Human Rights Events

1789 Aug 26 The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen Approved
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789 brought together two streams of thought: one springing from the Anglo-American tradition of legal and constitutional guarantees of...
1789 Aug 27 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (French: Déclaration des droits de l'Homme et du citoyen) is a fundamental document of the French Revolution, defining the individu...
1957 Sep 4 Nine black students are prevented from entering formerly all-white Little Rock Central High School by the Arkansas National Guard
The Little Rock Nine was a group of African-American students who were enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. The ensuing Little Rock Crisis, in which the students were init...
1960 Feb 1 Four black students sit at a segregated lunch counter in Woolworth's, sparking the Greensboro sit-ins
The sit-ins were very significant to the movement. They symbolized a change in the mood of African-American people. Up until then, we had accepted segregation — begrudgingly — but we had ...
1961 May 4 The first Freedom Ride leaves Washington DC for racially-segregated South
Civil Rights activists called Freedom Riders rode on interstate buses into the segregated southern United States to test the United States Supreme Court decision Boynton v. Virginia, (196...
1961 Dec Martin Luther King, Jr. Becomes Involved in the Albany Movement
The Albany Movement was a desegregation coalition formed in Albany, Georgia, on November 17, 1961. Local activists, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and the National ...
1962 Oct 1 James Meredith Becomes First Black Student at the University of Mississippi
Meredith was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi of Native American (Choctaw) and Black American heritage. He enlisted in the United States Air Force right out of high school and served from 1...
1963 May 3
to 1963 May 8
 Violence Erupts as Civil Rights Protesters Clash with Police in Birmingham, AL
The Birmingham campaign was a strategic movement organized by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to bring attention to the unequal treatment black Americans endured in Bi...
1964 Jul 2 President Johnson Signs Civil Rights Act of 1964 into Law
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Pub.L. 88-352, 78 Stat. 241, July 2, 1964) was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed racial segregation in schools, public place...
1968 Apr 4
6:01PM
 Martin Luther King, Jr. Assassinated at Lorraine Motel
In March 1968, Reverend King went to Memphis, Tennessee in support of striking African American sanitation workers. The workers had staged a walkout on February 11, 1967, to protest unequ...
1972 Jul 25 The Washington Star Exposes the Tuskegee Experiment to a Scandalized Public
The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male (also known as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, Public Health Service Syphilis Study, or the Tuskegee Experiment) was a clinical stu...
1990 Oct 10 Nayirah Tearfully Describes Iraqi Atrocities in Occupied Kuwait
Although there were human rights abuses committed in Kuwait by the invading Iraqi military, the ones best known in the US were an invention of the public relations firm hired by the gover...
2002 Jan 11 First group of detainees arrives at Guantanamo Bay's Camp X-Ray
In 2001, President George W. Bush signed an executive order that stipulated that US military could indefinitely detain any non-citizen who he believed was involved in international terror...
2004 Nov 9 US District Judge James Robertson says trials of Guantanamo Bay detainees are unlawful
The special trials established to determine the guilt or innocence of prisoners at the U.S. military prison in Cuba are unlawful and cannot continue in their current form, a federal judge...
2005 May Riots break out across the Muslim World in response to allegations of Koran abuse at Guantanamo Bay detention camp
CAIRO, May 28 -- Muslims in several countries demonstrated Friday in resurgent anti-American anger over reported desecration of the Islamic holy book, the Koran, and some protesters calle...
2006 Jun 29 Supreme Court rejects Guantanamo Bay detainee tribunals
The Supreme Court yesterday struck down the military commissions President Bush established to try suspected members of al-Qaeda, emphatically rejecting a signature Bush anti-terrorism me...
2007 Jan 18 Department of Defense announces creation of manual outlining rules for military commissions dealing with Guantanamo Bay detainees
The Defense Department today presented to Congress its manual outlining rules for military commissions as they will be conducted under the Military Commissions Act of 2006. The manual in...
2007 Mar 26 Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee, David Hicks, pleads guilty to terrorist activity
GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, March 26 -- Australian David M. Hicks pleaded guilty to one charge of material support for terrorism during a brief military hearing Monday night, becoming the first...
2008 Jun 12 US Supreme Court rules that Guantanamo Bay detainees have the right to challenge their detention in court
Boumediene v. Bush, 553 U.S. ___ (2008), was a writ of habeas corpus submission made in a civilian court of the United States on behalf of Lakhdar Boumediene, a naturalized citizen of Bos...
2009 Jan 23 President Obama orders closure of Guantanamo Bay detention facility
Torture and CIA "ghost" prisons will be no more. Guantanamo Bay will be closed. Lo and behold, the leader of communist Cuba has called the 44th President of the United States "an honest m...
2009 Mar 17 North Korea captures 2 American journalists
Two American journalists detained by North Korean soldiers are believed to have been sent to Pyongyang for questioning, a news report said Sunday. North Korea said Saturday it was inve...
2009 Jun 4 150,000 People Hold Vigil in Hong Kong to Commemorate 20-Year Anniversary of Tiananmen Square Massacre
Tens of thousands of people converged Thursday on a park to mark the 20th anniversary of the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square. Organizers estimated that...
2009 Jun 4 China Tightens Grip on Security on 20th Anniversary of Tiananmen Square Massacre
Last week marked the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square demonstrations, which culminated with the Beijing massacre, in which hundreds, possibly thousands, of people were killed. ...
2009 Jun 9 First Guantanamo Bay Detainee to Stand Trial in US
In a reversal of Bush administration policy, the first Guantanamo detainee was transferred Tuesday to U.S. soil for trial on capital terrorism charges. Ahmed Ghailani, a Tanzanian who ...
2009 Jun 11 China Demands Rendition of Uighur Guantanamo Bay Detainees
America should "stop handing over terrorist suspects to any third country," foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said. Palau, a former US Pacific territory which does not recognise Chin...
2009 Jun 23 Notorious Iranian Prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi is Charged with Investigating Detained Protestors
A notoriously abusive Iranian prosecutor, Saeed Mortazavi, has been put in charge of the investigation of detained reformist leaders and party officials amidst a widening security crackdo...
2009 Jul 7 Chinese Presdent Hu Jintao Leaves G8 Summit to Deal with Escalating Violence in Xinjiang Province
Chinese President Hu Jintao has left the G8 summit in Italy to return to Beijing amid an outbreak of violence in the northwestern Xinjiang province, China's state-run Xinhua news agency r...
2009 Jul 10 Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan Speaks out on Xinjiang Violence
Turkey's prime minister on Friday compared ethnic violence in China's Xinjiang province to genocide, escalating criticism of Beijing following this week's killing of at least 156 people -...
2010 Mar 21 House Approves Landmark Health Care Bill
Congress gave final approval on Sunday to legislation that would provide medical coverage to tens of millions of uninsured Americans and remake the nation’s health care system along the l...
2010 Mar 23 President Barack Obama Signs the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into Law
"It represents a major step forward toward giving Americans with insurance and those without a sense of security when it comes to their health care " —President Obama
2010 Mar 23 President Obama Signs the Affordable Health Care for America Act into Law
Summoned to success by President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled Congress approved historic legislation Sunday night extending health care to tens of millions of uninsured America...