Where the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial fits in the history of domestic violence

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By Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Closing arguments are set to begin in the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial later this week, but the trial’s place in the history of celebrity cases involving domestic violence is still playing out. As both parties have accused one another of abuse, we called up researchers who study intimate partner violence to see how celebrity cases have shaped public discourse on domestic violence, from O.J. Simpson and Nicole Simpson (1994) to Chris Brown and Rihanna (2009) to Ray Rice and Janay Palmer (2014). The experts talked about whether these incidents have been helpful or harmful in shaping public understanding of domestic violence, and whether they’ve led to an uptick in reporting to domestic violence charities and shelters. “You can draw a direct link between the O.J. trial and the creation of the first-ever national domestic violence hotline, which was created by Violence Against Women Act fund,” says Rachel Louise Snyder, author of No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us. “And so, suddenly, victims in communities had a place to go—they had a phone number to call, they had some resources to consult.” Click here to read the full story. Here’s more history to know:

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FROM THE TIME VAULT This week in 1952: Lucille Ball “On Monday evenings, more than 30 million Americans do the same thing at the same time: they tune in to I Love Lucy (9 p.m. E.D.T., CBS-TV), to get a look at a round-eyed, pink-haired comedienne named Lucille Ball. An ex-model and longtime movie star (54 films in the past 20 years), Lucille Ball is currently the biggest success in television…By this week, the four national TV rating services (Nielsen, Trendex, American Research Bureau and Videodex) were in unaccustomed agreement: each of them rated I Love Lucy as the nation's No. 1 TV show.” (May 26, 1952) Read More » This week in 1968: presidential candidate Bobby Kennedy [Kennedy:] “Basically, we are spiritually healthy people. But there is a sort of unrest, even a sense of emptiness. Most people need a sense that they're part of some common purpose, and it has to be a purpose that they believe in and think worthwhile. We've lost a lot of that really because people feel cut off by bigness and the rapid growth of today's society. Everything seems beyond their control.” (May 24, 1968) Read More » This week in 1985: Madonna “Growing up I thought nuns were very beautiful. For several years I wanted to be a nun, and I got very close to some of them in grade school and junior high. I saw them as really pure, disciplined, sort of above-average people. They never wore any makeup and they just had these really serene faces. Nuns are sexy.” (May 27, 1985) Read More »

HIGHLIGHTS FROM AROUND THE WEB The looking of Haiti: Catherine Porter, Constant Méheut, Matt Apuzzo and Selam Gebrekidan did a deep dive into the history of Haiti, how it went from staging “the modern world’s first successful slave revolution” in 1791 to being among the world’s most corrupt countries. Holocaust: For Smithsonianmag.com, Esther Bergdahl details the 1945 comic that introduced Americans to the horrors of Nazi gas chambers. Video: The Root’s Adriano Contreras made a biography of Malcolm X that's under two minutes. Museums: On the History News Network, Laura Mogulescu previews a New-York Historical Society exhibit on the history of Title IX in light of its 50th anniversary coming up in June. Health: Alissa Escarce and Dil Afrose Jahan for NPR profile Bangladeshi toddler Rahima Banu, the last known person in the world to have been infected with smallpox.

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