On this date in 2001, in Las Vegas, Nevada, racist skinhead and leader of the Independent Nazi Skins, John Edward “Polar Bear” Butler, 28, was sentenced to death by lethal injection for the murders of two anti-racist skinheads on July 4, 1998. Butler—who was ordered to have a new sentencing hearing on December 21, 2004, by the Nevada State Supreme Court because of inflammatory statements made at the original sentencing by the prosecution—lured Lin Newborn, 24, of Las Vegas who was a black singer and father of a two-year-old, and Daniel Shersty, 21, who was a white airman at the Nellis Air Force Base, into the desert outside Las Vegas where he shot and killed the two men who fought to end racism. Newborn and Shersty were ambushed near Powerline Road and Centennial Parkway; their bodies were found on July 6, 1998.

On this date in 2010 in the early morning hours on a Chicago Transit Authority Red Line train near the Argyle stop, a white gay man, Daniel Hauff, 33, a resident of the Rogers Park neighborhood, was physically attacked and had anti-gay slurs hurled at him allegedly by three Evanston, Illinois, men—Kevin McAndrew, 23, Benjamin Eder, 23, and Loyola University of Chicago student Sean Little, 21—after Mr. Hauff had tried to stop a verbal argument that erupted when McAndrew allegedly began bullying another gay "L" rider. Little allegedly began calling Mr. Hauff a "faggot" before the physical assault occurred during which time the victim continued to have anti-gay slurs hurled at him. Mr. Hauff was only able to stop the attack by (falsely) claiming he had AIDS. He was briefly hospitalized and suffered injuries to his face, chest, back, knee, and foot. McAndrew, Eder, and Littler were originally charged with midemeanor battery, but on February 23, 2010, those charges were dropped and the three were immediately re-arrested and charged with felonies. On February 24, 2010, Cook County Judge Ramon Ocasio III upheld the hate crime charges against McAndrew, Eder and Little that were filed by the Cook County States Attorney's Office. The three defendants—who were originally arrested immediately following the attack on Mr. Hauff and who asked the victim if they were going to contract AIDS because they had Mr. Hauff's blood on them—were each charged with one count of aggravated battery one count of a hate crime.