Amnesty International was founded in London #OTD in 1961 by the lawyer Peter Benenson.
In what he called "The Forgotten Prisoners" and "An Appeal for Amnesty", which appeared on the front page of the British newspaper The Observer, Benenson wrote about two students who toasted to freedom in Portugal and four other people who had been jailed in other nations because of their beliefs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amnesty_International
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1961/may/28/fromthearchive.theguardian