On August 2, 1937, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 into law. The act required all producers, laboratories, dealers, importers, and doctors to register each year to legally buy and sell marijuana.
Educator and activist Mary Jane McLeod Bethune was born on July 10, 1875, in Mayesville, South Carolina. She founded a private school for African Americans and was a member of several African American women’s organizations, sometimes called the “Female Booker T. Washington.”
On June 19, 1934, President Franklin Roosevelt signed legislation creating the National Archives. The archives houses billions of historic documents, photographs, maps, videos, and more.
On April 27, 1936, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Soil Conservation Act. The act established the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) to reduce and repair the damage caused by soil erosion. The SCS’s work was expanded and continues today as the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Journalist and civil rights activist Oswald Garrison Villard was born on March 13, 1872, in Wiesbaden, Germany. He was an editor of the New York Evening Post and a founding member of the NAACP.
On January 15, 1943, construction on the Pentagon, the world’s largest office building, was completed.
On January 14, 1943, Allied leaders met in Casablanca, Morocco, to discuss the next stage of World War II.
On January 6, 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt gave his “Four Freedoms” speech while delivering the State of the Union Address.
On January 3, 1938, President Franklin Roosevelt established the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, later renamed the March of Dimes.