RHIANNON DUCK, SOUNG KIM, CLAUDIA ROJAS, FAITH WILLIAMS

Comm 454-001 / 9-22-03

Chapter 1+2 Timeline

ENGLAND COLONIES/U.S.

1275 – Sedition was made illegal by Parliament	1612 – Governor Dale of Virginia is authority of Church and State
1450 – Johann Gutenberg’s printing press was made.	1635 – Massachusetts legislature banished Baptist Roger Williams for disseminating dangerous opinions against the government
1476 – William Claxton set up first printing press in England	1660 – Virginia imprisoned some people for speaking seditious words
1482 – Defamation suits begin to be heard	Late 1660’s – Many arrests occurred for seditious speech
1520 – Heretical books came from the Colonies. Clergy established a licensing to control printing presses	1720 – Prior Restraint recorded in Massachusetts
1531 – Henry VIII abolished the Roman Catholic Church and established the Church of England. The merger of church and state was now official	1725 – Licensing was no longer an issue
1535 – Private Libel cases are heard	1735 – Trial of newspaper publisher, John Zenger. The jury was sympathetic and voted not guilty. Now, truth could be used as a defense.
1538 – Printed materials needed the approval of the crown	1776 – Declaration of Independence
1542 – Council and Star Chamber pursued those who published seditious opinions	1788 – Draft of the Bill of Rights was made.
1557 – Queen Mary strengthened licensing system with Stationery’s Company. England had its first copyright laws	1790 – Copyright Act
1564 – 1^st index of banned books	1791 – Ratification of Bill of Rights; Freedom of speech becomes official government policy
1644 – John Milton’s Areopagitica published without a license. Dealt with unruly censorship of the press and prior restraint issues	1798 – Alien and Sedition Acts
1689 – English Bill of Rights expanded freedom of speech to Parliament during legislative session only	1815 – 1^st persecution of obscenity
1774 – Copyright was no longer the publisher’s right but the right of the author	1865 – Postal Act. Obscene material not permitted in US mail
1792 – Fox’s Libel Act. Truth was acceptable as a defense	1873 – Comstock Act. Deals with obscene material in the mail including material such as birth control and abortion
1860 – Freedom of speech was accepted by the government of England	1834 – Wheaton v Peters. Landmark copyright case upholding the Constitution to create copyright regulations by statute. Copyright is whatever Congress says it is.
1868 – Hicklin Rule. It determined obscenity.	1939 – Davis v. Massachusetts. Massachusetts state requires you to have a permit if you want to speak openly on public property

* Dates with the same color relate to each other. Black colored dates are not related but are important.