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.
May
1st May 1886 May Day! May Day!
Today, May Day, marks the international celebration of the social and economic achievements of the labour movement. Except in the United States. Yet it is from the New World that May Day received its inspiration. One hundred and twenty-five … Continue reading
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2nd May 1919 the Death of Gustav Landauer
Today we are remembering one of the great lost thinkers of the twentieth century, the German Jewish anarchist, philosopher and “prophet of community” – Gustav Landauer. Academic and author Jesse Cohn has suggested: “If there were any justice in this … Continue reading
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3rd May 1849 the May Uprising in Dresden
One hundred and sixty-two years ago today, the May Uprising in Dresden began – the final insurrection in a revolutionary wave that had been sweeping across nearly all of Europe in the wake of and inspired by the French Revolution … Continue reading
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4th May 1886 the Haymarket Affair
Today is the 125th anniversary of the so-called Haymarket Affair – the most sensational American labour incident in the 19th century. What began on May 1st 1886 as a nationwide movement for the 8-hour workday ignited on this day during … Continue reading
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5th May 2011 the Death of WWI’s Final Warrior
Early this morning, the last living soldier and genuine veteran of World War One quit this planet at the inspiring age of 110. Claude Stanley Choules signed up to the Royal Navy in 1915 when he was just 14 years … Continue reading
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6th May 1862 the Death of Henry David Thoreau
Today we pay tribute to the author, naturalist, poet-prophet, mystic, abolitionist and unrepentant individual – Henry David Thoreau. When he died on this day in 1862 from tuberculosis at the age of 44, this giant in the American pantheon was … Continue reading
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7th May 1763 Pontiac’s Rebellion
Two hundred and forty-eight years ago today, one of the most significant Indian rebellions in the history of Colonial America began when a confederacy of tribes under the leadership of Chief Pontiac attacked British forces at Fort Detroit. Pontiac’s war … Continue reading
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8th May 1903 the Death of Paul Gauguin
“In art, all who have done something other than their predecessors have merited the epithet of ‘revolutionary’; and it is they alone who are masters.” – Paul Gauguin When artist Paul Gauguin’s 54-year-old dead body was lowered swiftly into his … Continue reading
9th May 1976 the Revolutionary Suicide of Ulrike Meinhof
“How can stupidity invade intelligence?” asked Ulrike Meinhof of post-war West Germany’s fascistic, imperialistic and increasingly capitalistic policies of betrayal. Since her death thirty-five years ago on this day at the age of forty-one, we’ve been asking that very … Continue reading
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10th May 1857 the Great Indian Rebellion
One hundred and fifty-four years ago today in Meerut, three infantry regiments of Indian Sepoys turned their guns on their commanding British officers. Shouting ‘Maro phirangi ko’ (death to foreigners), they killed any European in sight, burnt the officers’ quarters, … Continue reading
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11th May 1846 the Commencement of Manifest Destiny
On 11th May 1846, the 11th president of the United States, James Polk, asked Congress to recognise the existence of a war with Mexico triggered by America’s annexation of Texas. Two days later, war was officially declared and thus … Continue reading
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12th May 1916 the Execution of James Connolly
It was a bright morning in Dublin on May 12th 1916, and a great crowd had gathered outside of Kilmainham Jail. As spring was turning to summer, a city still coming to terms with the death and destruction of the … Continue reading
13th May 1968 Paris Revolts
No other city is more synonymous with revolution than Paris. It had turned the world upside down in 1789, 1830, 1848 and 1871. And forty-three years ago today on 13th May 1968, its citizens – one million of them – … Continue reading
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14th May 1940 the Death of Emma Goldman
Today we celebrate an extraordinary life of an extraordinary woman – the propagandist, orator, writer, agitator, firebrand and revolutionary anarchist – Emma Goldman. Known as “Red Emma,” “the mother of anarchy in America” and “the most dangerous woman in the world,” … Continue reading
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15th May 1940 the First McDonald’s
Today we recall with epic sadness that dreadful disastrous day seventy-one years ago when the first McDonald’s hamburger restaurant opened for service in San Bernadino, California. The extraordinary trajectory of McDonald’s flight to world infamy these past seven decades embodies … Continue reading
Posted in Atrocities, World Events 2 Comments
16th May 1918 Woodrow Wilson’s Gag Order
“Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech,” states the First Amendment to the US Constitution. Except when it suits Congress. And ninety-three years ago today, President Woodrow Wilson pushed through the Sedition Act of 1918 – a blatant … Continue reading
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17th May
Budding revolutionaries and politicos take note: this date is yours for the taking. Revolution has always been in the hands of the young, but that doesn’t absolve the older generations! Parents: are you doing your job? Do your teenage or … Continue reading
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18th May 1955 the Death of Mary McLeod Bethune
In that grim 100-year period between the end of the Civil War and the onset of the Civil Rights movement, the only thing more challenging than being an African American was the double whammy of being both black and female. … Continue reading
19th May 1536 the Beheading of Anne Boleyn
Four-hundred and seventy-five years ago today, Anne Boleyn knelt upright on a scaffold in the Tower of London on the orders of her husband, King Henry VIII (1491 – 1547). Looming over her was expert swordsman Jean Rombaud who had … Continue reading
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20th May
Another available date for future revolutionaries to take note of, and something to consider… “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 … Continue reading
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22nd May 1927 Charles Lindbergh’s Solo Atlantic Flight
Today we celebrate, rejoicing with arms outstretched at the audacious and heroic actions of America’s Charles Lindbergh, whose 30-hour flight from America’s east coast to Paris eighty-four years ago in a single-engine monoplane even shorter than a Spitfire turned him … Continue reading
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22nd May 1885 the Death of Victor Hugo
Today we pay our respects to that towering giant of French letters – the visionary poet, epic novelist, revolutionary playwright, Romantic, mystic, activist and politician, Victor Hugo. An unqualified hero to his countrymen, when he died on this day one … Continue reading
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23rd May 2008 the Death of Utah Phillips
Today we raise a fist in tribute to folk singer, anarchist, activist, historian and storyteller extraordinaire, Utah Phillips, who died three years ago on this day at the age of seventy-three. A Mark Twain-meets-Howard Zinn with a guitar, Phillips dedicated … Continue reading
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24th May 1856 the Commencement of John Brown’s Holy War
One hundred and fifty-five years ago in Kansas, on the night of 24th May 1856, a gang of seven abolitionists paid an unexpected visit to the home of militant pro-slavery advocate James Doyle. Doyle and two of his sons were … Continue reading
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25th May 2000 Lebanon Liberation Day
On the morning of May 22nd 2000, Israeli armed forces began to pull out of Southern Lebanon, signalling the end of a military occupation that had lasted more than two decades. Within three days the withdrawal was complete and by … Continue reading
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26th May 1830 the Indian Removal Act
Today we lament the passage of President Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act – paving the way for White America’s long-wished for heave-ho of all Indians to lands west of the Mississippi river. “What good man would prefer a country covered … Continue reading
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27th May 1980 the Suppression of the Kwangju Democratisation Movement
Today we lament the brutal suppression of the Kwangju Democratisation Movement. Ten days earlier, the citizens of the liberal South Korean city of Kwangju joined a student-led uprising in opposition to the illegitimate authoritarian rule of General Chun Doo-hwan. In response, … Continue reading
Posted in Atrocities, Dissent, World Events 2 Comments
28th May 1871 Defeat of the Paris Commune
Today we lament the unfathomably brutal suppression of the first proletarian revolution in history, the Paris Commune. Just three months earlier, on 18th March 1871, the workers of Paris rose up, seized power from the new provisional French government, … Continue reading
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29th May 1851 ‘Ain’t I a Woman?’
Today we recall that extraordinary, incendiary moment when former slave, itinerant preacher, abolitionist and firebrand Sojourner Truth took to the podium at the 1851 Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, raised herself to her full height of over six feet, … Continue reading
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30th May 1431 the Burning of Joan of Arc
“Whatever thing men call great, look for it in Joan of Arc, and there you will find it.” – Mark Twain Five-hundred and eighty years ago today the English tied a 19-year-old French peasant girl to a pillar in the square in … Continue reading
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31st May 1996 the Death of Timothy Leary
At 12:44am on the 31st of May 1996, Dr. Timothy Leary sat bolt upright in bed startling the small group of friends and family who had gathered to keep him company during his final days. He had been diagnosed with … Continue reading
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