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19541776 Club

Eisenhower's law takes effect: the Communist Party is now illegal in America

Membership itself becomes a crime punishable by five years in prison, unless members register with the Attorney General.

By the summer of 1954, eight years into the Second Red Scare, Congress had decided suspicion was no longer enough. On August 24, President Eisenhower signed the Communist Control Act into law, stripping the Communist Party USA of its legal standing and branding it an "agency of a hostile foreign power." Belonging to the party, or even supporting it without registering with the Attorney General, now carried a fine of up to $10,000 and five years behind bars. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had warned the law would only push Communists further underground…

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More from August 24
1814

Smoke rises over Washington as British troops torch the Capitol and the President's Mansion

Madison flees to Maryland while Dolley Madison's staff carries out the silver as British soldiers sit down to the dinner meant for his guests.
1942

Saratoga's bombers catch the Ryūjō; the carrier goes down after dark

Three to five bombs and a torpedo cripple the Japanese flattop near Santa Isabel Island as the fleets close for battle.
1949

The North Atlantic Treaty takes effect; twelve nations are now bound to defend each other

Four months after the signing in Washington, Article 5's promise becomes binding law.
19441776 Club
Captain Raymond Dronne defies the plan to bypass the city and becomes the first French officer back inside its walls.
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More from Cold War America
1989

Yeltsin stops at a Texas supermarket and asks what it costs to feed a family

Twenty minutes at Randalls #30 in Webster leaves the Soviet leader stunned into silence on the flight to Miami.
1947

The law takes hold: America wakes to a Defense Department and a new spy agency

One day after Forrestal's confirmation, the government's wartime agencies formally give way to a unified national security machine.
1984

A van bomb tears into the US embassy annex at Aukar, killing 23

Guards' gunfire kept the van from reaching the building; it still detonated close enough to rip off the front wall.
1979

A US spy satellite catches a double flash near Antarctica; no one will say what caused it

Vela 6911's sensors record the exact signature built to catch an atmospheric nuclear blast.
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