January 31
Muharram (Islamic New Year)
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 30
1948
Gandhi Assassinated, New Delhi.
1956
As Martin Luther King, Jr. stood at the pulpit, leading a mass meeting during the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott, his home was bombed.
Continue reading
January 29
Chinese New Year (Year of the Dog)
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. Tge four were later acquitted of all charges on the grounds of preventing a greater crime.
Seeds of Hope/East Timor Ploughshares activists
January 28
1908
Author and activist Julia Ward Howe became the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
1993
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.”
1995
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.
Soldiers’ Mothers Committee members
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 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.”
January 25
1851
Sojourner Truth addresses first Black Women’s Rights Convention, Akron, OH
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.
Continue reading
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 and Yoko
January 23
1875
First British Disarmament Campaign, Liverpool, England
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.
January 22
1905
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.
1971
200 killed by Somoza’s National Guard during protest against state violence, Managua, Nicaragua. (1967)
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.
Continue reading
Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 