January 31, 1934 – Helen Kagin is born Helen McGregor Smith in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. A career anesthesiologist, she co-founded Camp Quest (a summer camp for children of nonreligious and freethinking families) in 1996 with husband and fellow atheist activist Edwin Kagin.
January 31, 1944 – The US Supreme Court rules, in Prince v Massachussetts, that government may exert authority concerning the treatment and protection of children that trumps parental authority. The case involved a husband-wife team of Jehovah’s Witnesses accused of violating child labor laws by involving their daughter in the distribution of religious literature.
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