r/ThisDayInHistory

What made 1998 such a massive turning point is that Russia never forgot the humiliation. Putin basically spent the next 20 years building a system meant to make sure the country would never get cornered like that again — stacking reserve funds, creating backup payment systems, and making energy deals outside the dollar system.

So when the West froze $300 billion in 2022, this wasn’t some random surprise to Moscow. They’d been preparing for that exact moment for years.

Full breakdown: https://youtu.be/akegMBOeo74

https://history-maps.com/warmap/vietnam-war/event/battle-of-hamburger-hill

https://history-maps.com/podcast/how-the-american-west-was-won

https://history-maps.com/story/History-of-Christianity/event/First-ecumenical-councils

https://history-maps.com/story/Mexican-American-War/event/End-of-the-War

https://history-maps.com/story/History-of-the-Ottoman-Empire/event/French-Invasion-of-Egypt

What we call Brown v. Board was actually several lawsuits combined into a single case, all challenging whether racial segregation in public education violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The case directly challenged the precedent established by Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), in which the Court ruled segregation constitutional under the doctrine of “separate but equal.” In theory, the Court argued that separating races did not imply Black Americans were inferior so long as supposedly equal facilities existed for both races.

Segregation expanded across the South and much of the rest of the country. White schools received newer textbooks, better transportation, larger budgets, and longer school years, while Black schools were overcrowded, underfunded, and falling apart.

For decades, activists, and organizations fought back. The most important was the NAACP, whose Legal Defense Fund, led by lawyer Charles Hamilton Houston and his former student Thurgood Marshall, focused on public education as the key battleground against segregation.

Houston and Marshall secured a series of legal victories, including at the graduate school level. Still, the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Fred Vinson stopped short of declaring segregation itself unconstitutional.

Then came Brown. Marshall, serving as chief counsel for the NAACP, argued not merely that Black schools were materially unequal, but that segregation itself was unconstitutional. Segregated education, he argued, stamped Black children with a badge of inferiority and denied them equal opportunity under the law.

Arguments first began in 1952, and the Court was divided. Some justices favored desegregation, others feared overturning precedent, while a few supported segregation outright. The Court ordered reargument, understanding the decision would reshape America.

Then Chief Justice Vinson suddenly died of a heart attack. President Eisenhower appointed former California governor Earl Warren as the new Chief Justice. Warren, who supported Japanese internment during World War II, strongly favored school integration and immediately pushed for a unanimous ruling overturning segregation in public education.

Warren personally persuaded hesitant justices, arguing that the Court’s legitimacy depended on overturning Plessy unanimously. Eventually, he succeeded.

On May 17th, 1954, the Court unanimously ruled in favor of Brown.

Warren wrote that education was “perhaps the most important function of state and local governments,” and concluded that separating children solely based on race generated “a feeling of inferiority” that undermined educational opportunity. Ruling that: “Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”

The ruling did not immediately end segregation, and the Court’s later order that desegregation proceed “with all deliberate speed” allowed years of Southern resistance, obstruction, and violence. But Brown shattered the constitutional legitimacy of segregation and became one of the civil rights movements early victories.

If interested, I cover it in much greater detail here: https://open.substack.com/pub/aid2000/p/hare-brained-history-vol-95-brown?r=4mmzre&utm_medium=ios

https://history-maps.com/warmap/thirty-years-war/event/battle-of-rocroi

https://history-maps.com/story/Turkish-War-of-Independence/event/Organizing-resistance

On This Day, on May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted in Washington State, causing the deadliest and most destructive volcanic eruption in United States history.

The eruption triggered:
🌋 a massive landslide
🌋 a powerful sideways volcanic blast
🌋 ash clouds reaching 80,000 feet
🌋 and widespread destruction across nearby forests and towns.

The disaster killed 57 people, including innkeeper and World War I veteran Harry R. Truman, photographers Reid Blackburn, Robert Landsburg, and volcanologist David A. Johnston, and destroyed hundreds of homes, roads, bridges, and millions of trees.

The eruption was so powerful that ash spread across multiple U.S. states, turning daytime into darkness in some areas.

Today, Mount St. Helens remains one of the most famous volcanic disasters ever recorded.

A mountain exploded… and an entire landscape vanished within minutes.

https://history-maps.com/warmap/crusades/event/siege-of-acre-1291

https://history-maps.com/story/Civil-Rights-Movement/event/Brown-v-Board-of-Education

http://history-maps.com/events/jolliet-marquette-expedition