Economic inequality | Spark of Genius

The U.S. formally passes the Higher Education Act into law, making student loans widely available for the first time

By Peter Schulte / November 9, 1965

Federal student loans were first offered in the U.S. in 1958 under the National Defense Education Act. However, they were only available to select categories of students, such as those studying engineering, science, or education. Low-income student loans only became more broadly available in the 1960s under the Higher Education Act of 1965, which also increased federal money given to universities, created scholarships, and established a National Teachers Corps.

The Antigua Trades and Labour Union is formed

By Peter Schulte / October 24, 1939

Poor labor conditions in Antigua and Barbuda persisted until 1939 when a member of a royal commission urged the formation of a trade union movement. The Antigua Trades and Labour Union, formed shortly afterward,

U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt begins implementing his “New Deal”

By Peter Schulte / June 17, 1933

The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations in the U.S. between 1933 and 1938. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, “perhaps the greatest achievement of the New Deal was to restore faith in American democracy at a time when many people believed that the only choice left was between communism and fascism”.

Karl Marx publishes the Communist Manifesto

By Peter Schulte / February 21, 1848

The political pamphlet, arguably the most influential in history. proclaimed that “the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.”

Lucius Sextius Lateranus becomes the first plebeian consul of Rome

By Peter Schulte / August 26, 1002

The Lex Licinia Sextia, also known as the Licinian Rogations, was a series of laws proposed by the tribunes of the plebs, Lucius Sextius Lateranus and Gaius Licinius Stolo. These laws provided for a limit on the interest rate of loans and a restriction on private ownership of land. A third law, which provided for one of the two consuls to be a plebeian.