861 -- France: Paris is again burned by the Vikings.


1371 -- France: John the Fearless, son of Philip the Bold, father of Philip the Good, lives, Burgundy.
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/Blair/Courses/MUSL242/f98/burgundy.htm


1378 -- Author Geoffrey Chaucer is sent on an English diplomatic mission to Lombardy.
[Source: Robert Braunwart]
[Hereafter attributed with symbol: ]



1588 -- Scotland: Alison Pearson burned in for sorcery.


1665 -- A manuscript of Isaac Newton bears this date — earliest documentation of fluxions.


1725 -- Need Company?: English founder of Methodism John Wesley writes in a letter: 'I can't think that when God sent us into the world He had irreversibly decreed that we should be perpetually miserable in it.'


1779 -- Thomas Moore lives (1779-1852). Irish poet, whose buddies included Lord Byron & P.B. Shelley. Moore & publisher John Murray burned Byron's memoirs when Byron died, presumably to protect his friend.
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/tmoore.htm


1797 -- France: Revolutionary Gracchus Babeuf is executed (1760-1797). He formed a secret society plotting to overthrow the government; it became known as the Conspiracy of the Equals. Participe à la ligue des Egaux avec Buonarroti, Sylvain Maréchal, Jacques Roux, Jean Varlet et d'autres.
[Details / context]


1830 -- US: Beloved & Respected Comrade Leader President Andy Jackson's recommendation to forcibly move all Indians west of Mississippi River — a relocation plan later used as a model by South Africa's apartheid leaders — becomes law (Removal Act).


1835 -- US: Bound To Last?: The Ladies Shoe Binders Society is formed in New York.


1843 -- US: Noah Webster, lexicographer, dies at 84.


1849 -- Anne Brontë dies, age 29, Scarborough, Yorkshire, of the family scourge, tuberculosis.


1859 -- Last issue of Charles Dickens' periodical Household Words appears.


1871 -- France: The The Paris Commune, initiated two months ago, is today finally crushed; some 20,000 people are executed by the government. (But, let us speak of murderous anarchists & terrorists....)

End of the "Bloody Week" (Semaine Sanglante). The slaughter includes the anarchist bookbinder, Eugene Varlin (1839-1871).

"The Commune is the end of the old governmental & clerical world, militarism, officialism, the exploitation, agiotage, the monopolies, of the privileges, to which the proletariat owes its serfdom, the Fatherland, its misfortunes & its disasters." — Eugene Varlin, during the Paris Commune [Details / context]

1872 -- Russia: Prince Peter Kropotkin, during this month (I don't have exact day — ed.), returns to Russia.

Based on his travels in Europe he is now a convinced anarchist. Peter brings with him a large collection of socialist literature "unconditionally prohibited by the censor." This is his first subversive act against the state. He took this tremendous risk so he could share these works with others.
[Details / context]

1875 -- France: Fernand Elosu lives, Bordeaux. Doctor & a propagandist for néo-Malthusian ideas of maternity, free love, etc.

In 1910, Elosu became president of the League of the Humans Rights in Bayonne. Collaborated with numerous libertarian papers, as well as contributing to Sébastien Faure's 'Encyclopédie Anarchiste. A pacifist, Elosu was imprisoned during WWII as a "communist" & died in prison in 1941 of pneumonia. Author of L'amour infécond (1908).

1879 -- US: First American law prohibiting employment of women — Illinois, in coal mines.


1881 -- England: During a severe thunderstorm, periwinkles fall on Worcester.
[Source: Calendar Riots]


1888 -- US: Native American athletic great Jim Thorpe lives, Shawnee, Oklahoma.


1897 -- US: Carl Nold & Henry Bauer, convicted & imprisoned for aiding in Alexander Berkman's attempt to assassinate Henry Frick, are released from the Western State Penitentiary in Pittsburgh. Berkman remained in prison for many years & his book Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist, is now considered one of the masterpieces of prison literature.

[Related materials / links]

1897 -- Italy: Camillo Berneri lives, in Lodé. Professor of philosophy, propagandist & anarchist militant & theorist.

Forced into exile by the Italian fascist government, Berneri organized the first column of Italian volunteers to fight in Spain (Gigi Di Lembo, the Italian section of the column "Ascaso," with approximately 500 volunteers), where he participated in the battle of Monte Pelado on August 28, 1936, &, on September 3, on the Huesca front.

Camillo Berneri is dragged from his home, as is Francesco Barbieri from a hospital, & executed by Stalinist Communist Party members, apparently under Moscow's orders.

1902 -- Corliss Lamont lives. Author, philosopher, civil libertarian, Columbia benefactor & former lecturer in philosophy.

Lamont was one of the few principled liberals in the 50s who stood up to Senator TailGunner (including young lads) McCarthy & refused to adopt liberal efforts to out-anti-communist the rightwing anti-communists (ala the "Communist Control Act," etc.).

http://www.corliss-lamont.org/

1905 -- US: Foul? NY police arrest 200 for playing baseball on Sunday.


1908 -- Ian Fleming lives (1908-1964). British journalist, secret service agent, & author whose most famous creation was superhero stud James Bond, agent 007. Some think his novels are more authentic than most spy thrillers, but are, in reality, fairy tales.
Rosamond Lehmann notes:

"The trouble with Ian is that he gets off with women because he can't get on with them."

"My books have no social significance, except a deleterious one; they're considered to have too much violence & too much sex. But all history has that.

— Ian Fleming
New Yorker, April 21, 1962

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/ifleming.htm

1908 -- US: Congress passes a bill regulating child labor in Washington, DC.


1909 -- US: Brooklyn chief of police orders cancellation of a lecture by the anarchist-feminist Emma Goldman.

Due to continuing harassment, "A Demand for Free Speech" manifesto is signed & circulated by prominent individuals to protest the recent suppression of Emma Goldman's rights & a Free Speech Society is formed which is especially active in June & July when the government & police continues its attempts to suppress Goldman's attempts to speak or lecture.

1910 -- Paul Lapeyre lives (1910-1991). French anarchist, along with his brothers Aristide Lapeyre & Laurent.


1912 -- Patrick White lives (1912-1990). Australian novelist, short story writer & playwright who combines myth, symbols & allegory in poetic imagination, awarded the 1973 Nobel. In his late years White became vocal on such issues as Aboriginal rights & protection of the environment.
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/pwhite.htm


1916 -- Walker Percy (The Moviegoer) lives, Birmingham, Alabama.



1916 -- Italy: L'esercito austriaco occupa Asiago avanzando per più di 20 chilometri oltre il confine. Iniziano le prime esecuzioni sommarie di ufficiali e soldati ordinate dal generale Cadorna per punire quello che viene chiamato il cedimento di uomini di scarso valore.

Dal 24 maggio 1915 al 2 settembre 1919 le denunce all'autorità giudiziaria per indisciplina, resa, mutilazione volontaria, renitenza o diserzione sono 870.000, le condanne all'ergastolo 15.000, le condanne a morte 4028 di cui 2967 in contumacia, 311 non eseguite e 750 eseguite. In questa vicenda l'esercito italiano appare nella sua vera veste, vale a dire come una organizzazione folle guidata da una banda di criminali. [Source: Crimini e Misfatti]

1917 -- Author Edgar Rice Burroughs enlists in the Illinois reserve militia. Wants to fight on Mars.


1924 -- Spain: The "Torturer of Barcelona," Rogelio Pérez, is killed by anarchists, during uprisings sparked by the revolt in Vera de Bidassoa. José Llacer & Juan Montejo, members of the anarcho-syndicalist union CNT, are accused of the assassination, along with attacking the Atarazanas barracks on November 6th, & executed on November 10th.



1928 -- After a 35-year career with the "Manchester Guardian," Charles Edward Montague dies. Apart from his vigorous leading articles & penetrating dramatic criticism, he also wrote several novels.


1928 -- Italy: Il processo contro Gramsci, Terracini, Scoccimarro, Roveda e altri componenti del comitato centrale del partito comunista si conclude con la loro condanna a pene variabili dai 15 ai 23 anni. Nella sua arringa contro Antonio Gramsci (condannato a 20 anni e 4 mesi) il pubblico ministero (vale a dire l'accusatore a nome e per conto dello stato) pronuncia l'affermazione: "Per vent'anni dobbiamo impedire a questo cervello di funzionare".
[Source: Crimini e Misfatti]



1934 -- Canada: Emma Goldman's recent lectures in Montreal drew audiences of 300-400: she spoke on Hitler & Nazism, "The Collapse of German Culture," & "Living My Life," as well as lecturing in Yiddish on May 21. Now back in Toronto, Goldman finds an apartment; after a disappointing lecture on the New Deal today she determines to curtail her public speaking & concentrate on writing.


1935 -- John Steinbeck novel Tortilla Flat is published.



1937 -- Spain: "La Batalla" is shut down as is the POUM's radio station. The Friends of Durruti's social premises in the Ramblas are also shut down.
http://recollectionbooks.com/bleed/Encyclopedia/DurrutiColumnEarly.htm
http://www.spunk.org/texts/places/spain/sp001780/chap5.html
http://recollectionbooks.com/siml/library/RexrothRequiem.htm


1937 -- México: Petroleum workers strike.


1938 -- US: Three Seattle cops are convicted of manslaughter for beating a black man to death in custody, but two are later pardoned by the governor.



1941 -- US: Animated Cartoonists? Workers strike Walt Disney studios after he fires union activists. Disney would drive through the mass of picketing workers at the gates of the studios, on one occasion leaping out of his car to attack Art Babbitt. The cartoonists wona the strike, some receiving pay increases of nearly 50%.
http://libcom.org/history/1941-disney-cartoonists-strike


1946 -- US: General Strike paralyzes Rochester, New York.


1948 -- Israel: By government decree Haganah is converted into the regular Israeli army; the Haganah was an umbrella undergound group of para-military organizations, including the terrorist the Irgun Zvai Leumi & the Stern Gang.
http://brneurosci.org/israel-terrorism.html
http://www.alternet.org/story/12956



1949 -- Back To The Past?: Wendy O. Williams lives. Lead singer to THE PLASMATICS & WOW. Dies April 6, 1998.
One of the most colourful people in the metal scene of the 80s. Calendar of SubGenius Saint, September 3.

http://www.metalmaidens.com/wow.htm

1950 -- Germany: 500,000 German youth demonstrate against the US & Britain, East Berlin.


1951 -- Off With A Bang?: Baseball's Willie Mays gets his first major league hit, a home run.


1951 -- Pakistan: International Confederation of Free Trade unions (ICFTU) Asian regional Organization founded in Karachi.
http://www.icftu.org/


1951 -- "The Goon Show" with Peter Sellers premiers on BBC radio (-1959).



1953 -- Flagging?: Edmund Hillary & guide Tenzing Norgay plant flags on Mt. Everest. At 11:30 on the morning of May 29, 1953, Tenzing Norgay reached the summit, 29,028 feet above sea level, the highest spot on earth. As remarkable as the feat of reaching the summit was the treacherous climb back down the peak.


1955 -- "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" is the most popular song in the United States. Billboard refers to the tune as "disc entity"& reports if the sales of the other versions were all added up, including the original done by Fess Parker, more than 18-million copies have been bought in six months.


1955 -- US: The two-hour work week is predicted by Albert Whitehouse of the United Steelworkers of America. Great Psychic. Most steel workers are now lucky to get any hours.


1955 -- England: A railway strike begins in Britain (-June 14).



1958 -- US: Catholic anarchist Ammon Hennacy ends 40-day fast against US nuclear weapons tests.
http://www.geocities.com/yucca51/atomic-photos.html
http://www.shundahai.org/US_Atmospheric_Nuclear_Tests_Database.htm
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/facility/nts.htm
http://www.angelfire.com/folk/AMMON/quotes.html#SINucleartERROR



1959 -- Charlie?: US Army launches two monkeys into space (Able & Baker). Ask yourself this: Where was Elvis?



1960 -- Allen Ginsberg writes his poem "Aether," Lima, Perú.


1961 -- England: Amnesty International founded by lawyer Peter Benenson & friends, with notice in the "London Observer" & the "Paris Le Monde." Recipient of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize.
http://www.amnesty.org
http://www.wcl.american.edu/pub/humright/sites/sites.html


1963 -- US: Medgar Evers gets agreement of negotiations in the All-American city of Jackson, Mississippi — which is then withdrawn; four students & a professor harassed during sit-in at Woolworth's lunch counter.


1964 -- A date at the beginning of Kobo Abé novel The Face of Another.


1965 -- Balanchine/Nabokov ballet "Don Quixote" officially premiers, New York.


1966 -- Ike & Tina Turner's "River Deep, Mountain High" is released. Producer Phil Spector considers this the high point of his legendary career & is so embittered by it not doing well in America that he went into seclusion for two years.


1967 -- Peru: Schoolteachers return to work after a 6-day strike.


1968 -- Spain: Students occupy the University of Madrid. Cops raid all the buildings & dislodge the occupiers. The state forcibly closes the University.


1968 -- France: The rejection of the Grenelle accords yesterday — together with the anti-capitalist effigies hung outside the factories — show that many workers are fighting for more than better conditions of wage slavery.

[More details / context]

28 mai 68   Retour clandestin de Daniel Cohn-Bendit.
Mitterrand propose un gouvernement de transition présidé par
Mendès France.

1968 -- Belgium: Protests by peasants in Belgium during the May Days.
[Details / context]


1969 -- US: People's Park Bail Ball benefit held at Winterland in Frisco. Creedance Clearwater Revival & the Jefferson Airplane entertain.
60's Map of the Haight-Ashbury District:
http://wild-bohemian.com/hipshops.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People's_Park,_Berkeley

1970 -- US: Police bust 40 anti-Nixon protesters for "disrupting a religious service" during a Billy Graham crusade in Tennessee.


1970 -- Sammy wakes up, in Terrence Lore Smith's novel, Grownups & Lovers:

“He saw the troops open fire, saw Harry fall, the panic, the running & the screaming. He saw the stadium surrounded by the guard...He lifted the bullhorn & screamed into it...

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!””

1972 -- US: 3-strikes & You're Out?: Third "Watergate break-in" attempt by by Dick M Nixon's CREEP agents succeeds, but the tap placed on Democratic Chairman Lawrence O'Brian's phone fails to operate. The same day, a second attempt to break into McGovern headquarters fails. Keystone Kops.



1974 -- US: Atomic Energy Commission reports 861 "abnormal events" occurred during 1973 in the nation's 42 operative nuclear power plants. Of these, "only" 12 involved the release of radioactivity "above permissible levels."


1976 -- Allman Brothers Band breaks up after Gregg testifies against his personal road manager in a drug case.



1982 -- US: Seven women fast for 10 days, Springfield, Illinois, in support of ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment by the Illinois state legislature.


1982 -- Germany: First day of two-day blockade against stationing of Cruise missiles, Hasselbach, West Germany.



1985 -- US: 3-Litres & You're Out? Gay Mullins of Seattle, Washington, was pissed! He founded The Old Cola Drinkers of America to bring back the original Coca-Cola, instead of the "New" Coke foisted on the cola-drinking market. By July of 1985, with arms firmly twisted behind their backs, Coca-Cola execs relented & returned the old formula to colaholics & with a new name: Classic Coke. Lesson learned:

Don't mess with drug addicts.

"Who needs astrology? The wise man gets by on fortune cookies. "

— Ed Abbey

http://neurosurgery.mgh.harvard.edu/abta/