December 25
Jesus, the Prince of Peace, born to an unwed mother in a barn.
Note: This Day in Peace History material is adapted by Top Pun 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.
December 24, 1865
Months after the fall of the Confederacy and the end of slavery, several veterans of the Confederate Army formed a private social club in Pulaski, Tennessee, called the Ku Klux Klan. Its first priority, declared in its creed, was “to protect the weak, the innocent, and the defenseless from the indignities, wrongs, and outrages of the lawless, the violent, and the brutal.”
December 24, 1924
Costa Rica withdrew from The League of Nations to protest Monroe Doctrine of U.S. which stated U.S. is the big Daddy of North and South America.
December 24, 1992
President George Herbert Walker Bush pardoned six people in the Iran-Contra case, among them former Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger, and Robert McFarlane, the President’s former national security advisor. He did so with less than one month to go in his presidency. These people and others were responsible for selling arms to the revolutionary government of Iran in hope of the release of hostages held in Iran, despite then-President Reagan’s repeated pledge not to negotiate with hostage-takers. The money raised through the arms sales was used to fund the Contra insurgents in Nicaragua, who were violently trying to overthrow the elected government. This support was in violation of an explicit legal ban on such activities under the Boland Amendment [see December 22, 1982 above].
Note: This Day in Peace History material is adapted by Top Pun 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.
December 23, 1944
General Dwight Eisenhower endorsed the finding of a court-martial in the case of Eddie Slovik, who was tried for desertion, and authorized his execution, the first such sentence against a U.S. Army soldier since the Civil War, and the only man so punished during World War II. Slovik made no secret of his unwillingness to enter combat, but his pleas to be reassigned to noncombatant status were rejected. Eisenhower ordered that Slovik’s execution be carried out to avoid further desertions in the late stages of the war.
December 23, 1961
James Davis of Livingston, Tennessee, was killed by the Viet Cong, the insurgents in South Vietnam, and became the first of some 55,000 U.S. soldiers killed during the Vietnam War. Lyndon Johnson later referred to him as “the first American to fall in defense of our freedom in Vietnam.” Over two million Vietnamese would die before the end of the war. Over two million Vietnamese would die before the end of the war. “Lyndon Johnson told the nation. Have no fear of escalation. I am trying everyone to please. Though it isn’t really war. We’re sending fifty thousand more To help save Vietnam from Vietnamese”
Note: This Day in Peace History material is adapted by Top Pun 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.
December 22, 1943
A 135-day strike by 23 conscientious objectors (COs) ended dining hall segregation at Danbury Federal Penitentiary in Connecticut. The number of conscientious objectors had increased from 15 in early 1941 to 200 by the time of the strike.
December 22, 1967
Radio Free Alcatraz was broadcast for the first time from Berkeley’s Pacifica radio station, KPFA.
December 22, 1982
Congress passed the first Boland Amendment (411-0) which prohibited covert efforts by the President to overthrow the Nicaraguan government.
Note: This Day in Peace History material is adapted by Top Pun 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.
December 21, 1919
Amidst a strike for union recognition by 395,000 steelworkers, the “Red Scare” was launched with the deportation of Alexander Berkman, Emma Goldman, and some 250 other radicals. They were deported to Russia aboard the S. S. Buford (”The Soviet Ark”). J. Edgar Hoover, heading the Justice Department’s General Intelligence Division, advanced his career by implementing to the fullest extent possible the government’s plan to deport all foreign-born radicals. Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman also organized against World War I
December 21, 1965
Student anti-war activists Tom Hayden, Staughton Lynd, and Herbert Aptheker began a visit to Hanoi, North Vietnam.
December 21, 1969
Seven hundred supporters visited jailed Vietnam War resisters at Allenwood Federal Penitentiary, Pennsylvania.
Note: This Day in Peace History material is adapted by Top Pun 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.
December 20, 1946
The morning after Viet Minh forces under Ho Chi Minh launched a night revolt in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi, French colonial troops cracked down on the communist rebels. Ho and his soldiers immediately fled the city to regroup in the countryside. That evening, the communist leader issued a proclamation that read: “All the Vietnamese must stand up to fight the French colonials to save the fatherland. Those who have rifles will use their rifles; those who have swords will use their swords; those who have no swords will use spades, hoes, or sticks. Everyone must endeavor to oppose the colonialists and save his country. Even if we have to endure hardship in the resistance war, with the determination to make sacrifices, victory will surely be ours.” The first Indochina War thus began.
December 20, 1960
North Vietnam announced the formation of the National Front for the Liberation of the South (usually known as the National Liberation Front, NLF), designed to replicate the success of the Viet Minh, the umbrella nationalist organization that successfully liberated Vietnam from French colonial rule.
December 20, 1990
Kansas reservist Dr. Yolanda Huet-Vaughn refused orders to serve in the first Gulf War (Desert Storm) and was later sentenced to prison. The Kansas medical board withdrew her hospital privileges. “The issue was not whether I belonged in the military but whether the military belonged in the Middle East waging war. I did not want to focus on the personal decision. I was trying to focus on the decision for which each and every American would have to be responsible.” What if they gave a war and nobody came?
December 20, 1994
Hundreds of thousands of Chechnyans linked hands in a human chain to protest the Russian invasion.
December 20, 1999
The Vermont Supreme Court ruled that homosexual couples are entitled to the same benefits and protections as wedded couples of the opposite sex.
Note: This Day in Peace History material is adapted by Top Pun 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.
December 19, 1940
Two months after the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 was passed Civilian Public Service camps were established for conscientious objectors who wanted to serve their country in other ways. They served without weapons
December 19, 1962
Juan Bosch was elected President of the Dominican Republic in their first free elections in 38 years. He was overthrown by a U.S.-backed coup in September of the following year.
Note: This Day in Peace History material is adapted by Top Pun 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.
December 18, 1865
Following its ratification by the requisite three-quarters of the states earlier in the month, the 13th Amendment is formally adopted into the U.S. Constitution, ensuring that “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude… shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
December 18, 1999
Julia Butterfly Hill descended from her tiny platform 180 feet up in a giant Redwood tree named “Luna,” after perching in it for 738 days to protect it from loggers. “The question is not ‘Can you make a difference?’ You already do make a difference. It’s just a matter of what kind of difference you want to make during your life on this planet.” – Julia Butterfly Hill
Note: This Day in Peace History material is adapted by Top Pun 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.
December 17, 1982
The U.N. passed a series of 4 resolutions attacking apartheid in South Africa: To organize an international conference of trade unions on sanctions against South Africa (approved 129 to 2); To encourage various international actions against South Africa (126 to 2); Support of sanctions and other measures against South Africa including international sporting events (139 to 1); Cessation of further foreign investments and loans for South Africa (138 to 1). The U.S. was the only country to have voted against all 4 resolutions (joined only by the United Kingdom on two).
December 17, 1990
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a radical Roman Catholic priest and opponent of the dictatorship of Jean-Claude Duvalier, was elected president in the first free election in Haiti’s history. He was overthrown in 1991 in a military coup led by led by Brigadier-General Raoul Cedra.
Note: This Day in Peace History material is adapted by Top Pun 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.
December 16, 1942
Heinrich Himmler, head of the Gestapo, made public an order that Gypsies and those of mixed Gypsy blood be put on “the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps.” Himmler was determined to prosecute Nazi racial policies, which dictated the elimination from Germany and German-controlled territories of all races deemed “inferior,” as well as “asocial” types, (hardcore criminals, homosexuals, Communists, Slavs, Catholic priests). Gypsies fell into both categories according to Nazi ideology and had been executed widely both in Poland and the Soviet Union. The order of November 15 was merely a more comprehensive program, as it included the deportation to Auschwitz of Gypsies already in labor camps. The Porajmos (also Porrajmos) — literally Devouring — is a term coined by the Roma (Gypsy) people to describe attempts by the Nazi regime to exterminate most of the Roma peoples of Europe.
December 16, 1950
President Truman proclaimed a national state of emergency in order to fight “Communist imperialism.” following major Chinese intervention in the Korean War, launching a counter-offensive against United States, United Nations and South Korean troops. The U.S. under General Douglas MacArthur had attacked the North Korean Army at Inchon three months earlier, liberating Seoul, destroying three divisions and forcing a retreat by the North Korean People’s Army.
Note: This Day in Peace History material is adapted by Top Pun 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.
December 15, 1791
The Bill of Rights became law when Virginia ratified the first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution.
December 15, 1930
Albert Einstein urged militant pacifism and the creation of an international war resistance fund. Einstein made his famous statement in New York that if two percent of those called for military service were to refuse to fight, and were to urge peaceful means of settling international conflicts, then governments would become powerless since they could not imprison that many people. He struggled against compulsory military service and urged international protection of conscientious objectors. He concluded that peace, freedom for individuals, and security for societies depended on disarmament; otherwise, “slavery of the individual and the annihilation of civilization threaten us.”
December 15, 1946
Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh sent a note to French Premier Leon Blum congratulating him for his selection as French Premier and asking for peace talks. France had exercised colonial power over the Vietnamese as part of French Indochina, formed in October 1887 from the provinces of Annam, Tonkin, Cochin China, and the Kingdom of Cambodia; Laos was added in 1893. Vietnamese nationalists, however, had demanded independence for the three provinces at the end of World War II.
December 15, 1973
The American Psychiatric Association reversed its long-standing position and declared that homosexuality is not a mental illness and “…deplores all public and private discrimination in such areas as employment, housing, public accommodation…”
December 15, 2000
The Chernobyl nuclear power plant was shut down 14 years after becoming the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident ever. Nearly nine tons of radioactive material – dozens of times as much as the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs – were released in the explosion. The radioactive fallout affected 23% of Belarus, with 4.8% of Ukrainian territory and 0.5% of Russia. The Belarusian government spends 30% of its annual budget dealing with the aftermath of Chernobyl.
Note: This Day in Peace History material is adapted by Top Pun 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.
December 14, 1917
U.S. peace activist and suffragist Kate Richards O’Hare was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for a speech denouncing World War I Occupying a neighboring jail cell was Emma Goldman, the well-known anarchist organizer, feminist, writer and anti-war critic imprisoned for obstructing the draft. O’Hare was one of a number of prisoners Eugene Debs cited in his “Canton Speech” for which he in turn was imprisoned.
December 14, 1961
In a public exchange of letters with South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, U.S. President John F. Kennedy formally announced the United States would increase aid to South Vietnam, including the expansion of the U.S. troop commitment. Kennedy, concerned with recent advances made by the communist insurgency movement in South Vietnam, wrote: “We shall promptly increase our assistance to your defense effort.”
December 14, 1980
At Yoko Ono’s request, at 2 PM Eastern Standard Time, John Lennon fans around the world mourned him with 10 minutes of silent prayer. In New York over 100,000 people converged in Central Park in tribute, and in Liverpool, his hometown, a crowd of 30,000 gathered outside of St. George’s Hall on Lime Street.
December 14, 1994
After eight years, the United States finally agreed to honor New Zealand’s ban on nuclear weapons in its territory. U.S. Navy ships armed with nuclear weapons no longer visited New Zealand’s ports.
Note: This Day in Peace History material is adapted by Top Pun 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.
December 13, 1917
Denmark, which was not involved in World War I, recognized the right to conscientious objection to military service. Norway had done so in 1900, Sweden in 1920. The Netherlands went so far as to write it into their constitution in 1922, and Finland enacted it in 1931.
December 13, 1981
Poland’s new military leaders issued a decree of martial law today, drastically restricting civil rights and suspending the operations of the Solidarinosc (Solidarity) trade union. The union’s activists reacted with an appeal for an immediate general strike to protest.
December 13, 1982
At the United Nations Second Special Session on Disarmament, the two resolutions for a nuclear freeze (a verifiable end to all testing, production and deployment of nuclear weapons by the Soviet Union and the United States) passed 119-17 and 122-16. The socialist and developing countries voted solidly for a freeze, while the U.S. and NATO were those who voted against it.
December 13, 2001
In Belgium, 80,000 labor and anti-globalization activists began several days of protests at a European Union summit conference in Brussels. Despite a massive police presence and unlike other similar meetings, events remained peaceful.
December 13, 2001
President George W. Bush served formal notice that the United States was withdrawing from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia (then the Soviet Union).
“I have concluded the ABM treaty hinders our government’s ability to develop ways to protect our people from future terrorist or rogue state missile attacks.” - President Bush
Note: This Day in Peace History material is adapted by Top Pun 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.
December 12, 1870
Joseph H. Rainey (R-South Carolina) took his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming the first black Member of Congress.
December 12, 1916
Dr. Ben Reitman was arrested in Cleveland for organizing volunteers to distribute birth control information at an Emma Goldman lecture on birth control. He was sentenced to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine plus court costs.
December 12, 1969
The Philippine Civic Action Group, a 1,350-man contingent from the Army of the Philippines, left South Vietnam. The contingent was part of the Free World Military Forces, an effort by President Lyndon B. Johnson to enlist allies for the United States and South Vietnam, similar to President George Bush’s “Coalition of the Willing,” the multi-national force in Iraq.
December 12, 1983
Seventy people were arrested in Boston outside a hotel where a “New Trends in Missiles” trade conference was being held. Inside the hotel, over 1,000 cockroaches were released to symbolize the likely survivors of nuclear war.
December 12, 1986
Plowshares activists disarmed a Pershing missile launcher in West Germany. In a statement of intent the four said, “With awareness of our responsibility we understand that we are the ones who make the arms race possible by not trying to stop it.”
Note: This Day in Peace History material is adapted by Top Pun 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.
December 11, 1946
The General Assembly of the United Nations voted to establish the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) to provide relief and support to children living in countries devastated by World War II.
December 11, 1961
Two U.S. Army air cavalry helicopter companies arrived in Vietnam, including 33 Shawnee H-2lC helicopters and 425 ground and flight crewmen. They were to be used to airlift South Vietnamese Army troops into combat, the first direct military combat involvement of U.S. military personnel. President Kennedy had sent them to bolster the U.S. advisors in the country since the 1950s, and the failing of the Government of Vietnam’s armed forces to resist the Viet Cong insurgency movement and the Republic of [North] Vietnam.
December 11, 1972
New Zealand Prime Minister Norman Kirk (Labour Party) announced withdrawal of his country’s troops from Vietnam and a phase-out of his country’s draft just three days after taking office.
December 11, 1984
More than twenty thousand women turned out for an anti-nuclear demonstration at Greenham Common Air Base in England, where U.S. cruise missiles were deployed. Some tried to rip down the fence surrounding the base.
December 11, 1992
The three major U.S. television networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) agreed on joint standards to limit entertainment violence by the start of the following season. Read more about TV violence & children.
December 11, 1994
In the largest Russian military offensive since its 1979 invasion of Afghanistan, thousands of troops and hundreds of tanks crossed the border into the Muslim republic of Chechnya. Just two weeks before, a Russian covert operation to undermine the government in Grozny, the capital, had been foiled and Dzhokhar Dudaev, Chechnya’s first elected president, had threatened to have the perpetrators executed. The Chechens had declared their independence from the Commonwealth of Independent States, comprised of Russia and most of the countries previously part of the Soviet Union. Chechnya had been a Russian colony since 1859, and in 1943 Josef Stalin had deported the population en masse, their return to their homeland not allowed until 1957. Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who ordered the invasion, would not deal with Dudaev, and had raised him to the rank of chief enemy, ignoring Chechen-Russian history.
Note: This Day in Peace History material is adapted by Top Pun 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.
December 10, 1948
The General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Following this historic act the Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and “to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories.” After 1950 the anniversary of the declaration has been known as Human Rights Day.
December 10, 1950
Detroit-born U.N. diplomat Ralph J. Bunche became the first Black American to win the Nobel Peace Prize. The award was in recognition of his peace mediation during the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948. From his acceptance speech in Oslo, Norway: “There are some in the world who are prematurely resigned to the inevitability of war. Among them are the advocates of the so-called “preventive war,” who, in their resignation to war, wish merely to select their own time for initiating it. To suggest that war can prevent war is a base play on words and a despicable form of warmongering. The objective of any who sincerely believe in peace clearly must be to exhaust every honourable recourse in the effort to save the peace. The world has had ample evidence that war begets only conditions which beget further war.”
December 10, 1961
Chief Albert Luthuli, President-General of the banned African National Congress, appealed for racial equality in racially separatist apartheid South Africa after accepting the Nobel peace prize for 1960 in Oslo, Norway. Mr. Luthuli said he considered the award “a recognition of the sacrifices made by the peoples of all races [in South Africa], particularly the African people who have endured and suffered so much for so long.” “It may well be that South Africa’s social system is a monument to racialism and race oppression, but its people are the living testimony to the unconquerable spirit of mankind. Down the years, against seemingly overwhelming odds, they have sought the goal of fuller life and liberty, striving with incredible determination and fortitude for the right to live as men - free men.” –Albert Luthuli
December 10, 1964
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was awarded Nobel Peace Prize. From his speech in Oslo: “After contemplation, I conclude that this award which I receive on behalf of that [civil rights] movement is profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time — the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression. Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts.”
December 10, 1997
Julia Butterfly Hill, age 23, climbed “Luna,” a 1,000-year-old California redwood, to protect it from loggers.
December 10, 2003
Iranian democracy activist Shirin Ebadi, the first Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, accepted the award in Oslo, Norway “for her efforts for democracy and human rights. She has focused especially on the struggle for the rights of women and children.”
Note: This Day in Peace History material is adapted by Top Pun from This Week in Peace History, a publication of www.peacebuttons.info
December 9, 1949
U.S. Representative John Parnell Thomas, former chairman of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was sentenced to 6 to 18 months in federal prison for “padding” Congressional payrolls and using the money himself.
December 9, 1961
Members of the National Committee of 100, a movement of non-violent resistance to nuclear war and to the manufacture and use of all weapons of mass extermination, joined with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and held demonstrations at various U.S. air and nuclear bases in Britain. Members of the Committee of 100, including Bertrand Russell, considered civil disobedience a legitimate means in their struggle. The CND avoided all illegal activities. the CND is still active today
December 9, 1990
Solidarity trade union founder and leader Lech Walesa won Poland’s presidential runoff election in a 3-1 landslide. He thus became the first directly elected Polish leader.
Note: This Day in Peace History material is adapted by Top Pun from This Week in Peace History, a publication of www.peacebuttons.info
December 8, 1886
The American Federation of Labor was founded at a convention of union leaders in Columbus, Ohio.
December 8, 1941
Jeanette Rankin (R-Montana), the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress in 1916, cast the only vote against U.S. entry into WWII. She had also voted against the U.S. entering WWI.
December 8, 1953
U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower addressed the United Nations General Assembly, proposing the creation of a new U.N. atomic energy agency which would receive contributions of uranium from the United States, the USSR, and other countries “principally concerned,” and would put this material to peaceful use. The speech, known later as Atoms for Peace, included: “My country wants to be constructive, not destructive. It wants agreement, not wars, among nations. It wants itself to live in freedom, and in the confidence that the people of every other nation enjoy equally the right of choosing their own way of life.”
December 8, 1987
U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev sign the first treaty to reduce the nuclear arsenals of the two superpowers. The Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty eliminated and banned all ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with a range of 300-3,400 miles (500-5,500 kilometers). By May 1991, all intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles, launchers, and related support had been eliminated.
December 8, 1988
On the first anniversary of the INF (Intermediate Nuclear Force) Treaty, twelve Dutch peace activists, calling themselves “INF Ploughshares,” cut through fences to enter the Woensdrecht Air Force base in The Netherlands. They made their way to cruise missile bunkers where they hammered on the missiles, carrying out the first disarmament action in Holland.
Note: This Day in Peace History material is adapted by Top Pun from This Week in Peace History, a publication of www.peacebuttons.info
December 7, 1964
A leader of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement, Mario Savio, was arrested. One-third of the 27,000 students at the University of California campus, along with faculty, were on strike protesting to preserve their first amendment right to distribute political literature and organize on campus. A faculty resolution passed 824-115, supporting the rapidly growing Free Speech Movement. “There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part; and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus and you’ve got to make it stop.” - Mario Savio
December 7, 1993
Four Plowshares activists were arrested for disarming an F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina. The arrested were Phil Berrigan, John Dear, Lynn Fredriksson, and Bruce Friedrich
Note: This Day in Peace History material is adapted by Top Pun from This Week in Peace History, a publication of www.peacebuttons.info
December 6, 1865
Georgia provided the final vote needed for the 13th Amendment to become part of the U.S. Constitution, abolishing slavery. “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
December 6, 1978
The voters of Spain approved a new constitution in a popular referendum by nearly 8-1. It proclaimed Spain to be a parliamentary monarchy and guaranteed its citizens equality before the law and a full range of individual liberties, including religious freedom. While recognizing the autonomy of the regions, it stressed the indivisibility of the Spanish state.
December 6, 1998
In Venezuela, former Lt. Col. Hugo Chavez, who had staged a bloody coup attempt against the government six years earlier, was elected president. As a socialist reformer, Chavez’s policies have given land to the landless and, using Venezuela’s oil revenues, increased investment in housing and infrastructure.
Note: This Day in Peace History material is adapted by Top Pun from This Week in Peace History, a publication of www.peacebuttons.info
December 5, 1955
Five days after Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white man, the African-American community of Montgomery, Alabama, launched their boycott of the city’s bus system. The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) was formed to coordinate the boycott with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., elected as its president. Out of Montgomery’s 50,000 black residents, 30,000-40,000 participated. The boycott lasted (54 weeks) until the buses were integrated.
December 5, 1955
The American Federation of Labor, which had historically focused on organizing craft unions, merged with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, an organization of industrial unions, to form the AFL-CIO with a membership of nearly 15 million. George Meany was elected its first president.
December 5, 1957
New York City became the first city to legislate against racial or religious discrimination in housing (Fair Housing Practices Law).
December 5, 1967
1,000 anti-war protesters tried to close a New York City military induction center. 585 were arrested including poet Allen Ginsberg and Dr. Benjamin Spock. Simultaneous demonstrations occurred in Madison, Wisconsin, Manchester, New Hampshire, Cincinnati, Ohio, and New Haven, Connecticut.
December 5, 1980
The United Nations adopted the charter for the University of Peace, Costa Rica.
December 5, 2002
At the 100th birthday celebration for Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-North Carolina), Senate Republican leader Trent Lott (R-Mississippi) praised Thurmond’s Dixiecrat Party 1948 presidential campaign (official slogan: “Segregation Forever!”). “I want to say this about my state. When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of him. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over all these years, either.” The reaction to this sentiment led to Lott’s resignation as Senate majority leader.
Note: This Day in Peace History material is adapted by Top Pun from This Week in Peace History, a publication of www.peacebuttons.info
December 4, 1833
The American Anti-Slavery Society was formed by Arthur Tappan in Philadelphia. He and his brother Lewis were active abolitionists throughout their lives, including providing legal defense for the Africans who mutinied on the slave ship Amistad.
December 4, 1916
Five members of a woman’s suffragist group unrolled a banner from the visitor’s gallery during President Wilson’s annual message (state of the union) to Congress, asking, “Mr. President, What will you do for woman suffrage?” There was no mention of the issue in his speech.
December 4, 1968
264 were arrested at a military induction center in New York City during War Resisters League civil disobedience action.
December 4, 1969
President Richard Nixon, Vice-President Spiro T. Agnew, and 40 U.S. governors embarked on a fact-finding mission to discover the causes of the generation gap. They viewed films of “simulated acid trips” and listened to hours of “anti-establishment rock music.”
December 4, 1970
Cesar Chavez was sentenced to 20 days in jail for refusing to call off United Farm Workers’ consumer boycott of lettuce.
December 4, 1980
United Nations agreed to establish the University of Peace and a short wave radio station, Radio Peace International, in Costa Rica.
Note: This Day in Peace History material is adapted by Top Pun from This Week in Peace History, a publication of www.peacebuttons.info
December 3, 1965
An all-white jury in Alabama convicted three Ku Klux Klansmen for the murder of white civil rights activist Viola Liuzzo. The mother of five from Detroit was shot and killed while driving a young black activist, Leroy Moton, back to the town of Selma following a protest march to the state capital in Montgomery earlier in the year. It was later learned that one of the Klansmen in the car, Gary Thomas Rowe, was an FBI informant.
December 3, 1984
In the early morning hours, one of the worst industrial disasters in history began when American-owned Union Carbide’s pesticide plant located near the densely populated city of Bhopal in central India leaked a highly toxic cloud of methyl isocyanate into the air. Estimates of the fatalities vary widely, but of the approximately one million people living in Bhopal at the time, 2,000 were killed immediately, at least another 8,000 within a short time, and hundreds of thousands were injured, many still suffering today. The U.S. blocked extradition of Union Carbide officials facing criminal prosecution in India. Union Carbide has since been purchased by Dow Chemical which continues to refuse responsibility for the incident or its victims, and has yet to clean up the site.
December 3, since 1992
The International Day of Disabled Persons was declared by the United Nations. “The annual observance of the International Day of Disabled Persons … aims to promote an understanding of disability issues and mobilize support for the dignity, rights and well-being of persons with disabilities ….”
2006 Theme: “E-Accessibility
December 3, 1997
An international treaty banning land mines was signed by 122 countries. It comprehensively prohibits the use, production, trade or stockpiling of antipersonnel mines. 
Buried landmines kill about 15,000 people every year worldwide. The dangerous and time-consuming process of removal will
take centuries at the current rate of landmine clearance. The United States and approximately forty other countries have yet to sign the treaty, and fifteen countries continue to produce land mines. The Pentagon requested $1.3 billion for research on and production of two new landmine systems—Spider and Intelligent Munitions System—between fiscal years 2005 and 2011 but Congress has resisted funding the programs under pressure from nearly 500 U.S.-based organizations opposing the weapons.
Note: This Day in Peace History material is adapted by Top Pun from This Week in Peace History, a publication of www.peacebuttons.info
December 2, 1942
Enrico Fermi, the Italian-born Nobel Prize-winning physicist, directed and controlled the first self-sustaining fission reaction in his laboratory beneath the bleachers of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago. The result of this experiment made the atomic bomb possible and ushered in the nuclear age. Upon successful completion of the experiment, a coded message was transmitted to President Roosevelt: “The Italian navigator has landed in the new world.”
December 2, 1954
The U.S. Senate voted 65 to 22 to censure Senator Joseph R. McCarthy (R-Wisconsin) for “conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute.” The condemnation, with all the Democrats and about half the Republicans voting against him, and was related to McCarthy’s controversial, abusive and indiscriminate investigation of suspected communists in the U.S. government, military, and civilian society. The House of Representatives and many states continued their own investigations.
December 2, 1964
Thousands in the Berkeley Free Speech Movement gathered on the steps of Sproul Hall, the administration building at the University of California campus to protest four students being disciplined for distributing political literature. Joan Baez performed. The next day, police arrested 773 who began a sit-in at Sproul Hall. 10,000 more students then went on strike and shut down the school. The Free Speech Movement had began in October, when three thousand students surrounded a police car for 36 hours. Inside the car was a civil rights worker who had been arrested for distributing political literature on the UC-Berkeley campus.
December 2, 1977
A demonstration erupted outside a South African court after a magistrate ruled that security police were to be exonerated in the death of black consciousness leader Steve Biko, who died while in their custody. His funeral had been attended by more than 15,000 mourners, not including the thousands who were turned away by the police.
December 2, 1980
Two Maryknoll nuns, one Ursuline nun and a lay missionary were raped, murdered, buried outside San Salvador, and unearthed shortly thereafter. U.S.-trained and -supported Salvadoran national guardsmen, widely known to act as death squads, were suspected. The Reagan administration, taking office seven weeks later, and relying in part on the Salvadoran military to rid Central America of communism, denied the National Guard’s involvement. General Alexander Haig, the president’s secretary of state, suggested the nuns provoked the incident, running a roadblock in Marxist jeeps, and were shot trying to flee. The FBI and CIA report this is a total fabrication and five national guardsmen were later convicted of murder.
Note: This Day in Peace History material is adapted by Top Pun from This Week in Peace History, a publication of www.peacebuttons.info
December 1, 1891
The International Peace Bureau was launched in Berne, Switzerland, “…to coordinate the activities of the various peace societies and promote the concept of peaceful settlement of international disputes.”
December 1, 1948
Following the civil war in 1948, Costa Rican president Pepe Figueres constitutionally abolished the army and the Constitution prohibits presidential re-election. Money not spent on a military allows for one of the highest literacy rates in the continent, ninety-four percent.
December 1, 1955
Rosa Parks, a black seamstress active in the local NAACP, was arrested by police in Montgomery, Alabama, after refusing to give up her seat on the bus to a white man. Mrs. Parks faced a fine for breaking the segregation laws which said blacks had to vacate their seats if there are white passengers left standing. Mrs. Parks had not been the first to defy the Jim Crow law but her arrest sparked the year-long Montgomery Bus Boycott, organized by a young Baptist minister named Martin Luther King, Jr. The Montgomery bus company couldn’t survive without the revenue from its black passengers who, for the next year, created car pools and other means to avoid using the city busses. The boycott was successful and Mrs. Parks became known as the “mother of the civil rights movement.”
December 1, 1966
Comedian Dick Gregory was convicted in Olympia, Washington for his participation in a Nisqually Native American fishing rights protest.
Note: This Day in Peace History material is adapted by Top Pun from This Week in Peace History, a publication of www.peacebuttons.info
