. This mission is likely to rewrite textbooks regarding the origin of the planets, the nature of the outer solar system, and even the origin of primitive materials that may have played a role in the development of life.

21 Feb, 2002

Faster arrival

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As the New Horizons team studies the mission and their launch window, they realize that they can get the probe to Pluto a year earlier than anticipated.

This [is] a great opportunity to improve our scientific return while reducing mission risks and costs. We’ll get a better look at Pluto itself, since more of the surface will be sunlit and the atmosphere will be another year away from freezing onto the planet’s surface. We’ll have more fuel for the journey into the Kuiper Belt after exploring Pluto-Charon, and the shorter cruise time reduces some of the costs associated with flight operations.

16 May, 2002

Passes first review

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The mission passes its first major review by technical experts who say that it is on track.

The Systems Requirements Review confirmed that New Horizons is making progress on spacecraft and scientific instrument design, and that we are ready to proceed toward the mission confirmation reviews that NASA is requesting.

22 Jul, 2002

Defends increased BBC web spending

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Highfield defends the previous year’s decision by the BBC to almost double the amount invested in the corporation’s websites. The corporation spent £100.4m on the internet last year, compared with £54.2m the year before. Including interactive television, the total expenditure rises to £111.6m. Highfield says future spending will be capped at 3%. Commercial rivals and some MPs have criticised the BBC’s spending, arguing it is using licence fee-payers’ money to provide online services already offered by the commercial sector.

Having arrived from the commercial sector, I’m always acutely aware of this. Whenever I think about where we’re going to put our money, I always carefully consider the consequences for the private sector. I trebled the amount we spend on nations and regions, increasing the number of Where I Live regional sites from 13 to 37. It doesn’t block out any commercial interest because most existing regional sites are heavily based on classified advertising.

A large proportion of the extra money was spent on upgrading the BBC’s server technology to cope with the increase in users following September 11.

Part of our original commitment was to encourage people to come on to the web and I think we’re doing that. Of the 500,000 visitors who used the Test the Nation site on the day of the broadcast, 300,000 had never visited the BBC site before.

19 Aug, 2002

Tells daughter to seek mental help

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Voight announces publicly that he thinks Jolie should seek help for her serious mental problems after learning she adopted a son from Cambodia. Jolie insists that she is fine and doesn’t want to make it more than it is.

I’m a desperate father. I’m trying to reach her. I just pray to God she hears me.

24 Oct, 2002

Passes second review

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The team completes its second major system-level evaluation. Experts study the mission plan and spacecraft design and conclude that the project is ready to proceed. Review panel:

New Horizons has validated its preliminary design and the team can move ahead with more detailed design activities.

11 Feb, 2003

Refuses contributions

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Walker ends a tradition by refusing to accept contributions to his reelection campaign from county employees. He will return any contributions already given and he does not expect them to attend his fund-raising events. He wants to evaluate his employees on their merits, not on their political loyalty.

I’ve seen too many times in government where the expectation to give comes with the job.

12 Mar, 2003

Announces 100 job cuts

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The BBC announces 100 job losses across its websites as it looks to control costs. Highfield says the corporation’s spending on the web will fall by £6m in the next financial year to £68m and by a similar amount the following year. After several years of explosive growth in staffing and spending, BBCi will only receive inflation-linked budget increases from now on.

We have strategically positioned the move towards interactive TV because we’ve seen how popular it can be and it reaches people that don’t necessarily spend a lot of time on the web…We’ve got to work out what people look at and what they don’t.

9 Apr, 2003

Construction authorized

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After NASA’s team of experts conducted a detailed, in-depth review of every facet of the mission plans and design, they authorize the construction of the New Horizons probe and ground systems.

This is a truly historic step forward. For the first time, NASA is undertaking a mission to explore Pluto-Charon and the distant reaches of the solar system beyond Neptune. This kind of frontier exploration is one of the important ways that NASA and the American space program lead the world. Our team is proud of the authorization NASA has given us to proceed and we’re reminded by the responsibility on our shoulders to make this mission a success.

23 Jul, 2003

Atlas V to launch probe

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NASA chooses the Atlas V expendable launch vehicle to launch the New Horizons probe into space. The launch is planned for January 2006.

25 Jul, 2003

Wants workweek or jobs cut

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With a $4 million deficit, Walker plans to either layoff 400 workers or cut the workweek to 35 hours for all county employees. Labor leaders promise a court fight if Walker makes a unilateral decision:

Why should it only be county employees who take a hit? We don’t think that’s the only choice the exec has. . . . The county could ask its hundreds of private vendors to take a cut, or seek workers interested in taking voluntary furloughs.

Walker tells the unions that if they do not agree to the cut in the workweek, he will be forced to layoff people:

We feel we have a strong legal case for imposing a 35-hour workweek. The approach shares the pain across county government and minimizes the impact on the public, which will see little service reduction because workers in many cases could simply shave an hour a day off their schedules. Management has the ability to reduce workers’ hours to 35 hours a week without union approval during a budget crises.

23 Mar, 2004

‘Anti needless government’

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Running for reelection, Walker takes on the populist role based on his accomplishments during his first two years in office. After taking over a fiscally troubled county government, Walker is getting things back on track with his anti-tax message, cutting the budget, direct appeals to the public, and a government that is downsized, reformed and open. He feels that the government is still inefficient enough to allow for more cuts.

I’m not anti-government, but I’m anti needless government bureaucracy. . . . Cleaning the mess left over from the last administration is often not easy, and it requires some dramatic actions…The people that were swept from power want it back, I need your help to continue reforming your county government.

13 Jun, 2005

Probe shipped

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John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, which built the New Horizons probe, ships it to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center for its next round of pre-launch testing. APL Project manager:

Our testing program is off to a good start. We’ve shown that New Horizons is structurally ready for the ride on the launch vehicle, and now we’ll test it in the full range of conditions it would face on the voyage to Pluto, Pluto’s moon, Charon, and beyond.