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January |
| 1-Jan |
World Peace Day |
| 1-Jan |
A law making slave importation into the U.S. illegal becomes effective. (1808) |
| 1-Jan |
William Lloyd Garrison publishes The Liberator, the leading abolitionist paper in the United States. (1831) |
| 1-Jan |
Michigan becomes the first state to abolish capital punishment. (1847) |
| 1-Jan |
President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation (1863) |
| 1-Jan |
Arrest of 10 anti-nuclear activists for trespassing at Nevada Test Site culminates a 54-day encampment at the main Test Site gate. The camp establishes momentum for what became a movement of over 10,000 arrests in numerous Test Site protests over the following years. (1986) |
| 1-Jan |
Czechoslovakia peacefully split into two new countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. (1993) |
| 2-Jan |
Free Black community of Philadelphia petitions Congress to abolish slavery. (1800) |
| 2-Jan |
President Roosevelt shuts down the post office in Indianola, Mississippi, for refusing to accept its appointed postmistress because she is African-American. (1903) |
| 2-Jan |
Conference of Industrial Unionists in Chicago forms the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), known as The Wobblies. (1905) |
| 2-Jan |
An estimated 100,000 Bangladeshi women traveled from the countryside to attend a rally in Dacca, the capital, to protest Islamic clerics' attacks on women's education & employment. (1996) |
| 3-Jan |
Political and social reformer Lucretia Coffin Mott was born in Nantucket, MA. (1793) |
| 3-Jan |
Martin Luther was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church. (1521) |
| 3-Jan |
Samuel Leamon Younge Jr., a student civil rights activist, was fatally shot by a white gas station owner following an argument over segregated restrooms, in Tuskeegee, Ala.(1966) |
| 3-Jan |
President Carter pardons most of the Vietnam war draft resisters, nearly 10,000 qualified. (1977) |
| 4-Jan |
Burma, now known as Myanmar, becomes an independent sovereign nation, ending more than six decades of British rule. (1948) |
| 4-Jan |
Free Speech Movement holds its first legal rally on Sproul Plaza, University of California at Berkeley. (1965) |
| 5-Jan |
Felix Manz, first Anabaptist martyr, sentenced to death, Zurich. (1527) |
| 5-Jan |
Committee Against Nuclear Power Plants stops plant planned for Queens, NY. (1964) |
| 5-Jan |
"Prague Spring," political and economic reforms, including increased freedom of speech and an end to state censorship, begins in Czechoslovakia. (1968) |
| 5-Jan |
20,000 miners in WV strike to protest the murder of Jock Yablonski, reform miners leader. (1970) |
| 5-Jan |
19 arrested in "Homes Not War" protest, Tucson, Arizona. (1971) |
| 6-Jan |
First world anti-slavery convention held. (1831) |
| 6-Jan |
William Lloyd Garrison and 15 others found New England Anti-Slavery Society (1832) |
| 6-Jan |
President Roosevelt introduces the term "Four Freedoms": free speech & expression; free to worship; free from fear; & free from want. (1941) |
| 7-Jan |
Marian Anderson debuts at the Metropolitan Opera, becoming the first African American to perform at America's most prestigious opera house. (1955) |
| 7-Jan |
First airplane bombing experiments with explosives, San Francisco. (1911) |
| 7-Jan |
Federal courts forbid most uses of the pesticide DDT, nine years after the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. (1971) |
| 8-Jan |
In the battle of Dove Creek, near San Angleo, 370 Texas militiamen attacked what was assumed to be an encampment of 1400 Comanches but were peaceful Kickapoo, in one of the last battles in Texas between Anglos & Native Americans. (1865) |
| 8-Jan |
Congress overrides the president's veto of a bill granting all adult male citizens of the District of Columbia the right to vote, the first election law passed in America granting African-American men the right to vote. (1867) |
| 8-Jan |
Birth of A.J. Muste, founder of Fellowship of Reconciliation (1885) |
| 8-Jan |
African National Congress founded in South Africa. (1912) |
| 8-Jan |
Legislation passed allowing Kickapoo tribal members, who live on both sides of Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, Texas, to apply for U.S. citizenship. (1983) |
| 8-Jan |
200 Teamsters leaders hold "Labor for Peace" meeting to oppose Gulf War, New York City. (1991) |
| 8-Jan |
Mothers' March For Life & Compassion to Grozny, Chechnya, leaves Moscow, Russia. (1995) |
| 9-Jan |
Treaty with the Wyandot, Delaware, Ottowa, Potawatomi, & Sauk is the first in the new U.S. to recognize Native Americans as independent "nations." (1789) |
| 9-Jan |
American feminist Carrie Chapman Catt, pacifist & suffragist, co-founder of Women's Peace Party & League of Women Voters, is born. (1859) |
| 9-Jan |
Southern Tenant Farmers' Union lead Missouri Highway sit-down of 1,700 tenant families. (1939) |
| 9-Jan |
Ten peace activists are arrested at Fort McCoy, WI for handing out written warnings to military reservists about participation in war crimes. (1991) |
| 10-Jan |
The White House is picketed for the first time, in support of Women's sufferage. (1917) |
| 10-Jan |
Versailles Treaty, establishing League of Nations (1920) |
| 10-Jan |
Thomas Paine published his influential pamphlet, "Common Sense." (1773) |
| 10-Jan |
Brethren, Mennonites and Friends send message to President Roosevelt asking for alternative service in event of war. (1940) |
| 10-Jan |
Vernon Dahmer, a wealthy businessman in Hattiesburg, Miss., 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. (1966) |
| 10-Jan |
Guatemalan officials and leftist guerilla movement agree to negotiate to end 30 years of violent conflict. (1994) |
| 11-Jan |
Alice Paul, chief strategist for the militant wing of the suffrage movement and author of the Equal Rights Amendment, was born in Moorestown, NJ (1885) |
| 11-Jan |
A young lawyer, Mohandas Gandhi, is jailed for the first time, in Johannesburg, South Africa, for refusing to register as an Asian. (1911) |
| 11-Jan |
Peace Pledge Union organizes "Operation Gandhi," first British protest against nuclear weapons, London. (1952) |
| 12-Jan |
SCLC founded by Martin Luther King and other Black clergymen (1957) |
| 12-Jan |
Twenty West German judges arrested for blockading the U.S. Air Force base at Mutlangen, West Germany. (1987) |
| 13-Jan |
Novelist Emile Zolaexposes rampant French anti-Semitism & a military cover up in the Dreyfus Affair with publication of J'accuse! (1898) |
| 13-Jan |
Birthday of Danish playwright & priest Kaj Munk, whose outspoken sermons & plays during World War II led to his execution by the Nazis. (1898) |
| 13-Jan |
U.S. Supreme Court rules (5-3) public school officials have broad powers to censor school newspapers, plays & other expressive activities. (1988) |
| 13-Jan |
Vigil against arrival of ship bringing plutonium for nuclear reactor, Tokai, Japan. (1993) |
| 14-Jan |
Church authorities burn Hebrew books in Rome. (1601) |
| 14-Jan |
Martin Niemoller, German Minister imprisoned for many years by the Nazis, born (1892) |
| 14-Jan |
Birth of Albert Schweitzer in Kaysersberg, Alsace-Lorraine, Germany. (1875) |
| 14-Jan |
US Supreme Court rules unconstitutional any state law requiring railroads to provide equal accommodations for passengers, regardless of race or color. (1878) |
| 14-Jan |
U.S. Supreme Court upholds constitutionality of the selective service law, affirms all criminal charges arising from non-compliance with the draft. (1918) |
| 14-Jan |
A. Philip Randolph, president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters & chief spokesperson for the African American working class, calls for a March on Washington, demanding racial integration of the military & equal access to defense-industry jobs. (1941) |
| 14-Jan |
George Wallace sworn in as Governor of Alabama; his address states "segregation now; segregation tomorrow; segregation forever!". (1963) |
| 14-Jan |
March on Atlanta to protest ouster of Julian Bond, African American pacifist, from Georgia House of Representatives, after his endorsement of SNCC statement critical of US involvement in Vietnam. (1966) |
| 14-Jan |
Peace accords signed to dismantle Ukraine's nuclear weapons & take U.S. & Russian missiles off Ukrainian targets. (1994) |
| 15-Jan |
The United States Senate ratified the Kellogg-Brian pact, which outlawed war. (1929) |
| 15-Jan |
Birth of Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929) |
| 15-Jan |
Jeanette Rankin Brigade, led by 87-year-old Rankin, the first U.S. Congresswoman & the only member of Congress to vote against U.S. entry to both World Wars, marches on Washington to protest war in Vietnam. (1968) |
| 15-Jan |
Trial of Janet McCloud (Tulalip Indian tribe) & others for "fish-in" on Nisqually River in Washington state in 1965; all are found not guilty. (1969) |
| 15-Jan |
Vigils around the world mark expiry of US/UN deadline for military attack on Iraq if they don't leave Kuwait. (1991) |
| 16-Jan |
In Hawaii, Queen Lilluokalani's regime is overthrown by US pineapple tycoon Sanford Dole & pro-annexation sugar interests. (1893) |
| 16-Jan |
Senator James Eastland introduces resolution to declare a "state of emergency" in the U.S. Allows Congress to invoke a McCarran Internal Security Act provision under which American Communists could be rounded up & jailed in concentration camps. (1952) |
| 16-Jan |
Jan Palach immolates himself to protest Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.(1969) |
| 17-Jan |
Mangas Colorado, Apache chief, agrees to peace talks, is then arrested & imprisoned at Fort McLane (Arizona), then shot by two soldiers in his cell. (1863) |
| 17-Jan |
Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, credited with saving tens of thousands of Jews, disappeared in Hungary while in Soviet custody. (1945) |
| 17-Jan |
President Eisenhower delivers Farewell Address warning the nation of the "Military- Industrial Complex." (1961) |
| 17-Jan |
Chicano/a activists gather in Crystal City, TX, to form La Raza Unida Party. (1970) |
| 17-Jan |
5,000 rally, 138 arrested to protest test launch of first strike Trident Missile, Cape Canaveral, FL (1987) |
| 17-Jan |
Over 2000 indigenous Tzeltals & Tojolbals from the state of Chiapas, Mexico, occupy the military barracks of the 39th Military Zone in protest over Army incursions into their communities. (1998) |
| 18-Jan |
US begins spraying foliage in Vietnam to expose Viet Cong guerrillas. The US dropped millions of gallons of herbicides such as Agent Orange which sparked charges that the United States was violating international norms against using chemical weapons in war, and many of the herbicides were later found to cause birth defects and rare forms of cancer in humans. (1962) |
| 18-Jan |
Greenham women 'keen' outside House of Commons. (1982) |
| 19-Jan |
59 arrested in civil rights sit in, Chattanooga, TN (1960) |
| 19-Jan |
25,000 march in Washington, DC against massive U.S. bombing of Iraq. (1991) |
| 19-Jan |
"Shoes for Guns" firearm buy-back effort begins in Chicago. (1994) |
| 20-Jan |
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) founded. (1920) |
| 20-Jan |
Nazi officials hold notorious Wannsee conference in Berlin deciding on "final solution" calling for extermination of Europe's Jews. (1942) |
| 20-Jan |
Over 200 citizens show up at a Seattle public hearing, many in radiation suits & mutant radioactive survivor makeup, & conduct die-ins to protest possible restart of nuclear weapon production at Hanford, Washington. (1998) |
| 21-Jan |
Quaker Peace Testimony presented to Charles II, England. (1661) |
| 21-Jan |
Emma Tenayuca leads San Antonio pecan shellers on the largest labor walk-out held to date. (1938) |
| 21-Jan |
Spanish, Portuguese & South American activists hijack Portuguese liner "Santa Maria" to protest the Franco & Salazar dictatorships. (1961) |
| 21-Jan |
Continental Walk for Disarmament & Social Justice starts in Ukiah, California, headed for Washington, D.C. (1976) |
| 21-Jan |
Women for Peace founded, Norway (1980) |
| 21-Jan |
Women's resistance camp set up, Volkel airbase, the Netherlands. (1984) |
| 21-Jan |
60 protesters with bathrobes, shower caps, & toothbrushes traipse through upscale stores in downtown Seattle, looking for a place to take a shower, in a protest drawing attention to City Council plans to kill a proposed downtown public hygiene center that could be used by the homeless. (1997) |
| 22-Jan |
In a massacre known as Bloody Sunday, soldiers fired on civilians attempting to present petitions for better living and working conditionsto the Czar. The Russian workers lost faith in the Czar and turned to radicals and revolution to change their lives. (1905) |
| 22-Jan |
200 killed by Somoza's National Guard during protest against state violence, Managua, Nicaragua. (1967) |
| 22-Jan |
12 African-American congressmen boycott President Richard Nixon's State of the Union Address because of his constant refusal to hear the concerns of Black Americans. (1971) |
| 22-Jan |
World Council of Churches announces South African divestment. (1973) |
| 22-Jan |
Over 2,000 demonstrators in Moscow protest Chechen war. (1995) |
| 22-Jan |
150,000 workers in South Korea walk off their jobs to protest recent labor legislation. (1997) |
| 23-Jan |
First British Disarmament Campaign, Liverpool, England (1875) |
| 23-Jan |
15 "Committee of 100" supporters sit in at House of Commons demanding halt to nuclear weapon tests. (1962) |
| 23-Jan |
24th Amendment to U.S. Constitution passed, outlawing poll taxes in federal elections. (1964) |
| 24-Jan |
John Lennon & Yoko Ono shaved their heads to commemorate the start of Year One for Peace. (1970) |
| 25-Jan |
Sojourner Truth addresses first Black Women's Rights Convention, Akron, OH (1851) |
| 25-Jan |
In May1930, Mahatma Gandhi was imprisoned for his incitement against the British monopoly on salt; it was illegal for anyone other than the British government in India to manufacture or sell salt. He was released on this date. (1930) |
| 25-Jan |
INFACT (Infant Formula Action Coalition) wins settlement with Nestle Corporation after a seven year boycott. (1984) |
| 25-Jan |
Soldiers' Mothers Committee begins 56 mile peace march between Nazran & Grozny, Chechnya. (1995) |
| 26-Jan |
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, later defeated by a filibuster in the Senate. (1922) |
| 26-Jan |
The Indian Constitution became law and India proclaimed itself a republic, whose sovereignty was derived from the people, becoming the largest democracy in the world. (1950) |
| 26-Jan |
First US Nuclear test at Nevada Test Site (1951) |
| 26-Jan |
Major accident occurs at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Ukraine. The radiation cloud killed 23; 40,000 were evacuated. (1986) |
| 26-Jan |
100,000 march against Gulf War, New York City & San Francisco. (1991) |
| 26-Jan |
Women in Black demonstrate in solidarity with their Serbian sisters, Toronto, Canada. (1993) |
| 27-Jan |
The United States and North Vietnam signed a cease-fire agreement. The same day, the United States announced an end to the military draft. (1973) |
| 27-Jan |
Nationwide strike by some 10,000 conscientious objectors, West Germany. (1983) |
| 27-Jan |
France conducted an open-air nuclear test in the South Pacific. (1996) |
| 28-Jan |
Author and activist Julia Ward Howe became the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. (1908) |
| 28-Jan |
A federal judge in Los Angeles ruled that the U.S. military's policy against homosexuals was unconstitutional because it was "based on cultural myths and false stereotypes." (1993) |
| 29-Jan |
Four women Ploughshares activists cause millions in damage, disarming a British Aerospace F-16 fighter jet destined to be sold to Indonesia for use in its illegal occupation & genocide of East Timor. The women were later acquitted of all charges on the grounds of preventing a greater crime. Warton, England. (1996) |
| 30-Jan |
Gandhi Assassinated, New Delhi. (1948) |
| 30-Jan |
As Martin Luther King, Jr. stands at the pulpit, leading a mass meeting during the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott, his home is bombed. (1956) |
| 30-Jan |
In a clash with British troops, 14 Irish civilians were killed in Derry, Ireland. This is remembered as Ireland's "Bloody Sunday." (1972) |
| 31-Jan |
US government orders all Native Americans to move to reservations or be declared hostile. (1876) |
| 31-Jan |
Pacifist priest Thomas Merton born in Pyrenees-Orientales, France. (1915) |
| 31-Jan |
The Winter Soldier Hearings begin in a Howard Johnson's motel in Detroit. Sponsored by the group Vietnam Veterans Against the War, the hearings are an attempt by soldiers who have served in Vietnam to publicize U.S. conduct in the war. (1971) |
| 31-Jan |
300,000 Berliners rally against attacks on immigrants, racisn and Nazism on the 60th anniversary of Hitler's rise to power. (1993) |
| 31-Jan |
Illinois Gov. George Ryan halted all executions in his state after several death row inmates were found to be innocent of the crimes for which they were about to be put to death. (2000) |
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