 on the subject: The First Woman to Cast a Vote in Chicago Did So With Her Feet)
1917 : The Supreme Court decided against the Louisville, Kentucky city ordinance in the Buchanan v. Warley case, that instituted racial segregation in residential districts. Since 1910, many Southern cities, border states, and lower Midwest towns responded to a wave of African-American in-migration from rural areas by passing laws mandating that blacks & whites live in separate areas. The Louisville ordinance prohibited the sale of property to ‘colored’ people. But on this day, the Buchanan Court unanimously ruled that the city ordinance was in direct violation of the Fourteenth Amendment and was a deprivation of liberty as well as property without due process. This case was one of the most significant civil rights cases decided before the modern civil rights era.
1937: Hitler held a secret conference at the New Chancellery in Berlin expressing his deliberate intent to start a war. According to the Hossbach Memorandum, a summary of that meeting on this day, the German dictator outlined his plans to expand in Europe. His intent was to start small wars in a view to salvage Germany’s economy that was in danger of collapse. He bluntly indicated that Germany should resort to an aggressive policy and seize countries like Austria and Czechoslovakia to provide German people enough living space, or “Lebensraum” as he called it, for a Greater Germany. Moreover, he announced that in the near future, it was imperative to act “two hate-inspired antagonists”. He was referring to Britain & France. He went so far as to call his speech his “political testament”. Although there isn’t unanimous agreement among historians, this meeting, along with the three other meetings Hitler held in 1939, sparked what we call the Second World War.
1935 : The popular board game Monopoly was first launched by the Parker Brothers. In 1903, a game called ‘The Landlords Game’ was conceptualized by Elizabeth Magie Phillips, intended to bring to light the negative aspects of Henry George’s single tax theory. That concept evolved into the game of Monopoly, as we know it today. It involves the buying, selling, and development of that land until it reaches the domination of the market by a single entity. The game Monopoly was published and officially launched by the Parker Brothers game company on this day.