ladies' night r.i.p. Over the years a handful of do-gooders have fought to end the tradition of bars and clubs giving free admission and cheap drinks to women. As a result, it's that much harder for guys to get laid. To the activists below, we dilute you.

1979: Dennis Koire, 18, of Anaheim, California sues a club that waives its
$2 cover charge for women. The club argues that the discount encourages men and women to socialize, which is good for society. The case reaches the California Supreme Court, which rules in 1985 that ladies' nights prevent men and women from "recognizing one another's essential humanity."

1983: Richard Savino, an inspector for a chemical company, is drinking with his volleyball team at a Colorado bar when the waitress serves a half-price margarita to one of his female teammates. Savino complains to the Boulder Office of Human Rights, which rules that city taverns can offer discounts only if they are unrelated to sex, race, creed, color, marital status, religion, ancestry or disability. The bar owner says he offered the discounts because women earn less than men.

1986: Attorney Lawrence Liebling gripes to the Community Relations Board in
Clearwater, Florida that Studebaker's Dance Club offers "pink card" discounts. A panel of county judges rules that "the design of the promotion is not to deny to males advantage or enjoyment afforded to females but rather to increase the enjoyment of the males by enticing the attendance of more females for the males to socialize with." After an appeals court overturns the ruling, one bar starts offering discounted drinks to anyone wearing a skirt.

1987: Charles Ladd sues a greyhound track in Council Bluffs, Iowa because it
offers women discount admission and drinks on Wednesdays. As a result, the state supreme court bans ladies' nights. Iowa bars continue to hold the events, however, until 2003, when the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division cracks down.

1989: Rocket scientist John Comiskey is denied entry to Tops Bar and Grill
near St. Louis during a ladies-only event. In another incident he is refused ladies' night drinks. A judge says the restaurant shouldn't have barred Comiskey but doesn't address the cheap liquor. A St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist suggests that women should be able to sue bars that get them so drunk on free booze that they go home with losers.

1990: Three George Washington University law students complain to
Washington, D.C.'s Office of Human Rights about ladies' nights at 15 bars. One bar owner says he tried to have a men's night, "but we get too many men." Four of the clubs drop the promotions; three years later the city is still investigating the others.

1992: Steve Horner alerts the Minnesota Department of Human Rights that Gators, a club at the Mall of America, charged him a cover while letting in women free. "You go to some gender-sensitivity seminar at work, and then at five o'clock someone asks you for $3 just because you're a guy," he says. The state rules for Horner, killing off ladies' night. In 1996 a jury convicts Horner of harassing a state official who'd declined to pursue his complaint that Hooters wouldn't hire him as a waiter.

1993: James Novak and another men's rights activist sue Pearl's Nightclub in Madison, Wisconsin for discrimination. The men argue that it's not about the $100,000 they demand in damages but about public safety: Ladies' nights lead to risky sex. A Washington Post profile describes how Novak secretly records bartenders refusing him free beer on ladies' night. In 1994 the state supreme court bans the events.

1998: David Gillespie visits the Coastline Restaurant in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, on ladies' night. The bar charges him $5 admission and full price for his drinks, although he asks for the same discount the women are getting. When the bartender refuses, Gillespie takes his case to the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights. Coastline argues that its policy has the non-discriminatory goal of increasing business (ironically, as noted in this commentary, "the owner admitted that 70 percent of the patrons on an average ladies' night were still male, and that they were the main users of the discount, giving women money to buy their drinks"). In 2004 the agency bans ladies' nights as discriminatory. Gov. James McGreevey denounces the decision as "bureaucratic nonsense."

1999: Attorney Ken Whitman sues three clubs in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, arguing that ladies' nights put women at risk and cheat the state out of liquor taxes. The suit goes nowhere. A year later businessman Christopher Langdon sues nearly a dozen bars in Orlando. An owner points out that men are getting something extra with their full-price drinks: available women. This suit also goes nowhere.

2001: Sam Pappas, a real estate attorney, complains to the Illinois Department of Human Rights after two Chicago clubs charge him $15 and $20 while letting in women for $10. Pappas later withdraws his complaint.

2003: Steven Surrey and Alfred Rava visit seven San Diego clubs. At Olé Madrid, which lets in women free on Thursdays until 11 p.m., Rava tells the bouncer, "Ladies' nights violate my civil rights." According to court documents, the bouncer effectively responds, "Tell it to the ACLU." The men sue, citing the 1985 California Supreme Court ruling that nixed the events. The clubs settle for $125,000.

2012: A St. Petersburg, Florida bar apologized to four male-to-female transsexuals out for a night on the town after a bouncer told them they didn't qualify for discounted Ladies' Night drinks "because you're dudes."