This Day in Peace History
October 5th, 1923
Birthday of activist priest Philip Berrigan.
October 5th
Raoul Wallenberg Day, honoring the Swedish diplomat who saved as many as 100,000 Hungarian Jews from deportation and probable death in concentration camps during WWII. He did this through bargaining with Nazi officials, establishing safe houses, distributing false passports, disguising Jews in Nazi uniforms and setting up checkpoints to avert deportations. He had attended the University of Michigan.
October 5, 1966
A sodium cooling system malfunction caused a partial core meltdown at the Enrico Fermi I fast-breeder reactor near Detroit, Michigan. While conducting a power test, two fuel assemblies overheated and two others partially melted, but there was no release of radiation. The public did not find out until one of the engineers who witnessed it wrote the book, “We Almost Lost Detroit.” The event inspired the Gil Scott-Heron song of the same name.
October 5, 1979
2,000 activists demonstrated against development of uranium mines in the Black Hills of South Dakota. This followed the Department of the Interior releasing its final environmental impact statement, endorsing the North Central Power Study’s plans to turn the Black Hills into a “national sacrifice area.” The plan was to devote nearly 200,000 acres to mineral extraction and energy production with up to 25 nuclear power plants.
October 5, 1986
The cover-up of the Iran-Contra scandal began to unravel when Eugene Hasenfus was captured by government troops in Nicaragua after the plane in which he was flying was shot down; three others on the plane died in the crash. Under questioning, Hasenfus confessed that he had been shipping military supplies into Nicaragua for use by the Contras, an anti-Sandinista force that had been created and supported by the United States, in violation of congressional action stopping the funding, and run by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
October 5, 1993
President Clinton ordered a resumption in nuclear testing after China broke an informal moratorium and exploded a nuclear device beneath its western desert.
Note: Top Pun’s This Day in Peace History material is adapted from This Week in Peace History, a publication of www.peacebuttons.info, and This Week in Peace & Justice History from the San Antonio Peace Center.