[JURIST] The government of Florida and a Florida judge engaged in a last-minute legal tussle late Wednesday as the state made what could be its final bid to restore Terri Schiavo's feeding tube. At a press conference held while the Florida Senate was still debating legislation that might have authorized tube reconnection [JURIST report], Governor Jeb Bush said that new evidence from neurologist Dr. William Cheshire [Mayo Clinic profile] suggested that Schiavo was minimally conscious and therefore that the current diagnosis of her being in a persistent vegetative state might not be correct [NBC WFLA-8 TV Tampa video]. The Florida Department of Children and Familes [official website] meanwhile petitioned [PDF] Pinellas County circuit judge George Greer, who has already made numerous rulings in the Schiavo case, for leave to intervene based on Cheshire's affidavit [PDF] and allegations of abuse and endangerment of Schiavo that
First Fleet departs from England to establish penal colony in Australia
On May 13, 1787, the First Fleet departed from England, carrying 780 British convicts to establish a penal colony in Australia. Led by Captain Arthur Philip, all eleven ships arrived safely in Botany Bay, New South Wales, Australia in January of 1788.
Read Captain Philip's account of his voyage on Project Gutenberg, and learn more about the journey and its impact from First Fleet online.
Federal government denied funding to segregated school districts
On May 13, 1966, the US federal government took its first action against violators of the desegregation guidelines of the 1964 Civil Rights Act by denying federal education funding for 12 segregated Southern school districts. Learn more about school desegregation.
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