Freedom Activist Network's Guide To
Chronology of
Freedom
YEAR
2008 ·
2007 · 2006 ·
2005 · 2004 ·
2003 · 2002 ·
2001 · 2000
1990s ·
1980s ·
1970s ·
1960s ·
1950s ·
1940s ·
1930s ·
1920s ·
1910s · 1900s
1800s ·
1700s ·
1600s ·
1500s ·
1400s ·
1300s ·
1200s ·
1100s ·
1000s · Before
1000
OTHER FREEDOM CHRONOLOGY
Freedom Chronology Research Organizations &
Websites
2008
Amy Goodman and 2 Democracy Now! producers assaulted and falsely arrested by police while covering protests at Republican National Convention in Saint Paul Minnesota
July 30 2008
Turkey Constitutional Court rules
Justice and Development
Party will lose half its government subsidy because of its efforts to
repeal a prohibition banning head scarves and veils worn by Turkish university
women.
May 15 2008
California Supreme Court decides 4-3 that same gendered couples have an equal
right to marriage.
sfgate.com/samesexmarriage2008
May 1 2008
Deborah Jeane Palfrey, aka DC
Madam, convicted of US federal racketeering, money laundering, pandering
and prostitution law violations, dies from hanging, possibly suicide.
Apr 5 2008
Charlton Heston, fmr Pres
of National Rifle
Association and firearms liberty activist, dies.
Feb 27 2008
William F Buckley Jr, conservative
author and philosopher, dies.
Feb 17 2008
Kosovo Parliament declares independence from Serbia.
Jan 1 2008
Mae Nutt, aka Grandma Marijuana, medicinal
cannabis liberty activist, dies.
2007
Dec 13 2007
Corrine Millet, Bd Dir of
Patients Out of Time, US FDA
Investigational New Drug Compassionate Access Program prescription cannabis
recipient and glaucoma patient, dies.
Sept 27 2007
John E Berthoud, President of
National Taxpayers Union,
President of National
Taxpayers Union Foundation and taxpayers rights activist, dies.
Sept 15 2007
National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws Founder
R Keith Stroup and
High Times Assoc Publisher
Richard Cusick arrested on cannabis
possession charges while attending
Freedom Rally in Boston,
Massachusetts.
Jan 11 2007
Robert Anton Wilson, author,
philosopher, Prominent Anarchist,
Prominent Agnostic,
Prominent Subgenius,
Prominent Cannabis Smoker and friend of
Timothy Leary, dies.
2006
Dec 26 2006
James Wilson, aka Chef Ra,
High Times columnist and
cannabis liberty activist, dies.
Nov 18 2006
Mike Alcalay,
Green
Aid: Medical Marijuana Legal Defense and Education Fund Inc Bd Dir,
Oakland Cannabis
Buyers' Cooperative Medical Dir, medicinal cannabis liberty activist,
acquired immune deficiency syndrome patient; leukemia patient, dies.
Nov 16 2006
Milton R Friedman, Nobel Prize
in Economics recipient, classical liberal, author and free market economist,
dies.
July 2 2006
Lynn Zimmer, drug liberty activist,
multiple scleroisis patient and co-author of
Marijuana Myths Marijuana
Facts, dies.
Mar 27
2006
Franklyn C "Lyn" Nofziger,
Republican speechwriter and medicinal cannabis liberty proponent, dies at
Falls Church, Virginia.
Mar 1 2006
Harry Browne, author and Libertarian
Party nominee for US Pres, dies at Franklin, Tennessee.
2005
Dec 17 2005
US President George Walker Bush admits
authorizing domestic electronic surveillance without court order.
Dec 16 2005
New York Times publishes
"Bush
reportedly authorized agency to spy on Americans". The authorization
is in apparent violation of the
Foreign
Surveillance Intelligence Act. New York Times admits withholding
the story from print for over a year, news that could have influenced the
outcome of the 2004 US Presidential election.
Dec 10 2005
Eugene Joseph McCarthy, former
US Senator, candidate for US President and peace activist, dies.
Dec 8 2005
R W Bradford, founder of
Liberty, Editor of
Journal of Ayn
Rand Studies, Randian objectivist and libertarian, dies.
nyu.edu/projects/sciabarra/essays/2-sciabarra.pdf
Oct 24 2005
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks, African
American civil rights activist, dies in Detroit, Michigan.
June 8 2005
USS Liberty Veterans Association General Legal Counsel James R Gotcher files
"A Report: War Crimes
Committed Against U.S. Military Personnel, June 8 1967", claiming Israel
committed war crimes during Israeli military's attack on USS Liberty in
international waters off Egypt's Sinai coast on June
8 1967.
Apr 17 2005
Tax Freedom Day, the day each
year after which Americans' earnings are their own.
Feb 27 2005
United Nation's (UN)
World Health Organization's
(WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) that would increase
tobacco taxes and prohibit public tobacco smoking, advertising, promotions
and sponsorships takes effect.
who.int/tobacco/en
Feb 20 2005
Hunter Stockton Thompson, author,
journalist and drug liberty activist, dies of gun wound in Woody Creek, Colorado.
Feb 11 2005
Attorney Lynne Stewart found guilty of aiding terrorism after she issued
a press release with a statement by her client, Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman,
urging his followers to break a cease fire with the Egyptian government.
Prosecutors contend the statement was the equivalent of a call to resume
hostilities.
Feb 7 2005
Cuban government prohibits smoking in public places.
Jan 20 2005
George Walker Bush inaugerated US
President.
2004
Nov 2 2004
Ann Arbor, Michigan voters overwhelmingly pass Proposal
C, a medicinal cannabis proposal, 74% yes to 26% no.
Freedom Activist Network
Dir Richard James Birkett authored
Proposal C. George Walker Bush reelected
US President.
Sept 21 2004
Montel Williams discusses medicinal
cannabis with activist Angel McClary
Raich on Montel Williams Show.
View show on Real
Player.
July 7 2004
Thomas Chong, actor, comedian and
cannabis liberty activist, is released from prison where he began serving
his term on Oct 8 2003 after pleading guilty to
US drug paraphrenalia law charges.
June 5 2004
Ronald Wilson Reagan, former
US President, dies.
Apr 15 2004
Tax Freedom Day, the day each
year after which Americans' earnings are their own.
Jan 20 2004
Ron Crickenberger, former Political
Director of Libertarian
National Committee Inc, dies.
2003
Nov 5 2003
Police officers, with guns drawn, raid Stratford High School in Goose Creek,
South Carolina, ordering students to get down on the floor while police search
for cannabis. Students who didn't move fast enough were handcuffed. During
the 45 minute raid no drugs were found. On Apr 4 2006 a federal judge approved
a $1.2 million settlement for 59 students terrorized by the search.
stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/430/goosecreek.shtml
Nov 4 2003
Montel Williams, television talk
show host of Montel Williams Show, is arrested at Detroit Metropolitan
Airport, Romulus, Michigan, for possession of cannabis and paraphernalia.
Williams later pleads guilty to possession of paraphernalia.
Oct 8 2003
Thomas Chong, actor, comedian and
cannabis liberty activist, begins serving a 9 months prison term after being
sentenced for US drug paraphrenalia law violations on Sept
11 2003.
Sept 11 2003
Thomas Chong, actor, comedian and
cannabis liberty activist, is sentenced to 9 months prison, $103,000 fine
and a year probation after pleading guilty to US drug paraphrenalia law charges
on May 13 2003.
Aug 29 2003
Alaska Court of Appeals decides Alaskans have the right to grow and possess
upto 4 ounces of marijuana in their home.
mpp.org/states/site/quicknews.cgi?key=4870
June 29 2003
Don Topping, founder of
Drug Policy Forum of
Hawaii, medicinal cannabis liberty activist and cancer patient, dies.
June 7 2003
Cheryl Miller, medicinal cannabis
activist and multiple sclerosis patient, dies.
June 4 2003
Ed Rosenthal is sentenced to one
day in jail after found guilty of violating US federal law prohibiting
manufacture of cannabis.
May 23 2003
New York City police officers mistakenly raid the home of Joe Celcis, smashing
open the door, handcuffing several people, pointing a gun in the face of
a 12 year old girl, and ransacking the house for 90 minutes before realizing
they had raided the wrong address.
May 13 2003
Thomas Chong, actor, comedian and
cannabis liberty activist, pleads guilty to US drug paraphrenalia law charges
after his indictment resulting from Operation Pipe Dream on
Feb 24 2003. Chong claims to plead in order to spare
his wife and son prosecution.
Apr 16 2003
Tax Freedom Day, the day each
year after which Americans' earnings are their own.
Mar 30 2003
Dyanne Petersen, of Libertarian
Alliance, dies.
Feb 24 2003
US Drug
Enforcement Administration announces indictments of 55 persons, including
actor and comedian Thomas Chong, the
culmination of investigations code named
Operation Pipe
Dreams and Operation Headhunter.
2002
Oct 13 2002
Eugene Feingold, Bd Dir of
American
Civil Liberties Union of Washtenaw County, dies.
June 9 2002
Robert Lunday, member of
Sensible Seattle Coalition
Steering Committee and cannabis liberty activist, dies.
Apr 19 2002
Tax Freedom Day, the day each
year after which Americans' earnings are their own.
Jan 23 2002
Robert Nozick, philosopher and author
of Anarchy, State and
Utopia, dies.
2001
Nov 10 2001
Ken Kesey, aka Merry Prankster, author
of One Flew Over
the Cuckoo's Nest, dies.
Oct 25 2001
US Drug Enforcement Administration agents raid and close medicinal cannabis
provider Los Angeles
Cannabis Resource Center in West Hollywood, California.
letfreedomgrow.com/articles/ca020826.htm
Sept 11 2001
Come to be known as 9/11, both World Trade
Center 110-story towers collapse, killing nearly 3,000, after each tower
is rammed by separate hijacked commercial airliners, in New York City, New
York. Third plane, either a small jet or a hijacked commercial airliner,
broadsides Pentagon, killing 187, in Arlington, Virginia. Fourth hijacked
commercial airliner crashes in SW Pennsylvania, killing all aboard, but fails
to reach the hijackers' intended target. Alternative explanations gain
credibility later.
Sept 2 2001
US Federal Bureau of
Investigation agent kills camp owner
Grover Thomas Crosslin at his
Rainbow Farm Campground,
near Vandalia, Michigan, after Crosslin refuses to surrender himself for
arrest or his property for forfeiture, preceded by an earlier search of his
property allegedly revealing cannabis cultivation. Crosslin was also wanted
for firearms, tax and bail violations.
mapinc.org/norml/v03.n1305.a07.html?,
notesonthescene.com/rainbow_farm.html
Aug 18-19 2001
150,000 attend first two-day Seattle
Hempfest held at Myrtle Edwards Park Pier 70, Seattle, Washington.
June 2 2001
Robert C Randall, medicinal cannabis
liberty activist, glaucoma patient, co-founder of
Alliance for Cannabis
Therapeutics, and co-author (w Alice
M O'Leary),
Marijuana
Rx: The Patients' Fight for Medicinal Pot, dies.
Apr 30 2001
Tax Freedom Day, the day each
year after which Americans' earnings are their own.
Apr 25 2001
Rheumatoid arthritis patient William
Foster, originally sentenced to 93 years in prison for medicinal cannabis
cultivation, is paroled after serving 5 years.
2000
Aug 20 2000
100,000 attend 10th annual Seattle
Hempfest held at Myrtle Edwards Park Pier 70, Seattle, Washington.
June 14 2000
Peter Alexander McWilliams, medicinal
cannabis liberty activist and author, while under house arrest, dies of
suffocation from vomiting, after US federal judge deprives McWilliams of
the most effective medicine that could have prevented his nausea, medicinal
cannabis.
May 3 2000
Tax Freedom Day, the day each
year after which Americans' earnings are their own.
2000
South Carolina, Oklahoma and Massachusetts prohibit tattoos.
1990s
1999 · 1998 · 1997 · 1996 · 1995 · 1994 · 1993 · 1992 · 1991 · 1990
1999
Dec 17 1999
Jim N Rosenfield, co-founder of
Media Awareness Project;
host of Conservatives on
Prohibition, medicinal cannabis liberty activist, dies.
Sept 6 1999
Robert Kundert, cannabis liberty
activist, founder and president of
American Cannabis Society,
dies.
Aug 22 1999
90,000 attend 9th annual Seattle
Hempfest held at Myrtle Edwards Park Pier 70, Seattle, Washington.
July 8 1999
US Drug
Enforcement Administration reclassifies Marinol, a synthetic form of
tetra-hydro-cannabinol, a psychoactive compound found in cannabis, from Schedule
II to Schedule III.
May 11 1999
Tax
Freedom Day, the day each year after which Americans' earnings are
their own.
Apr 10 1999
Mary Jane Rathbun, aka "Brownie Mary",
medicinal cannabis liberty activist, dies.
Feb 9 1999
Louisiana appeals court decides Louisiana's sodomy law violates "the right
of consenting adults to engage in non-commercial sexual activity, free from
government interference, is protected by the privacy clause of the Louisiana
constitution."
1998
Oct 15 1998
Winston Perry Bullard, former
Michigan State Representative and cannabis liberty activist, dies of
auto-asphyxiaphilia in Canton Township, Michigan.
May 29 1998
Barry Morris Goldwater, aka Mister
Conservative, 1964 Republican Party nominee for US Pres, AZ US Senator,
Conservative Activist and libertarian
sympathizer, dies.
Apr 13 1998
Free Todd McCormick Rally held
at 6:30 pm at Federal Courthouse, Los Angeles, California. Speakers include
medicinal cannabis liberty activist and unsuccessful Republican candidate
for California governor Dennis Peron
and Ann McCormick, Todd's mother.
1997
Nov 5 1997
Isaiah Mendelevich Berlin,
self-identifed liberal and author of
Four Essays on Liberty
and "Two Concepts of Liberty", dies in Oxford, England.
July 1997
Medicinal cannabis activist Todd
McCormick is arrested by US Drug Enforcement Administration agents on
federal cannabis cultivation violations. Todd McCormick claims California's
Proposition 215 allows him to possess and cultivate cannabis to treat his
intense cancer-induced pain and his clinical depression.
June 26 1997
US Supreme Court invalidates
Communications Decency Act.
June 15 1997
Legalize! sponsors First
Global Anti-Prohibition
Day at Amsterdam, San Francisco, Norwich and Tallinn
May 27 1997
In Suitum v Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (96-243),
US Supreme Court decides
states must provide due process in "just compensation" claims by propertyowners
burdened by land regulation.
May 26 1997
US Supreme Court refuses
to hear appeal of US Circuit Court of Appeals decision that Baltimore's
prohibition of tobacco billboard advertising does not violate US Constitution's
First Amendment. The Circuit Court wrote "Baltimore's interest is to protect
children who are not yet independently able to assess the value of the message
presented.''.
May 15 1997
US Coast Guard announces new policy of seizing boats attempting to enter
Cuban waters.
Apr 5 1997
Irwin Allen Ginsberg, poet and
hippie, dies.
Apr 4 1997
Leo Paoli, author of California Marijuana
Initiative and cannabis liberty activist, dies in Napa, California.
1997
Montana Supreme Court decides Montana's gay sex law violates the right to
privacy as protected by the state's constitution.
1996
Dec 20 1996
Carl Sagan dies.
May 31 1996
Timothy Leary, author, philosopher
and drug liberty activist, dies.
1995
Aug 9 1995
Jerome John (Jerry) Garcia, musician
and composer with Grateful Dead, dies.
Jan 7 1995
Murray Newton Rothbard, libertarian
philosopher and author, dies.
1994
Sept 17 1994
Karl Raimund Popper, science philosopher,
dies.
Apr 22 1994
Karl Hess, anarchist libertarian philosopher
and speechwriter, dies.
1993
Dec 4 1993
Frank Vincent Zappa, musician, speech
liberty activist, censorship critic and Cultural Liaison Officer to Czech
Republic, dies.
Aug 8 1993
Sharpshooters from Kentucky State Police Special Response Team kill
Gary Shepherd and wound his wife
in his front yard in Broadhead, Kentucky after Shepherd refused police requests
to enter his home and after false reports that Shepherd was firing a rifle
at helicopters and holding his wife and child hostage. Shepherd, a disabled
veteran, was allegedly growing cannabis for his own medicinal use.
hr95.org/Memorial.html#shepherd,
mir.drugtext.org/drcnet/guide2-95/gary.html
Apr 19 1993
US Attorney General Janet Reno and
US Federal Bureau of
Investigation decide to end the standoff at the Davidian's Mount Carmel
compound near Waco, Texas. Tanks smash through walls and sprays CS gas inside
the compound. FBI agents fire "ferret" canisters using grenade launchers
through all windows. Fire and smoke kills 76 including 27 children. 20 of
the dead also have gunshot wounds. 7 who survive the fire are arrested.
also see Waco Siege
Jan 1993
US President George Herbert Walker
Bush pardons Aslam Adam, a Pakistani convicted in 1985 of smuggling $1
million worth of heroin from Pakistan.
1992
Oct 2 1992
Police kill Donald Scott in his home
in Malibu, California after invading his home with two forfeiture specialists
in tow with orders to seize his $5 million ranch if cannabis plants are found.
No plants, drugs or paraphrenalia were found. Scott was opposed to all drug
use.
Aug 25 1992
San Francisco, California Board of Supervisors declare Aug 25 1992 "Brownie
Mary Day" honoring medicinal cannabis liberty activist
Mary Jane Rathbun.
Aug 30 1992
Avoiding a planned US
Federal Bureau of
Investigation assault, Bo Gritz convinces
Randall Claude Weaver to
surrender.
also see Ruby Ridge
Aug 22 1992
US Federal Bureau of
Investigation sniper Lon Horiuchi shoots off the head of
Randall Claude Weaver's wife Vicki
at Weavers' property in Ruby Ridge,
Idaho.
Aug 21 1992
Randall Claude Weaver's son Sammy
and US Marshall William Degan shot dead after firefight at Weavers' property
in Ruby Ridge, Idaho.
July 10 1992
Manuel Noriega is sentenced to
a 40 year prison term without parole after jury convicts him of 8 counts
of drug smuggling, conspiracy and racketeering.
May 22 1992
Roy A Childs Jr, anarchist libertarian
and author, dies.
Mar 23 1992
Friedrich A von Hayek, philosopher
and author, dies in Freiburg, Germany.
hayekcenter.org/friedrichhayek/hayek_gravestone.html
Mar 1992
Secretary of the
United
States Department of Health and Human Services Louis Wade Sullivan terminates
Investigational New Drug Compassionate
Access Program that provides medicinal cannabis to individual patients,
except to those 15 patients who were receiving cannabis at the time.
1991
Dec 1 1991
George Joseph Stigler,
University of Chicago free
market economist, dies.
June 23 1991
Public Health Service Chief James O Mason suspends the fourteen year-old
Investigational New Drug Compassionate
Access Program that provides medicinal cannabis to individual patients.
Aug 17 1991
500 attend first annual
Seattle
Hempfest, originally billed as Washington Hemp Expo, held at Volunteer
Park, Seattle, Washington.
Feb 24 1991
United States military and its allies start their ground attack to eject
the Iraqi military from Kuwait.
Jan 17 1991
United States military and its allies start bombing Iraq.
1990
Sept 27 1990
European Court of Human Rights decides transgenders do not have the right
to change the gender listed on their birth certificates nor the right to
marry.
Aug 2 1990
Iraqi military attacks and occupies Kuwait.
July 11 1990
Hong Kong repeals its sodomy laws.
June 24 1990
200,000 attend Gay Pride parade in New York City, New York.
June 24 1990
Nevil Schoenmakers, owner of
Seed Bank in Amsterdam, Netherlands, is arrested at the request of US Government
by Australian police while visiting his family in Perth.
Apr 22 1990
Tax Freedom Day, the day each
year after which Americans' earnings are their own.
Jan 3 1990
Panamanian President Manuel Noriega
surrenders to the US Drug Enforcement Agency at a Catholic nunnery in Papal
Nuncio, Panama.
