The Virginia Declaration of Rights – Today In Southern History
12 June 1776
On this date in 1776…
The Declaration of Rights was adopted unanimously by the Fifth Virginia Convention at Williamsburg, Virginia. Adopted before and separately in case the Declaration of Independence did not pass in the Continental Congress, the Declaration of Rights was Virginia’s act of secession from the British Empire.
Other Years:
1849 - The Gas Mask was patented by Lewis Haslett of Louisville, Kentucky
1861 – Missouri Governor Claiborne Jackson called for 50,000 volunteers to stop federal troops from illegally taking control of the state. The federal strong-arm tactics used in Missouri eventually led the state government to secede.
1862 – Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart’s cavalry began its famous three-day ride around federal General George McClellan’s army.
1935 – Senator Huey Long of Louisiana spoke continually for 15 1/2 hours in the U.S. Senate’s longest speech on record with more than 150,000 words.
1942 - a massive tornado killed 35 people in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
1944 – The U.S. Congress established the Big Bend National Park in Texas.
1963 – The Mississippi’s NAACP field secretary, 37-year-old Medgar Evers, was murdered outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi. Byron De La Beckwith was tried twice in 1964, both trials resulting in hung juries. Thirty years later, he was convicted of murdering Evers.
1967 – In its Loving v. Virginia decision, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned laws that banned interracial marriage.
1968 - “Speedway,” the 27th movie starring Elvis Presley is released across the US
1970 - Janis Joplin gave her fist solo performance in Kentucky
2016 - A gunman pledging allegiance to the Islamic State shot up the ‘Pulse,’ a gay nightclub in Orlando, FL killing 49 and injuring 53 others
2020 - After an altercation police kill Rayshard Brooks, who passed out at a Wendy’s drive-through in Atlanta, leading to massive rioting.
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