| Year | Event
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|---|
| 1791 | The Whiskey Act was a U.S. federal law passed by the 1st Congress upon the recommendations of Alexander Hamilton, then treasury secretary, as another source of Federal revenue. These burdensome taxes resulted in the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794.
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| 1837 | President Jackson recognizes the Republic of Texas on his last day in office after approval by Congress.
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| 1842 | A law in Massachusetts is passed that limits the factory workday for children under 12 to 10 hours.
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| 1845 | Florida is admitted as the 27th U.S. state.
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| 1849 | The Department of the Interior is created.
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| 1863 | The Enrollment Act becomes law, allowing the Federal government to draft citizens for the first time.
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| 1871 | The Indian Appropriation Act, passed by Congress, makes American Indians wards of the government, effectively nullifying the treaties that recognized the Indian tribes as nations.
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| 1873 | The Comstock Act becomes law. It prohibits the sending of obscene literature through the mails. [Of course, this makes it necessary for the government to open private mail occasionally!]
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| 1903 | The Immigration Act is amended, 32 Stat. 1214. Congress provided for denial of naturalization and for deportation for mere belief in certain doctrines, i.e., anarchy.
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| 1919 | That the guarantee of freedom of speech does not extend to "falsely shouting 'fire' in a theater" is established by the Supreme Court in Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47 (1919). Schenck was affirmed to be guilty of "conspiracy to violate the Espionage Act" because he passed out pamphlets that were in opposition of the war.
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| 1965 | 3500 Marines land at Danang, signaling the beginning of America’s ground war in Vietnam.
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| 1971 | The beginning of Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 and India's official entry to the Bangladesh Liberation War in support of Mukti Bahini.
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| 1991 | Rodney King is brutalized by Los Angeles police, which is caught on video tape. |
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