Benjamin H Newlands (1916 - 1992)

Refresh this page to see various historical events that occurred during Benjamin's lifetime.

In 1916, in the year that Benjamin H Newlands was born, visiting nurse Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in the U.S. at 46 Amboy St. in Brooklyn New York. Ten days after the clinic opened, Sanger was arrested for "violating laws against giving out birth control information" which was defined as obscenity. The clinic was not handing out birth control - just information about sex and birth control methods. (The Comstock law categorized information about abortion, family planning, and contraception as “obscene”.) The clinics and organizations that Sanger established later evolved into the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

In 1945, Benjamin was 29 years old when on March 12th, a riot erupted at a Japanese internment camp in Santa Fe New Mexico. Two days earlier, white shirts with the Rising Sun on the back had been confiscated and the prisoners objected. Three leaders of the protest were removed and sent to another camp. Guards at the Santa Fe camp were armed with submachine guns, shotguns, and gun masks. On the morning of the 12th, prisoners began throwing rocks at the guards. When the "rioters" wouldn't disperse, the guards were ordered to use tear gas and batons. Four men were badly injured as a result.

In 1959, by the time he was 43 years old, on January 3rd, Alaska became the 49th state of the United States and the first state not a part of the contiguous United States. The flag was changed to display 49 stars.

In 1989, he was 73 years old when on January 20th, George Herbert Walker Bush became the 41st President of the United States. Previously Ronald Regan's Vice President, he ran against Michael Dukakis and won the popular vote by 53.4% to 45.6%.

In 1992, in the year of Benjamin H Newlands's passing, in April, Bosnia-Herzegovina declared independence from Yugoslavia. The newly created Bosnian Serb army then began a campaign against Muslim Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats - killing, raping, torturing, beating and robbing - and resulting in the deaths of over 100,000.