About This Blog
An alternative "On This Day", On This Deity aims to bring light to and celebrate Culture Heroes, Outsider Icons, Beloved Immortals and Revolutionary Events in history.
Dorian
19th April 1824 the Death of Lord Byron
Yes, he was “mad, bad and dangerous to know” – flamboyant, dynamic and notorious for his scandalous love affairs and aristocratic excesses. A proto-rock star, he was the most famous literary figure of his day – capturing the imagination of Europe … Continue reading
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17th April 1975 Pol Pot Declares Year Zero
Thirty-seven years ago today, Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge captured Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh and declared revolutionary Year Zero. After five years of bloody civil war, the conquering Communist guerrillas were welcomed as heroes by a relieved population desperate for peace … Continue reading
Posted in Atrocities, Tyrants, World Events 1 Comment
16th April
No great action has thus far occurred on this day that warrants an On This Deity entry. Instead, here’s something from Noam Chomsky to think about: “Personally I’m in favor of democracy, which means that the central institutions in the society … Continue reading
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15th April 1865 the Death of Abraham Lincoln
Seven score and seven years ago today at 7.22am, Abraham Lincoln died – nine hours after an assassin’s bullet entered the back of his head. This self-educated, rough-hewn lawyer from Illinois with virtually no administrative or military experience had for … Continue reading
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14th April 1964 the Death of Rachel Carson
Today we commemorate one of the twentieth century’s greatest revolutionary heroines – the mother of the environmental movement, Rachel Carson. Passionate naturalist, brilliant biologist, fearless crusader and gifted writer, this outwardly demure and unassuming woman took on the federal government, … Continue reading
13th April 1873 the Colfax Massacre
On March 13th 1873, a brutal massacre occurred in Colfax, Louisiana that remains shockingly little-known considering the magnitude of the violence – it is one of the largest incidents of race-related mass murder in America’s non-combatant history – and the … Continue reading
Posted in Atrocities 1 Comment
12th April 1989 the Revolutionary Suicide of Abbie Hoffman
Today we commemorate everyone’s favourite Groucho Marxist – the radical activist, Abbie Hoffman. Co-founder of the Yippies and author of Steal This Book and Revolution for the Hell of It, Hoffman was one of the most colourful and iconic figures … Continue reading
Posted in Anarchists, Heroes, Revolution 2 Comments
11th April 1979 the End of Idi Amin’s Reign of Terror
On 11th April 1979, Idi Amin was deposed as president of Uganda after his attempt to annex part of Tanzania spectacularly backfired. Following a counterattack by the Tanzania People’s Defence Force, the former stooge of Imperial Britain who had in 1971 … Continue reading
Posted in Tyrants, World Events 1 Comment
9th April 1865 Robert E. Lee Surrenders
On this day in 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia to the Union’s Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant. In the parlour of the home of Wilmer and Virginia McLean in the town of Appomattox … Continue reading
Posted in World Events 2 Comments
6th April 1994 the Rwandan Genocide Begins
On 6th April 1994, the plane carrying Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana was shot down by surface-to-air missiles as it approached Kigali Airport. All on board were killed. The responsibility for the downing of the plane remains a mystery, but the … Continue reading
Posted in Atrocities, World Events 3 Comments
4th April 1968 the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Today we commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. – the inspirational leader, moral arbiter and emblematic martyr of the U.S. civil rights movement. A prophet who led America out of its Jim Crow darkness, this devout Baptist preacher – known throughout the … Continue reading
Posted in Heroes, World Events 1 Comment
3rd April 2000 the Death of Terence McKenna
On this day in 2000 the world lost a great champion of freedom, creativity, and our inalienable right to increase both of these by partaking of nature’s rich pharmacy. Terence McKenna was a thinker, explorer, writer and raconteur obsessed with … Continue reading
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2nd April 1917 the First Elected Female Politician Assumes Office
Ninety-five years ago today, the first woman elected to any national legislature in a Western democracy took her seat for the first time in the U.S. House of Representatives. And Sisters, our first-ever political representative didn’t let us down. Three … Continue reading
1st April 1939 The End of the Spanish Civil War
Seventy-three years ago on this day, Generalissimo Francisco Franco broadcast his final radio communiqué of the Spanish Civil War: “Today, after having disarmed and captured the Red Army, the Nationalist troops have secured their final military objective. The war is … Continue reading
Posted in World Events 5 Comments
30th March
Nothing revolutionary to report today. So I thought I’d sling this through your window… “In all times and in all places, whatever may be the name that the government takes, whatever has been its origin, or its organization, its essential … Continue reading
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26th March 1892 the Death of Walt Whitman
In the middle of the 19th century, the barely-United States of America was in grave trouble. Stymied by its inability to reconcile a mandate for economic growth that depended largely on that “peculiar institution” of slavery, the so-called “Land of … Continue reading
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23rd March 1931 the Martyrdom of Bhagat Singh
We in the West tend to recall only the great Mahatma Gandhi when we think of India’s long and gruelling fight for freedom from the British Raj. But today we pay tribute to another extraordinary Indian Independence revolutionary – Bhagat … Continue reading
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22nd March
Budding politicos and future revolutionaries do please take note: this day is yours for the taking, as no Great Action has yet happened. And remember always these words of George Bernard Shaw: “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the … Continue reading
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20th March 1852 the Publication of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”
Today we commemorate the 160h anniversary of the publication of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly – one of the few works of fiction that can lay genuine claim to changing history. A literary incendiary, … Continue reading
Posted in World Events 2 Comments
18th March 1871 the Paris Commune Begins
Today marks the anniversary of the formation of the Paris Commune – the first successful seizure of power by the working class. Facing Prussian invasion forces on one side and French troops mobilised not against the invaders but its own … Continue reading
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16th March 1968 the My Lai Massacre
On March 16th 1968, the American combat soldiers of Charlie Company, First Battalion, 20th Infantry Division swept into the South Vietnamese village of My Lai and massacred 504 unarmed, unresisting women, children and elderly men. Babies were shot at point-blank … Continue reading
Posted in Atrocities 4 Comments
13th March 1906 the Death of Susan B. Anthony
Today we pay tribute to a woman whose very name is synonymous with American women’s suffrage – the legendary Susan B. Anthony. Although there are several other luminaries whose pioneering efforts heralded that extraordinary first wave of female emancipation, it is … Continue reading
Posted in Heroines 2 Comments
12th March 1945 the Death of Anne Frank
Today is the date attributed to the death of Anne Frank. But the exact date is of course unknown, for the 15-year-old Jewish diarist was just one of some 18,000 to die from the typhus epidemic that spread like wildfire … Continue reading
10th March 1913 the Death of Harriet Tubman
“Excepting John Brown – of sacred memory – I know of no one who has willingly encountered more perils and hardships to serve our enslaved people,” wrote Frederick Douglass of the abolitionist and freedom fighter, Harriet Tubman. Notwithstanding the numerous remarkable … Continue reading
Posted in Heroines 6 Comments
9th March 1947 the Death of Carrie Chapman Catt
When Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton first drafted the 19th Amendment in 1878, never could they have imagined it would be another forty-two protracted years before American women would win the right to vote. Why, even black men … Continue reading
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7th March 1942 the Death of Lucy Parsons
As a Native-, African- and Mexican-American woman born into slavery, raised in poverty and terrorised in the hate-fuelled KKK milieu of post-Civil War Texas, Lucy Eldine Gonzales Parsons probably had more reasons than most to dedicate her life to radical … Continue reading
Posted in Anarchists, Heroines 7 Comments
6th March 1857 the Dred Scott Decision
On this day in 1857, African-Americans were delivered a conclusive and seemingly fatal blow to their prospects for freedom. It was official. The United States Supreme Court – the highest bastion of law and morality – ruled that ‘Negroes’ were not … Continue reading
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4th March 1888 the Death of Amos Bronson Alcott
Henry David Thoreau declared him: “A true friend of man; almost the only friend of human progress.” In his idealistic quest for human ascendency, he was more Emersonian than Ralph Waldo Emerson himself. Today we recall one of the 19th … Continue reading
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3rd March 1985 The End of the 1984-85 Miners’ Strike
Twenty-six years ago today, the UK Miners’ Strike of 1984-85 finally ended in defeat for Arthur Scargill and the National Union of Mineworkers when miners reluctantly and bitterly voted to return to work. The strike, lasting just two days short … Continue reading
Posted in World Events 3 Comments
1st March 1969 Jim Morrison’s Miami Mischief Night
Forty-three years ago today, in his hometown of Miami, Florida, controversial Doors singer Jim Morrison finally abandoned all notions of changing society through his role as a pop singer and entertainer. Instead, profoundly inspired by three successive viewings of the … Continue reading
Posted in Heroes, World Events 1 Comment
28th February 1906 The Publication of Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle”
There have been plenty of novels written about revolutions, but not many that have been genuinely revolutionary…works that not only captured the collective imagination but also triggered a seismic social shift. Today we’re remembering one of a mere handful of … Continue reading
Posted in World Events 4 Comments
25th February 1956 Khrushchev Lights the Fuse
Fifty-five years ago today, before a closed session at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev lit the fuse of an almighty powder keg when he delivered his sensational speech, On the Personality … Continue reading
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23rd February 1821 the Death of John Keats
Today we reflect on the brief but luminous life of John Keats – struck down by tuberculosis one hundred and ninety-one years ago at the age of 25. Little known and lowly regarded in his lifetime, the dying poet – … Continue reading
22nd February 1943 Beheading of the White Rose
Sixty-nine years ago today, three German students were executed by guillotine in Munich’s Stadelheim Prison for their crimes of high treason against Hitler’s Third Reich. Just four days earlier, 24-year-old Hans Scholl and his 21-year-old sister, Sophie, had been arrested … Continue reading
Posted in Dissent, Heroes, Heroines 3 Comments
20th February 1895 the Death of Frederick Douglass
Today we pay tribute to a true colossus – the abolitionist, writer, orator and America’s first black leader of national stature, the inimitable Frederick Douglass. Born into slavery, separated in infancy from his mother and shunted from one pitiless Maryland … Continue reading
Posted in Heroes 2 Comments
19th February 1942 Roosevelt Issues Executive Order 9066
On this day in 1942, in response to the Imperial Japanese Army’s attack on Pearl Harbor two months earlier, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 which cleared the way for some 120,000 Japanese Americans to be relocated … Continue reading
Posted in Atrocities, World Events 4 Comments
18th February 1943 STOP PRESS! Coming Soon! Cracks in the Nazi War Machine!
Sixty-nine years ago on this day, the first indications that all was not tickety-boo with Hitler’s Holocaust came to light when Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels delivered a speech at the Berlin Sportpalast to a large but carefully selected audience … Continue reading
Posted in World Events 2 Comments
14th February 1831 the Death of Vicente Guerrero
Today we pay tribute to the man known as Mexico’s George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. He was one of the leading revolutionary generals in Mexico’s 11-year war of independence and, as the republic’s second president, abolished slavery in 1829 – … Continue reading
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12th February 1909 The Founding of the NAACP
On 12th February 1909, the 100th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, a group of sixty black and white intellectuals, reformers and socialists dedicated to securing the civil and political rights of African Americans as guaranteed by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth … Continue reading
Posted in World Events 2 Comments
11th February 1990 The Freeing of Nelson Mandela
Today we dance in celebration on this the twenty-second anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s release from prison in South Africa. Incarcerated for almost three decades, subjected to inhuman conditions breaking rocks in a lime quarry, restricted to two visitors per year, … Continue reading
Posted in World Events 5 Comments
10th February 1855 A Racist Vivisector at the Foundations of Gynaecology
One hundred and fifty-seven years ago on this day, the Woman’s Hospital in New York City was founded. This was the first hospital in the world to be established for conditions specific to women, and from this beginning the study … Continue reading
Posted in Atrocities 5 Comments
9th February
No event has as yet occurred on this day that warrants an On This Deity entry. Budding politicos and future revolutionaries please therefore take note of 9th February for all potential world-changing international incidents. And don’t forget to do your … Continue reading
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8th February 1921 the Death of Peter Kropotkin
Today we venerate a truly great humanitarian of rarely paralleled morality and integrity, Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin. Born into extraordinary wealth and nobility (a Russian prince, no less), Kropotkin surrendered his birthright and all that came with it for the life … Continue reading
Posted in Anarchists, Heroes 3 Comments
6th February 1976 Leonard Peltier Illegally Arrested
On this day in 1976, Native American activist Leonard Peltier was illegally arrested in Canada by means of coerced and fraudulent testimony for the murder of two FBI agents the previous year on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. … Continue reading
Posted in Atrocities, World Events 10 Comments
3rd February 1787 Shays’ Rebellion
Today we consider Shays’ Rebellion – otherwise known as “the American Revolution’s Final Battle” – which very nearly led to America’s first civil war. This major grassroots uprising which raged for six months shared much in common with the ideologies that … Continue reading
1st February 1851 the Death of Mary Shelley
She was born of impeccable parentage – the daughter of two of the 18th century’s most notable and infamous freethinkers: Mary Wollstonecraft, the pioneering feminist and author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman; and William Godwin, the radical philosopher, proto-anarchist … Continue reading
31st January 1968 the Tet Offensive
In the early hours of 31st January 1968, thirteen years into the Vietnam War, 70,000 North Vietnamese and Vietcong forces launched a wave of simultaneous attacks on more than 100 towns and cities in South Vietnam. This audacious operation took … Continue reading
Posted in World Events 4 Comments
29th January
Nothing has yet occurred on this day that fits the On This Deity remit. But that might change soon. For revolution is all around us… it’s going off all over the world, and here in England the authorities are clearly … Continue reading
Posted in Atrocities, Curiosities 2 Comments
26th January 1788 Australia’s “First Fleet”
Two hundred and twenty-four years ago today, the “First Fleet” of eleven ships arrived at Sydney Cove, Australia. Its passengers were the first white settlers of this remote continent: some 750 convicted petty criminals and 500 marine guards and officers … Continue reading
Posted in Atrocities, World Events 2 Comments
23rd January 1976 the Death of Paul Robeson
Today we pay our respects to the great singer, actor, scholar, All-American athlete and human rights activist, Paul Robeson. In the 1930s and 40s, this son of an escaped slave was the most famous and widely respected Afro-American man in … Continue reading
Posted in Heroes 3 Comments
22nd January 1905 Bloodsky Sunday
Today is the 107th anniversary of one of the defining events of the 20th Century, for it marks the precise moment when a seismic shift occurred that would end Russia’s seemingly unassailable dynastical certainties – setting the stage for the … Continue reading
Posted in Atrocities, Revolution, World Events 2 Comments
21st January 1924 the Death of Vladimir Lenin
Today marks the anniversary of the death of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin who, as leader of the Bolshevik Party and architect of the first successful workers’ revolution, unleashed upon the world a new kind of tyranny that substituted dynastical despots … Continue reading
Posted in World Events 2 Comments
20th January 1900 the Death of John Ruskin
George Eliot called him “a prophet for his generation.” In a letter to Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thomas Carlyle wrote: “No other man in England that I meet has in him the divine rage against iniquity, falsity, and baseness that Ruskin … Continue reading
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18th January 1803 the Death of Pierre-Sylvain Marechal
Today we pay tribute to Pierre-Sylvain Maréchal, the visionary French revolutionary, militant Atheist and proto-anarchist whose iconoclastic and blasphemous new calendar – the “Honest Man’s Almanac” – so outraged pre-Revolutionary France that he was, in 1788, sentenced to jail for … Continue reading
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17th January 1945 the Disappearance of Raoul Wallenberg
Sixty-seven years ago today, Raoul Wallenberg was summoned to Red Army headquarters in Budapest, Hungary. Before setting off, he confided to one of his closest associates: “I do not know whether I am a guest of the Soviets or their … Continue reading
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14th January 1977 the Death of Anais Nin
Today we pay tribute to one of the most important female writers of the twentieth century – Anaïs Nin – who died thirty-four years ago on this day. Brilliant, beautiful, seductive, promiscuous, flamboyant, provocative, fearless… Anaïs remains a source of inspiration … Continue reading
Posted in Heroines 5 Comments
12th January
Nothing as yet occurred on this day that falls within On This Deity’s remit, so – until tomorrow – here are some excerpts from Emma Goldman’s brilliant and inspiring essay, Anarchism: What It Really Stands For. “Anarchism … is the philosophy … Continue reading
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11th January 1943 The Assassination of Carlo Tresca
Sixty-eight years ago on this day, Carlo Tresca – Italian-American anarchist leader and thorn in the side of just about everyone – was assassinated on the streets of New York City. One of the most colourful figures of the American … Continue reading
Posted in Anarchists, Heroes 2 Comments
8th January 1972 the Death of Kenneth Patchen
Henry Miller called him “the living symbol of protest.” In 1957, Kenneth Rexroth wrote that he was the only remaining poetic voice of America’s early twentieth-century revolutionary conscience. Today we are commemorating American poet and novelist, Kenneth Patchen – who … Continue reading
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6th January 2006 the Death of Comandante Ramona
Today we pay tribute to the extraordinary Comandante Ramona – the diminutive, barely literate peasant-turned-revolutionary leader and heroine – who died six years ago on this day at the age of 47 following a decade-long battle with cancer. A high-ranking … Continue reading
Posted in Heroines 3 Comments
5th January 1937 the Death of Lou Andreas-Salome
Sigmund Freud called her “the great understander”. Friedrich Nietzsche said of her: “I found no more gifted or reflective spirit … Lou is by far the smartest person I ever knew.” Rainer Maria Rilke sang of her: “…all that … Continue reading
Posted in Heroines 6 Comments
4th January 1960 the Death of Albert Camus
Due to unforeseen circumstances, today’s guest contributor was unable to deliver their tribute to Albert Camus. This piece will be appear at a later date.
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3rd January 1894 the Death of Elizabeth Peabody
Today we pay tribute to Elizabeth Peabody – author, publisher and education reformer – whose progressive and intellectual contributions played a pivotal role in igniting and facilitating the American Transcendentalist movement. Born into a poor but intellectually rich family, Elizabeth was … Continue reading
Posted in Heroines 3 Comments
2nd January 1920 The Palmer Raids
On this day in 1920, in an attempt to rid America of its “moral perverts”, federal agents under the direction of U.S. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer raided pool halls, restaurants and private homes in thirty-five American cities and, without … Continue reading
Posted in Atrocities 1 Comment
1st January 1994 The Zapatista Uprising
Seventeen years ago today, as Mexico’s ruling class celebrated the New Year and the inauguration of an agreement with the USA that they hoped would propel them into the “First World”, more than 3,000 indigenous Mayan Indian guerrillas came down … Continue reading
Posted in Anarchists, Heroes, Heroines, Revolution 3 Comments
New Year’s Eve
As no true World Event, positive or negative, has thus far taken place on this gateway into the New Year, it would seem (future revolutionaries please note) that New Year’s Eve is still up for grabs. Happy New Year.
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30th December 1896 the Execution of Jose Rizal
One hundred and fifteen years ago today, José Rizal – the “George Washington of the Philippines” – was executed by the Spanish Army following a false conviction for rebellion, sedition and conspiracy. Rizal had devoted all of his brief adult life … Continue reading
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29th December 1926 the Death of Rainer Maria Rilke
Today we pay tribute to the brilliant poet, Rainer Maria Rilke, who died of leukaemia eighty-four years ago at the age of fifty-one. In the age of disillusionment, Rilke was a mystic who pondered the Big Questions – life, love, … Continue reading
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26th December 1985 the Martyrdom of Dian Fossey
Twenty-six years ago this night, Dian Fossey – legendary zoologist and champion of Africa’s mountain gorillas – was brutally murdered in the bedroom of her isolated cabin, high in Rwanda’s Virunga Mountains. Her lifeless body with its skull split open … Continue reading
Posted in Heroines 8 Comments
24th December Christmas Eve
Let us on this Christmas Eve make note that tomorrow we once again celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ on December 25th, that date stabilised by the early Christian Church in order to benefit from that same day’s previous pagan … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized 7 Comments
22nd December 1894 The Dreyfus Affair
Post-Nazism, post-Holocaust, it’s easy to forget that it was not Berlin, but Paris – the very symbol of Enlightenment and cultural capital of Europe – that played shameful host to the first outpouring of modern political anti-Semitism. For it was one … Continue reading
Posted in World Events 6 Comments
21st December 1907 The Santa Maria School Massacre
One hundred and four years ago today, a shocking massacre of striking workers and their families occurred in the city of Iquique, Chile. While unbelievable numbers of up to 3000 were brutally murdered in cold blood, even more unbelievably, the … Continue reading
Posted in Atrocities 3 Comments
20th December 1973 Operation Ogre
Thirty-eight years ago today, Spain moved a significant step closer to liberation from its protracted state of fascistic tyranny when General Francisco Franco’s named political successor – the recently appointed prime minister, Luis Carrero Blanco, otherwise known as “the … Continue reading
Posted in Dissent, World Events 5 Comments
18th December 2011 the Death of Vaclav Havel
A tribute to Czech revolutionary hero Václav Havel will appear here shortly.
Posted in Heroes 2 Comments
17th December 1830 the Death of Simon Bolivar
“I swear before you, I swear before the God of my fathers, I swear by my fathers, I swear by my honour, I swear by my country that I will not rest, body or soul, until I have broken the … Continue reading
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16th December 1773 The Boston Tea Party
At nine o’clock on the night of 16th December 1773, a group of angry Bostonians – thinly disguised as Mohawk Indians and armed with tomahawks – boarded three British ships anchored at Griffin’s Wharf in Boston harbour. Urged on by thousands … Continue reading
Posted in Dissent, Revolution 3 Comments
15th December 1890 The Death of Sitting Bull
Today we lament the death of Sitting Bull, the legendary Hunkpapa Sioux chief and arguably the most famous-ever Native American, murdered by Indian “police” one hundred and twenty-one years ago today during a bungled effort to arrest the 59-year-old spiritual … Continue reading
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11th December 1981 The El Mozote Massacre
Today we recall the El Mozote Massacre – the largest killing of civilians during El Salvador’s brutal twelve-year Civil War – in which nearly the entire population of over 800 inhabitants of the small village of El Mozote and its … Continue reading
Posted in Atrocities 2 Comments
10th December 1907 The Brown Dog Riots
It can be surprising to discover that the largest, most controversial and violent riot in Britain concerning the emotive issue of animal rights occurred not in recent years, but in 1907. And the most vociferous and heated protagonists were not … Continue reading
Posted in Dissent 4 Comments
6th December 1989 The Montreal Massacre
Twenty-two years ago today, a woman-hater named Marc Lépine went on a gendercidal rampage at Montreal’s prestigious École Polytechnique. Armed with a Sturm Ruger Mini-14 semi-automatic rifle and a hunting knife, 25-year-old Lepine – whose application to attend the elite engineering … Continue reading
Posted in Atrocities 2 Comments
4th December 1969 The Assassination of Fred Hampton
Forty-two years ago today – Fred Hampton, the 21-year-old deputy chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party and the most inspiring young Afro-American leader to emerge in the wake of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. … Continue reading
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3rd December 1854 The Eureka Stockade
The history of Australia shares many key similarities with America – colonialisation, multi-cultural settlement and genocidal atrocities meted out on its indigenous peoples. But colonial Australia, unlike America, was not distinguished by legendary rebellions and revolution. In fact, the event we … Continue reading
2nd December 1859 the Martyrdom of John Brown
When is a cause so just that the means justify the end? Today we honour a man who, in response to that conundrum, became a World Martyr. A man so fervently opposed to racism that he was willing to die … Continue reading
1st December 1976 The Filth and the Fury
Today we recall the bizarre events of thirty-five years ago, in which television presenter Bill Grundy – clearly ill-prepared for the motley posse sat before him, and possibly himself quite drunk – half-wittedly and quite inadvertently handed to the already … Continue reading
Posted in Curiosities 2 Comments
29th November 1968 John & Yoko Release “Two Virgins”
Today we commemorate the anniversary of the UK release of Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins – the first artistic collaboration between John and Yoko – for whom, as the Romeo and Juliet of their time, no surnames are required. Eighteen … Continue reading
Posted in World Events 1 Comment
27th November 1868 the Death of Black Kettle
Today we lament the death of Black Kettle, chief of the Southern Cheyenne, killed 143 years ago when Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer led the 7th Cavalry in a surprise dawn attack against the sleeping Cheyenne camp – massacring over … Continue reading
Posted in Atrocities, Heroes 5 Comments
25th November
As there is no event to recognise today, I’ll take the opportunity to urge all parents with teenage children to direct them to – or, at least, share with them the concepts of – Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience, in … Continue reading
Posted in Dissent 2 Comments
23rd November 1936 Robert Johnson Lays It Down
Seventy-five years ago today, the legendary bluesman, Robert Johnson, made his recording debut in room 414 of the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, Texas – one of only two recording sessions he would make in his short life, but whose … Continue reading
Posted in Heroes, World Events 1 Comment
22nd November 1990 Thatcher Resigns
Twenty-one years ago today, Margaret Thatcher ran crying from 10 Downing Street to a waiting car, having just announced her resignation as Prime Minister of Britain after being forced out of the leadership of the Conservative Party by her own … Continue reading
Posted in World Events 13 Comments
21st November 1927 the First Columbine Massacre
Seventy-two years before the infamous 1999 Columbine Massacre – in which two teenage students shot and killed 13 people at their high school – there was another massacre to bear the same name that has all but disappeared into the … Continue reading
Posted in Atrocities 1 Comment
19th November 1915 the Death of Joe Hill
Today we pay tribute to the legendary labour organiser, protest songwriter and folk hero, Joe Hill, executed ninety-six years ago in Utah following a notorious and highly controversial murder trial. A prominent and much-loved member of radical trade unionists the … Continue reading
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18th November 1978 the Jonestown Massacre
Today we lament the tragic “revolutionary suicides” in Jonestown, Guyana of over 900 brainwashed victims of the Reverend Jim Jones’s Peoples Temple. Originally based in San Francisco, the enigmatic, almost rock star-like Jones had for decades held his dysfunctional congregation … Continue reading
Posted in Atrocities 1 Comment
15th November 1998 the Death of Stokely Carmichael
Today we honour the civil rights leader, revolutionary and firebrand, Stokely Carmichael, who died from cancer thirteen years ago on this day at the age of 57. Carmichael was catapulted to worldwide fame overnight in June 1966 when, at a … Continue reading
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14th November 1817 the Death of Policarpa Salavarrieta
The history of nineteenth-century female revolutionaries unsurprisingly mirrors women’s subjugated status of that century… if their stories are not consigned to mere footnotes or entirely suppressed, they are usually documented as embarrassing radical lunatics – the glory of the heroic freedom … Continue reading
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12th November 1989 the Death of La Pasionaria
Today we recall the “Spanish Joan of Arc”, Dolores Ibárruri – better known the world over by her revolutionary name, La Pasionaria (the Passion Flower) – who died twenty-two years ago at the age of 93. Dolores Ibárruri achieved meteoric … Continue reading
10th November 1891 the Death of Arthur Rimbaud
Today we recall the nineteenth-century visionary outsider poet, Arthur Rimbaud – whose brilliant but slender volume of work produced in a mere handful of years is often overshadowed by his magnificently adventurous and lawless life. The legend of Rimbaud centres … Continue reading
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9th November 1989 the Collapse of the Berlin Wall
Today we remember one of the most momentous world events of the second half of the twentieth century: the collapse of the Berlin Wall – that 90-mile-long boundary between two opposing ideologies that divided a city in half and completely … Continue reading
Posted in Revolution, World Events 5 Comments
6th November 1990 the Women “Drivers” of Saudi Arabia
Twenty-one years ago today, forty-seven women staged a remarkable protest against Saudi Arabia’s unwritten “law of convention” prohibiting women from driving – the only country in the world to violate this basic human right of freedom of movement. In a … Continue reading
3rd November 1793 the Death of Olympe de Gouges
Although militant feminism and female agitation were major features of the French Revolution, the woman whose name is most closely associated with this world-shattering event remains the Queen of France, Marie Antoinette. But that distinction, by revolutionary rights, belongs in … Continue reading
2nd November 1917 Balfour Lights the Fuse
Ninety-four years ago today, Lord Balfour – British foreign secretary and former prime minister – lit the fuse of an almighty powder keg when he wrote to the financier Lord Rothschild, Britain’s most influential Jew: “His Majesty’s Government views with … Continue reading
Posted in World Events 1 Comment