APA Historical Database: Selected Entries

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On May 17:

1853 — The state of California enacted its first law regarding mental illness. It described procedures for the involuntary confinement of people with mental illness and provided state funding for the care of indigent patients. California's first state mental hospital was the Insane Asylum of California, later named Stockton State Hospital, which opened in 1853 with W. T. Brown as its medical superintendent.

1950 — The Porteus Maze Test was published in the United States. It was originally designed by Stanley Porteus to be a nonverbal intelligence test for mentally retarded children in Melbourne, Australia.

1954 — The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that racially segregated education was inherently illegal in Brown v. Board of Education. The ruling resulted in many studies of the psychology of social issues dealing with interracial relations and racial integration.

1971 — Washington became the first state to pass legislation banning discrimination on the basis of gender. Gender discrimination became a focus of the public policy interests of psychologists during this period.

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