On this day · archive
The nomination and the delay
On September 23, 1961, President John F. Kennedy nominated civil rights lawyer Thurgood Marshall to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Confirmation would not come until September 11, 1962.
8
events in todayish file
1961
John F. Kennedy nominates Thurgood Marshall to the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
The nomination placed a civil rights lawyer before the federal bench. Opposition from pro-segregation Southern senators kept confirmation waiting for nearly a year.
The action recorded on September 23, 1961, is a nomination. President John F. Kennedy put forward Thurgood Marshall, an African American civil rights lawyer, for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
The next step did not follow quickly. Pro-segregation Southern senators delayed Marshall's confirmation until September 11, 1962, turning the interval between nomination and confirmation into part of the event's meaning.
The two dates belong together. One records an opening; the other records how long resistance held it open. In that gap, a judicial appointment became another measure of the opposition facing civil rights in American public life.
The full record
8 entries from the day’s archive, filed year by year with a note on what each one leaves behind.
Israel launches airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, killing more than 490 people.
The strikes killed more than 490 people in Lebanon in one day, marking a major escalation in the conflict.
Conflict
Voting begins in five-day annexation referendums in Russian-occupied Ukraine.
The votes lead to Russia's claimed annexation of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts.
Conflict
A Kentucky grand jury declines to indict three police officers for the shooting death of Breonna Taylor in a drug raid gone wrong.
The decision leads to protests across the United States and keeps the case before the public.
Justice
Twenty people die on the first of two days of rioting in Papua and West Papua after an alleged racist incident.
The deaths followed unrest over an alleged racist incident and underscored the conflict's fatal consequences.
Conflict
Juan Perón returns to power in Argentina after the general election.
The election restores a former president to office and gives the date a national political turn.
Politics
Flying Tiger Line Flight 923 ditches in the Atlantic Ocean, killing 28 of the 76 people aboard.
The remaining 48 occupants are rescued six hours later, leaving survival and loss in the same account.
Disaster
President John F. Kennedy nominates civil rights lawyer Thurgood Marshall to the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Pro-segregation Southern senators delay confirmation until September 11, 1962.
Justice
King George VI has his left lung removed after a malignant tumour is found.
A monarch's illness becomes a matter of public record through a serious operation.
Royal