Needless to say, Tarzan (aka Lord Grey) is not happy. See opening lines, today's opening poem above...

1870 -- Official proclamation sets April 15 as last day of grace for US silver coins to circulate in Canada.



1873 -- Rated X?: US: Congress abolishes bimetallism.
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/seminar/unit8/crgold.htm
http://www.micheloud.com/FXM/MH/Crime/index.htm

1874 -- Hawaii: Troops land in Honolulu, Hawaii to "protect" the king & US "interests."
Source: Robert Braunwart


1877 -- US: railroad workers begin strikes protesting wage cuts. (See 14 July).



1877 -- Witchcraft?: Alexander Graham Bell first publicly demonstrated his telephone with a call between Boston & Salem, Massachusetts.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAlewisJL.htm
http://www.umwa.org/history/lewis/
http://newdeal.feri.org/laborbib/index.htm
http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/lewis.htm
http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/laborhall/jll.htm

1885 -- Italy: Partenza per Massaua della seconda spedizione militare.

La propaganda del governo italiano parla di miglioramento delle 'condizioni morali' della città a seguito dell'invasione. Non ci sono limiti alla sfrontatezza e al ridicolo dei governanti statali.

[Source: Crimini e Misfatti]



1894 -- France: A week after the execution of Auguste Valliant, Paris anarchist Emile Henry throws bomb into the bourgeois Cafe Terminus, killing one & injuring 17. Arrested & executed May 21.

Beware of believing anarchy to be a dogma, a doctrine above question or debate, to be venerated by its adepts as is the Koran by devout Moslems. No! The absolute freedom which we demand constantly develops our thinking & raises it toward new horizons...takes it out of the narrow framework of regulation & codification. We are not 'believers!'

— Emile Henry

Echoing Emile Henry's terrible refrain to justify his bombing of the Cafe Terminus "There are no innocent bourgeois," the jurist responded, in effect, that there were no innocent intellectuals either.

In the Cafe Terminus on the Rue St Lazare, Emile Henry, an anarchist student, threw a homemade bomb into he crowd of petty bourgeois busy drinking beer & listening to the orchestra playing "Marthe" by Flotow. Seventeen people were injured. "This pretentious & stupid crowd of employees, earning from 300 to 500 francs a month; more reactionary than their bourgeois masters..."

See the Anarchist Encyclopedia page,
http://recollectionbooks.com/bleed/Encyclopedia/HenryEmile.htm
Illustration by Flavio Costantini


1899 -- France: "Ecole Libertaire" opens, at l'hôtel des Sociétés Savantes, in Paris.

Supported by Jean Grave & Pierre Quillard, the school is intended for children; unable to realize this plan, it provides evening courses for adults. Participation in their courses by the Dutch anarchist Domela Nieuwenhuis is announced on November 3, 1899, in "Le Journal du Peuple", & in the following year it launches the review "L'Education Libertaire". http://ytak.club.fr/fevrier2.html#8

1900 -- Fernand Planche (1900-1974) lives, Auvergne. French writer/activist of "Anarchist Synthesis" (establishing links between all the various tendencies).

[Details / context]

A government official once called Mary Jones "The most dangerous woman in America." She was dangerous to the established order because she was fearless in her defense of the oppressed working class. For 60 years she went into mining towns where men often feared to go, organizing unions. The miners called her "Mother" Jones. She was still out there at age 83. No rockin' chair for her...

God,  if You had but the moon
    Stuck in Your cap for a lamp,
Even You'd tire of it soon,
    Down in the dark & the damp.

Nothing but blackness above
    & nothing that moves but the cars. . . .
God, if You wish for our love,
    Fling us a handful of stars.

— Louis Untermeyer
excerpt from Caliban in the Coal Mines, from Challenge, 1914
(This poem is based on the Few Clothes Johnson, the character played by James Earle Jones in John Sayles' film Matewan.)

UMWA miners on Paint Creek in Kanawha County demanded wages equal to those of other area mines. The operators rejected the wage increase & miners walked off the job today, beginning one of the most violent strikes in the nation's history. <-P>At the age of 83, Mother Jones was convicted by a military court of conspiring to commit murder & was sentenced to 20 years in prison. The event created such a furor that the US Senate form a committee to look into conditions in the West Virginia coalfields.

http://www.kentlaw.edu/ilhs/majones.htm
http://www.meetingground.org/loavfish/lf599/motherjones.htm
http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/laborhall/mj.htm
http://www.johnshepler.com/articles/mojo.html

Inspires a whole new generation of rhap singers in the 80s.

Graphic by SaintMeister James Koehnline
http://www.isomedia.com/homes/harpo/gallery/9600/gallery_1996-2000_1of3.html




1927 -- France: Preliminary meeting is held for 'international conference', based on the Dielo Trouda group's 'Organizational Platform.'

The Dielo Trouda group, often referred to as "Platformists," was founded by Nestor Makhno, Peter Arshinov & other exiled Russian & Ukrainian anarchists in Paris...

[Details / context]

[Details / context]

Between 400 & 500 veterans & conscientious objectors from World Wars I & II burn their draft cards in two demonstrations, in front of the White House in Washington & at the Labor Temple in New York City, in protest of a proposed universal conscription law.

15-25 people are killed in the melee, numerous rioters arrested & the offending radio station is charged with inciting the riot. This Ecuadorian "War of the Worlds" was the work of the Chilean actor, Eduardo Alcaraz, & the manager of Radio Quito, Leonardo Páez.
http://www.earthstation1.com/Merchant/merchant.mv
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/9941/succeed_fail1.html
http://csicop.org/si/9811/martian.html
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/war_worlds.html
http://www.war-of-the-worlds.org/

1949 -- Italy: Nella Giacomelli dies. Contributor to Errico Malatesta's anarchist daily "Umanita Nova" & a founder of “Protesta umana” (1906-1909) with Ettore Molinari & Leda Rafanelli.



1954 -- Soviet filmmaker Dziga Vertov loses his camera. Pioneer documentary film (The Man With the Movie Camera [1929]) & newsreel director. His brothers Boris & Mikhail Kaufman are also notable filmmakers.
http://www.imagesjournal.com/issue05/features/berkeley-vertov.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dziga_Vertov


1955 -- American Pie?: US agrees to train the South Vietnamese Army. Beloved & Respected Comrade Leader President Ike Eisenhower sends first US advisers to South Vietnam.

ROCK & ROLL RECON

The only "good morning" there ever was in Vietnam
  was the day we left.

Armed Forces Radio did keep the killers
  hopping to rock-&-roll.

We'd recon the Que Son Valley in
  two light airplanes everyday.

Now I won't bullshit you: it was no Ashau,
  but it was badder than Leech Valley—
    a real Charles County, Marlboro Country.

Bad things grew in the valley
  & the Jolly Green Giant was a
    rescue chopper in Danang.

Above the smoking villas, the burned-out tanks,
  we bopped along with the Four Seasons,
    "Working my way back to you, babe."

The Mamas & the Papas were "California Dreamin"
  & so were our pilots as they waggled
    their wings in time to the music.

Only on Xmas did we get serious.
  We'd sing songs like
    "Wake the town & kill the people."

       — The Poetry of Ben D. Trail

http://www.vietvet.org/bdtrail.htm

1956 -- Crypt-kicker Screamin' Jay Hawkins records I Put a Spell on You for Okeh records in New York City.

Photo (right), Berlin, 31.07.94, by Stefan Müller who notes: "Die Musik, die im Film Stranger Than Paradise aus dem Recorder der Ungarin kommt, ist von Screamin' Jay."
See his photography gallery,
http://hpsg.fu-berlin.de/~stefan/privat/Galerie/M/alle_musik.html
& also http://deaddodo.org/ugugu/Screamin%27_Jay_Hawkins

http://www.gocontinental.com/ cat_h.htm
http://archive.salon.com/people/obit/2000/02/18/hawkins/index.html?source=search&aim=/people/obit
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Lot/3001/
http://www.roadhouseblues.com/biopages/bioScreaminJ.htm

1959 -- Carl Sandburg, poet/socialist, addresses joint session of the US Congress on 150th anniversary of Lincoln's birthday.
http://carl-sandburg.com/


1960 -- Pat Boone earns a gold LP for "Pat's Great Hits."

"America can't stand pat!"

       — Beloved & Respected Comrade Leader Dick m Nixon

1961 -- Kenneth Rexroth's personalist approach to poetry & critique of impersonalism...

In Assays, the most important selection is "The New Poetry," an essay first published in the "New York Times Book Review" today.

Rexroth reviews the history of US poetry in the 20th century, Rexroth profiles over a dozen active poets whom he recommends.

With their spirit, breadth, learning, & strong outsider (anarchist) stance, his essays play a significant role in developing the view of North American poetry in the 1960s & into the next millennium.

[Details / context]

1964 -- The Beatles play two concerts at New York City's Carnegie Hall, their first US appearance. The NY Times' review of the second performance credits the 3,000 fans in the audience as giving the show & the Beatles as merely their accompanists.



1964 --

'Sudden death' in Alba of Giuseppe Pinot Gallizio (born February 12, 1902) one of the founders of the Situationist International at the Cosio d'Arroscia conference ('The birth of the situationist movement owes him a great debt'). http://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/chronology/chronology.html | [Situationist Resources]

1966 -- US: Watts acid test causes major freak-outs when people drink electric Kool-Aid, unaware it is dosed with LSD.


1966 -- Rock For Peace at the Fillmore Auditorium in Frisco, California, with The Great Society, Quicksilver Messenger Service, & Big Brother & the Holding Company. Benefit for Democratic congressional candidates & the Viet Nam Study Group.

Meanwhile, it's Lincoln's Birthday Party with Sopwith Camel at the Firehouse, former quarters of Engine Co. 26 & Truck Co. 10, 3767 Sacramento St. The Charlatans also appeared.


1967 -- Benefit at the Fillmore for the Council for Civic Unity. Moby Grape, & Sly & the Family Stone perform.



1968 -- A Key Weighs...? Jimi Hendrix returns home to Seattle where he plays for the students of Garfield High School (which he dropped out from), receives a key to the city.
http://www.cd-bootleg.com/Jimi_Hendrix.htm


1969 -- US: "Wild, uncontrolled" oil leakage, caused by natural gas under pressure, occurs on the ocean floor off the coast of Santa Barbara, California. The gas was trapped when a Union Oil gusher was capped with cement (see 28 January).


1969 -- US: Howard University law school protest. Prelude to larger protest on the 18th. Things are beginning to heat up on campuses all over the US.


1973 --

Vietnam War:

POWs begin to come home as part of "Operation Homecoming." http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2261 http://servercc.oakton.edu/~wittman/chronol.htm

1974 -- US: After 10-years of direct actions to claim treaty fishing rights, Washington State tribes win court decision giving them 50% of allowable salmon catch. Legislators have sought to undermine or overturn the ruling ever since.


1976 -- Angola: Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) proclaims victory over (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, Jonas Savimbi, President — supported by US:) UNITA forces, winning the Angolan Civil War. UNITA forms coalition with FLNA (National Front for the Liberation of Angola)(?).


1980 -- Poet Muriel Rukeyser dies, New York City. Many of her poems are based upon her witness of important daily events. Taught at the California Labor School, among others. Poet Kenneth Rexroth once observed there may never have been an American poet who deserved the Nobel Prize as much as Muriel Rukeyser.

"The universe is made of stories, not of atoms."

http://www.maxalbums.com/search/?find=Muriel+Rukeyser&search=photos
http://www.angelfire.com/mn2/anarchistpoetry/Rukeyserdir/rukeyser.html http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/rukeyser/rukeyser.htm

1983 -- Composer jazz man Eubie Blake, born in 1883, dies.

Eubie Blake at age 100:

If I'd known I was gonna live this long I'd have taken better care of myself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eubie_Blake

1984 -- Argentine novelist/activist/jazz-lover (he played trumpet) Julio Cortazar dies, Paris, France.
http://www.juliocortazar.com.ar/
http://www.literatura.org/Cortazar/Cortazar.html
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/8559/english.html

1984 -- "Can a handicapped person run the nation? One is now!"

— Jesse Jackson, dismissing the notion that a disabled person could not be US president

Beloved & Respected Comrade Leader Acting President Reagan tells a group of junior high students about how Rex barks in front of Lincoln's bedroom & won't go in, which makes the president think Lincoln's ghost is there.

"Well" he says, "I guess that's enough of a history lesson here for today."

1989 -- US: Tiny Tim declares himself a New York City mayoral candidate.

Must have surfed in from California...him & Norman Mailer.
http://www.tinytim.org/

1989 -- US: Reverend Barbara Clementine Harris is elevated to the episcopate of the Anglican Church. QB x e1 (ouch!).

Harris has long advocated social change in the church & society. She's also a long-time member of the Union of Black Episcopalians, a group formed to promote the participation of blacks in the church & eradicate racism in society. In reply to the Church of England's ongoing refusal to recognize the status of female priests & bishops, Harris responds:

"I could be a combination of the Virgin Mary, Lena Horne & Madame Curie, & I would still get clobbered by some."

1989 -- A Novel Protest?: Five Pakistani Muslim rioters killed protesting Satanic Verses, a book by Salman Rushdie (Some religious leaders have publicly called for his murder).

http://www.flyingfish.org.uk/articles/rushdie/price.htm
http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/burning/sr-death.html
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/rushdie.htm

1989 -- Controversial Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard dies in Gmunden.



1991 -- North & South Korea form a joint team for table tennis competition. Don't know who supplied the joints — or who won; split-decision probably still in arbitration?


1999 -- US: Havana?: $40 million dollars later, Beloved & Respected Comrade Leader "Loose Willy" Clinton smokes Congress & the Raging Right.



2003 -- US: Led by poet Sam Hamill, today becomes a day of Poetry Against the War conducted as a reading at the White House gates in addition to over 160 public readings in many different countries & almost all of the 50 states. Since then, over 9,000 poets have joined this grassroots peace movement.

http://www.poetsagainstthewar.org/

2007 --

Spain: "Viviendo la utopía". La exposición estará en la ciudad desde el 12 hasta el 28 de febrero, en Cáceres. La Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT), presenta una exposición. Esta muestra, enmarcada dentro de los actos de conmemoración del 70 aniversario de la Revolución Social Española, aborda el período de la Guerra Civil en que las organizaciones anarquistas y anarcosindicalistas pusieron en práctica una profunda transformación de la sociedad en todos los ámbitos, no sólo sociales sino también económicos, políticos y laborales. La exposición está compuesta por gran número de fotografías inéditas del banco documental de la Fundación Anselmo Lorenzo, además de algunos paneles explicativos con los datos más relevantes y varios carteles y posters de la época. http://www.cnt.es/extremadura/index.php?id=1288

2054 -- Beginning date of Rudy Rucker novel Realware.



3000 --

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When action grows unprofitable, gather information;
when information grows unprofitable, sleep.

— Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness

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