Dorian

27th November 1868 the Death of Black Kettle

Today we lament the death of Black Kettle, chief of the Southern Cheyenne, killed 147 years ago when Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer led the 7th Cavalry in a surprise dawn attack on the sleeping Cheyenne camp – massacring over … Continue reading

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23rd November 1936 Robert Johnson Lays It Down

On this day in 1936, 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 … Continue reading

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22nd November 1990 Thatcher Resigns

Twenty-seven 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 | 14 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 been not merely forgotten but … Continue reading

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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 on this day 1915 in Utah following a notorious and highly controversial murder trial. A prominent and much-loved member of radical trade unionists … 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 … Continue reading

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15th November 1998 the Death of Stokely Carmichael

Today we honour revolutionary civil rights leader Stokely Carmichael, who died from cancer on this day aged 57. In June 1966, Carmichael was catapulted to worldwide fame overnight when, at a high-profile rally organised by Martin Luther King, Jr., he … Continue reading

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14th November 1817 Colombia’s Heroine Of Independence: Policarpa Salavarrieta

The history of 19th Century female revolutionaries, unsurprisingly, mirrors women’s subjugated status throughout that century. If their stories have not been entirely suppressed or consigned to mere historical footnotes, female revolutionaries have usually been documented by historians as embarrassing radical … 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 on this day in 1989 aged 93. Dolores Ibárruri achieved meteoric fame … Continue reading

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10th November 1891 the Death of Arthur Rimbaud

Today we salute 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 audacious life. The legend of Rimbaud centres around five … Continue reading

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9th November 1989  the Collapse of the Berlin Wall

Today we remember the anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall – that 90-mile-long boundary separating two opposing ideologies, that divided a city in half completely cutting off the political enclave of West Berlin from surrounding East Germany. Ever … Continue reading

Posted in Revolution, World Events | 7 Comments

6th November 1990  the Women “Drivers” of Saudi Arabia

On this day in 1990, forty-seven Arab women staged a remarkable protest against Saudi Arabia’s unwritten “law of convention” prohibiting women from driving. At the time, Saudi Arabia remained the only country in the world to violate this basic human … Continue reading

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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

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2nd November 1917 Balfour Lights the Fuse

On this day in 1917, British foreign secretary and former prime minister Lord Balfour 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 favour … Continue reading

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1st November 1872 Susan B. Anthony Registers to Vote

Today we recall an extraordinary episode in the long struggle for women’s suffrage in America, when Susan B. Anthony – one of the movement’s leading lights – launched a bid for the right to vote so clever and audacious it … Continue reading

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31st October 1961 Stalin’s Corpse Demoted

Fifty-six years ago today, the Soviet Union’s policy of de-Stalinisation reached its peak when the tyrant’s body was removed from Lenin’s tomb in Red Square and reburied about 300 feet from that mausoleum, among minor leaders of the Revolution. A … Continue reading

Posted in Curiosities, Tyrants | 3 Comments

30th October 1968  Trans-Love Energies’ Zenta New Year

On 30th October 1968, the revolutionary Detroit commune Trans-Love Energies proclaimed a new era, ringing in the dawn of their Zenta new age at the Grande Ballroom, wherein the MC5 – the commune’s house band – pummelled over two thousand … Continue reading

Posted in Heroes, Revolution | 8 Comments

28th October 1959 the Death of Camilo Cienfuegos

Today we pay tribute to Camilo Cienfuegos – one of the most important revolutionaries in Fidel Castro’s 26th July Movement, whose popularity amongst Cubans rivalled even that of his close friend and comrade, Che Guevara – tragically killed at the … Continue reading

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26th October 1902 the Death of Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Today we pay tribute to Elizabeth Cady Stanton, fearless pioneer of the American women’s rights movement and the first American feminist to synthesise the arguments for women’s equality in employment, income, property, custody and divorce. As the organiser of the … Continue reading

Posted in Heroines | 4 Comments

25th October 1917  the Bolshevik “October Revolution”

Today we consider the anniversary of Phase Two of the 1917 Russian Revolution, just eight months after Tsar Nicholas II’s regime was deposed and replaced by a Provisional Government. But the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks in their so-called October … Continue reading

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24th October 2005 the Death of Rosa Parks

Today we pay tribute to Rosa Parks – one of the most prominent African American women in history – who died on this day in 2005 aged 92. Rosa’s legendary act of civil disobedience – when, on 1st December 1955, she defied … Continue reading

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23rd October 1956 the Hungarian Revolution

Today marks the anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 – the first major anti-Soviet uprising in Eastern Europe and the first armed battle to occur between socialist states. It began spontaneously on the morning of 23rd October when 20,000 students delivered … Continue reading

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20th October 1926 the Death of Eugene V. Debs

Today we pay tribute to Eugene Victor Debs – the most prominent proponent of socialism ever to emerge from the United States. A candidate for president five times under the banner of the Socialist Party of America, under Debs’s leadership socialism … Continue reading

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19th October 1943 the Death of Camille Claudel

Today we pay tribute to the brilliant Camille Claudel – widely considered to be the most gifted female sculptor the world has ever known. Her extraordinary achievements have nevertheless been eclipsed by her notorious relationship with Auguste Rodin. While her … Continue reading

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16th October 1859 John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry

Harpers Ferry in northern Virginia, situated at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, was chosen in 1794 by George Washington to be the site of the United States Federal Armory. And it was here on this day in … Continue reading

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15th October 1966 the Founding of the Black Panther Party

On this day in 1966, in the Anti-Poverty Center in North Oakland, California, two young black American activists composed a “10-Point Program” for their envisaged revolution. Subtitled “What We Want and What We Believe”, this literal call-to-arms represented a significant shift … Continue reading

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12th October 1492 Christopher Columbus “Discovers America”

At 2am on October 12th 1492, a sailor aboard the Pinta by the name of Rodrigo de Triana shouted, “Tierra! Tierra!”  For his sighting of land, he should have received a yearly pension for the rest of his life. But … Continue reading

Posted in Atrocities | 14 Comments

10th October 1837 the Death of Charles Fourier

Today we go back 180 years to pay tribute to Charles Fourier – the French utopian socialist, radical philosopher and eccentric visionary. First, we need to thank him for his proto-feminist contributions. Fourier originated the word féminisme in 1827, and … Continue reading

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8th October 1969  the Weathermen’s Days of Rage

On this day in 1969, the Weathermen – the newly-formed militant faction of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) – attempted to “Bring the War Home” with a no-holds-barred direct action in Chicago,  surreptitiously billed “Days of Rage”. The intent … Continue reading

Posted in Dissent, Revolution | 5 Comments

7th October 1955 Ginsberg’s First Reading of “Howl”

On this day in 1955, a behemoth of incomparable significance occurred that would restore poetry to its rightful cultural position, crystallise the voice of a discontented generation and launch a revolutionary literary movement that set the bar for the explosive … Continue reading

Posted in World Events | 10 Comments

6th October

In lieu of a suitable subject for today, here’s something to think about: “If you reason instead of repeating what is taught you; if you analyze the law and strip off those cloudy fictions with which it has been draped … Continue reading

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5th October 1789 the Women’s March on Versailles

On this day in 1789, an angry mob of nearly 7,000 working women – armed with pitchforks, pikes and muskets – marched in the rain from Paris to Versailles in what was to be a pivotal event in the intensifying … Continue reading

Posted in Heroines, Revolution | 59 Comments

4th October 1798 the Publication of Lyrical Ballads

On this day in 1798, the English Romantic era was launched with the publication of Lyrical Ballads – the seminal collection of poems, mainly by William Wordsworth but with four (key) contributions from Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In Wordsworth’s “Preface” to … Continue reading

Posted in World Events | 1 Comment

3rd October 1873 the Death of Kintpuash

Today we remember the Native American chief of the Modoc tribe, Kintpuash – known by his foes as “Captain Jack” – hanged by the United States army on this day in 1873 in retribution for killing an American general. But … Continue reading

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2nd October 1947 the Death of P.D. Ouspensky

Today we pay our respects to the Russian philosopher, teacher and esotericist, P.D. Ouspensky, who died on this day in 1947. Indisputably brilliant in his own right, Ouspensky is nevertheless best remembered because of another man’s brilliance. For despite his … Continue reading

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29th September 1941 The Babi Yar Massacre

The announcement read: “All Jews living in the city of Kiev and its vicinity must come to the corner of Melnikova and Dokhturovska Street by 8 o’clock on the morning of Monday, September 29th 1941. They are to bring with … Continue reading

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28th September 1891 the Death of Herman Melville

Today we pay tribute to Herman Melville, who died on this day 1891. At the time of his death at the age of 72, the author of Moby-Dick had abandoned his professional literary ambitions some twenty-five years previously; a victim … Continue reading

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27th September 1960 the Death of Sylvia Pankhurst

Not with any single, amazing knock-out blow did today’s subject achieve greatness, but instead through umpteen rounds of parries, punches and counter-punches. For Sylvia Pankhurst – who died on this day in 1960 – earned her historical place as a World … Continue reading

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26th September 1919 Nestor’s Counterattack

On this day in 1919 , anarchist leader Nestor Makhno – outrun, outnumbered and outmanoeuvred – led his Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine (otherwise known as the Black Army) to the unlikeliest of victories over the anti-revolutionary and vastly superior … Continue reading

Posted in Curiosities, World Events | 2 Comments

25th September 1917  the Death of Thomas Ashe

Today we recall the Irish Republican revolutionary and martyr, Thomas Ashe, who suffered a brutal death at the hands of his British oppressors at the age of thirty-two. As a freedom fighter, Ashe had led his greatly outflanked battalion to … Continue reading

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24th September 1969  the Chicago Conspiracy Trial

24th September 1969 marked the beginning of the infamous and so-called Chicago Conspiracy Trial – the most highly publicised showcase for the opposing political, cultural and generational ideologies that divided America during its explosive Vietnam years. Accused of conspiring to incite … Continue reading

Posted in Dissent, World Events | 8 Comments

23rd September 1973 the Death of Pablo Neruda

Today we commemorate Pablo Neruda – genius poet and political activist hero – who died forty-four years ago aged 69. As one of the leading voices in his native Chile during its long and turbulent era of instability, Neruda was at … Continue reading

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22nd September

The most revolutionary proclamation ever issued by an American president was announced on this day in 1862. A recollection of this momentous occasion will appear here shortly.

Posted in World Events | 2 Comments

20th September 1933 the Death of Annie Besant

Parents with daughters: in such times when our reprehensible media will regularly scrutinise a 5-pound weight loss or gain of any (so-called) ‘celebrity’, is it any wonder there is such a paucity of female role models? We must fight back … Continue reading

Posted in Heroines | 8 Comments

19th September 1952 America Banishes Charlie Chaplin

Today we recall the shameful expulsion from America of Charlie Chaplin – the great film-making pioneer and veritable icon – who, with his deft touch of comedy and pathos, brought enduring pleasure to the world and generated millions of dollars for … Continue reading

Posted in Curiosities, World Events | 14 Comments

18th September 1991 the Death of Rob Tyner

On this day in 1991, Rob Tyner took leave of this planet at the age of 47 after suffering a heart attack behind the wheel of his parked car in the family driveway. He left behind not only his longtime wife Becky and … Continue reading

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17th September 2011 The Birth of the Occupy Movement

On this day in 2011, a group of 1000 gathered in New York City’s financial district to protest corporate power over democracy, the growing disparity of wealth distribution, and the total absence of criminal accountability of the greedy rotters responsible … Continue reading

Posted in Dissent, Revolution, World Events | 1 Comment

16th September 1920  the First Wall Street Bombing

On this day in 1920, a bedraggled horse-drawn wagon made its way along Wall Street in Lower Manhattan – which had recently eclipsed London as the financial centre of the world – and stopped directly in front of its then-most powerful … Continue reading

Posted in Dissent, World Events | 6 Comments

15th September 1973 the Death of Victor Jara

In his life, the Chilean folksinger Victor Jara was the voice of his country’s dispossessed. As one of the founders of Nueva Canción – the socially committed movement of ‘new song’ that played such a powerful role throughout Latin America … Continue reading

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14th September 1321 the Death of Dante Alighieri

Today we celebrate one of the world’s most beloved poets, Dante Alighieri, who died on this day in 1321. Despite the passage of nearly seven centuries, and the seismic political and religious shifts that have occurred since the medieval struggles … Continue reading

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12th September 1970 Timothy Leary Escapes

Today we remember Timothy Leary’s daring and ingenious highwire escape across the highway from his Californian jail. A middle-aged Harvard professor yet symbol of the psychedelic revolution, Leary was assisted to freedom by members of the righteous terrorist organisation, the … Continue reading

Posted in Curiosities | 4 Comments

11th September 2001 9/11

On this day in 2001, all of America’s postwar bullying, lying, cheating, deceiving, extorting, interloping and specifically self-serving ways resulted in the shocking, gruesome, horrific and utterly tragic massive attack that destroyed the Twin Towers in downtown Manhattan.

Posted in Atrocities, World Events | 23 Comments

9th September 1971 the Attica State Prison Riot

On this day in 1971, in the so-called liberal state of New York, the white authorities of Attica State prison – desperate to restore some semblance of order amongst the concentration camp-like conditions they’d imposed upon their primarily African-American inmates … Continue reading

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7th September 1872 Bakunin Gets the Boot

Though it is almost impossible to imagine, in light of where Stalin and Mao took their respective communist countries, less than a century before their totalitarian regimes took power, anarchism stood side-by-side with communism as a genuine political consideration for … Continue reading

Posted in Anarchists, World Events | 4 Comments

6th September 1966 the Death of Margaret Sanger

“When the history of our civilization is written,” wrote H. G. Wells, “it will be a biological history – and Margaret Sanger will be its heroine.” Hearing her tale for themselves, most modern women would find it difficult to disagree … Continue reading

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5th September 1877  the Assassination of Crazy Horse

Today we recall and venerate Crazy Horse – the visionary, legendary, almost mythical Native American warrior leader of the Oglala Lakota Sioux – who was betrayed by friends then assassinated in custody on this day in 1877. Fucked over by … Continue reading

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4th September 1949  the Peekskill Riots

When I was twelve years old, I discovered that my best friend Liz’s grandmother had, throughout her adult life, enjoyed a decades-long love affair with Paul Robeson. Singer, scholar, Hollywood actor, Broadway star, political activist – Robeson was a worldwide … Continue reading

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3rd September 1839 Frederick Douglass Escapes to Freedom

Today we recall the heroic escape to freedom of the great Frederick Douglass, America’s first black leader of a truly national stature, whose struggle from his slave roots in Maryland to successful published author just seven years later captivated the … Continue reading

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2nd September 1956 the First World Congress of Liberated Artists

On this day in 1956, a group of around twenty obscure radical artists converged on the small Italian town of Alba, just southeast of Turin, for the First World Congress of Liberated Artists. Revolution was the common denominator among these … Continue reading

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1st September 1939 Germany Invades Poland

On this day in 1939, months of brown-nosing Hitler’s Nazis by the winners of World War One – Britain, France and America AKA the Western Powers – resulted not in a safer Europe but in the Invasion of Poland, when, … Continue reading

Posted in Atrocities, World Events | 4 Comments

31st August

No great action has thus far occurred on this day that warrants an On This Deity entry. Budding politicos and future revolutionaries please therefore take note of 31st August for all potential world-changing international incidents.

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30th August 1918 Fanya Botches It

On 30th August 1918, as Vladimir Lenin left a factory where he’d just delivered a speech to workers, a female revolutionary by the name of Fanya Kaplan – disillusioned by the manner in which Lenin had assumed dictatorial powers and … Continue reading

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29th August 1969 Leila’s First Hijack

Today in 1969, and just twelve months after Women’s Libbers first burned a bra at an Atlantic City protest against inequality, a new kind of World Revolutionary was born when twenty-five-year-old Leila Khaled of the PFLP (Popular Front for the … Continue reading

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28th August 1955 the Lynching of Emmett Till

At about 2.30 am on 28th August 1955, a fourteen-year-old boy named Emmett Till was kidnapped at gunpoint from his great-uncle’s house in Money, Mississippi. His kidnappers then drove to a disused plantation shed in neighboring Sunflower County, where they brutally … Continue reading

Posted in Atrocities | 104 Comments

27th August 1963 the Death of W.E.B. Du Bois

Today we recall the long, eventful and totally full-on life of W.E.B. Du Bois, the foremost champion of equal rights for blacks in the United States during the first half of the twentieth century, who died on this day in 1963 … Continue reading

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26th August 1920 American Women Get the Vote

Lest we forget that a mere century ago the world was still so entirely male dominated that we women were not even allowed to vote. While our most adventurous brothers were becoming heroes of the so-called Free World by flying … Continue reading

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24th August 1770 the Death of Thomas Chatterton

Today we recall the brief, peculiar and tragic life of Thomas Chatterton – English poet, forger of medieval poetry and proto-Romantic – who, aged just seventeen years and nine months old, poisoned himself with arsenic rather than die of starvation … Continue reading

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23rd August 1927 the Execution of Sacco and Vanzetti

On this day in 1927, the American State murdered two Italian anarchists in the despicable ‘electric chair’, after the two lost their six-year battle to clear their names of a crime they most certainly did not commit – and despite … Continue reading

Posted in Anarchists | 4 Comments

22nd August 1989 the Death of Huey P. Newton

On this day in 1989, revolutionary leader and co-founder of the Black Panther Party Huey P. Newton was shot and killed when a drug deal went wrong. He was forty-seven years old. After his glory years in the 1960s during which time Newton … Continue reading

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21st August 1831 Nat Turner’s Rebellion

On this day in 1831, Nat Turner – a slave and lay preacher from Virginia – calmly explained to six of his fellow slaves that the moment had come for him not only to lead his people out of bondage, … Continue reading

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19th August 1936 the Death of Federico Garcia Lorca

Throughout his all too short but trailblazing life, death had been his central artistic theme – and on this day in 1936, at the age of thirty-eight, the Spanish poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca met the violent fate he … Continue reading

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18th August 1987 the Death of Dambudzo Marechera

Today we remember the extraordinary and explosive life of Dambudzo Marechera, the Zimbabwean ‘enfant terrible of African literature’ who on this day in 1987 died homeless, penniless and sick from AIDS on the streets of Harare at the age of … Continue reading

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17th August 1963 the Execution of Delgado & Granados

On this day in 1963, two young Spanish anarchists were executed by General Franco’s obscene regime for a Passport Office bombing of which they had no knowledge, while the real perpetrators slipped quietly away. Despite the absence of any evidence … Continue reading

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16th August 1819 The Peterloo Massacre

On this day in 1819, during a pro-democracy rally in Manchester’s St. Peter’s Field, utter bloody carnage fell upon the peaceful protestors when the local yeomanry set about the crowd of 60,000 with sabres drawn, trampling and hacking down fifteen … Continue reading

Posted in Atrocities, Dissent, World Events | 6 Comments

15th August 1889 The Meeting of Emma Goldman & Alexander Berkman

On this day in 1889, a fateful and momentous meeting of two exceptional minds occurred in a café in New York City’s Lower East Side. Like Wordsworth and Coleridge, or John and Yoko, the reaction between the two was instant … Continue reading

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14th August

On this August day on which no great act occurred worthy of commemorating as an On This Deity entry, let’s take this opportunity to remind ourselves of the two ancient world tyrants – Julius Caesar and Augustus Caesar – both of … Continue reading

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13th August 1946 the Death of HG Wells

Today we celebrate the social reformer, prophet and science fiction writer, H. G. Wells, who died on this day aged 79. Probably best remembered for his visionary novels The Invisible Man and The War of the Worlds, and for his … Continue reading

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12th August 1827 the Death of William Blake

On this day in 1827, William Blake died as he had lived,  in poverty and obscurity. What can be said about this visionary, mystic, prophet, poet, painter, engraver, and World Artist? The neglect that one of the Greatest-Evers suffered in his … Continue reading

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11th August 1958 the Dockum Sit-In

On this day in 1958, the owner of Kansas’s state-wide Rexall drugstores walked into Dockum’s, his flagship store in downtown Wichita. Observing a group of young black students sitting peacefully at the lunch counter, after several minutes of consideration, he … Continue reading

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10th August

With nothing to report today, let us consider the written words of President Woodrow Wilson after signing the Federal Reserve into existence in 1913: “I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation … Continue reading

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9th August 1943 the Death of Franz Jägerstätter

It can be surprising to discover that so thoroughly indoctrinated were the Germans under Hitler’s Nazis that their cruelty towards non-Nazis did not halt abruptly in May 1945, as Prussians, Bavarians, Saxons, Hohernzollerns alike awoke from their collective psychosis. Instead … Continue reading

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8th August 1897 Michele Angiolillo’s Attentat

On this day in 1897, in the tiny Spanish spa town of Santa Agueda, Spain’s autocratic and much-hated prime minister Cánovas del Castillo was assassinated: gunned down as a final act of revenge by an Italian anarchist who could no … Continue reading

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4th August 1948 the Death of Mileva Maric

On this day in 1948, Mileva Maric died alone and unknown in Zurich aged seventy-two. “Few stories in the history of science are as heartbreaking [as hers],” claimed the New Scientist. A brilliant woman born in the late 19th century, … Continue reading

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2nd August 1943 The Treblinka Revolt

When people blithely wonder how millions of Holocaust victims went to their deaths without resisting, they display a total ignorance of the impeccable organisation, military might and web of deception behind the Nazi’s Final Solution. While there were multiple ghetto … Continue reading

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1st August 1917 The Lynching of Frank Little

At 3.05am on this day in 1917, in Butte, Montana, six masked men burst into the boarding house room of labour leader Frank Little, pulled him out of his bed, beat him, tied him to the bumper of a car, … Continue reading

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