William
Lloyd Garrison first published The Liberator, which became
the leading abolitionist paper in the United States. He labeled
slave-holding a crime and called for immediate abolition.
see
January 6, 1832
January
1, 1847
Michigan
became the first state – the first government in the
English-speaking world – to abolish capital punishment
(for all crimes except treason).
This
was done by a vote of the legislature, and not a part of the
state’s constitution until 1964.
How
it happened:
January
1, 1959
32-year-old
lawyer Fidel Castro led Cuban revolutionaries to victory over
the corrupt government of Fulgencio Batista who had fled the
island the day before.
Batista,
a former army sergeant, had seized power in a coup, canceling
an election, in 1952.
More
on the Cuba-U.S. relationship:
More
on pre-Castro Cuba:
Fidel
Castro
January
1, 1983
44
women scaled a 12-foot fence at dawn, breaking into a cruise
missile base at Greenham Common in Great Britain and danced
on a missile silos.
The
lyrics to their song:
listen
January
1, 1987
Ten
anti-nuclear activists were arrested for trespassing at the
Nevada Test Site, the culmination of a 54-day encampment at
the main Test Site gate.
The
camp established momentum for what became a movement ultimately
involving over 10,000 arrests in numerous Test Site protests
over the following years.
January
1, 1989
Kees
Koning, a former army chaplain and priest, and Co van Melle,
a medical doctor working with homeless people and illegal
refugees, entered the Woensdrecht airbase (a second time),
and began the conversion of NF-5B fighter airplanes by beating
them with sledgehammers into ploughshares.
The
Dutch planned to sell the NF-5B to Turkey, for use against
the Kurdish nationalists as part of a NATO-aid program which
involved shipping 60 fighter planes to Turkey. They were charged
with trespass, sabotage and $350,000 damage, and convicted,
both sentenced to a few months in jail.
read
more
Kees
Koning
January
1, 1991
Moana
Cole
read
more
Early
in the morning Moana Cole, a Catholic Worker from New Zealand,
Ciaron O’Reilly, a Catholic Worker from Australia, and
Susan Frankel and Bill Streit, members of the Dorothy Day Catholic
Worker in Washington, D.C., calling themselves the Anzus (Australia,
New Zealand and U.S.) Peace Force Plowshares, entered the Griffiss
Air Force Base in Rome, New York.
After cutting through several fences, Frankel and Streit entered
a deadly force area, and hammered and poured blood on a KC-135
(a refueling plane for B-52s), and then proceeded to hammer
and pour blood on the engine of a nearby cruise missile-armed
B-52 bomber. They presented their action statement to base security
who encircled them moments later.
January 2, 1905
Conference
of Industrial Unionists in Chicago formed the Industrial
Workers of the World (IWW), known as The Wobblies. The IWW
mission is to form “One Big Union” among industrial
workers.
IWW
home
January 2, 1920
U.S. Attorney General Alexander Palmer ordered the arrest
and detention without trial of 6,000 Americans, including
suspected anarchists, communists, unionists and other radicals,
including many members of the IWW. This followed a mass arrest
of 10,000 two months earlier based on Palmer’s belief
that Communist agents from Russia were planning to overthrow
the American government.
read
more
Attorney
General Alexander Palmer
January 2, 1975
A
U.S. Court ruled that John Lennon and his lawyers be given
access to Department of Immigration files regarding his deportation
case, to determine if the government case was based on his
1968 British drug conviction, or his anti-establishment comments
during the Nixon administration years.
On October 5, 1975, the U.S. Court of Appeals overturned the
order to deport Lennon, and he was granted residency status.
January 2, 1996
An
estimated 100,000 Bangladeshi women traveled from the countryside
to attend a rally in Dacca, the capital, to protest Islamist
clerics' attacks on women's education and employment.
Khaleda
Zia, the prime minister, had introduced compulsory free primary
education, free education for girls up to class ten, a stipend
for the girl students and food for the education program.
Khaleda
Zia
January
3, 1967
Carl
Wilson of the the Beach Boys was indicted for draft evasion.
Claiming
conscientious objector status, he eventually won his battle
against these charges.
Carl
Wilson
January 3, 1968
Senator
Eugene McCarthy (D-MN) announced his candidacy for the Democratic
presidential nomination. McCarthy, though a contender to be
Pres. Lyndon Johnson's running mate in 1964, had since become
increasingly disenchanted with Johnson's policies in Vietnam,
and opposed the war in his campaign.
read
more
Eugene
McCarthy
January 3, 1993
The
United States of America and the Russian Federation agreed
to cut the number of their nuclear warheads to between 3,000
and 3,500 (nearly half).
U.S.
President George Bush, just before leaving office, and his
Russian counterpart, Boris Yeltsin, signed the second Strategic
Arms Reduction Treaty – Start II – in Moscow.
Start
II marked the biggest reduction in nuclear arms ever agreed,
eliminating land-based multiple warhead missiles, and putting
limits on submarine-based missiles.
read
more
January
3, 2003
Brazil’s
new leftist president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, suspended
purchase of 12 new fighter planes, saying money could be better
used to relieve hunger.
about
Lula
da Silva
January
4, 1961
The longest recorded labor strike ended after 33 years: Danish
barbers' assistants began their strike in 1938 in Copenhagen.
January
4, 1974
President
Richard Nixon refused to release tape recordings of Oval Office
discussions and other documents subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate
Committee investigating illegal activities of the president’s
re-election committee.
the
Watergate tapes online
January
5, 1916
With
World War I entering its third year, British Prime Minister
Herbert Asquith introduced the first military conscription bill
in British history to the House of Commons. It was passed into
law as the Military Service Act later that month and went into
effect on February 10.
World War I Conscientious Objectors, Dyce Camp, UK
About 16,000 conscientious objectors refused to fight. Most
believed that even during wartime it was wrong to kill another
human being. About 7,000 agreed to perform non-combat service.
More than 1,500 men refused all compulsory service. They were
usually drafted into military units and, if they refused to
obey orders, were court-martialed.
read
more
January
5, 1968
"Prague
Spring," a mass movement advocating political and economic
reforms, including increased freedom of speech and an end
to state censorship, began in Czechoslovakia when Alexander
Dubcek came to power.
read
more
Alexander
Dubcek
”Socialism
with a human face”
Soviet
tanks enter Prague, August 1968
January
6, 1832
William Lloyd Garrison, along with 15 others, founded the
New England Anti-Slavery Society at the African Meeting House
in Boston. By 1833, Garrison helped establish the American
Anti-Slavery Society with fellow abolitionists Arthur Tappan,
Lewis Tappan, and Theodore Dwight Weld. This organization
sent lecturers across the North to convince whites of slavery's
brutality.
read
about the Anti-Slavery Society today
about
William Lloyd Garrison
January
6, 1941
President
Roosevelt introduced the term "Four Freedoms": freedom
of speech and expression; freedom of every person to worship
God in his own way; freedom from want; and freedom from fear.
The full text
January
7, 1953
President
Harry S. Truman announced in his State of the Union address
that the United States had developed a hydrogen (fusion) bomb.
January
7, 1971
The
U.S. District Court of Appeals ordered William Ruckelshaus,
the Environmental Protection Agency's first Administrator,
to begin the de-registration procedure for DDT.
DDT
being sprayed next to livestock
DDT was
a widely used pesticide in agriculture (principally cotton).
This happened nine years after the publication of Rachel Carson's
“Silent Spring,” a book which cautioned about
the dangers of excessive use of pesticides and other industrial
chemicals to plants and animals, and humans.
read
more about Rachel Carson
Rachel
Carson
January
7, 1979
Vietnamese
troops seized the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, toppling
the regime of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, the Cambodian Communist
party. Pol Pot and his allies had been responsible for the death
of 25% of Cambodia’s population.
When he seized power in 1975, capitalism, Western culture, city
life, religion, and all foreign influences were to be extinguished
in favor of an extreme form of peasant Communism.
All
foreigners were thus expelled, embassies closed, and any foreign
economic or medical assistance was refused. The use of foreign
languages was banned. Newspapers and television stations were
shut down, radios and bicycles confiscated, and mail and telephone
usage curtailed. Money was forbidden. All businesses were
shuttered, religion banned, education halted, health care
eliminated, and parental authority revoked.
Cambodia
was sealed off from the outside world.
All
of Cambodia's cities were then forcibly evacuated. At Phnom
Penh, two million inhabitants were evacuated on foot into
the countryside at gunpoint.
As
many as 20,000 died along the way.
read
more
Pol Pot And Kissinger
Pol
Pot's legacy: Skulls of the killing fields
January
8, 1912
The African National Congress was founded in South Africa.
The ANC (now multi-racial) was the first black political organization
in South Africa. It was formed to combat the racial separatist
system known as apartheid. It is now the majority party in
the South African government.
ANC
history
the
African National Congress today
January
8, 1961
The
people of France voted to grant Algeria its independence in
a referendum. The result was a clear majority for self-determination,
with 75% voting in favor.
read
more
January
8, 1973
U.S.
National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger and North Vietnam's
Le Duc Tho resumed secret peace negotiations near Paris.
After the South Vietnamese had blunted the massive North Vietnamese
invasion launched in the spring of 1972, Kissinger and the
North Vietnamese had finally made some progress on reaching
a negotiated end to the war. However, a recalcitrant South
Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu had inserted several
demands into the negotiations that had caused the North Vietnamese
negotiators to walk out of the talks on December 13.
January
8, 1991
200
Teamsters union leaders held a "Labor for Peace"
meeting to oppose the first Gulf War in New York City.
January
8, 1980
Nuclear
wastes generated on this date will no longer be radioactive
and finally be harmless in 252,005 AD!
-
give or take several thousand years.
January
8, 2003
Three
activists, including Kate Berrigan (daughter of Phil) and
Liz McAlister, rappeled down a 32-story skyscraper near
the Los Angeles Auto Show and unfurled a banner reading
“Ford: Holding America Hostage To Oil.” They
had chosen Ford due to its having the lowest average fuel
economy of any auto manufacturer.
why
Ford?
January 9, 1964
Anti-U.S.
rioting broke out in the Panama Canal Zone, resulting in the
deaths of 21 Panamanians and three U.S. soldiers. The immediate
issue was whether both U.S. and Panamanian flags would fly
at Canal Zone facilities, as ordered by Pres. Kennedy.
James
Jenkins, a 17-year-old senior at Balboa High School in the
Canal Zone:
"I guess you could say I'm the guy that started this
whole thing. I'm sort of the ringleader. I circulated the
petition to keep our flag flying. Then me and the others raised
the flag. The school authorities left it up because they knew
we'd walk out."
On the third day, demonstrating Panamanian students entered
the school grounds and sang their national anthem, but the
Balboa students blocked them from raising their flag. there
was a scuffle -- and the Panamanians retreated in outrage,
claiming that their flag had been ripped by the Zonians.
January 9, 1987
The White House released the finding – signed by President
Reagan on January 17, 1986 – which authorized the sale
of arms to Iran and ordered the CIA not to tell Congress.
more
on Iran/Contra
January 9, 1991
The
day after the start of the U.S. bombing of the Persian Gulf,
ten peace activists were arrested at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin,
for handing out written warnings to military reservists about
participation in war crimes. Long-time peace activist Sam
Day was sentenced to four months for his participation.
read
more about Sam Day
Sam
Day
January 10, 1776
Thomas
Paine anonymously published his influential pamphlet, "Common
Sense."
In
it Paine questioned the fundamental legitimacy of the rule
of kings, and advocated the doctrine of independence for Americans.
Read
the entire text:
Thomas
Paine
January 10,
1908
A prominent young lawyer, Mohandas Gandhi, was jailed for
the first time, for refusing to register as an Asian in Johannesburg,
South Africa.
He
was released on January 30, 1908.
read
more about Gandhi
Gandhi,
1906
January
10, 1920
The
League of Nations formally came into being when the Covenant
of the League of Nations (part of the Treaty of Versailles),
ratified by 42 nations in 1919,
took
effect.
In 1914, a political assassination in Sarajevo set off a chain
of events that led to the outbreak of the most costly war
ever fought to that date. As more and more young men were
sent down into the trenches, influential voices in the United
States and Britain began calling for the establishment of
a permanent international body to to promote international
co-operation and to achieve international peace and security.
Though strongly supported by Pres. Woodrow Wilson (who served
as Chairman of the Committee that developed the Covenant),
the U.S. never joined.
The
archives of the League of Nations:
January
10, 1940
Members
of the Brethren, Mennonites and Friends religious groups, sent
a message to President Roosevelt requesting alternative service
in the event of war.
The Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 proclaimed
that all persons who “by reason of religious training
and belief were conscientiously opposed to all forms of military
service, should, if conscripted for service, be assigned to
work of national importance under civilian direction.”
Men
at a Civilian Public Service camp.
January 10, 1946
The
first General Assembly of the United Nations convened at Westminster
Central Hall in London, England,
and
included 51 nations.
On
January 24, the General Assembly adopted its first resolution,
a measure calling for the peaceful uses of atomic energy and
the elimination of atomic and other weapons of mass destruction.
January 10, 1966
Vernon
Dahmer, a wealthy businessman in Hattiesburg, Mississippi,
offered to pay poll taxes for those who couldn’t afford
the fee required to vote. The night after a radio station
broadcasted Dahmer’s offer, his home was firebombed.
Dahmer
died later from severe burns.
former home of Vernon Dahmer
January
10, 1971
The
Peoples' Peace Treaty between the peoples of U.S. and Vietnam
was endorsed by 130 organizations. Several million North Americans
later signed it.
The
treaty had been signed in December by leaders from the South
Vietnam National Student Union, South Vietnam Liberation Student
Union, North Vietnam Student Union, and National Student Associations
in Saigon, Hanoi and Paris. The treaty was adopted by New
University Conference and Chicago Movement meeting.
read
the treaty
Peoples'
Peace Treaty organizers
January 10, 1994
Guatemalan government officials and leftist guerilla movement
leaders agreed to negotiate to end 36 years of violent conflict.
January 11, 1952
The Peace Pledge Union organized "Operation Gandhi,"
which became the first British protest against nuclear weapons.
Ten members staged a "sit down" on the War Office
steps in London.
January
11, 1998
Twenty-five
thousand occupied the the site of one of 30 dams to be built
on the Narmada River in India. They objected to a World Bank-funded
project to build 30 large, 135 medium and 3000 small dams to
harness the waters of the Narmada and its tributaries to provide
electrical power and irrigation to Gujarat and Rjasthan.
Local residents, Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save the Narmada
movement), organized as they became concerned about their
livelihoods, environmental impact and a host of other issues.
read
more
read
about IRN (International Rivers Network)
The
largest proposed dam, Sardar Sarovar, would submerge 61 villages
and displace more than 320,000 people.
January
12, 1954
Secretary
of State John Foster Dulles announced U.S. abandonment of President
Truman's doctrine of "containing Communism" for a
new policy: “Local defenses must be reinforced by the
further deterrent of massive retaliatory [nuclear] power.”
January
12, 1957
The
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was founded
by Dr. Martin Luther King and other Black clergymen who wanted
to press for civil rights. Sixty black ministers from ten
states came to Atlanta, Georgia, to set up the coordinating
group. They elected King its first president, with the Rev.
Ralph Abernathy as treasurer.
read
more
January
12, 1962
Federal
workers were guaranteed the the right to join unions and bargain
collectively after President Kennedy signed Executive Order
10988.
Executive
Order 10988 being signed
January
12, 1971
Reverend
Philip F. Berrigan, founder of the Catholic Peace Fellowship
anti-Vietnam War organization, was indicted along with five
others on charges of conspiring to kidnap National Security
Advisor Henry Kissinger, and to bomb the heating systems of
federal buildings in Washington, D.C.
At the time, Berrigan was serving a six-year sentence at a
federal prison in Connecticut with his brother, Daniel, for
their destruction of military draft records in Maryland during
1967-68. Berrigan’s ethic of nonviolence towards others
made the charges questionable, and eventually all six were
acquitted of the conspiracy charges. Berrigan and Elizabeth
McAllister (later to become his wife) were convicted of smuggling
mail out of a federal penitentiary.
more
about Philip Berrigan
January
12, 1971
"All
in the Family" premiered on CBS TV. The sitcom focused
on the major social and political issues of the day such as
racism and war.
read
more
January
12, 1987
Twenty West German judges were arrested for blockading the
U.S. Air Force base at Mutlangen, West Germany where Pershing
missiles were being deployed.
Judge
Ulf Panzer stated:
"Fifty
years ago, during the time of Nazi fascism, we judges and
prosecutors allegedly
'did
not know anything.' By closing our eyes and ears, our hearts
and minds, we became a docile instrument of suppression, and
many judges committed cruel crimes under the cloak of the
law. We have been guilty of complicity. Today we are on the
way to becoming guilty again, to being abused again.
By
our passivity, but also by applying laws, we legitimize terror:
nuclear terror.
Today
we do know...”
read
more
January
12, 1991
The
United States Congress voted to authorize the use of military
force against Iraq to end its occupation of Kuwait. House:
250-183; Senate: 52-47.
January
12, 2002
The
"Refusenik" movement began when 53 Israeli soldiers
signed an ad refusing to serve in the West Bank or Gaza Strip.
read
their statement...
more
January
13, 1874
The
depression of 1873-1877 left 3 million people unemployed. In
the winter of 1873, 900 people starved to death, and 3,000 deserted
their infants on doorsteps. A public meeting was called in New
York City's Tompkins Square Park to lobby for public works projects.
The
Tompkins Park Massacre
The night before, the city secretly voided the permit for
the gathering. The next morning, mounted police charged into
the crowd of 10,000, indiscriminately clubbing adults and
children, leaving hundreds of casualties.
Police
commissioner Abram Duryee commented, "It was the most
glorious sight I have ever seen..."
The
Tompkins Square event was part of a wave of unemployed parades
and bread riots across the nation. In Chicago, 20,000 people
marched. Even under police attack, workers in New York, Omaha,
and Cincinnati refused to disperse.
January
13, 1962
One
hundred fifty members of the Committee of 100 (an anti-nuclear
group) launched a sit-down protest at the U.S. consulate in
Glasgow, Scotland.
January
13, 1993
A
vigil was held against arrival of ship bringing nearly two
metric tons of plutonium for a pilot fuel reprocessing plant
in Tokai, Japan. The specially constructed ship, the Akatsuki
Maru, had carried it from Cherbourg, France.
read
more
The
Voyage Of The Akatsuki Maru by Mario Uribe
January
14, 1601
Church
authorities burned sacred Hebrew books in Rome during the
papacy of Clement VIII who had forbid Jews from reading the
Talmud (a collection of centuries of interpretation of Jewish
law). He had confirmed Pope Paul III’s assignment of
Jews to a Roman ghetto, and their banning from papal states
by Pope Pius V.
January
14, 1784
The
United States Congress ratified a peace treaty known as
the Treaty of Paris with England ending the Revolutionary
War. By its terms, "His Britannic Majesty" was
bound to withdraw his armies without "carrying away
any Negroes or other property of American inhabitants."
signing
the Treaty of Paris
January
14, 1918
U.S.
Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the selective
service law, affirming all criminal charges arising from non-compliance
with the draft. In Arver v. United States, the Court found
that a draft does not violate the 13th Amendment’s prohibition
of involuntary servitude.
January
14, 1941
A.
Philip Randolph, president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car
Porters (and widely considered de facto chief spokesperson for
the African American working class) called for a March on Washington,
demanding racial integration of the military and equal access
to defense-industry jobs.
"On to Washington, ten thousand black Americans!"
Randolph urged. He said in the fight to "stop discrimination
in National Defense...While conferences have merit, they won't
get desired results by themselves."
January
14, 1942
President
Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Presidential Proclamation No.
2537, which required aliens from World War II enemy countries
– Italy, Germany and Japan – to register with
the United States Department of Justice.
Registered persons received a “Certificate of Identification
for Aliens of Enemy Nationality.” This proclamation
facilitated the beginning of full-scale internment of Japanese
Americans the following month.
January
14, 1963
George
Wallace was sworn in as Governor of Alabama. In his inaugural
address, he called for "segregation now; segregation
tomorrow; segregation forever!"
George
C. Wallace, left, blocked the University of Alabama doorway
to prevent desegregation later in 1963. U.S. Marshal Peyton
Norville, center, and U.S. Deputy Attorney General Nicholas
deB. Katzenbach listened. (File/AP)
January
14, 1966
A
march in Atlanta was held to protest the ouster of Julian
Bond, an African American, from Georgia House of Representatives,
after his endorsement of statement critical of U.S. involvement
in Vietnam issued by the Student Non-Violent Coordinating
Committee (SNCC).
January
14, 1994
An
agreement was signed for Russia and the U.S. to assist newly
independent Ukraine in ridding itself of nuclear weapons.
Following the break-up of the Soviet Union, Ukraine’s
leader Leonid Kravchuk found his country with the world’s
third largest nuclear arsenal, including multiple-warhead
long-range missiles and bombers, and 3000 tactical nuclear
weapons.
former
Ukranian missle silo
January
14, 1996
Sixteen
protesters were arrested in a winter blockade of the rural
Wisconsin site (in the Chequamegon National Forest) of the
U.S. Navy's ELF (extremely low frequency) transmitter, which
communicated (one-way) with deeply submerged U.S. submarines.
A total of nearly 400 arrests occurred in 24 actions between
1991-96.
January
15, 1929
Martin
Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia. The son of
a Baptist pastor, he followed in his father’s footsteps,
then went on to lead the American Civil Rights Movement in
the 1950s and '60s and speak out against the Vietnam war.
In 1955 Dr. King organized the first major protest of the
civil rights movement: the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott.
Influenced by Mohandas Gandhi, he advocated nonviolent civil
disobedience to end racial segregation. The peaceful protests
he led throughout the American South were often met with violence
and arrest, but King and his followers persisted.
His inspiration, leadership and eloquence helped establish
the fundamental rights of citizenship for tens of millions,
and changed the face of a nation.
A
selected bibliography on and about Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr.
January 15, 1968
The
Jeanette Rankin Brigade marched on Washington to protest the
war in Vietnam. It was led by 87-year-old Rankin herself,
the first U.S. Congresswoman (R-MT), and the only member of
Congress to vote against U.S. entry to both World Wars. Once
in Washington, The New York Radical Women staged a "Burial
of Traditional Womanhood."
Documents
from the New York Radical Women including
Funeral
Oration for the Burial of Traditional Womanhood by Kathy Amatniek
(who
coined “Sisterhood is Powerful”)
more
on Jeanette Rankin
Jeanette
Rankin
January 15, 1969
Janet
McCloud, her husband Don and four others from the Tulalip
Indian tribe were tried for one of their "fish-ins"
on the Nisqually River in Washington state. Despite century-old
treaties granting them half the salmon catch in their ancestral
waters, state game officials harassed and arrested Indian
fishermen. The Nisqually empties into Puget sound on the Tulalip
reservation. All were found not guilty.
On
Feb. 12, 1974, U.S. District Judge George Boldt ruled in favor
of 14 treaty tribes, upholding the language of their treaties,
including the Tulalip.
Janet
McCloud
January 15, 2007
Happy
Martin Luther King Day!
Since
1986, the first Monday of January has been designated a federal
holiday honoring the greatness and sacrifice of Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr.
A
chronology:
April
4, 1968 Dr. King was assassinated. Shortly thereafter,
U.S. Representative John Conyers (D-MI) introduced legislation
to create a federal holiday to commemorate Dr. King’s
life and work.
1973 Illinois became the first state to adopt MLK Day as a
state holiday. January, 1983 Rep. Conyers’s law was
passed after 15 years January, 1986 The United States first officially
observed the federal holiday. January, 1987 Arizona Governor Evan Mecham
rescinded state recognition of MLK Day as his first act in
office, setting off a national boycott of the state. January, 1993 Martin Luther King Day holiday
was observed in all 50 states for the first time.
more
about Martin Luther King
January 16, 1966
Folksinger
Joan Baez was jailed for 10 days for participating in a protest
which blocked the entrance to the Armed Forces Induction Center
in Oakland, California, to protest U.S. involvement in the
Vietnam War.
read
more about Joan Baez
Joan
Baez
January 16,
1979
Faced with strikes, violent demonstrations, an army mutiny
and clerical opposition to his repressive rule, the Shah of
Iran, its leader since 1941, was forced to flee the country.
He was installed in a CIA- and british-engineered 1953 coup
of elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq, and then continuously
supported by the U.S. Despite having imposed martial law in
October, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, fled the Peacock Throne.
Following the subsequent revolutionary overthrow, an Islamist
state under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was established.
Chronology
of Iran in the 20th century:
more about the Shah
The
Shah and family
January
17, 1893
In Hawaii, Queen Lilluokalani's regime was overthrown, led
by U.S. pineapple tycoon Sanford Dole and pro-annexation sugar
interests. A new provincial government was installed with
Dole as president. U.S. troops had landed the day before,
providing support "to protect U.S. interests." In
1898, President William McKinley signed a joint resolution
of Congress authorizing the annexation.
January
17, 1993, native Hawai’ians demonstrated against U.S.
control of their homeland on the 100th anniversary of the
U.S. backed overthrow of the independent Hawai'ian government.
read
more
Queen
Lilluokalani
January 17, 1961
President
Dwight Eisenhower in his farewell address warned the nation
of "...the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether
sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex."
read
more
President
Eisenhower
January 17, 1966
A
B-52 bomber collided with an Air Force KC-135 jet tanker while
refueling over the coast of Spain (the 4-member tanker crew
was lost, the bomber’s parachuted to safety.
Two 70-kiloton hydrogen bombs ruptured when they hit the ground,
scattering radioactive material including plutonium dust;
a third landed intact near the village of Palomares; a fourth
not found for 80 days. The U.S. tried first to cover it up,
then downplay the incident. Fifteen hundred tons of radioactive
soil and tomato plants were removed to the U.S. for burial.
read
more
January
17, 1970
Some 300 Chicano activists gathered in Crystal City, Texas,
to form an independent political party. La Raza Unida (The
United People) Party addressed a broad cross-section of issues
– restoration of land grants, farm workers’ rights,
enhanced education, voting and political rights. The party
became a political force in California, Texas, Colorado, and
throughout the southwest.
read
more
The
party's name means "the United People."
January 17, 1987
5,000
rallied and about 200 were arrested while protesting the first
test launch of the Trident II missile at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The Trident D-5 is a submarine-launched long-range (over 4600
miles/7360 km) multiple-warhead nuclear missile. Trident submarines
are a major component of the U.S. nuclear deterrent, and now
constitute all of Britain’s.
a
Trident missile launching from submarine
January 17, 2003
In
frigid temperatures, 500,000 converged on Washington, D.C.
to oppose U.S. war on Iraq -
the largest U.S. peace demonstration since the Vietnam era.
January
18, 1919
The
World War I peace conference opened in Versailles, France.
January
18, 1962
U.S. began spraying herbicides on foliage in Vietnam to eliminate
jungle canopy for Viet Cong guerrillas ("Territory Denial").
The U.S. dropped more than 20 million gallons of such defoliants,
sparking charges the United States was violating international
rules against using chemical weapons during war. Many of the
herbicides, particularly Agent Orange, manufactured by Dow
Chemical, Monsanto and others, were later found to cause birth
defects and rare forms of cancer in humans.
Agent Orange:
An Ongoing Atrocity
January
18, 1985
For
the first time since joining the World Court in 1946, the
United States walked out during a case. The case concerned
U.S. paramilitary activities against the Nicaraguan government.
The Court charged the U.S. violated international law with
its actions against the Sandinistas, and ordered the U.S.
to pay reparations to Nicaragua in June 1986.
For
the Reagan administration, efforts to undermine the Sandinista
government in Nicaragua had been a keystone of its anticommunist
foreign policy since it took office in 1981.
The U.S. government ignored the decision and Congress later
banned further U.S. military aid to the Contras in 1988.
Congressman Michael Barnes of Maryland stated that he was
"shocked and saddened that the Reagan Administration
had so little confidence in its own policies that it choose
not even to defend them (to the World Court)."
January
18, 1971
In
a televised speech, Senator George S. McGovern (D-SD) began
his antiwar campaign for the 1972 Democratic presidential
nomination by vowing to bring home all U.S. soldiers from
Vietnam if elected. McGovern had served in the Army Air Corps
during World War II, earning the Silver Star and the Distinguished
Flying Cross.
George
McGovern
January
18, 1985
For
the first time since joining the World Court in 1946, the
United States walked out during a case. The Court charged
U.S. violation of international law through its support of
paramilitary (Contra) activities against the Nicaraguan government.
The Court ordered the U.S. to pay reparations to Nicaragua
in June 1986.
For the Reagan administration, efforts to undermine the Sandinista
government in Nicaragua had been a keystone of its anti-communist
foreign policy since it took office in 1981.
The U.S. government ignored the decision and Congress later
banned further U.S. military aid to the Contras in 1988. Congressman
Michael Barnes (D-MD) said he was "shocked and saddened
that the Reagan Administration had so little confidence in
its own policies that it choose not even to defend them (in
the World Court)."
read
more
January
19, 1966
The
Georgia State House of Representatives refused to seat black
state representative Julian Bond despite his election the previous
November.
Their stated objection was his endorsement of a Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee statement accusing the
United States of violating international law in Vietnam.
In December 1966, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the exclusion
unconstitutional, and Bond was sworn in on
January
9, 1967.
Julian
Bond
January
19, 1991
25,000
marched in Washington, D.C. to protest massive U.S. bombing
of Iraq in the first Gulf war, Operation Desert Storm.
January
20, 1920
American
Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was founded by Roger Baldwin, Congresswoman
Jeannette Rankin, labor leaders Rose Schneiderman and Duncan
McDonald, Rabbi Judah Magnes, and others.
The
ACLU was organized to protect the rights guaranteed in the
Bill of Rights, the Constitution and its amendments. Prior
to this the first ten amendments had not been enforced.
The ACLU has paid particular attention to
• First Amendment rights: freedom of speech, association
and assembly, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion
supported by the strict separation of church and state.
• One’s right to equal protection under the law
- equal treatment regardless of race, sex, religion or national
origin.
• One’s right to due process - fair treatment
by the government whenever the loss of your liberty or property
is at stake.
• One’s right to privacy - freedom from unwarranted
government intrusion into your personal and private affairs.
ACLU
historythe
ACLU today
January
20, 1942
Nazi
German officials arrived at a ''final solution'' that called
for exterminating Europe's Jews, during a conference at Lake
Wannsee in Berlin.
January
20, 2001
Tens
of thousands, lining Pennsylvania Ave. to protest the legitimacy
of the inauguration of Pres. George W. Bush, were systematically
excluded from almost all media coverage of the event. They
called attention to the election irregularities in Florida,
the dispute over a recount, and the ultimate effective choice
of the President by a 5-4 majority of the Supreme Court.
Photos
from that day:
January
21, 1661
The
Quaker (Friends) Peace Testimony was presented to King Charles
II of England. The testimony begins: "We utterly deny
all outward wars and strife and fightings with outward weapons,
for any end or under any pretence whatsoever. And this is
our testimony to the whole world....”
King
Charles II
January
21, 1954
The
first atomic-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, was launched
at Groton, Connecticut.
nautilus
submarine launch
January
21, 1976
The
day after his inauguration President Carter declared an unconditional
amnesty for draft resisters, both accused and those who could
face possible prosecution.
What
happened to Vietnam era war resisters?
January
21, 1984
A
Women’s Peace Camp was set up near Volkel Airbase in the
Netherlands to protest siting of nuclear weapons there.
January
22, 1953
The
Arthur Miller drama, ''The Crucible,'' opened on Broadway.
It was a parable that reflected the climate of fear of
communism that pervaded the society and the politics of
its time.
From
the New York Times review of the Broadway revival in
November 2001:
“Today,
the play is a cautionary tale of astounding immediacy.
Its themes include the pathology of rumor, the arrogance
of the religiously righteous, the dangers of private
panic in the face of public terror, and the individual's
difficulty in acting rationally in the face of mob
hysteria.”
Read
the playwright’s reasons for writing it:
scene
from the original production
January
22, 1973
Women
won control of their reproductive rights when the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade that Americans have
a constitutional right to privacy, and thus women may
terminate a pregnancy during its first two trimesters.
Only during the last trimester, when a fetus can survive
outside the womb, would states be permitted to regulate
abortion of a healthy pregnancy.
visit
SaveROE.com
January 22, 2001
President
George W. Bush signed a memorandum the day after his inauguration
reinstating full restrictions on U.S. overseas aid that might
go to any program that provided abortions or considered them
an option for women.
January
22, 2001
President
George W. Bush signed a memorandum the day after his
inauguration reinstating full restrictions on U.S.
overseas aid that might go to any program that provided
abortions or considered them an option for women.
January
23, 1962
Fifteen
members of the Committee of 100, the Non-Violent
Direct Action wing of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
(CND) sat in at the British House of Commons demanding
a halt to nuclear weapon tests.
CND
history
January
23, 1967
The
Peace and Freedom Party (PFP) described its founders
as "people who wanted to vote for something they
could support." According to PFP, founded on this
day, candidates of both major parties were ruled out
and a more radical approach was called for.
read
more
January
23, 1970
Called
as witnesses, folksingers Judy Collins, Arlo Guthrie,
Country Joe McDonald, Phil Ochs, and Pete Seeger were
denied permission to sing as part of defense testimony
at the trial of "The Chicago Seven."
The seven leaders of demonstrators at the 1968 Democratic National
Convention in Chicago were being tried for conspiring to incite a
riot as they protested the Vietnam war.
Judy
Collins, Arlo Guthrie, Country Joe McDonald, Phil Ochs,
and Pete Seeger
more
on the Chicago 7
January
23, 1973
Pres.
Richard Nixon announced a Vietnam peace deal.
The
president appeared on national television and said
that National Security Adviser Henry A. Kissinger
and North Vietnam's chief negotiator, Le Duc Tho,
had initialed an agreement in Paris "to end
the war and bring peace with honor in Vietnam and
Southeast Asia."
The
actual agreement had been initialed six days beforehand.
read
more
Henry
A. Kissinger and
Le
Duc Tho initial the agreement.
January
23, 1976
The
Continental Walk for Disarmament & Social Justice
began in Ukiah, California, heading for Washington, D.C.
Its purposes were "to raise the issue of disarmament
through unilateral action . . . to educate about non-violent
resistance as a means superior to armament . . . and
to demonstrate how global and domestic and economic problems
are interconnected with militarism and the causes of
war . . . ."
Initiated
by the War Resisters League, and co-sponsored by the
Fellowship of Reconciliation, American Friends Service
Committee, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference,
Catholic Peace Fellowship, Clergy and Laity Concerned,
SANE, and Women's International League for Peace and
Freedom, the walk took 10 months and covered 8,000
miles through 34 states.
Comprehensive
archive of the walk:
January
24, 1970
John
Lennon & Yoko Ono cropped their hair short for
the first time in years, declaring 1970 "Year
One for Peace" and helped organize a Toronto Peace
Festival.
John & Yoko
January
24, 1977
The
TV mini-series ''Roots,'' based on the Alex Haley novel,
began airing on ABC. It followed an African sold into
slavery, and his family’s history through emancipation.
It
won numerous awards and drew an enormous and broad-based
audience (third-highest Nielsen ratings ever for final
episode).
The
central character Kunta Kinte played by Levar Burton
January
25, 1890
The
United Mine Workers of America was formed by the amalgamation
of the National Progressive Union (organized 1888) and
the mine locals under the Knights of Labor, including
all workers in the coal industry. The workers faced unstable
employment, the prevalence of company towns and extremely
hazardous working conditions.
January
25, 1930
The
Indian Congress Party proclaimed the Declaration of Independence
of India, drafted by Mohandas Gandhi. "The
British government in India has not only deprived the Indian
people of their freedom but has based itself on the exploitation
of the masses, and has ruined India economically, politically,
culturally and spiritually....Therefore...India must sever
the British connection and attain Purna Swaraj or complete
independence.”
Mahatma
Gandhi and World Peace
January
25, 2002
A
group of Israeli reservists issued a declaration saying
they would not serve the Israeli Defense Force (IDF)
if assigned to the occupied West Bank or Gaza Strip.
It was called the Combatants’ Letter, and the
organization Courage to Refuse grew out of their resistance.
Israeli
refuseniks
Captain
David Zonshein and Lieutenant Yaniv Itzkovits, officers
in an elite unit, realized the missions confided to them
as commanders in the IDF had in fact nothing to do with
the defense of the State of Israel, but were rather intended
to expand the colonies at the price of oppressing the
local Palestinian population.
Within
three months, 69 such refuseniks had been jailed. To
date 629 Israeli soldiers have signed the pledge. Over
280 Members of Courage to Refuse have been court-martialed
and jailed for periods of up to 35 days as a result
of their refusal.
read
more
January
26, 1784
Benjamin
Franklin, noting the bald eagle was "a bird of bad
moral character" who lived "by sharping and
robbing," expressed regret it had been selected
to be the U.S. national symbol. Franklin
proposed the turkey, "a much more respectable Bird
and a true original Native of America."
read
more
Benjamin
Franklin
bald
eagle
eastern
wild turkey
January
26, 1950
The
Indian Constitution became law and India proclaimed
itself a republic. The new president replaced the King
as head of state after nearly 100 years of British
colonial rule. The Republic of India considered its
sovereignty derived from the people, becoming the most
populous democracy in the world.
read
more
January
26, 1956
Martin
Luther King, Jr. was arrested for the first time, for
driving 30mph in a 25mph zone in Montgomery, Alabama
shortly after the beginning of the citywide bus boycott.
His home was bombed a few days later.
January
26, 1951
The
first atomic test was conducted at the Nevada Proving
Ground as an Air Force plane dropped a one-kiloton
bomb on Frenchman Flats.
The Proving Ground was created by President Harry Truman.
The
final nuclear test, Divider, was conducted on September
23, 1992, after 99 above-ground tests and over 800
subterranean tests there.
January
26, 1962
Bishop
Joseph A. Burke of the Buffalo, New York, Catholic
Diocese banned the Twist. It couldn’t be danced,
sung about, or listened to in any Catholic school,
parish, or youth event. Later in the year, the Twist
was banned from community center dances in Tampa, Florida,
as well. It was claimed the Twist was actually a pagan
fertility dance.
read
more
January
26, 1969
Police
wielding truncheons and firing tear gas from pressure
canisters broke up a march by hundreds of demonstrators
in central Prague.
The
violence erupted as officers tried to disperse the
crowd gathered at the foot of the Wenceslas Statue,
to pay tribute to Jan Palach, the student who burned
himself to death in protest at the Soviet invasion
and occupation of Czechoslovakia.
Jan
Palach
January
26, 1970
Twenty
thousand, mostly students, rallied in the capital, Manila,
to protest the one-party rule of the regime of U.S.-backed
Philippine dictator, Ferdinand Marcos. It turned into the
worst peacetime riot in Philippine history when troops
start firing on the demonstrators. This was the beginning
of a year of intense political opposition known as the
First Quarter Storm.
January
27, 1847
Several
hundred citizens of Marshall, Michigan, helped former
slaves escape to Canada rather than be returned to their “owner” by
bounty hunters. Adam Crosswhite and his family, escaped
Kentucky slaves, were tracked to the abolitionist town
of Marshall by Francis Troutman and others. Both black
and white residents detained the bounty hunters and threatened
them with tar and feathers. While Troutman was being
charged with assault and fined $100, the Crosswhites
fled to Canada. Back in Kentucky, the slave master stirred
up intense excitement about “abolitionist mobs” in
Michigan.
January
27, 1945
The
Red Army of the Soviet Union liberated the Nazis’ biggest
concentration camp at Auschwitz in southern Poland.
read
more
Soviet
troops liberated the Nazi concentration camps Auschwitz
and Birkenau in Poland.
January
27, 1969
In
Detroit, African-American auto workers known as the Eldon
Avenue Axle Plant Revolutionary Union Movement led a
wildcat strike against racism and poor working conditions
at Chrysler.
Since
the 1967 Detroit riots, African American workers had
organized militant groups in several Detroit auto plants
criticizing both the auto companies and the UAW leadership.
These groups combined Black-Power nationalism and workplace
militancy, and shut auto plants in more than a dozen
inner-city plants.
The most well-known of these was the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement,
or DRUM. They criticized both the seniority system and grievance
procedures as racist. Veterans of this movement went on to lead many
of the same local unions.
The
United States and North Vietnam signed "An Agreement
Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam" in
Paris and all U.S. troops were to leave Vietnam within
90 days. The United States, South Vietnam, Viet Cong, and
North Vietnam formally sign but because South Vietnam was
unwilling to recognize the Viet Cong's Provisional Revolutionary
Government, all references to it were confined to the document
signed by North Vietnam and the United States. The same
day, the United States announced an end to the military
draft.
The
Vietnam War resulted in a million Vietnamese combatant
deaths, between three and four million civilian deaths
and a countless number of injured. It cost the United
States 58,226 lives (Australia lost almost 500, New
Zealand 38) and 350,000 wounded. The financial cost
to the United States came to something over $660 billion
in current dollars.
The treaty stated, “... In pursuance of its traditional policy,
the United States will contribute to healing the wounds of war and
to postwar reconstruction of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and
throughout Indochina.”
January
27, 1973
The
Pentagon announced a “zero draft,” putting
the Selective Service System on standby after five years
of continuous operation. 1,728,344 men had been drafted
in the previous eight years, 25% of the all the armed
forces.
January
27, 1988
CISPIS
demo
May,
1981 Wash
DC
The
Center for Constitutional Rights revealed that the
FBI had spied on a number of organizations critical
of the Reagan administration policies in Central America.
The principal target was the Committee in Solidarity
with the People of El Salvador (CISPES). 100 other
groups were also investigated, including the Roman
Catholic Maryknoll Sisters, the United Auto Workers,
the United Steel Workers, and the National Education
Association. FBI director William Sessions said the
investigations were an outgrowth of the belief that
CISPES was aiding a "terrorist organization."
read
more
CISPIS
today
January
27, 1996
France
performed its last nuclear weapons test. France exploded
the last in a series of six underground nuclear devices
in the South Pacific. The tests, ordered by President
Jacques Chirac, ended a moratorium imposed by the former
president, Francois Mitterand, but Chirac said France
would accept the terms of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test
Ban Treaty.
January
28, 1992
Nuclear
production at the Rocky Flats Nuclear Arsenal – a
complex used for both power and nuclear weapon munition
manufacture – was permanently closed after repeated
revelations of environmental contamination in the surrounding
land and water supply, 25 miles northwest of Denver.
Following closure, the site was completely dismantled
and cleared.
January
28, 1995
Soldiers'
Mothers Committee members
Over
100 Soldiers' Mothers Committee members go to a Russian
army training camp to reclaim their sons from the Army.
Since it’s founding in 1989 the Soldiers' Mothers
Committee has worked to expose human rights violations
within the Russian military and has consistently supported
a true alternative service option for conscientious
objectors.
read
more
January 23, 1962
Fifteen
members of the Committee of 100, the Non-Violent Direct Action
wing of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) sat in
at the British House of Commons demanding a halt to nuclear
weapon tests.
CND
history
January 23, 1970
Folk singers Judy Collins, Arlo Guthrie, Country Joe McDonald,
Phil Ochs, and Pete Seeger were denied permission to sing
as part of defense testimony at the trial of "The Chicago
Seven."
The Chicago Seven were being tried for conspiring to incite
a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago
as they protested the Vietnam war.
more
on the Chicago 7
Judy
Collins, Arlo Guthrie, Country Joe McDonald, Phil Ochs,
and Pete Seeger
January
24, 1970
John
Lennon & Yoko Ono cropped their hair short for the first
time in years, declaring 1970 "Year One for Peace"
and helped organize a Toronto Peace Festival.
John
& Yoko
January
25, 1930
Mahatma Gandhi issued the Declaration of Independence of India.
To achieve this goal Gandhi adopted the non-violent tactic
of challenging the British monopoly on salt - it was illegal
for anyone other than the British government in India to manufacture
or sell salt. Gathering supporters as he walked 241 miles
in 24 days to the sea where he made salt. Salt was sold, illegally,
all over the seacoast of India and the British government
incarcerated over sixty thousand people. This march was a
key turning point in India’s struggle for independence
from British colonial rule.
read
more
The
Dandi March:
A
simple act of making salt shakes the British Empire.
January 25, 2002
Israeli
refuseniks
A group of Israeli army reservists issued a landmark declaration
saying they will not serve in the occupied West Bank and Gaza
Strip.
By
April 2002, 69 refuseniks are jailed.
read
more
refusnik
support rally
January
26, 1784
Benjamin Franklin, noting the bald eagle was "a bird
of bad moral character" who lived "by sharping and
robbing," expressed regret it had been selected to be
the U.S. national symbol. Franklin proposed the turkey, "a
much more respectable Bird and a true original Native of America."
read
more
bald
eagle
eastern
wild turkey
January
26, 1962
Bishop Joseph A. Burke of the Buffalo, New York Catholic Diocese
banned the Twist.
It
can't be danced, sung about, or listened to in any Catholic
school, parish, or youth event. Later in the year, the Twist
was banned from community center dances in Tampa, Florida
as well. The religious right claimed the Twist was actually
a pagan fertility dance.
read
more
January
27, 1951
The first atomic test was conducted at the Nevada Proving Ground
as an Air Force plane dropped a one-kiloton bomb on Frenchman
Flats.
The Proving Ground was created by President Harry Truman on
January 11, 1951.
The final nuclear test, Divider, was conducted on September
23, 1992.
There were 99 above ground tests and over 800 below ground tests
there.
January
27, 1969
In Detroit, African-American auto workers known as the Eldon
Avenue Axle Plant Revolutionary Union Movement led a wildcat
strike against racism and bad working conditions at Chrysler.
Since the 1967 Detroit riots, African American workers had
organized militant groups in several Detroit auto plants criticizing
both the auto companies and the UAW leadership. These groups
combined Black-Power nationalism and workplace militancy and
shut auto plants in more than a dozen inner city plants. The
most well known of these was the Dodge Revolutionary Union
movement, or DRUM.
Most inner-city UAW locals soon became headed by African Americans,
some of them veterans of this movement.
The
United States and North Vietnam signed "An Agreement Ending
the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam" in Paris and all
U.S. troops were to leave Vietnam within 90 days. The United
States, South Vietnam, Viet Cong, and North Vietnam formally
sign but because South Vietnam was unwilling to recognize the
Viet Cong's Provisional Revolutionary Government, all references
to it were confined to the document signed by North Vietnam
and the United States. The same day, the United States announced
an end to the military draft.
The
Vietnam War resulted in between three and four million Vietnamese
deaths with a countless number of Vietnamese casualties. It
cost the United States 58,000 lives and 350,000 casualties.
The financial cost to the United States came to something
over $150 billion dollars.
Henry
A. Kissinger and Le Duc Thos initial the agreement.
January
27, 1988
CISPIS
demo
May,
1981 Wash
DC
The Center for Constitutional Rights revealed that the FBI
had spied on a number of organizations critical of the Reagan
administration policies in Central America. The principal
target was the Committee in Solidarity with the People of
El Salvador (CISPES). 100 other groups were also investigated,
including the Roman Catholic Maryknoll Sisters, the United
Auto Workers, the United Steel Workers, and the National Education
Association. FBI director William Sessions said the investigations
were an outgrowth of the belief that CISPES was aiding a "terrorist
organization."
read
more
CISPIS
today
January
28, 1995
Soldiers'
Mothers Committee members
Over 100 Soldiers' Mothers Committee members go to a Russian
army training camp to reclaim their sons from the Army. Since
it’s founding in 1989 the Soldiers' Mothers Committee
has worked to expose human rights violations within the Russian
military and has consistently supported a true alternative
service option for conscientious objectors.
read
more
January
29, 1996
Four Ploughshares activists cause millions in damage and are
arrested in Warton, England for disarming a British Aerospace
F-16 fighter jet destined to be sold to Indonesia for use
in its illegal occupation and genocide of East Timor. The
four were later acquitted of all charges on the grounds of
preventing a greater crime.
read
more
Seeds
of Hope/East Timor Ploughshares activists
January 30, 1956
As
Martin Luther King, Jr. stood at the pulpit, leading a mass
meeting during the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott, his home
was bombed. By luck, King's wife & 10-week-old baby escaped
unharmed. Later in the evening, as thousands of angry African
Americans assembled on King's lawn, he appeared on his front
porch, and told them: "If you have weapons, take them
home...We cannot solve this problem through retaliatory violence...We
must love our white brothers, no matter what they do to us."
Martin
Luther King, Jr. and wife Coretta Scott, 1960
January 30, 1972
In
Londonderry (aka Derry), Northern Ireland, 13 unarmed civil
rights demonstrators were shot dead by British Army paratroopers
in an event that became known as "Bloody Sunday."
The protesters, all Northern Catholics, had been marching
in protest of the British policy of internment without trial
of suspected Irish nationalists. British authorities had ordered
the march banned, and sent troops to confront the demonstrators
when it went ahead. The soldiers fired indiscriminately into
the crowd of protesters, killing 13 and wounding seventeen.
By the end of the year 323 civilians and 144 military and
paramilitary personnel would be dead.
read
more
mural/Bloody
Sunday martyrs
January
31, 1876
The
U.S. government ordered that all Native Americans must move
to reservations by this date or be declared hostile. Most
Sioux do not even hear of the ultimatum until after the deadline.
Sitting
Bull: One of several chiefs who refused to comply.
January
31, 1945
Private Eddie Slovik became the first American soldier since
the Civil War to be executed for desertion, and the only one
who suffered such a fate during World War II.
read
more
Supreme
Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered Slovik's execution
be carried out, he said, to avoid further desertions in the
late stages of the war.
Eddie
Slovik
Eisenhower
January 31, 1950
U.S.
President Harry S. Truman publicly announced his decision
to support the development of the hydrogen bomb, a weapon
theorized to be hundreds of times more powerful than the atomic
bombs dropped on Japan during World War II.
January
31, 1971
The
Winter Soldier Hearings began in a Howard Johnson's motel
in Detroit. Sponsored by the group Vietnam Veterans Against
the War, the hearings were an attempt by soldiers who had
served in Vietnam to publicize U.S. conduct in the war. The
veterans testified that the My Lai massacre was not an isolated
incident, and that some American troops had committed atrocities.
More
than 100 veterans testified to brutal U.S. acts. Oregon Senator
Mark Hatfield later entered the transcript of the Winter Soldier
hearings into the Congressional Record but, otherwise, the
proceedings capture little attention.
This
Week In History compiled by peacebuttons.info from various
sources
which are available upon request.
Submissions are always welcome. Please furnish sources. cb@peacebuttons.info
Reproduction
of this calendar for non-profit purposes
is permitted and encouraged. Please credit/link to www.peacebuttons.info
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World War I Conscientious Objectors, Dyce Camp, UK
DDT
being sprayed next to livestock
eastern
wild turkey 
