This Day in History: 0000-08-08
August 6, 1975- “Voting Rights Act of 1975 Requires Bilingual Ballots” “In 1975, Congress made major amendments to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Civil rights organizations that represented Hispanic, Asian American, Native Alaskan and Native American interests successfully argued before Congress that such groups were victims of discriminatory voting practices, particularly in places where English was not the dominant language. This prompted Congress to amend the Voting Rights Act to
require voting districts carry bilingual ballots in certain areas of the country.”
November 23, 2002 - "First Native American Travels to Space"
John Herrington, a registered member of the Chickasaw Nation, was the first Native American to travel into space as the mission specialist for STS-113, the 16th mission to the International Space Station. During his mission, Herrington performed three spacewalks that totaled 19 hours and 55 minutes. The length of his mission was 13 days, 18 hours and 47 minutes. Herrington was inducted to the Chickasaw Hall of Fame the same year he went into space. William Pogue, a crewman aboard Skylab 4 in 1973-1974, had Choctaw ancestry, but was not an enrolled member of the Choctaw.