Reasons To Be Cheerful 5

Census: Less religion, more educational qualifications, vast majority of us in good health, more inter-racial partnerships. Broken Britain? (Dan Snow/‏@thehistoryguy, 11 Dec 2012)

313 Edict of Milan legalises Christianity

1561 In 1561, unless you were the son of a knight, wearing a silk cap carried a prison sentence of three months and a hefty fine. (@DaintyBallerina)

1821 Mexico gains independence from Spain
1829 Suttee banned by the British in India
1830 Canada rebels against Britain
1856 Hindu Widows’ Remarriage Act legalizes the remarriage of widows

1909 Lloyd George’s People’s Budget taxes the rich to provide social care for the sick and infirm
1910 Lloyd George’s Parliament Act asserts the supremacy of the Commons over the Lords

1938 It becomes legal to talk about contraception in the US (outlawed by the Comstock Act of 1873)
1938 Church of England fudges concept of original sin (and quietly drops it)
1939 Cancer Act prohibits advertising cures for cancer

1946 Randomised controlled trials are introduced to medicine, 3,000 years after they were described in the Book of Daniel.

1965 The Supreme Court makes contraception legal for married couples in the US; in 1972, it gives access for single people.
1967 Scolding and eavesdropping are legalised in England
1969 Germany legalises bestiality

1971 Same-sex relationships become legal in Sweden
1977 Last person is guillotined in France

1980 Selling contraceptive devices legalised in Ireland (outlawed 1935)
1981 Capital punishment is abolished in France
1988 The Lambeth Conference of Anglican and Episcopalian bishops condemns the death penalty

1992 Boris Yeltsin announces that Russia will stop targeting United States cities with nuclear weapons
1997 Marital rape becomes illegal in Germany

2003 Germany outlaws cannibalism
2003 Sodomy laws invalidated in all American states
2003 UK changes sentences for bestiality from life to two years
2006 Pakistan votes to amend rape laws. “Victims had to have four male witnesses to the crime - if not they faced prosecution for adultery.” BBC

2010 The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee concludes that "the NHS should cease funding homeopathy”.
2012 The Leander Club, which attracts rowers from Berkshire, elects its first female captain in its 194-year history. (BBC)

LESS THAN CHEERFUL

We did not have full adult franchise till 1928. We decriminalised most homosexual acts only in 1967, and a year later we abolished theatre censorship (ie, some chap telling us what we could watch on stage). Four years earlier the last men were hanged in Britain; 20 years later we stopped corporal punishment (ie, sanctioned physical abuse of children) in schools. Four years ago – four years! – we abolished the crime of blasphemous libel. And though Sweden effectively outlawed it in 1966 and Albania and the Congo by 2010, we still allow children to be physically abused, or “reasonably chastised”, at home. (David Aaronovitch, 2013-01-23)
1873 The Comstock Act criminalises any and all forms of contraception in the US
Child labour still legal in India
Church of England’s absurd fudge over gay bishops
1576 In 1576 the age of sexual consent for women was set in England. It was set at ten. (@TourGuideGirl)
Bullying is still legal.

Reasons to Be Cheerful 4
More Reasons to be Cheerful here.
Yet More Reasons to Be Cheerful.
More Reasons to Be Cheerful... ish.
More Reasons to Be Cheerful here, here and here.