| |
| December |
 |
|
|
The
International Peace Bureau was launched in Berne, Switzerland, “...to
coordinate the activities of the various peace societies
and promote the concept of peaceful settlement of international
disputes.”
|
 |
|
|
|
| Rosa
Parks, a black seamstress active in the local NAACP, was
arrested by police in Montgomery, Alabama, after refusing
to give up her seat on the bus to a white man. Mrs. Parks
faced a fine for breaking the segregation laws which said
blacks had to vacate their seats if there are white passengers
left standing. The same bus driver had thrown her off his
bus twelve years prior for refusing to enter through the
rear door. |
 |
|
Rosa
Parks
|
|
Mrs.
Parks had not been the first to defy the Jim Crow law
but her arrest sparked the year-long Montgomery Bus Boycott,
organized by a young Baptist minister named Martin Luther
King, Jr. The Montgomery bus company couldn’t survive
without the revenue from its black passengers who, for
the next year, created car pools and other means to avoid
using the city busses. The boycott was successful and
Mrs. Parks became known as the "mother of the civil
rights movement."
read
more about Rosa Parks  The
story of the bus
|
 |
The
bus restored in Henry Ford Museum
|
|
|
|
Comedian
Dick Gregory was convicted in Olympia, Washington for
his participation in a Nisqually Native American fishing
rights protest.
read
more
|
 |
|
| A
lottery was held to determine which young men would be
drafted into the armed services for the ongoing Vietnam
War. A large glass container held 366 blue plastic balls
each marked with a birth date. The drawing determined the
order of induction for draft-eligible men between 18 and
26 years old, and it was broadcast live nationally. The
first draft lottery was held in 1942. |
 |
Rep. Alexander Pirnie, R-NY, draws the first capsule in the
draft lottery held on Dec. 1, 1969.
The capsule contained the date, Sept. 14.
|
|
 |
Karl
Liebknecht was the only member of German Parliament to
vote against war with France and Britain. He was arrested
shortly thereafter and conscripted into the German Army.
Refusing to fight, Liebknecht served on the Eastern Front
burying the dead.
read
more
Karl
Liebnecht
|
|
| Enrico
Fermi, the Italian-born Nobel Prize-winning physicist,
directed and controlled the first self-sustaining fission
reaction in his laboratory beneath the bleachers of Stagg
Field at the University of Chicago. |
|
The
result of this experiment made the atomic bomb possible
and ushered in the nuclear age. Upon successful completion
of the experiment, a coded message was transmitted to
President Roosevelt: "The Italian navigator has
landed in the new world."
|
 |
|
The
U.S. Senate voted 65 to 22 to censure Senator Joseph
R. McCarthy (R-Wisconsin) for "conduct that tends
to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute."
|
The
condemnation, with all the Democrats and about half the
Republicans voting against him, and was related to McCarthy's
controversial, abusive and indiscriminate investigation
of suspected communists in the U.S. government, military,
and civilian society. The House of Representatives and
many states continued their own investigations.
read
more
|
 |
|
 |
Following
a year of severely strained relations between the United
States and Cuba, Cuban leader Fidel Castro openly declared
that he is a Marxist-Leninist.
Fidel
Castro
|
|
|
Thousands
who were part of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement gathered
on the steps of Sproul Hall, the administration building
at the University of California campus, to protest four
students being disciplined for distributing political
literature. Joan Baez performed. The next day, police
arrested 773 who began a sit-in at Sproul Hall. 10,000
more students then went on strike and shut down the school.
|
 |
|
|
The
Free Speech Movement had begun in October, when three
thousand students surrounded a police car for 36 hours.
Inside the car was a civil rights worker, Jack Weinberg,
who had been arrested for distributing political literature
on the UC-Berkeley campus.
What
was the Free Speech Movement?
|
Jack
Weinberg
in
police car.
|
|
Biko's
funeral
|
A
demonstration erupted outside a South African court after
a magistrate ruled that security police were to be exonerated
in the death of black consciousness leader Steve Biko,
who died while in their custody.
His
funeral had been attended by more than 15,000 mourners,
not including the thousands who were turned away by
the police.
|
 Steve
Biko
|
read
about Steve Biko
|
|
| Maryknoll
Sisters Ita Ford and Maura Clarke, Ursuline Sr. Dorothy
Kazel, and lay missionary Jean Marie Donovan were raped,
murdered, buried outside San Salvador, and unearthed shortly
thereafter. |
|
U.S.-trained
and -supported Salvadoran national guardsmen, widely
known
to act as death squads, were suspected.
read
more
|
 
American
Nuns Maura Clarke, Ita Ford, Dorothy Kazel and Jean Marie
Donovan- killed in El Salvador in 1980.
|
| The
Reagan administration, taking office seven weeks later,
and relying in part on the Salvadoran military to rid Central
America of communism, denied the National Guard’s
involvement. General Alexander Haig, the president’s
secretary of state, explained the churchwomen's deaths
to Congress as an accident caused by nervous soldiers who "misread
the mere traveling down the road (of the nuns' van) as
an effort to run a roadblock." The FBI and CIA later
reported this as a total fabrication, and five national
guardsmen were later convicted of murder. |
|
| An
all-white jury in Alabama convicted three Ku Klux Klansmen
for the murder of white civil rights activist Viola Liuzzo. |
|
Viola
Liuzzo |
The mother of five from Detroit was shot and killed while
driving a young black activist, Leroy Moton, back
to the town of Selma following a protest march
to the state capital in Montgomery. It was later
learned that another Klansmen in the car, Gary
Thomas Rowe, was an FBI informant.
read
more
Klansmen
Collie Wilkins, Eugene Thomas and William Eaton at their trial |
|
| In
the early morning hours, one of the worst industrial disasters
in history began when American-owned Union Carbide’s
pesticide plant located near the densely populated city
of Bhopal in central India leaked a highly toxic cloud
of methyl isocyanate into the air. |
|  Bhopal
survivors still demanding justice 2004
|
Estimates of the fatalities vary widely, but of the approximately
one million people living in Bhopal at the time,
2,000 were killed immediately, at least another 8,000
within a short time, and hundreds of thousands were
injured, many still suffering today.
The U.S. blocked extradition of Union Carbide officials facing
criminal prosecution in India. Union Carbide has since been
purchased by Dow Chemical which continues to refuse responsibility
for the incident or its victims, and has yet to clean up
the site.
read
more
|
|
| 
|
An international treaty
banning land mines was signed by 122 countries. It comprehensively
prohibits the use, production, trade or stockpiling of antipersonnel
mines. Buried landmines kill about 15,000 people every year
worldwide. The dangerous and time-consuming process of removal
would take centuries at the current rate of landmine clearance. |
| The
United States and approximately forty other countries have
yet to sign the treaty, and fifteen countries continue
to produce land mines. The Pentagon requested $1.3 billion
for research on and production of two new landmine systems—Spider
and Intelligent Munitions System—between fiscal years
2005 and 2011 but Congress has resisted funding the programs
under pressure from nearly 500 U.S.-based organizations
opposing the weapons. |
|
Read
more about the treaty: |
|
|
Recent
U.S. policy on land mines: |
|
|
The
International Day of Disabled Persons was declared by
the United Nations. “The
annual observance of the International Day of Disabled
Persons ... aims to promote an understanding of disability
issues and mobilize support for the dignity, rights and
well-being of persons with disabilities ....”
|
2007
Theme: "Decent Work for Persons with Disabilities"
|
|
| The
American Anti-Slavery Society was formed by Arthur Tappan
in Philadelphia. He and his brother Lewis were active
abolitionists throughout their lives, including providing
legal defense for the Africans who mutinied on the slave
ship Amistad. |
 |
 |
The
Anti-Slavery Society produced The Slave's Friend, a monthly
pamphlet of Christian and abolitionist poems, songs,
and stories for children. In its pages, young readers
were encouraged to collect money for the anti-slavery
cause.
|
| Arthur
Tappan |
|
| Five
members of a women's suffrage group unrolled a banner from
the visitor's gallery during President Wilson's annual
message (state of the union) to Congress, asking, "Mr.
President, What will you do for woman suffrage?" There
was no mention of the issue in his speech. |
 |
Wilson
and suffrage |
|
| National
draft card turn-in. |
|
 |
Pres.
Richard Nixon, Vice-President Spiro T. Agnew and 40 U.S.
governors embarked on a fact-finding mission to discover
the causes of the generation gap. They viewed films of "simulated
acid trips" and listened to hours of "anti-establishment
rock music."
|
 |
President
Richard Nixon |
|
Vice-President
Spiro T. Agnew |
|
 |
Black
Panther party leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark were
assassinated by Chicago Police officers with cooperation
from the FBI.
Hampton founded the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party at the age of
20. He led in establishing Breakfast for Children program and a free health clinic
on the west side of the City. A main purpose of the Panthers was to resist police
violence. |
| Fred Hampton |
| One
of Hampton's achievements was to persuade Chicago's most
powerful street gangs to agree on a non-aggression pact.
FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, however, considered the Panthers
as "the greatest threat to the internal security of
the country." The Panther party headquarters had been
raided three times with over 100 members arrested. |
| The
Senate Intelligence Committee, led by Frank Church (D-Idaho),
revealed in 1976 that William O'Neal, Hampton's bodyguard,
was an FBI informant who had delivered an apartment floor-plan
to the Bureau with an "X" marking Hampton's bed where
he died. About 100 shots were fired by the police, just one
from the building. The survivors, including Deborah Johnson,
Hampton's pregnant girlfriend, were arrested and charged with
attempting to murder the police. |
|
Chicago
police remove the body of Fred Hampton, slain by police
on Chicago's west side, Dec 4, 1969 |
“ You
can kill a revolutionary, but you can’t kill a
revolution!” –Fred
Hampton |
Remembrance
by someone who worked with Deputy Chairman Fred Hampton
|
|
| Cesar
Chavez was sentenced to 20 days in jail for refusing
to call off the United
Farm Workers’ consumer boycott of Bud Antle, Inc.,
the country’s second largest lettuce grower. Antle
had signed a contract with Teamsters Local 890 though only
5% of the workers voted to ratify it. Nor had there ever
been an election for the workers to choose a union to represent
them. The boycott had been called to pressure Antle to
negotiate with the Farm Workers.
|
 |
read
more |
Lettuce & Grape
boycott poster
|
|
Five
days after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give
up her bus seat to a white man, the African-American community
of Montgomery, Alabama, launched their boycott of the city's
bus system.The
Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) was formed to
coordinate the boycott with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
elected as its president.
|
 |
|
Out
of Montgomery’s 50,000
black residents, 30,000-40,000 participated. They walked
or bicycled or car-pooled, depriving the bus company of
a substantial portion of its revenue.
The boycott lasted
(54 weeks) until it was agreed the buses would be integrated.
read
more |
|
|
The American Federation of
Labor, which had historically focused on organizing craft
unions, merged with the Congress
of Industrial Organizations, an organization of unions
largely representing industrial workers, to form the
AFL-CIO with a combined membership of nearly 15 million.
George Meany was elected its first president.
read
more |
|
|
| New
York became the first city to legislate against racial
or religious discrimination in housing (Fair Housing
Practices Law). |
|
| 
|
264 were arrested at a military induction
center in New York City during a Stop the Draft Week Committee
action. Dr. Benjamin Spock and poet Allen Ginsberg were
among those arrested for blocking (though symbolically)
the steps at 39 Whitehall Street. 2500 had shown up at
5:00 in the morning to show their opposition to the draft
and the Vietnam War.
Dr.
Benjamin Spock
Allen Ginsberg |
 |
|
The United Nations adopted the charter for the University
for Peace in Costa Rica. Its purpose is “promoting
among all human beings the spirit of understanding,
tolerance and peaceful coexistence, to stimulate
cooperation among peoples and to help lessen obstacles
and threats to world peace and progress . . . .”
read
more
|
|
The
monument sculpted by Cuban artist Thelvia Marín
in 1987, is the world's largest peace monument. |
 |
It
also established short-wave Radio for Peace International
was shut down by the University in 2004 when RFPI exposed
a plan between the University for Peace and the U.S.
to hold anti-terrorist combat training on the campus. It
continues on the web until it finds a new home.
|
listen
to podcasts |
|
|
At
the 100th birthday celebration for Sen. Strom Thurmond
(R-North Carolina), Senate Republican leader Trent Lott
(R-Mississippi) praised Thurmond's Dixiecrat Party 1948
presidential campaign (official slogan: “Segregation
Forever!”).
President
George W. Bush with Sen. Lott and Sen. Thurmond |
| “I
want to say this about my state. When Strom Thurmond ran
for president, we voted for him. We're proud of him. And
if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't
have had all these problems over all these years, either.” The
reaction to this sentiment led to Lott's resignation as
Senate majority leader. |
|
Georgia
provided the final vote needed for the 13th Amendment to
become part of the U.S. Constitution, abolishing slavery.
|
|  slave
auction
|
“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except
as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been
duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or
any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
read
more
|
 first
vote |
| Two
days before, Mississippi’s legislature had voted to reject
ratification. |
|
| The
voters of Spain approved a new constitution in a popular
referendum by nearly 8-1. It proclaimed Spain to be a parliamentary
monarchy and guaranteed its citizens equality before the
law and a full range of individual liberties, including
religious freedom. While recognizing the autonomy of the
regions, it stressed the indivisibility of the Spanish
state.
read
more
|
|
| In
Venezuela, former Lt. Col. Hugo Chavez, who had staged
a bloody
coup attempt against the government six years earlier, was
elected president. As a socialist reformer, Chavez’s
policies have given land to the landless and, using Venezuela’s
oil revenues, increased investment in housing and infrastructure.
|
|
read
more |
read
about Hugo Chavez |
|
| 
|
A leader of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement, Mario Savio,
was arrested. One-third of the 27,000 students
at the University of California campus, along with
faculty, were on strike to protect their first
amendment right to distribute political literature
and to organize on campus. A faculty resolution
passed 824-115, supporting the rapidly growing
Free Speech Movement.
more
on Mario Savio
"There
is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so
odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take
part; and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears
and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus
and you've got to make it stop." - Mario Savio |
|
| 
|
Four
Plowshares activists were arrested for disarming an F-15E
Strike Eagle fighter jet at Seymour Johnson Air Force
Base in North Carolina. |
read more |
| The arrested: Phil Berrigan, John Dear, Lynn Fredriksson,
and Bruce Friedrich |
|
|
The American Federation of Labor was founded at a convention
of union leaders in Columbus, Ohio. It was an alliance of autonomous
unions, each typically made up of workers within a particular
craft. |
read more |
|
| Jeanette Rankin (R-Montana),
the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress in 1916, cast
the only vote opposing declaration of war against Japan,
despite their attack on Pearl Harbor the previous day. She
had also voted against the U.S. entering the first world
war, then hopefully called the war to end all wars.
read
more
|
|
art Ramona Boiler
|
|
U.S.
President Dwight Eisenhower addressed the United Nations
General Assembly, proposing the creation of a new U.N.
atomic energy agency which would receive contributions
of uranium from the United States, the USSR, and other
countries "principally concerned," and would
put this material to peaceful use.
|
 |
The
speech, known later as Atoms for Peace, included: “My
country wants to be constructive, not destructive. It
wants agreement,
not wars, among nations. It wants itself to live in freedom,
and in the confidence that the people of every other nation
enjoy equally the right of choosing their own way of life.” |
|
|
U.S.
President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev
sign the first treaty to reduce the nuclear arsenals of the
two superpowers. The Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty
eliminated and banned all ground-launched ballistic and cruise
missiles with a range of 300-3,400 miles (500-5,500 kilometers).
By May 1991, all intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles,
launchers, and related support had been eliminated. |
|
Intermediate
Nuclear Force vehicle |
On
the first anniversary of the INF (Intermediate Nuclear
Force) Treaty, twelve Dutch peace activists, calling themselves "INF
Ploughshares," cut through fences to enter the Woensdrecht
Air Force base in The Netherlands. They made their way
to cruise missile bunkers where they hammered on the missiles,
carrying out the first disarmament action in Holland.
read
more
|
|
British
troops, known as the Egyptian Expeditionary Force and under
the command of Gen. Edmund Allenby, entered Jerusalem,
ending 700 years of Muslim rule of the city, 400 under the
Ottoman Turks. The Turkish army withdrew, the city surrendered
without a battle.
Thus began 30 years of British control
over Palestine. |
|
U.S.
Representative John Parnell Thomas, former chairman of
the House Un-American
Activities Committee (HUAC), was sentenced to 6 to 18 months
in federal prison for "padding" Congressional
payrolls and using the money himself (embezzlement).
|
|
John
Parnell Thomas
|
|
| Members of the National Committee of 100, a movement
of non-violent resistance to nuclear war and to the manufacture
and use of all weapons of mass extermination, joined with the
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and held demonstrations
at various U.S. air and nuclear bases in Britain. |
|
|
Members of the Committee of 100, including Bertrand Russell,
considered civil disobedience a legitimate means in
their struggle. The CND avoided all illegal activities.
the
CND is still active today
Bertrand
Russell and the "Committee of 100"
at
an earlier action in 1961. |
|
| Solidarity
trade union founder and leader Lech Walesa won Poland's presidential
runoff election in a 3-1 landslide.
He thus became the first
directly elected Polish leader.
Poland first became an independent
country at the end of World War I.
|
 |
read
more |
Lech
Walesa |
|
| The
General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Following this
historic act the Assembly called upon all Member countries
to publicize the text of the Declaration and "to cause
it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally
in schools and other educational institutions, without
distinction based on the political status of countries
or territories."
Since 1950 the anniversary of the declaration has been known
as Human Rights Day.
Read
the Declaration of Human Rights
Resolution
25
|
 |
|
| 
|
Detroit-born U.N. diplomat Ralph
J. Bunche became the first Black American to win the Nobel
Peace Prize. The award was in recognition of his peace mediation
during the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948.
more
on Ralph Bunche
|
From
his acceptance speech in Oslo, Norway.
“There are some in the world who are prematurely resigned
to the inevitability of war. Among them are the advocates of
the so-called "preventive war," who, in their resignation
to war, wish merely to select their own time for initiating
it. To suggest that war can prevent war is a base play on words
and a despicable form of warmongering. The objective of any
who sincerely believe in peace clearly must be to exhaust every
honourable recourse in the effort to save the peace. The world
has had ample evidence that war begets only conditions which
beget further war.” |
|
| Chief
Albert Luthuli, President-General of the banned African National
Congress, appealed for racial equality in racially separatist
apartheid South Africa after accepting the Nobel peace prize
for 1960 in Oslo, Norway. |
| Mr.
Luthuli said he considered the award "a recognition of
the sacrifices made by the peoples of all races [in South
Africa], particularly the African people who have endured
and suffered so much for so long.”
“It
may well be that South Africa's social system is a monument
to racialism and race oppression, but its people
are the living testimony to the unconquerable spirit of mankind.
Down the years, against seemingly overwhelming odds, they
have sought the goal of fuller life and liberty, striving
with incredible determination and fortitude for the right
to live as men - free men.”
Albert
Luthuli
|
 |
|
| Rev.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was awarded Nobel Peace Prize.
From his speech in Oslo: “After
contemplation, I conclude that this award which I receive
on behalf of that
[civil
rights]
movement is profound recognition that nonviolence is the
answer to the crucial political and moral question of our
time --
the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without
resorting to violence and oppression. Civilization and violence
are antithetical concepts.”
King's speech |
|
|
Julia
Butterfly Hill, age 23, climbed "Luna," a 1,000-year-old
California redwood, to protect it from loggers.
read
more
Julia
Butterfly atop Luna |
 |
|
 |
Iranian
democracy activist Shirin Ebadi, the first Muslim woman
(and only the third Muslim) to win the Nobel Peace Prize,
accepted the award in Oslo, Norway "for her efforts
for democracy and human rights. She has focused especially
on the struggle for the rights of women and children."
read
more
Shirin
Ebadi |
|
|
|
The
General Assembly of the United Nations voted to establish
the United Nations International Children's Emergency
Fund (UNICEF) to provide relief and support to children
living in countries devastated by World War II.
|
What
does UNICEF do today? |
|
|
The
United Nations General Assembly unanimously passed Resolution
95 affirming the principles of international law recognized
by the charter and judgment of the Nuremberg Tribunal. These
Principles of International Law were formulated and published
by the International Law Commission on July 29, 1950:
|
read
the UN Resolution 95 (pdf) |
|
| Two
U.S. Army air cavalry helicopter companies arrived in Vietnam,
including 33 Shawnee H-2lC helicopters and 425 ground and
flight crewmen. |
|
They were to be used to airlift South Vietnamese Army troops
into combat, the first direct military combat involvement
of U.S. military personnel. President Kennedy had sent them
to bolster the U.S. advisors in the country since the 1950s,
and the failing of the Government of Vietnam’s armed
forces to resist the Viet Cong insurgency movement and the
Republic of [North] Vietnam.
|
Shawnee
helicopter
|
|
|
New
Zealand Prime Minister Norman Kirk (Labour Party) announced
withdrawal of his country’s troops from Vietnam and
a phase-out of his country’s draft just three days after
taking office.
Prime
Minister Norman Kirk |
 |
| 
Anti-War
demo Parliament Buildings in Wellington, 1969 |
3,890 New Zealand military personnel had served there, suffering
37 dead and 187 wounded. This gave rise to a large and vocal
anti-war movement.
The
anti-war movement in New Zealand today |
|
More
than twenty thousand women turned out for an anti-nuclear
demonstration at Greenham Common Air Base in England, where
U.S. cruise missiles were deployed. Some tried to rip down
the fence surrounding the base. |
|
a
Greenham Peace Camp scrapbook
Poster
of Broken Missile taped to the fence of Greenham Common by
a protester, 1982.
Greenham
Women |
 |
|
| The
three major U.S. television networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) agreed
on joint standards to limit entertainment violence by the
start of the following season.
read
more about TV violence & children
|
|
| In
the largest Russian military offensive since its 1979 invasion
of Afghanistan, thousands of troops and hundreds of tanks
crossed the border into the Muslim republic of Chechnya.
Just two weeks before, a Russian covert operation to undermine
the government in Grozny, the capital, had been foiled
and Dzhokhar Dudaev, Chechnya’s first elected president,
had threatened to have the perpetrators executed. |
The
Chechens had declared their independence from the Commonwealth
of Independent States, comprised of Russia and most of
the countries previously part of the Soviet Union. Chechnya
had been a Russian colony since 1859, and in 1943 Josef
Stalin had deported the population en masse, their return
to their homeland not allowed until 1957.
Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who ordered the invasion, would not
deal with Dudaev, and had raised him to the rank of chief enemy, ignoring
Chechen-Russian history.
|
 |
Russian
forces launched a three-pronged ground attack against Grozny,
the capital of Chechnya. The main attack was halted by deputy
commander of Russian ground forces, Colonel-General Eduard
Vorobyov, who resigned in protest, stating that he would not
attack fellow Russians.
Yeltsin's advisor on nationality affairs, Emil Pain, and Russia's Deputy
Minister of Defense, Colonel-General Boris Gromov (hero of the Soviet-Afghan
War), also resigned in protest of the invasion, as did Major-General Borys
Poliakov. More than 800 professional soldiers and officers refused to take
part in the operation. Of these, 83 were convicted by military courts,
and the rest were discharged. |
|
|
Joseph
H. Rainey (R-South Carolina) took his seat in the U.S. House
of Representatives, becoming the first black Member of Congress.
more about Rainey
|
|
|
Dr. Ben
Reitman was arrested in Cleveland for organizing volunteers
to distribute birth control information at an Emma Goldman
lecture on birth control. He was sentenced to six months
in jail and a $1,000 fine plus court costs.
read
more
Dr.
Ben Reitman
|
 |
|
|
| |
