Tag Archives: peace history

May 24

1774
The Virginia House of Burgesses declared this a day of “fasting, humiliation and prayer” in reaction to the British closure of the Port of Boston.
1906
British suffragist Dora Montefiore protests lack of women’s vote by refusing to pay taxes & barricading her house against bailiffs.
1943
In Bulgaria, a march against anti-Semitism leads to stop in Jewish deportations.

1964
Senator Barry Goldwater (R-Arizona), running for the Republican Party nomination for president, gave an interview in which he said he would consider the use of low-yield atomic bombs in North Vietnam.

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May 23

1838
U.S. General Winfield Scott ordered the forced removal of the Cherokee Indians from the east to the “Indian Nation” (what is now Oklahoma).
Approximately one quarter of the 10,000 died on this march called “The Trail of Tears.”

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May 22

189
Eugene V. Debs was imprisoned for his role in the Pullman railway strike in Woodstock, Illinois.

Pullman strike and the Origin of Labor Day

1978
Four thousand protesters occupied the Trident nuclear submarine base site in Bangor, Washington.
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1984
Declaration of the Six-Nation Five Continent Peace Initiative.

“…the pursuit of peace must be uncoupled from strategies of nuclear deterrence,
and such strategies must be universally repudiated….” -Rajiv Ghandi, prime minister of India

May 21
1420
With the betrothal of Henry VI, King of England to Catherine de Valois of France, England & France swear perpetual peace.
1956
The United States conducted the first airborne test of an improved hydrogen bomb, dropping it from a B-52 bomber over the tiny island of Namu, part of the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. The United States first detonated a hydrogen bomb in 1952 in the Marshall Islands, also in the Pacific. This bomb was far more powerful than those previously tested and was estimated at 15 megatons or larger (one megaton is roughly equivalent to 1 million tons of TNT). Observers said that the fireball caused by the explosion measured at least four miles in diameter and was brighter than the light from 500 suns.

1978
4,300 rally at Bangor Naval Base, Washington, to protest against nuclear sub USS Trident.
1971
Members of American Indian Movement(AIM) occupy Naval Air Station near Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
1981
The U.S. Senate approved a $20 billion program to return U.S. to full-scale production of chemical and nerve-gas weapons. Though the U.S. maintained a public policy opposing chemical weapons, it extended financial and military assistance to Iraq in its war against Iran, despite its almost daily use of such weapons. Iraq had developed its “CW production capability, primarily from Western firms, including possible a U.S. foreign subsidiary.” (from a memorandum to Secretary of State Alexander Haig)
Watch a video on the U.S./Saddam Hussein partnership

Donald Rumsfeld and Saddam Hussein

1993
Kyrgystan announces plans to dismantle its army.

May 20

1867
John Stuart Mill’s bill to permit women to vote was rejected by the British Parliament.

1961
A white mob attacked “Freedom Riders” in Montgomery, Alabama, prompting the federal government to declare martial law and send in United States Marshals to restore order.

Freedom Riders challenged racial segregation at Montgomery bus depot.
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May 19

1850Four thousand Mexican miners gather in Sonora, California, to protest the Foreign Miners’ Tax, which was enacted to drive them from gold fields.
1881
Clara Barton founded the Red Cross
1920
The Battle of Matewan (W.Va.).
1932
U.S. Congressman Claude Fuller introduces a resolution requiring all Civil Service employees to “sing, write or recite the words to the ‘Star-Spangled Banner'” by memory.
1934
10,000 participate in “No More War” march, New York City.
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May 18

1652
Rhode Island becomes the first colony to abolish slavery.

1872
Birthday of Sir Bertrand Russell, British philosopher, logician, essayist, and social critic, a leading figure in his country’s anti-nuclear movement. In 1954 he delivered his famous “Man’s Peril” broadcast on the BBC, condemning the Bikini H-bomb tests, and warning of the threat to humanity from the development of nuclear weapons. A year later, together with Albert Einstein, he released the Russell-Einstein Manifesto calling for the curtailment of nuclear weapons.
He became the founding president of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in 1958 resigning, however, in 1960 to form the more militant Committee of 100 with the overt aim of inciting mass civil disobedience. He, along with Lady Russell led mass sit-ins in 1961 that brought them a two-month prison sentence.

Bertrand Russell

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May 17

1838
First women’s anti-slavery convention in Philadelphia, PA
1896
Supreme Court endorsed “separate but equal” racial segregation with its Plessy vs Ferguson decision, a ruling that was overturned 58 years later.
1900
Following the relief of Mafeking, in South Africa, 26,000 Boer women & children die in the world’s first concentration camps.
1919
17-May Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom formally established, Zurich, Switzerland.
1954
In a major civil rights victory, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education, ruling “separate but equal” public education to be unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment which guaranteed equal treatment under the law. The historic decision, bringing an end to federal tolerance of racial segregation, specifically dealt with Linda Brown, a young African American girl denied admission to her local elementary school in Topeka, Kansas, because of the color of her skin.

Nettie Hunt and her daughter Nickie on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court, 1954

George E. C. Hayes, Thurgood Marshall and James M. Nabrit (left to right), the successful legal team, celebrate the Brown decision.

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May 16

1792
Denmark becomes the first country to outlaw the slave trade.

1918
The U.S. Congress passed the Sedition Act, legislation designed to protect America’s participation in World War I. Aimed at socialists, pacifists and other anti-war activists, the Sedition Act imposed harsh penalties on anyone found guilty of making false statements that interfered with the prosecution of the war; insulting or abusing the U.S. government, conscription, the flag, the Constitution or the military; agitating against the production of necessary war materials; or advocating, teaching or defending any of these acts.
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May 15

International Conscientious Objectors Day(Since the 1980’s)
International Conscientious Objectors Day, established to honor those who leave or refuse to enter their country’s armed forces for reasons of principle.

Read the stories of 4 Conscientious Objectors
Are you a CO? Find more info at PEACE-OUT
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