On this day in 1916, Margaret Sanger opened the first family planning and birth control clinic in the United States. At the time, contraceptives, abortion, and birth control literature were illegal in much of the U.S. Working as a nurse in the slums of New York City, Sanger often treated mothers desperate to avoid conceiving additional children, many of whom had resorted to back-alley abortions.
To promote birth control, Sanger gave speeches, wrote books, and published periodicals. Sanger deliberately flouted laws that prohibited distribution of information about contraceptives, and was arrested eight times. Her activism led to court rulings that legalized birth control, including one that enabled physicians to dispense contraceptives; and another – Griswold v. Connecticut – which legalized contraception without a prescription for couples nationwide.
She discouraged abortion, and her clinics never offered abortion services during her lifetime. She founded several organizations dedicated to family planning, including Planned Parenthood. In the early 1950s, Sanger persuaded philanthropists to provide funding for biologist Gregory Pincus to develop the first birth control pill. She died in Arizona in 1966.
Sanger in 1936
Today is the birthday, in 1947, of American musician and songwriter Bob Weir, best known as a founding member of the Grateful Dead. The group released more than 140 albums during their career, the majority of them recorded live in concert. Weir also founded and played in several other bands during and after his career with the Grateful Dead, and Weir, along with former Grateful Dead members, joined John Mayer to form the band Dead & Company. In the summer of 2025, Weir was diagnosed with cancer. Despite beating the cancer, he died from underlying lung issues on January 10, 2026, at the age of 78. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuyaK0hGxWk
