More items will be added later in coming weeks, though it might be a long time before there are very many events to talk about.
Michael Lucas passed away May 4th at age 94
Michael Lucas passed away peacefully early on May 4th at 94. He was a leader of the Society of Carpatho-Russian Canadians, the Canadian Friends of the Soviet People (and the USSR-Canada Friendship Association from 1972 to 1991), and the former editor of Northstar Compass, a magazine published by the International Council for Friendship and Solidarity with the Soviet People until several years ago. He was a member of the Communist Party of Canada from a young age. He was born March 7, 1926 in Slovakia, but his family moved to Canada during his childhood. He frequently visited Czechoslovakia and the USSR. In his working life he was an artist and designer and directed the Southam Newspapers' art department. He is survived by his wife Helen, who served as financial secretary of the CFSP and helped produce Northstar Compass, and two children.
northstarcompass.org/history.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Lucas_(political_activist)
Fightback! News obituary: www.fightbacknews.org/2020/5/9/passing-michael-lucas-immigrant-organizer-and-friend-soviet-people
Funeral information: turnerporter.permavita.com/site/MichaelLukac.html
Related article at: www.pressreader.com/canada/toronto-star/20190106/281496457419898 or www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/01/05/the-golden-girls-of-prospect-cemetery.html
Nexhmije Hoxha passed away February 26th at age 99
Albanian revolutionary Nexhmije Xhuglini Hoxha was born February 8, 1921 in Bitolj, today part of recently renamed North Macedonia, formerly a Yugoslav republic and having a significant ethnic Albanian minority. Xhuglini joined the Shkodra Communist Group at 19 and was a founder of the Communist Party of Albania (later renamed the Party of Labor of Albania) in November 1941. For organizing protests against the Italian occupation she was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment, but escaped. She was a founder of the Anti-Fascist National Liberation Front at the Peza Conference in 1942 and fought in the 1st Division of the National Liberation Army against Italian and then German occupation during WWII. She was a delegate at the First National Conference of the CPA in Labinot in March 1943. She met Enver Hoxha through her CPA activities and they married after liberation. Nexhmije Hoxha served in various offices after WWII, including member of the National Assembly, member of the PLA's Central Committee, director of the Ministry of Culture, director of the Institute of Marxist-Leninist Studies, director of the VI Lenin Higher Party School, member of the Secretariat of the Albanian Women's League, and chair of the Democratic Front. She wrote works, such as Some Fundamental Questions of the Revolutionary Policy of the Party of Labor of Albania about the Development of the Class Struggle in 1977, during the struggle against Soviet and Chinese revisionism. After the capitalist restoration she was charged with embezzlement and imprisoned for years. During this period she wrote My Life with Enver Hoxha. Some of her memoirs are translated at: ml-review.ca/aml/index/subject.html and some short writings are posted at www.mltranslations.org/Albania/index.htm She had a daughter Pranvera; two sons, Sokol and Ilir (born March 31, 1949 and also imprisoned for years after the counterrevolution); and several grandchildren.
Some left statements and generally scathing and similar articles from the "Western" mainstream media, especially those from the US:
ml-today.com/
theredphoenixapl.org/2020/02/26/a-bright-red-star-has-joined-the-heavens/
revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv25n1/NHObituary.pdf
www.nytimes.com/2020/03/04/world/europe/nexhmije-hoxha-dead.html
www.reuters.com/article/us-albania-hoxha-idUSKCN20K30K
www.france24.com/en/20200226-nexhmije-hoxha-widow-of-albania-s-communist-tyrant-dies-aged-99
(I'm surprised to read what could be praise from counterrevolutionary Albanian Democratic Party leader Sali Berisha here.)
www.durhampa.org/pa_s_response_to_covid_19
FLOC petition to Phillip Morris Intl over abuses of workers' human rights in Whitakers, NC
Last year more than 20 H2A guest workers and union members complained about wage theft and unsafe working and living conditions at OJ Smith Farms, Inc. a company in Whitakers (east of Raleigh, between Edgecombe and Nash counties) that supplies tobacco to Phillip Morris and Universal Leaf. The workers petitioned the company and asked for a meeting, but OJ Smith Farms claimed that the workers weren't its employees, because the company goes through a labor contractor. The people who complained were blacklisted from working there this year. FLOC says Phillip Morris and Universal Leaf haven't enforced standards and prefer non-union growers. There is a petition here.
Toxic Free NC is offering anti-insecticide Spray Free Zone signs (possibly only in Durham, a honey bee-friendly city) here.
Comment on permit application to destroy streams and wetlands for Chatham Park
Chatham Park Investors, LLC and the NC DOT applied to the NC Division of Water Resources and the Army Corps of Engineers for permission to destroy more than a mile of waterway and 2 acres of wetlands to build North Village and the Chatham Parkway, part of the massive Chatham Park project. The deadline to send public comments to the Division of Water Resources was May 19th, but the deadline for ACE is May 28th. The Haw River Assembly is requesting an extension of 60 days for public comment, public hearings when possible, and an environmental impact statement. There is a lot more information regarding Chatham Park and links for comment at: hawriver.org/river-issues/chatham-park/
HRA Climate Action Campaign
The Haw River Assembly has a new Climate Action Campaign site: hawriver.org/home/climate-action-campaign/
Petition to "Save Chapel Hill's Natural Heritage Basic Oak - Hickory Forest" from UNC Health Care expansion:
www.gopetition.com/petitions/save-chapel-hills-natural-heritage-basic-oak-hickory-forest.html
Conservation along roads
For readers in the UK, there is a petition to manage "road verges" or roadsides to preserve wildflowers and wildlife (more than 700 wildflower species, almost 45% of the UK's plant species, grow along roadsides, benefitting pollinators and beautifying the scenery, without endangering safety): plantlife.love-wildflowers.org.uk/roadvergecampaign
In North Carolina and elsewhere in the USA flowers are planted along major roads and grow naturally elsewhere. It seems like gravel roads, which apparently are being eliminated even in rural areas with little traffic (and paving probably increases traffic and speeds, resulting in more dead wildlife) generally have more wildflowers than paved roads even if nothing else is done. In the spring and early summer native and non-native diminutive "weeds," such as wild pansies, species of bluet, and henbits as well as taller dandelions, hawkweeds, chicory, lyre-leaved sage, wild strawberries, toadflax, vetches, etc., create colorful patches along roadsides and medians, such as Miami Boulevard, sections of Highway 54, and Highway 64. Low-growing spring flowers probably don't mind most mowing, but later flowers such as Atamasco lilies, butterflyweed and other milkweeds, ladies' tresses, Penstemons, daylilies, goat's rue, teasel, trumpetcreeper, Hibiscus, Jerusalem artichokes, etc. grow near roads, but not where there is frequent mowing. In 2018 the NC DOT came through and sprayed herbicide on roadside trees and branches, not even sparing the goldenrods, ferns, and other herbaceous plants, and the roadsides still revealed a lot of dead growth in places last summer. The roads could also be managed to reduce roadkill and encourage cyclists and pedestrians, who often risk being hit by speeders and reckless drivers along with the wildlife. Historians have pointed out how cars took over the public roads and companies fought competing forms of transportation, leading to today's still car-centered road management and culture. I'm also reminded of places where someone planted trees, wildflowers, or even daffodils or other ornamentals in their front yard and then a new owner moves in and mows down everything, or a builder or mower destroys roadside masses of yellow tickseeds at peak bloom in September. Apparently current American agricultural practices have also eliminated 'weedy' areas around farmfields, getting rid of milkweeds, and therefore reducing the population of monarch butterflies to an alarming extent. Much of the landscape and its resources are now managed for humans, so allowances have to be made for other plants and animals to live in the human landscape, or they could go extinct.
Durham comprehensive planning input
Provide input to shape Durham's new comprehensive plan and transit plan: engagedurham.com/ComprehensivePlan/
Library booksales
Friends of the Durham Library book sales are scheduled June 1 - 2, August 3 - 4, October 5 - 6, and December 7 - 8, 2020 (Saturday 10am - 12pm is members only, while 12 - 4pm is open to all; Sunday is a $10 dollar grocery bag sale open to all from 1 - 4pm) at the usual Northgate Mall location ( durhamcountylibrary.org/friends/ , fodlnc.org/book-sales/ ). The April 6 - 7th sale has been cancelled. The sales are at a space next to the former location of Sears (but that entrance is closed). There are small satellite sales inside the various branches daily.
If there was supposed to be a spring Library and Information Sciences book sale at UNC, it must have been cancelled.
The next Friends of the Chapel Hill Public Library sale is still scheduled for April 17 - 19th, but might be cancelled: friendschpl.org/
The Wake County Public Libraries' Annual Book Sale scheduled for April 30th - May 3rd at the NC State Fairgrounds in Raleigh ( www.wakegov.com/libraries/events/Pages/booksale.aspx ) has been cancelled. Around 12,000 people came last year, buying more than 202,000 books, and other books went to more than 500 Wake County Public Schools teachers for academic use. This could be the biggest annual booksale in the state.
The Friends of the Chatham County Community Library sale scheduled for April 2 - 4 has been cancelled (I think there are sales at least twice a year): friendsccl.org/
The Friends of the Lee County Library have ongoing sales and occasionally special sales, announced on their website and Facebook: library.leecountync.gov/friends and www.facebook.com/foleelibrary/
Creek Weeks this spring
Durham Creek Week - March 14 - 21: keepdurhambeautiful.org/creek-week
Alamance Creek Week - March 28 - April 4: alamancecreekweek.wordpress.com/
Guilford Creek Week - March 28 - April 4: www.guilfordcreekweek.org/
Forsyth Creek Week - March 21 - 29: forsythcreekweek.squarespace.com/
Mecklenburg Creek Week - March 21 - 28: charlottenc.gov/StormWater/Pages/default.aspx
Durham Creek Week was basically cancelled due to the coronavirus and the others probably will be as well, though people can still do creek week activities on their own or later in the year and would probably be far away from other people, while getting health benefits from being outside and active.
Rowan County has its 2nd annual creek week August 22 - 29:
www.rowancountync.gov/1464/Creek-Week
Monthly tours of the South Wake Landfill and Sonoco Recycling Facility
There are usually free one hour tours of these facilities near Apex once a month on Wednesdays or Saturdays (private tours for groups with 5 to 14 people can be arranged). For more information and registration see: www.wakegov.com/recycling/outreach/Pages/tours.aspx
Michael Lucas passed away May 4th at age 94
Michael Lucas passed away peacefully early on May 4th at 94. He was a leader of the Society of Carpatho-Russian Canadians, the Canadian Friends of the Soviet People (and the USSR-Canada Friendship Association from 1972 to 1991), and the former editor of Northstar Compass, a magazine published by the International Council for Friendship and Solidarity with the Soviet People until several years ago. He was a member of the Communist Party of Canada from a young age. He was born March 7, 1926 in Slovakia, but his family moved to Canada during his childhood. He frequently visited Czechoslovakia and the USSR. In his working life he was an artist and designer and directed the Southam Newspapers' art department. He is survived by his wife Helen, who served as financial secretary of the CFSP and helped produce Northstar Compass, and two children.
northstarcompass.org/history.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Lucas_(political_activist)
Fightback! News obituary: www.fightbacknews.org/2020/5/9/passing-michael-lucas-immigrant-organizer-and-friend-soviet-people
Funeral information: turnerporter.permavita.com/site/MichaelLukac.html
Related article at: www.pressreader.com/canada/toronto-star/20190106/281496457419898 or www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/01/05/the-golden-girls-of-prospect-cemetery.html
Nexhmije Hoxha passed away February 26th at age 99
Albanian revolutionary Nexhmije Xhuglini Hoxha was born February 8, 1921 in Bitolj, today part of recently renamed North Macedonia, formerly a Yugoslav republic and having a significant ethnic Albanian minority. Xhuglini joined the Shkodra Communist Group at 19 and was a founder of the Communist Party of Albania (later renamed the Party of Labor of Albania) in November 1941. For organizing protests against the Italian occupation she was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment, but escaped. She was a founder of the Anti-Fascist National Liberation Front at the Peza Conference in 1942 and fought in the 1st Division of the National Liberation Army against Italian and then German occupation during WWII. She was a delegate at the First National Conference of the CPA in Labinot in March 1943. She met Enver Hoxha through her CPA activities and they married after liberation. Nexhmije Hoxha served in various offices after WWII, including member of the National Assembly, member of the PLA's Central Committee, director of the Ministry of Culture, director of the Institute of Marxist-Leninist Studies, director of the VI Lenin Higher Party School, member of the Secretariat of the Albanian Women's League, and chair of the Democratic Front. She wrote works, such as Some Fundamental Questions of the Revolutionary Policy of the Party of Labor of Albania about the Development of the Class Struggle in 1977, during the struggle against Soviet and Chinese revisionism. After the capitalist restoration she was charged with embezzlement and imprisoned for years. During this period she wrote My Life with Enver Hoxha. Some of her memoirs are translated at: ml-review.ca/aml/index/subject.html and some short writings are posted at www.mltranslations.org/Albania/index.htm She had a daughter Pranvera; two sons, Sokol and Ilir (born March 31, 1949 and also imprisoned for years after the counterrevolution); and several grandchildren.
Some left statements and generally scathing and similar articles from the "Western" mainstream media, especially those from the US:
ml-today.com/
theredphoenixapl.org/2020/02/26/a-bright-red-star-has-joined-the-heavens/
revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv25n1/NHObituary.pdf
www.nytimes.com/2020/03/04/world/europe/nexhmije-hoxha-dead.html
www.reuters.com/article/us-albania-hoxha-idUSKCN20K30K
www.france24.com/en/20200226-nexhmije-hoxha-widow-of-albania-s-communist-tyrant-dies-aged-99
(I'm surprised to read what could be praise from counterrevolutionary Albanian Democratic Party leader Sali Berisha here.)
www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/26/nexhmije-hoxha-widow-of-albanias-dictator-dies-aged-99
www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/02/nexhmije-hoxha-obituary
livre.fnac.com/a2422752/Fahri-Balliu-La-femme-du-diable-Nexhmije-Hoxha-veuve-du-dictateur-albanais-Enver-Hoxha
Translated statement from the War Veterans Association of the NLA (posted on the For a People's Democracy Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/312850322214080/ ; there is also an untranslated announcement from Ilir Hoxha there):
"WAR VETERANS ASSOCIATION OF THE NATIONAL LIBERATION ARMY
Died comrade Nexhmije Hoxha
A young girl born in Saint Naum (Bitola), raised in Dibra, married in Gjirokastra, with a more sensational life in Tirana, where she supported the Gervalla family, left behind one [major] Nationwide Works, testament to be realized from generations of dedication for National Unity ...
Glory!
War Veterans Association of the National Liberation Army
Fazli Veliu, Chairman
Tetova, February, 2020"
(I assume the Gervalla family refers to brothers Jusuf and Bardhosh Gervalla, Kosovar Albanian activists assassinated in West Germany January 18, 1982, and Tetova is a city in Macedonia with a large ethnic Albanian population.)
US proxy attack on Venezuela
The media is saying little about it, but the Trump administration seems to have been involved in what has been called a "Bay of Piglets," an attempt to invade Venezuela and overthrow the democratic government May 3rd. The US government, and especially the Democratic Party, complain about alleged Russian interference in US elections, but US interference in other countries has often included economic warfare and invasion by proxy forces or the US military. The Trump administration has been trying to carry out a coup in Venezuela, and success could help Trump electorally, but leading Democrats have long wanted the Venezuelan government overthrown, and their allies in the media support this bipartisan line.
covertactionmagazine.com/index.php/2020/05/05/operation-gideon-new-details-emerge-linking-u-s-to-latest-coup-attempt-in-venezuela/
www.counterpunch.org/2020/05/08/the-hybrid-war-on-venezuela-moves-to-a-new-stage-of-aggression/ (argues that Guaidó was not involved)
www.counterpunch.org/2020/05/08/us-wants-release-of-two-special-forces-veterans-who-led-failed-coup-invasion-of-venezuela/
www.counterpunch.org/2020/05/08/venezuela-confronts-intimidation-myth-making-and-dirty-war/
Local coronavirus relief efforts
The Durham People's Alliance has information on local organizations seeking donations for coronavirus relief and says McDougald Terrace residents are still in need of donations and volunteers to deliver supplies, with minimal human contact:
www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/02/nexhmije-hoxha-obituary
livre.fnac.com/a2422752/Fahri-Balliu-La-femme-du-diable-Nexhmije-Hoxha-veuve-du-dictateur-albanais-Enver-Hoxha
Translated statement from the War Veterans Association of the NLA (posted on the For a People's Democracy Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/312850322214080/ ; there is also an untranslated announcement from Ilir Hoxha there):
"WAR VETERANS ASSOCIATION OF THE NATIONAL LIBERATION ARMY
Died comrade Nexhmije Hoxha
A young girl born in Saint Naum (Bitola), raised in Dibra, married in Gjirokastra, with a more sensational life in Tirana, where she supported the Gervalla family, left behind one [major] Nationwide Works, testament to be realized from generations of dedication for National Unity ...
Glory!
War Veterans Association of the National Liberation Army
Fazli Veliu, Chairman
Tetova, February, 2020"
(I assume the Gervalla family refers to brothers Jusuf and Bardhosh Gervalla, Kosovar Albanian activists assassinated in West Germany January 18, 1982, and Tetova is a city in Macedonia with a large ethnic Albanian population.)
US proxy attack on Venezuela
The media is saying little about it, but the Trump administration seems to have been involved in what has been called a "Bay of Piglets," an attempt to invade Venezuela and overthrow the democratic government May 3rd. The US government, and especially the Democratic Party, complain about alleged Russian interference in US elections, but US interference in other countries has often included economic warfare and invasion by proxy forces or the US military. The Trump administration has been trying to carry out a coup in Venezuela, and success could help Trump electorally, but leading Democrats have long wanted the Venezuelan government overthrown, and their allies in the media support this bipartisan line.
covertactionmagazine.com/index.php/2020/05/05/operation-gideon-new-details-emerge-linking-u-s-to-latest-coup-attempt-in-venezuela/
www.counterpunch.org/2020/05/08/the-hybrid-war-on-venezuela-moves-to-a-new-stage-of-aggression/ (argues that Guaidó was not involved)
www.counterpunch.org/2020/05/08/us-wants-release-of-two-special-forces-veterans-who-led-failed-coup-invasion-of-venezuela/
www.counterpunch.org/2020/05/08/venezuela-confronts-intimidation-myth-making-and-dirty-war/
Local coronavirus relief efforts
The Durham People's Alliance has information on local organizations seeking donations for coronavirus relief and says McDougald Terrace residents are still in need of donations and volunteers to deliver supplies, with minimal human contact:
www.durhampa.org/pa_s_response_to_covid_19
FLOC petition to Phillip Morris Intl over abuses of workers' human rights in Whitakers, NC
Last year more than 20 H2A guest workers and union members complained about wage theft and unsafe working and living conditions at OJ Smith Farms, Inc. a company in Whitakers (east of Raleigh, between Edgecombe and Nash counties) that supplies tobacco to Phillip Morris and Universal Leaf. The workers petitioned the company and asked for a meeting, but OJ Smith Farms claimed that the workers weren't its employees, because the company goes through a labor contractor. The people who complained were blacklisted from working there this year. FLOC says Phillip Morris and Universal Leaf haven't enforced standards and prefer non-union growers. There is a petition here.
Toxic Free NC is offering anti-insecticide Spray Free Zone signs (possibly only in Durham, a honey bee-friendly city) here.
Comment on permit application to destroy streams and wetlands for Chatham Park
Chatham Park Investors, LLC and the NC DOT applied to the NC Division of Water Resources and the Army Corps of Engineers for permission to destroy more than a mile of waterway and 2 acres of wetlands to build North Village and the Chatham Parkway, part of the massive Chatham Park project. The deadline to send public comments to the Division of Water Resources was May 19th, but the deadline for ACE is May 28th. The Haw River Assembly is requesting an extension of 60 days for public comment, public hearings when possible, and an environmental impact statement. There is a lot more information regarding Chatham Park and links for comment at: hawriver.org/river-issues/chatham-park/
HRA Climate Action Campaign
The Haw River Assembly has a new Climate Action Campaign site: hawriver.org/home/climate-action-campaign/
Petition to "Save Chapel Hill's Natural Heritage Basic Oak - Hickory Forest" from UNC Health Care expansion:
www.gopetition.com/petitions/save-chapel-hills-natural-heritage-basic-oak-hickory-forest.html
Conservation along roads
For readers in the UK, there is a petition to manage "road verges" or roadsides to preserve wildflowers and wildlife (more than 700 wildflower species, almost 45% of the UK's plant species, grow along roadsides, benefitting pollinators and beautifying the scenery, without endangering safety): plantlife.love-wildflowers.org.uk/roadvergecampaign
In North Carolina and elsewhere in the USA flowers are planted along major roads and grow naturally elsewhere. It seems like gravel roads, which apparently are being eliminated even in rural areas with little traffic (and paving probably increases traffic and speeds, resulting in more dead wildlife) generally have more wildflowers than paved roads even if nothing else is done. In the spring and early summer native and non-native diminutive "weeds," such as wild pansies, species of bluet, and henbits as well as taller dandelions, hawkweeds, chicory, lyre-leaved sage, wild strawberries, toadflax, vetches, etc., create colorful patches along roadsides and medians, such as Miami Boulevard, sections of Highway 54, and Highway 64. Low-growing spring flowers probably don't mind most mowing, but later flowers such as Atamasco lilies, butterflyweed and other milkweeds, ladies' tresses, Penstemons, daylilies, goat's rue, teasel, trumpetcreeper, Hibiscus, Jerusalem artichokes, etc. grow near roads, but not where there is frequent mowing. In 2018 the NC DOT came through and sprayed herbicide on roadside trees and branches, not even sparing the goldenrods, ferns, and other herbaceous plants, and the roadsides still revealed a lot of dead growth in places last summer. The roads could also be managed to reduce roadkill and encourage cyclists and pedestrians, who often risk being hit by speeders and reckless drivers along with the wildlife. Historians have pointed out how cars took over the public roads and companies fought competing forms of transportation, leading to today's still car-centered road management and culture. I'm also reminded of places where someone planted trees, wildflowers, or even daffodils or other ornamentals in their front yard and then a new owner moves in and mows down everything, or a builder or mower destroys roadside masses of yellow tickseeds at peak bloom in September. Apparently current American agricultural practices have also eliminated 'weedy' areas around farmfields, getting rid of milkweeds, and therefore reducing the population of monarch butterflies to an alarming extent. Much of the landscape and its resources are now managed for humans, so allowances have to be made for other plants and animals to live in the human landscape, or they could go extinct.
Durham comprehensive planning input
Provide input to shape Durham's new comprehensive plan and transit plan: engagedurham.com/ComprehensivePlan/
Library booksales
Friends of the Durham Library book sales are scheduled June 1 - 2, August 3 - 4, October 5 - 6, and December 7 - 8, 2020 (Saturday 10am - 12pm is members only, while 12 - 4pm is open to all; Sunday is a $10 dollar grocery bag sale open to all from 1 - 4pm) at the usual Northgate Mall location ( durhamcountylibrary.org/friends/ , fodlnc.org/book-sales/ ). The April 6 - 7th sale has been cancelled. The sales are at a space next to the former location of Sears (but that entrance is closed). There are small satellite sales inside the various branches daily.
If there was supposed to be a spring Library and Information Sciences book sale at UNC, it must have been cancelled.
The next Friends of the Chapel Hill Public Library sale is still scheduled for April 17 - 19th, but might be cancelled: friendschpl.org/
The Wake County Public Libraries' Annual Book Sale scheduled for April 30th - May 3rd at the NC State Fairgrounds in Raleigh ( www.wakegov.com/libraries/events/Pages/booksale.aspx ) has been cancelled. Around 12,000 people came last year, buying more than 202,000 books, and other books went to more than 500 Wake County Public Schools teachers for academic use. This could be the biggest annual booksale in the state.
The Friends of the Chatham County Community Library sale scheduled for April 2 - 4 has been cancelled (I think there are sales at least twice a year): friendsccl.org/
The Friends of the Lee County Library have ongoing sales and occasionally special sales, announced on their website and Facebook: library.leecountync.gov/friends and www.facebook.com/foleelibrary/
Creek Weeks this spring
Durham Creek Week - March 14 - 21: keepdurhambeautiful.org/creek-week
Alamance Creek Week - March 28 - April 4: alamancecreekweek.wordpress.com/
Guilford Creek Week - March 28 - April 4: www.guilfordcreekweek.org/
Forsyth Creek Week - March 21 - 29: forsythcreekweek.squarespace.com/
Mecklenburg Creek Week - March 21 - 28: charlottenc.gov/StormWater/Pages/default.aspx
Durham Creek Week was basically cancelled due to the coronavirus and the others probably will be as well, though people can still do creek week activities on their own or later in the year and would probably be far away from other people, while getting health benefits from being outside and active.
Rowan County has its 2nd annual creek week August 22 - 29:
www.rowancountync.gov/1464/Creek-Week
Monthly tours of the South Wake Landfill and Sonoco Recycling Facility
There are usually free one hour tours of these facilities near Apex once a month on Wednesdays or Saturdays (private tours for groups with 5 to 14 people can be arranged). For more information and registration see: www.wakegov.com/recycling/outreach/Pages/tours.aspx
March is Women's History Month in the USA and apparently also in Australia and the UK, while Canada marks it in October.
March is also Irish-American Heritage Month, Youth Art Month, Music in Our Schools Month, National Reading Awareness Month, Cerebral Palsy Awareness Month, Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Month, National Kidney Month, and others.
After March 1983 it looked like the city of Rancho Palos Verdes (in Los Angeles County, California) had (intentionally?) killed off the last population of the Palos Verde blue butterfly (a subspecies of the more abundant silvery blue), but in 1994 another population was discovered, though it differed from the others in having an additional larval foodplant, and a conservation program was started. The Palos Verde blue was classified as endangered July 2, 1980. Rancho Palos Verde was charged with violating the Endangered Species Act in 1987, but the case was dismissed because at the time only a person could be charged with this crime (this error was fixed in 1988). www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/esa_works/profile_pages/PalosVerdesBlueButterfly.html
www.urbanwildlands.org/pvb.html www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Glaucopsyche-lygdamus terranealife.com/rediscovering-palos-verdes-blue-butterfly/ butterflywebsite.com/endangered-butterflies.cfm
The Xerces blue was driven to extinction by military construction near San Francisco in 1943. The species is remembered in the name of the Xerces Society, an invertebrate conservation group ( www.xerces.org ). The Xerces and Palos Verde blues are in the same genus and their caterpillars eat some of the same plant species. Militarism today contributes to climate change and other problems, threatening to kill off many species this century, even if some endangered species, such as the St. Francis' satyr butterfly and the red-cockaded woodpecker in North Carolina, have unwittingly been temporarily sheltered on military bases. Rare wildlife has also found shelter along militarized borders, such as inside the DMZ across Korea. Supposedly "liberal" California is currently allowing a fish, the delta smelt, to go extinct due to human actions (see for example: www.counterpunch.org/2020/01/24/will-the-extinction-of-delta-smelt-be-governor-gavin-newsoms-environmental-legacy/ ).
German botanist and painter Catharina Helena Dörrien was born March 1, 1717.
Korea's March 1st Movement for the end of Japanese colonial rule began March 1, 1919 with a reading of the Korean Declaration of Independence in Seoul, and was brutally suppressed. See: koryogroup.com/blog/the-march-1st-movement
The Mongolian People's Revolution of 1921 began March 1st.
March 1 is Remembrance Day (Nuclear Victims' Day and Nuclear Survivors' Day) in the Marshall Islands, remembering those impacted by US nuclear tests, conducted when the islands were under direct US control (today there is a "free association" agreement and dependence on the US).
Castle Bravo, the USA's biggest nuclear weapon test and the fifth largest ever, was March 1, 1954 in the Bikini Atoll, part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean. It tested a new type of fusion-based hydrogen or thermonuclear bomb, more powerful than the fission-based atom bombs dropped on Japan. The US tested the first hydrogen bomb at a nearby atoll in 1952, escalating the arms race that could still lead to human extinction. The Castle Bravo test was much more powerful than the physicists expected and radioactive fallout fell on several islands, a US Navy ship, and up to 100 fishing boats outside of the area that had previously been announced as dangerous, including the Japanese bonito fishing ship Daigo Fukuryū Maru. Its 23 crewmen contracted radiation sickness and one died September 23rd, though not directly from radiation sickness, and this caused a an international incident . The fallout also sickened nearby islanders and US military personnel, and blanketed the world in smaller amounts. Bikini was left contaminated, though there is an effort at remediation. The atoll's original inhabitants were shuffled around to different islands and at one point were left starving to death. Testing destroyed some of the small islands, but there is still rich marine life.
The Comintern, the third international organization of revolutionary communist and socialist parties and organizations, was founded during a congress held in Moscow March 2 - 6, 1919 with 34 groups participating.
A prototype Concorde supersonic airliner first took to the air March 2, 1969.
Castle Bravo, the USA's biggest nuclear weapon test and the fifth largest ever, was March 1, 1954 in the Bikini Atoll, part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean. It tested a new type of fusion-based hydrogen or thermonuclear bomb, more powerful than the fission-based atom bombs dropped on Japan. The US tested the first hydrogen bomb at a nearby atoll in 1952, escalating the arms race that could still lead to human extinction. The Castle Bravo test was much more powerful than the physicists expected and radioactive fallout fell on several islands, a US Navy ship, and up to 100 fishing boats outside of the area that had previously been announced as dangerous, including the Japanese bonito fishing ship Daigo Fukuryū Maru. Its 23 crewmen contracted radiation sickness and one died September 23rd, though not directly from radiation sickness, and this caused a an international incident . The fallout also sickened nearby islanders and US military personnel, and blanketed the world in smaller amounts. Bikini was left contaminated, though there is an effort at remediation. The atoll's original inhabitants were shuffled around to different islands and at one point were left starving to death. Testing destroyed some of the small islands, but there is still rich marine life.
The Comintern, the third international organization of revolutionary communist and socialist parties and organizations, was founded during a congress held in Moscow March 2 - 6, 1919 with 34 groups participating.
A prototype Concorde supersonic airliner first took to the air March 2, 1969.
March 2nd is Tree Planting Day in DPR Korea. This is similar to Arbor Day and Earth Day and was instituted by Kim Jong Il. For more information see: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbor_Day#Korea and nsnbc.me/2013/03/02/tree-planting-day-in-the-dpr-korea-embodies-socialist-and-traditional-asian-cultural-values/
March 2, 1978 Vladimír Remek became the first person to go to space who was not from the USSR or USA, he is the only cosmonaut from the former Czechoslovakia (and he represented his country ethnically, having a Czech mother and a Slovak father), and he is considered the first astronaut from the EU. Through the Interkosmos program, he was part of the Soyuz 28 mission March 2 - 10, 1978, visiting the USSR's Salyut 6 space station. He represented the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia in the European Parliament 2004 - 2013 and was appointed Czech ambassador to Russia in January 2014. Asteroid 2552 Remek was named in his honor.
National Reading Day is March 2nd or the closest school day to that date, marking Dr Seuss' (Theodor Seuss "Ted" Geisel's) birth in 1904, and was started in 1997 by the National Education Association.
Bernie Saunders' first 2020 presidential campaign rally was March 2nd at Brooklyn College.
The traditional celebration Hinamatsuri, Doll Festival, or Girls' Day (apparently once known as the Peach Festival) is March 3rd in Japan.
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, signed March 3, 1918 in what is now Belarus, ended hostilities between Soviet Russia and the Central Powers during WWI, leading to several countries being created by the occupiers or declaring independence and other territorial concessions by Russia.
World Wildlife Day is March 3rd: www.un.org/en/events/wildlifeday/
Super Tuesday 2020 Primary Election
The NC Board of Elections now certifies voting machines that could steal the vote electronically, but Durham is still using machines that collect a paper ballot marked by the voter, leaving a voter-marked paper trail for manual recounting.
The NC AFL-CIO endorsed Jessica Holmes for NC Commissioner of Labor and 15 other candidates: aflcionc.org/
Writing after the election: Before March 3rd 'scary' "socialist" Bernie Sanders was the front runner and the coronavirus seemed far away; afterward Biden, representing the Democratic Party's right, became the "presumptive" Democratic candidate (and apparently missing in action or AWOL, or the media isn't covering his activities, and now there are criminal allegations) while ordinary life is locked down and the primaries have been moved.
Information from a State Board of Elections postcard that came about January 31st:
"Voters will not be required to show photo ID for the March 2020 primary election.
No se les exigira, a los votantes que muestren una identificacion can foto durante las elecciones primarias de marzo de 2020."
A Federal district court barred the voter ID requirement on December 31st until further notice.
The deadline for regular voter registration is 5pm Friday, February 7th. On March 3rd the polls will be open from 6:30am to 7:30pm as usual (and usually if someone is in line by 7:30 they will still be able to vote after the polls close). For locations see: vt.ncsbe.gov/PPLkup One-stop early voting will be February 13th - 29th; see your county board of elections for locations and hours: vt.ncsbe.gov/ossite People can vote at any location in their county during early voting and eligible people can register. The deadline to request an absentee ballot by mail is 5pm Tuesday, February 25th (they have to be requested in person or by mail). The form is online at: ncsbe.gov/voting-options I think it is very easy to request a ballot, but witnesses are required when filling it out. For more information, see the state and/or county board of elections. Absentee ballots must be returned by 5pm March 3rd and can't be returned by email or fax.
Norman Bethune (Henry Norman Bethune) was born March 4, 1890 in Gravehurst, Ontario in Canada. In the 30's he joined the Communist Party of Canada. He served as a surgeon on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War and with the Communist Party of China during the Sino-Japanese War. He contracted blood poisoning and died November 12, 1939. He has long been well-known in China (for example, Mao wrote In Memory of Norman Bethune and China's highest medical honor is the Norman Bethune Medal) and more recently in his native Canada and Spain. There is a revolutionary song in French, probably Canadian, "Chanson de Norman Bethune."
In Memory of Norman Bethune is online at:
marx2mao.com/Mao/NB39.html
www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-2/mswv2_25.htm
Following Khrushchev's so-called Secret Speech condemning Stalin, on February 25, 1956, there were pro-Stalin demonstrations in Tbilisi, capital of Stalin's native Georgia March 4 -10th, ending with possibly dozens to hundreds of protesters killed or wounded by Soviet soldiers.
Polish revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg was born March 5, 1871 in Zamość, in what is now southeastern Poland. Luxemberg and Karl Liebknecht founded the Communist Party of Germany January 1, 1919. They were tortured and killed by the rightist Freikorps later that January, with the involvement of the Social Democratic Party. Many of Luxemburg's writings are available online at:
www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/index.htm and a book by Clara Zetkin on Luxemburg's relationship to Russian Revolution is available at redstarpublishers.org/
Some of Liebknecht's writings are online at: www.marxists.org/archive/liebknecht-k/index.htm
Georgian revolutionary and CPSU leader Joseph Stalin passed away March 5, 1953, though it is possible the official date isn't accurate. After Stalin's death, or possibly assassination, revisionists gained control of the USSR, leading to the complete destruction of the USSR in 1991. His works can be found at: marx2mao.com/Stalin/Index.html , www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/index.htm and can often be found at library book sales in Durham and probably elsewhere (as can other classic Marxist works), sometimes cheaper than the when originally printed by International Publishers, etc. Inexpensive new copies in English and Spanish are available from: redstarpublishers.org/
March 5th is Learn from Lei Feng Day in China, and is marked by doing volunteer work. Lei Feng was a young People's Liberation Army soldier killed in a traffic accident August 15, 1962.
The first woman in space, cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, was born March 6, 1937, and went into space June 16, 1963. Later she served in government and Communist Party of the Soviet Union posts.
The 34th annual International Festival of Raleigh will be 10am March 6th to 6pm March 8th at the NC State Fairgrounds: internationalfocus.org/festival/ and www.facebook.com/events/293540454874247/
The 3rd Bull City International Film Festival will be March 7 - 8th: bull-city-film-festival.mozello.com/ and www.facebook.com/Bull-City-International-Film-Festival-945329445855458/
The naval Battle of Hampton Roads was March 8 - 9, 1862 where the James River flows into Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. It was the first battle between ironclad warships, the CSS Virginia and the USS Monitor. Neither ship could sink the other and this was their only battle. The Virginia was built using the hull and engines of the USS Merrimack, still under construction at what is now the Norfolk Naval Shipyard when the Civil War began. The Monitor had a revolutionary, though flawed, design, leading to a new class of warships (monitors) around the world and, with further developments, to the battleships of the early 20th century, which were then eclipsed by aircraft carriers.
International Women's Day is Sunday, March 8th.
The week of March 8th is Women Of Aviation Worldwide Week, commemorating the first pilot license given to a woman, Raymonde de Laroche, on March 8, 1910.
Russian revolutionary and Soviet statesman Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov was born March 9, 1890. There are some documents at: www.marxists.org/archive/molotov/index.htm [and neodemocracy.blogspot.com/search/label/Molotov ]
The US firebombing of Tokyo the night of March 9 - 10, 1945 is thought to have killed 100,000 people, injured a million more, and left one million homeless. It levelled 16 square miles of the densely inhabited city. There were other bombing raids on Tokyo, but this was the most destructive and resulted in more immediate deaths than any other attack during World War II, including the atomic bombings: www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0310-08.htm and Wikipedia.
The first human in space, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, was born March 9, 1934 and went into space April 12, 1961.
March 10th is Harriet Tubman Day: www.harriettubman.com/day.html
The NC AFL-CIO endorsed Jessica Holmes for NC Commissioner of Labor and 15 other candidates: aflcionc.org/
Writing after the election: Before March 3rd 'scary' "socialist" Bernie Sanders was the front runner and the coronavirus seemed far away; afterward Biden, representing the Democratic Party's right, became the "presumptive" Democratic candidate (and apparently missing in action or AWOL, or the media isn't covering his activities, and now there are criminal allegations) while ordinary life is locked down and the primaries have been moved.
Information from a State Board of Elections postcard that came about January 31st:
"Voters will not be required to show photo ID for the March 2020 primary election.
No se les exigira, a los votantes que muestren una identificacion can foto durante las elecciones primarias de marzo de 2020."
A Federal district court barred the voter ID requirement on December 31st until further notice.
The deadline for regular voter registration is 5pm Friday, February 7th. On March 3rd the polls will be open from 6:30am to 7:30pm as usual (and usually if someone is in line by 7:30 they will still be able to vote after the polls close). For locations see: vt.ncsbe.gov/PPLkup One-stop early voting will be February 13th - 29th; see your county board of elections for locations and hours: vt.ncsbe.gov/ossite People can vote at any location in their county during early voting and eligible people can register. The deadline to request an absentee ballot by mail is 5pm Tuesday, February 25th (they have to be requested in person or by mail). The form is online at: ncsbe.gov/voting-options I think it is very easy to request a ballot, but witnesses are required when filling it out. For more information, see the state and/or county board of elections. Absentee ballots must be returned by 5pm March 3rd and can't be returned by email or fax.
Norman Bethune (Henry Norman Bethune) was born March 4, 1890 in Gravehurst, Ontario in Canada. In the 30's he joined the Communist Party of Canada. He served as a surgeon on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War and with the Communist Party of China during the Sino-Japanese War. He contracted blood poisoning and died November 12, 1939. He has long been well-known in China (for example, Mao wrote In Memory of Norman Bethune and China's highest medical honor is the Norman Bethune Medal) and more recently in his native Canada and Spain. There is a revolutionary song in French, probably Canadian, "Chanson de Norman Bethune."
In Memory of Norman Bethune is online at:
marx2mao.com/Mao/NB39.html
www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-2/mswv2_25.htm
Following Khrushchev's so-called Secret Speech condemning Stalin, on February 25, 1956, there were pro-Stalin demonstrations in Tbilisi, capital of Stalin's native Georgia March 4 -10th, ending with possibly dozens to hundreds of protesters killed or wounded by Soviet soldiers.
Polish revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg was born March 5, 1871 in Zamość, in what is now southeastern Poland. Luxemberg and Karl Liebknecht founded the Communist Party of Germany January 1, 1919. They were tortured and killed by the rightist Freikorps later that January, with the involvement of the Social Democratic Party. Many of Luxemburg's writings are available online at:
www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/index.htm and a book by Clara Zetkin on Luxemburg's relationship to Russian Revolution is available at redstarpublishers.org/
Some of Liebknecht's writings are online at: www.marxists.org/archive/liebknecht-k/index.htm
Georgian revolutionary and CPSU leader Joseph Stalin passed away March 5, 1953, though it is possible the official date isn't accurate. After Stalin's death, or possibly assassination, revisionists gained control of the USSR, leading to the complete destruction of the USSR in 1991. His works can be found at: marx2mao.com/Stalin/Index.html , www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/index.htm and can often be found at library book sales in Durham and probably elsewhere (as can other classic Marxist works), sometimes cheaper than the when originally printed by International Publishers, etc. Inexpensive new copies in English and Spanish are available from: redstarpublishers.org/
March 5th is Learn from Lei Feng Day in China, and is marked by doing volunteer work. Lei Feng was a young People's Liberation Army soldier killed in a traffic accident August 15, 1962.
The first woman in space, cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, was born March 6, 1937, and went into space June 16, 1963. Later she served in government and Communist Party of the Soviet Union posts.
The 34th annual International Festival of Raleigh will be 10am March 6th to 6pm March 8th at the NC State Fairgrounds: internationalfocus.org/festival/ and www.facebook.com/events/293540454874247/
The 3rd Bull City International Film Festival will be March 7 - 8th: bull-city-film-festival.mozello.com/ and www.facebook.com/Bull-City-International-Film-Festival-945329445855458/
The naval Battle of Hampton Roads was March 8 - 9, 1862 where the James River flows into Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. It was the first battle between ironclad warships, the CSS Virginia and the USS Monitor. Neither ship could sink the other and this was their only battle. The Virginia was built using the hull and engines of the USS Merrimack, still under construction at what is now the Norfolk Naval Shipyard when the Civil War began. The Monitor had a revolutionary, though flawed, design, leading to a new class of warships (monitors) around the world and, with further developments, to the battleships of the early 20th century, which were then eclipsed by aircraft carriers.
International Women's Day is Sunday, March 8th.
The week of March 8th is Women Of Aviation Worldwide Week, commemorating the first pilot license given to a woman, Raymonde de Laroche, on March 8, 1910.
Russian revolutionary and Soviet statesman Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov was born March 9, 1890. There are some documents at: www.marxists.org/archive/molotov/index.htm [and neodemocracy.blogspot.com/search/label/Molotov ]
The US firebombing of Tokyo the night of March 9 - 10, 1945 is thought to have killed 100,000 people, injured a million more, and left one million homeless. It levelled 16 square miles of the densely inhabited city. There were other bombing raids on Tokyo, but this was the most destructive and resulted in more immediate deaths than any other attack during World War II, including the atomic bombings: www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0310-08.htm and Wikipedia.
The first human in space, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, was born March 9, 1934 and went into space April 12, 1961.
March 10th is Harriet Tubman Day: www.harriettubman.com/day.html
March 11th (or September 26th) is Johnny Appleseed Day.
The Great Touhoku or Sendai Earthquake hit northeastern Japan March 11, 2011, leading to the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
The Soviet/Russian newspaper Izvestia was founded March 13, 1917, representing the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' Deputies.
In the decisive Battle of Dien Bien Phu, March 13 to May 7, 1954, the Viet Minh, under General Võ Nguyên Giáp, defeated the US-backed French military. The First Indochina War ended soon after, as did the government of French prime minister Joseph Laniel. France agreed to withdraw from Indochina, which became divided Vietnam (with an election on re-unification to be held in July 1956), Laos, and Cambodia.
The Great Touhoku or Sendai Earthquake hit northeastern Japan March 11, 2011, leading to the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
The Soviet/Russian newspaper Izvestia was founded March 13, 1917, representing the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' Deputies.
In the decisive Battle of Dien Bien Phu, March 13 to May 7, 1954, the Viet Minh, under General Võ Nguyên Giáp, defeated the US-backed French military. The First Indochina War ended soon after, as did the government of French prime minister Joseph Laniel. France agreed to withdraw from Indochina, which became divided Vietnam (with an election on re-unification to be held in July 1956), Laos, and Cambodia.
Friday, March 13th (the last Friday before the equinox) is World Sleep Day, with the slogan of "Better Sleep, Better Life, Better Planet" this year.
International Days of Action Against Sanctions and Economic War
The UNAC is calling for actions March 13 - 15th against the economic warfare being conducted by the USA and its allies to dominate the world, most effecting the poorer and weaker parts of a sanctioned country's population. UNAC says 39 countries are being targeted, equaling a third of the world's population: sanctionskill.org
Around 3am March 13th Julius Giron, an elderly leader of the Communist Party of the Philippines; his wife Lourdes Tan Torres; and their aide were killed in Baguio City by military and police forces supposedly carrying out an arrest warrant. The government of the Philippines says it wants to negotiate, but killed the "principle peace consultant to the National Democratic Front of the Philippines:" www.fightbacknews.org/2020/3/19/frso-condemns-murder-communist-party-philippines-leader-julius-giron ; cpp.ph/red-salute-to-ka-nars/
Karl Marx passed away March 14, 1883 and is buried in London's Highgate Cemetery.
March 14th is White Day in Japan, a commercially inspired holiday related to Valentine's Day. Apparently White Day is also celebrated in other East Asian countries.
The NC Museum of Natural History's 25th annual Reptile and Amphibian Day was scheduled for Saturday, March 14th, but has been cancelled: naturalsciences.org/calendar/reptile-and-amphibian-day/
The International Day Against Police Brutality is March 15th.
UNC's Davie Poplar Jr was planted in McCorkle Place (the northern quad) March 16, 1918, by the Class of 1918. This tree is a clone of the massive Davie Poplar (a tulip-poplar/yellow-poplar or tuliptree, actually in the magnolia family, and named for Governor William Richardson Davie) which grows nearby; there is a legend that the decision to build the University at this site was made under the Davie Poplar and that the University will die with the tree (fortunately tuliptrees grow fast but can live for hundreds of years). A few clones and descendants of the Davie Poplar have been planted around UNC and there are a number of large tuliptrees, probably blooming later in April or early May (possibly earlier than tuliptrees in Durham) with large yellowish-green and blaze orange flowers attractive to honey bees.
The Battle of Averasboro was March 16, 1865 in eastern North Carolina.
The My Lai Massacre happened March 16, 1968, in which US soldiers killed up to about 500 Vietnamese civilians and also committed rape, mutilated bodies, and burned houses.
Rachel Corrie, an American volunteer in the International Solidarity Movement, was killed, intentionally or unintentionally, by an Israeli military Caterpillar D9 bulldozer on March 16, 2003, during a campaign to resist the demolition of Palestinian homes in Rafah in the Gaza Strip. Corrie was born April 10, 1979. There is a boycott against Caterpillar because it does business with Israel and other countries, knowing their machines will be used in criminal acts ( www.ethicalconsumer.org/ethicalcampaigns/boycotts/israel-boycott ).
Chemical weapons were dropped on the city of Halabja in Iraqi Kurdistan March 16, 1988 during the Iran-Iraq War.
St Patrick's Day is Tuesday, March 17th.
The Advanced Carolina Labor School was scheduled for March 17 - 20th in Raleigh (details at: aflcionc.org/ ).
The Paris Commune began March 18, 1871 after the Franco-Prussian War, and was brutally suppressed by the French government. There were less successful attempts to seize power in other French cities.
The Peace of Riga agreement March 18, 1921 established the Soviet-Polish border that held during the interwar period.
March 18th 1965 Soviet cosmonaut Alexey Leonov became the first person to leave a spacecraft while in space (an EVA or extravehicular activity), and the Soviet space program was also the first to transfer people between spacecraft, carried out the first EVA by a woman, female and male cosmonauts carried out the first metalworking in the vacuum of space, and Soviet cosmonauts hold records for number of EVAs and duration. The first EVA by someone other than a Soviet or an American was in 1988 by a French astronaut based on the Soviet space station Mir. The first American EVA was June 3rd of that year and the US holds some records as well.
The Battle of Bentonville was March 19 - 21, 1865 in Johnston County; the 155th reenactment has been rescheduled to 2021: historicsites.nc.gov/all-sites/bentonville-battlefield
Chinese revolutionary Jiang Qing/Chiang Ching, also known as Madame Mao, was born March 19, 1914.
The Iraq War began around March 19, 2003 ( www.counterpunch.org/2020/03/18/12-ways-the-u-s-invasion-of-iraq-lives-on-in-infamy/ ), though the US engaged in economic and "kinetic" attacks on Iraq throughout the period between 1991 and 2003, making it easier to invade in 2003 and harming or killing many Iraqi civilians, for example by bombing water treatment plants and blocking medical imports. US sanctions against Iran, Venezuela, and other countries today are probably contributing to the death toll of the coronavirus and endangering people outside the targeted countries. There is talk about the unprecedented effect of stay at home orders and quarantines on the economy, though I imagine business largely halted (and utilities were probably shut off and bridges out) in Iraqi cities when the US was bombing and tanks were driving in and more recently during the fighting with the Islamic State (the "Western" mainstream media devotes a lot of coverage to civilian suffering during battles between the Syrian government and its allies and terrorist or rebel groups, while saying little about what happened when the US and others fought IS inside Iraqi and Syrian cities, and even less about what the US-backed "Saudi Coalition" is currently doing in Yemen).
The US, Canada, and European countries attacked Libya March 19, 2011. Russia and others abstained in the enabling UN Security Council vote, but it seems like Russia could have vetoed if it were really opposed and it seems obvious what was going to happen once the UN approved a no-fly zone and 'protection' of civilians (the same plan Hillary Clinton advocated for Syria in 2016). Libya is now another "failed state" with warring factions, created by US and European imperialism, and the EU countries complain about migration through Libya. Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, but launched a new war during his first term in addition to the War on Terror and coups, something Trump has yet to do for all of his reactionary talk, though he still has some time left.
The Spring Equinox is March 19th this year.
Tulsi Gabbard ended her presidential campaign Thursday, March 19th, and endorsed Joe Biden (on the one hand, Biden is likely to win, but she still had a choice of endorsing a candidate representing the right or the left of the Democratic Party, or not making an endorsement; see www.defenddemocracy.press/38557-2/ ). For all of its talk of "diversity" and representation, the media said little about her campaign, though she would have been the first female, Samoan-American, female combat veteran, and Hindu US president, and the youngest president. Is it because she was deemed unlikely to win, before any votes were cast, or because she said things the elites want covered up? Based on her statements regarding US interference in Venezuela, Bolivia, Syria, etc. it seemed like she was more progressive than Bernie Sanders in foreign policy, though this became less clear after she voted to condemn the pro-Palestinian BDS movement. There were complaints about how the diverse field of candidates (which the media initially complained was too big to cover) had been winnowed down to two older white men and a woman (covering over the fact that they represented different policies), despite Gabbard still being in the race, even if it became increasingly unlikely that she could win.
There was an important battle of the Tuscarora War March 20 - 23, 1713 at Fort Neoheroka near Snow Hill in Greene County ( blog.ecu.edu/sites/nooherooka/ ).
World Sparrow Day is March 20th: www.worldsparrowday.org Specifically this day refers to house or English sparrows, which are not native to the US, but are or were common in places like strip malls. Now house finches, native to the West and Mexico, seem to be replacing house sparrows here. House sparrows are also in decline in places where they are native, such as in India. The many American sparrow species aren't closely related to house sparrows.
Arbor Day is Friday, March 20th in North Carolina ( www.arborday.org/celebrate/dates.cfm ). There is usually a Durham Arbor Day celebration.
March 20th is also the UN French Language Day / OIF International Francophonie Day, the UN's International Day of Happiness, World Storytelling Day, and the Great American Meatout, originally a protest against National Meat Week.
Mexican president Benito Pablo Juárez Garcia was born March 21, 1806, honored with a national holiday.
The Hungarian Soviet Republic was declared March 21, 1919, but was overthrown by outside military intervention in August 1919. It was led by Béla Kun, born February 20, 1886.
March 21st is the UN's International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination: www.un.org/en/events/racialdiscriminationday/ and the Week of Solidarity with the Peoples Struggling Against Racism and Racial Discrimination is March 21 - 27: www.un.org/en/sections/observances/international-weeks/index.html
March 21 is also the International Day of Forests ( www.fao.org/international-day-of-forests/en/ ), World Poetry Day, International Colour Day, and World Down Syndrome Day, among others.
March 21, 2020 happens to be Galactic Tick Day ( galactictick.com/ ), marking a small fraction of the solar system's over 200 million year orbit around the center of the Milky Way. The next celebration will be December 14, 2021.
The Haw River Assembly's 30th annual Clean-Up-A-Thon, scheduled for Saturday, March 21st, has been cancelled. Nearly 400 volunteers had signed up this year, and it is still possible to do individual or family cleanups.
Braxton Bragg, the namesake of Fort Bragg, was born March 22, 1817 in Warrenton, North Carolina. He served in the US army during the Second Seminole War and the Mexican-American War. Apparently Ft. Bragg honors him, for his artillery command in Mexico. He was a general in the Confederate army but is often blamed for defeats such as the loss of Wilmington, so naming a Ft. Bragg in NC seemed to be meant as an ironic insult.
Through the USSR's Interkosmos program, the Soyuz 39 mission to the Salyut 6 space station, launched March 22, 1981 included Jügderdemidiin Gürragchaa, Mongolia's first cosmonaut.
March 22nd is World Water Day, which started in 1993. This year's theme is "Leaving no one behind" in clean water access (necessary for public health, among other things): www.un.org/en/events/waterday/
March 23rd is the Day of the Sea in Bolivia, commemorating the loss of Bolivia's access to the Pacific Ocean in the late 19th century War of the Pacific, involving Bolivia, Chile, and Peru. The USA's education system teaches very little about the history of countries bordering the US, let alone in relatively nearby South America, though the US government still believes in the Monroe Doctrine of controlling the Western Hemisphere.
Reagan announced his Strategic Defense Initiative (nicknamed Star Wars) in a televised speech March 23, 1983. A successful Star Wars program would allow the USA to use nuclear weapons and avoid mutually assured destruction. SDI was also criticized as being technologically unfeasible, very costly, and in violation of treaties.
According to Wikipedia, the anti-war organization Not In Our Name (NION) was founded March 23, 2002, and dissolved March 31, 2008.
March 24th is World Tuberculosis Day. March 24th is also the International Day for the Right to the Truth Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims, commemorated March 24th because Monsignor Óscar Arnulfo Romero was assassinated in El Salvador on that day in 1980.
Argentina's Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice is March 24th, the date of a military coup in 1976, and commemorates the victims of the US-supported Dirty War and Operation Condor.
March 25th is the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
Farmworker Awareness Week is March 25 - 31st: www.saf-unite.org/content/partner-saf-farmworker-awareness-week
Birdie Sanders
Remarkably, a songbird, reportedly a female house finch, landed on the podium as Bernie Sanders spoke to a crowd of about 11,500 at an outdoor rally in Portland, Oregon March 25, 2016 (Good Friday): www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/03/26/watch-small-bird-lands-bernie-sanders-podium/82289730/ ; www.huffpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-bird-podium-one-year_n_58d67c55e4b03692bea661ee ; www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/25/bernie-sanders-rally-bird-portland-oregon-portlandia The Guardian quotes Sanders: “I think there may be some symbolism here. I know it doesn’t look like it, but that bird is really a dove asking us [for] world peace.” "Birdie Sanders" is probably the origin of Our Revolution's logo (www.ourrevolution.com/ ). Reportedly Trump and bald eagles don't get along.
The "Saudi Coalition," materially supported by the US under Obama and Trump, intervened in the Yemeni Civil War March 26, 2015, fighting the Houthi coalition (termed Operation Decisive Storm).
Russian revolutionary Sergei Kirov was born March 27, 1886 in what is now Kirov Oblast. He was assassinated December 1, 1934.
Historic Soviet/Russian space station Mir (meaning peace) was sent into the South Pacific March 23, 2001 for lack of funding. Construction began February 19, 1986. People from many countries worked there and there was extensive US-Russian cooperation during the 90's. Until October 2010 Mir held the record for the longest continuous human presence in space. Cosmonaut Valeri Vladimirovich Polyakov lived there for 437 days during the mid-90's.
Farmworker Awareness Week is March 25 - 31st: www.saf-unite.org/content/partner-saf-farmworker-awareness-week
Birdie Sanders
Remarkably, a songbird, reportedly a female house finch, landed on the podium as Bernie Sanders spoke to a crowd of about 11,500 at an outdoor rally in Portland, Oregon March 25, 2016 (Good Friday): www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/03/26/watch-small-bird-lands-bernie-sanders-podium/82289730/ ; www.huffpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-bird-podium-one-year_n_58d67c55e4b03692bea661ee ; www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/25/bernie-sanders-rally-bird-portland-oregon-portlandia The Guardian quotes Sanders: “I think there may be some symbolism here. I know it doesn’t look like it, but that bird is really a dove asking us [for] world peace.” "Birdie Sanders" is probably the origin of Our Revolution's logo (www.ourrevolution.com/ ). Reportedly Trump and bald eagles don't get along.
The "Saudi Coalition," materially supported by the US under Obama and Trump, intervened in the Yemeni Civil War March 26, 2015, fighting the Houthi coalition (termed Operation Decisive Storm).
Russian revolutionary Sergei Kirov was born March 27, 1886 in what is now Kirov Oblast. He was assassinated December 1, 1934.
Historic Soviet/Russian space station Mir (meaning peace) was sent into the South Pacific March 23, 2001 for lack of funding. Construction began February 19, 1986. People from many countries worked there and there was extensive US-Russian cooperation during the 90's. Until October 2010 Mir held the record for the longest continuous human presence in space. Cosmonaut Valeri Vladimirovich Polyakov lived there for 437 days during the mid-90's.
The 21st annual National Farmer Worker Awareness Week is March 25-31: www.saf-unite.org/content/national-farmworker-awareness-week
VUSE boycott picket in Chapel Hill
The Triangle Friends with Farmworkers picket against VUSE at the Chapel Hill Circle K scheduled for Thursday, March 26th 5 - 8pm, has been cancelled: www.facebook.com/events/207478560636032/
A benefit for the Farm Labor Organizing Committee with president Baldemar Velasquez scheduled for April 18th in Durham has been cancelled, but two CDs of songs by Velasquez and the Aquila Negra Band are available at: www.floc.com/wordpress/floc-shop/ (one is sold out, but is probably available on Amazon, etc.).
The North Carolina Green Party gained official recognition March 27, 2018, meaning people can register as Greens and the Green Party can appear on ballots, making it easier for Greens to run for office ( www.ncgreenparty.org/sb656 ).
SOAW scheduled a Training Day and Action Convergence March 27 - 29th in Tucson, Arizona.
Soviet writer Maxim Gorky (Alexei Maximovich Peshkov) was born March 28, 1868. Some of his works are online at: www.marxists.org/archive/gorky-maxim/index.htm and in print from redstarpublishers.org/
Silo Plowshares On March 28, 1986 (Good Friday) five peace activists damaged two Minuteman II ballistic missile silos controlled from Whiteman Air Force Base, near Holden, Missouri. The activists displayed banners including ""Disarmament - An Act of Healing." Working in two groups, they used sledgehammers to damage the tracks used to open the 120-ton silo covers, used masonry hammers to damage sensors, and cut wires. They drew crosses in blood on the silo covers and wrote "Disarm and Live" and "For the Children" with spraypaint on the silo pads. They also indicted the government for violating religious and secular law and indicted churches that abet the arms race. About 40 minutes later they were arrested by military police. They were found guilty of destroying government property and conspiracy. Three were jailed for contempt because they refused to answer questions, such as who alerted CBS' "60 Minutes." The remaining two were again jailed for lack of cooperation in protest of the three jailed for contempt. Four were sentenced to eight years imprisonment and five years probation and one to seven years imprisonment and the same five years probation. All were fined $100 dollars, two had to pay $1680 in restitution and two $424. These summaries come from Swords Into Plowshares: Nonviolent Direct Action for Disarmament, edited by Arthur J Laffin and Anne Montgomery, and published in 1987.
Earth Hour 2020 is Saturday, March 28th 8:30 - 9:30pm, when people are encouraged to turn off unnecessary lights as a symbol of commitment to dealing with climate change and other environmental problems (and it could reduce light pollution for a short time). National Dark-Sky Week is supposed to be held annually the week of the New Moon in April, which is the week of April 20th this year, coinciding with Earth Day on the 22nd, and highlights light pollution and stargazing.
Lavrenti Pavlovich Beria was born March 29, 1899 in what is now Abkhazia, a Soviet autonomous republic that seceded from the Republic of Georgia after Georgia seceded from the USSR. Beria and people associated with him were tried and executed December 23, 1953, paving the way for Khrushchev's rise, though it has been alleged that Beria poisoned Stalin and was involved in other crimes. Some of Beria's works are online at: www.marxists.org/archive/beria/index.htm [ neodemocracy.blogspot.com/search/label/Beria ] and in print from redstarpublishers.org ; there is some discussion of Beria in articles at ml-review.ca/aml/index/subject.html#b
The Maoist New People's Army, armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (English-language website: cpp.ph/ ), was established March 29, 1969 and has been waging armed struggle ever since. The US government classified it as a "terrorist" group in 2002. I think this Smithsonian Folkways CD has music from the same group: folkways.si.edu/philippines-bangon-arise/historical-song-struggle-protest-world/music/album/Smithsonian
March 29th is the unofficial Day of the Young Combatant / Día del joven combatiente in Chile, commemorating the killing of Rafael and Eduardo Vergara Toledo, brothers who allegedly belonged to MIR (Revolutionary Left Movement) during the US and China supported Pinochet dictatorship.
March 30th is Land Day in Palestine.
Russian revolutionary Alexandra Kollontai was born March 31, 1872. See also: www.marxists.org/archive/kollonta/index.htm [ neodemocracy.blogspot.com/search/label/Kolontai ]; redstarpublishers.org/
A US-backed military coup in Brazil beginning March 31, 1964 installed a brutal military government that lasted until 1985, praised by current rightist president Jair Bolsonaro.
According to Wikipedia, the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist), known as the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada for electoral purposes, to separate it from the unrelated Communist Party of Canada, was founded March 31, 1970. Some music from the CPCML is online at: www.youtube.com/channel/UCGM05kHPxsmToUjm-sSZefg
According to Wikipedia, Equal Pay Day, highlighting unequal pay between the sexes, is March 31st.
Among other 'months,' April is Arab American Heritage Month, National Volunteer Month, Mathematics and Statistics Awareness Month, Community College Awareness Month, National Volunteer Month, National Poetry/Poetry Writing Month, Financial Literacy Month, Donate Life Month, and Sexual Assault Awareness Month, among other annual commemorations.
Witness for Peace Southeast's annual Pilgrimage for Peace and Justice walk across North Carolina should be in early April, unless it has been cancelled because of the coronavirus.
The Spanish Civil War ended April 1, 1939, with the Nationalists, aided by Germany, Italy, Portugal, and others, overthrowing the Second Republic, aided by the USSR, Mexico, secretly by France, and others. Many volunteers from other countries fought on both sides.
April 1st is Fossil Fools Day noting the foolishness of burning more fossil fuels and polluting the atmosphere, started in 2004. Traditional April Fool's Day has been marked for at least hundreds of years. April 1st is also Edible Book Day.
The Sacred Stone Camp, a center of resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline, was established April 1, 2016. There was recently a court ruling in favor of the protesters.
The Triangle Land Conservancy has Conservation Conversations scheduled for April 1st and 8th at 6pm. The presentation on March 25th was streamed through Zoom instead of meeting in person ( www.triangleland.org/blog ).
German naturalist and artist Maria Sibylla Merian was born April 2, 1647. She is especially known for studying insects and spent a few years studying the plants and animals of what is today Suriname. Several species have been named for her and she was honored on a West German postage stamp, the 500 Deutsche Mark note, and in 2013 on Google's homepage.
The Civil War Siege of Petersburg, Virginia ended April 2, 1865, resulting in Grant's army taking Petersburg and Richmond and Lee surrendering a few days later in Appomattox. Petersburg foreshadowed WWI with 30 miles of trenches and is supposed to have been the campaign with the most US black soldiers, varying between 9000 and 16,000 soldiers during the almost year-long campaign. At the time about half of the population of Petersburg was black and it was considered the city with the highest free black population. Free and enslaved people labored for the Confederate war effort and by late March 1865 the CSA decided to recruit black soldiers, but the war would be all but over within a few weeks.
April 2 is International Children's Book Day.
Soviet WW2 sniper Roza Georgiyevna Shanina was born April 3, 1924 in the village of Yedma in Arkhangelsk Oblast (in northwest Russia). She is supposed to have been named after Polish communist Rosa Luxemburg. At 14 she walked about 120 miles to go to college in Arkhangelsk , after having had to walk about 8 miles to get to middle school in another village. Shanina joined the Komsomol youth organization in 1938. Germany bombed Arkhangelsk and after one of her brothers was killed fighting in the Siege of Leningrad she asked to enlist. She was the first woman fighting on the 3rd Belorussian Front to be decorated with the Order of Glory. Once she is supposed to have been in a trench with eleven other female snipers when they were charged by about 50 Germans, who the Soviet soldiers captured or killed. Shanina died while fighting in what was then East Prussia January 28, 1945. She had surreptitiously kept a war diary, which was published in 1965, leading to streets being name for her and other commemorations, including in recent years.
The Jeju Uprising on Jeju Island off the south end of what is now the Republic of Korea officially began April 3, 1948 and ended in 1949, after tens of thousands had been killed. The ROK police and military apologized for the brutal suppression of the uprising April 3 last year. The US military directly controlled the southern part of Korea during most of this time and later the US had indirect control through the undemocratic ROK government it established.
Through the USSR's Interkosmos program, the Soyuz T-11 mission to the Salyut 7 space station, launched April 3, 1984, included Rakesh Sharma, India's first cosmonaut.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was formed April 4, 1949, while the Warsaw Pact was formed May 14, 1955. NATO was formed to keep capitalist Europe under US hegemony and threaten the socialist bloc in Europe. After the Cold War ended, NATO expanded further east (and now even wants to add world war tinderboxes like Georgia), breaking pledges that were made to Russia, and it now carries out aggression in Africa and Asia and might add South America.
Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated April 4, 1968 while organizing in support of black public workers in Memphis.
Turkish revolutionary Garbis Altinoglu was born April 4, 1946.
[Obituary posted here last October:
The passing of Garbis Altinoglu
Garbis Altinoglu (pen name Gumus Velli) passed away in mid October and his funeral was October 21st in Belgium. At one time he was a leader in the underground Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Turkey and was active in the International Struggle Marxist-Leninist project more recently. He was born April 4, 1946 in Armenia but lived in Turkey from a young age. After the military coup in 1980 he was arrested and held for 11 years, with torture and harsh conditions, after which he was exiled and became a refugee in Belgium. He wrote or translated a number of essays and books; for some of his English-language works posted online see: ml-review.ca/aml/AllianceIssues/ALL37-GARBISPRISONS2000.HTM , on repression, political prisoners, torture, and assassinations in Turkey up to 2000 (but still relevant today, as can be seen in Turkey's continuing suppression of leftists and activism and its fight against Kurdish self-determination both inside Turkey and in Syria and Iraq); ml-review.ca/aml/AllianceIssues/HIZBULLAHGA2000.HTM ; and ml-review.ca/aml/AllianceIssues/ALL35MLCP%28TURKEY%29GA2000.HTM , outlining some of the history of the communist movement in Turkey. A biographical article is planned for ml-today.com/ and there is a short biography at: theredphoenixapl.org/2019/10/27/in-memory-of-comrade-garbis-altinoglu-1946-2019/ ]
[Some of his works are online at: neodemocracy.blogspot.com/search/label/Garbis%20Alt%C4%B1noglu ]
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| One of his books, Portrait of a Terrorist State, published in 2001 ©. |
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| Table of contents © |
The Falklands War, between the military government of Argentina and the UK, began April 2, 1982 and ended June 14th.
Annual BW Wells Heritage Day was scheduled for April 4th at the BW Wells access at Falls Lake State Recreation Area ( www.ncparks.gov/falls-lake-state-recreation-area/home ), but has been cancelled: www.facebook.com/BW-Wells-Association-243262939064285/
Geologists Day is April 5th (the first Sunday in April) and began in the USSR to commemorate an oil discovery.
Brian Avery, an International Solidarity Movement volunteer, was shot in the face by Israeli soldiers in an unprovoked attack April 5, 2003 in the West Bank, Palestine town of Jenin, leaving him with disfiguring injuries and other health problems. According to Wikipedia Israel denied any soldiers were in the area at the time, but Israel paid Avery $150,000 dollars to drop a lawsuit in 2008. Avery is from Connecticut but spent part of his childhood in Chapel Hill and was an student at UNC-Greensboro and last I heard lives in the state.
Tartan Day is April 6th.
The bloody Battle of Shiloh was April 6 - 7, 1862 in Tennessee.
The USA officially entered WWI April 6, 1917, declaring war against Germany. The US had been indirectly supporting the Allies before entering the war against the Central powers in the inter-imperialist war.
Following a coup that toppled an Axis-allied government, Germany bombed Belgrade, April 6 - 8, 1941, killing thousands, and then invaded with Italy, which was already occupying Albania. The UK bombed targets in Axis ally Bulgaria, though it was not formally at war with Bulgaria at the time. Yugoslavia surrendered April 17th and was later liberated by Yugoslav and Albanian partisans.
Writer Marjory Stoneman Douglas was born April 7, 1890 in Minneapolis. She wrote The Everglades: River of Grass, published in 1947, and is known for her work to preserve Florida;s Everglades as well as activism for women's suffrage, civil rights, civil liberties, the Equal Rights Amendment, and other causes.
Lê Duẩn, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam during the struggle against American imperialism, was born April 7, 1907 and died July 10, 1986. Some of his writings are online at: www.marxists.org/reference/archive/le-duan/index.htm
Fascist Italy invaded Albania April 7 - 12, 1939. Albanian partisans fought the Italians and then the Germans, becoming (with Yugoslavia) one of only two European countries to liberate themselves without an outside army crossing their border.
The Rwandan Genocide began April 7th and ended July 15, 1994.
Indian revolutionary Moni Guha died April 7, 2009: www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv16n1/moniguha.htm , moniguha.blogspot.com/ , [ otheraspect.org/category/moni-guha/ ] [ neodemocracy.blogspot.com/search/label/Moni%20Guha ] Some of his writings are available at redstarpublishers.org and there should be polemics at ml-review.ca/aml/index/subject.html
April 8th is International Romani Day.
Singer, actor, and activist Paul Robeson was born April 9, 1898. There are links to his English versions of the WWII era Soviet and Chinese anthems in a previous post: durhamspark.blogspot.com/2017/04/communist-fight-songs-and-musical.html and he has a Marxist Internet Archive page at: www.marxists.org/archive/robeson/index.htm
Singer, actor, and activist Paul Robeson was born April 9, 1898. There are links to his English versions of the WWII era Soviet and Chinese anthems in a previous post: durhamspark.blogspot.com/2017/04/communist-fight-songs-and-musical.html and he has a Marxist Internet Archive page at: www.marxists.org/archive/robeson/index.htm
April 9, 1948 a neutral Palestinian village near Jerusalem, Deir Yassin, was attacked by Zionist terrorist groups, which later joined the Israeli military. The residents were killed during and after the fighting and today the Kfar Shaul Mental Health Center stands on the site of Deir Yassin, and includes some remaining Palestinian buildings.
Santiago Rafael Cruz, an employee of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee working at their office in Monterrey, Mexico was assassinated April 9, 2007. The crime might remain unsolved.
Siblings Day is April 10th every year.
German social-democrat Ferdinand Lassalle was born April 11, 1825 in what is now Wrocław, Poland.
Protests overthrew president Syngman Rhee in the ROK April 11 - 26, 1960, known as the April Revolution.
Enver Hoxha, Albanian partisan during WWII and later first secretary of the Party of Labor of Albania, passed away April 11, 1985. For more information see: www.enver-hoxha.net/ ; (in Russian): www.enverhoxha.ru/ , www.oneparty.co.uk/compass/compass/com13601.html , www.oneparty.co.uk/compass/compass/com13604.html (by Ilir Hoxha), www.mltranslations.org/Albania/index.htm , marx2mao.com/Other/Index.html#EH , www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/index.htm , ml-review.ca/aml/index/subject.html , [ neodemocracy.blogspot.com/search/label/Enver%20Hodja ,] and some of his works are available in print from redstarpublishers.org/
There was a coup against elected Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez April 11, 2002 (who Bernie Sanders called something like "a dead communist dictator"), something the Trump administration and leading Democrats would like to repeat against the elected government of Nicolas Maduro.
British student and International Solidarity Movement volunteer Tom Hurndall was shot in the head by an Israeli soldier April 11, 2003 in Rafah, Gaza. Hurndall was left comatose and died January 13, 2004. The shooter, Taysir Hayb, was sentenced to 8 years in prison and released after 6 and a half. Earlier Hurndall went to Iraq as part of a campaign to provide volunteer human shields to protect civilian infrastructure from Coalition bombing. The US government and Human Rights Watch condemned the shields, and the US considered prosecuting American volunteers as war criminals.
April 12 is Halifax Day, commemorating the Halifax Resolves in 1776, beginning the process of separation from Britain, a date also emblazoned on North Carolina's flag.
The US Civil War began and ended in April. The bombardment of Fort Sumter in Charlestown Harbor began April 12, 1861. The Civil War ended with several separate surrenders. Robert E Lee surrendered his forces at Appomattox, Virginia April 9, 1865. The largest Confederate surrender occurred at Bennett Place, now in Durham, when Joseph E Johnston surrendered his forces in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida April 26th. Lee had surrendered April 9th. Bennett Place State Historic Site plans to hold its 155th Annual Surrender Commemoration April 25 - 26th (10am - 4pm and 10am - 3pm), with a re-enactment, tours, and talks by historians ( www.bennettplacehistoricsite.com/special-events ). Admission costs $10 dollars for adults and $5 dollars for children ages 3 to 16. Besides its historical value, Bennett Place is significant ecologically, since the land has been mostly left alone. According to Wikipedia, the last Confederate general to surrender was Cherokee leader Stand Watie, June 23rd, but the last surrender was Confederate commerce raider CSS Shenandoah, November 6, 1865 in Liverpool in the UK. It could be argued that the Civil War continued into the Reconstruction period, which ended in 1877.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt died April 12, 1945, placing Vice President Harry Truman in power.
April 12th is the UN International Human Space Flight Day/Cosmonautics Day/Yuri's Night in honor of the first human space flight and orbit of the Earth, by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in the Vostok 1 spacecraft, in 1961. Apparently the first orbital flight by a space shuttle happened to be on this day in 1981. US Astronauts Day is supposed to be every year on the last Friday in January.
Former 2020 Democratic presidential primary candidate Tulsi Gabbard was born April 12, 1981 in the US Pacific Ocean colony of American Samoa. Her father, apparently socially conservative, was born in American Samoa and was of Samoan and European ethnicity (see Wikipedia and www.tulsi2020.com/about/tulsi-gabbard-childhood-early-years ).
American bourgeois-democratic revolutionary and later US president, Thomas Jefferson, was born April 13, 1743 in Albemarle County, Virginia.
The Battle of Morrisville was April 13 - 15, 1865 in western Wake County and was apparently the last official battle between Johnston and Sherman's armies in North Carolina. I read that at some point there was a skirmish somewhere along New Hope Creek in southern Durham.
Georg Lukács, a Marxist philosopher and literary critic and Minister of Culture in the Hungarian Soviet Republic, was born April 13, 1885 in Budapest. Many of his works are online, in English, at: www.marxists.org/archive/lukacs/index.htm
Tanzanian socialist Julius Kambarage Nyerere was born April 13, 1922 in what was then Tanganyika (Tanganyika and Zanzibar united April 26, 1964 to create Tanzania). A biography and two of his works are online at: www.marxists.org/subject/africa/nyerere/index.htm
The US, UK, and France attacked Syria April 13, 2018, claiming it was retaliation for the alleged use of chemical weapons, though the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia use white phosphorus and tear gas as chemical weapons, overlooked chemical weapons use during the Iran-Iraq War, and the US and European imperialists have long wanted to regain control of Syria, part of the Ottoman Empire and then a French colony, and one of the last countries offering resistance to Israeli aggression.
The last known female Yangtze giant softshell turtle and one of the last individuals in captivity died around April 13, 2019. These large, very aquatic Southeast Asian turtles are being harmed by hunting, habitat loss due to dams, etc., and pollution, though there is a chance the species could survive. There are species of softshell turtle, though much smaller, in the southern US, including one in North Carolina.
Many of the tribes that had fought with the colonists in North Carolina's Tuscarora War decided soon afterward to ally against the colonists themselves and launched the Yamasee War, centered in South Carolina, the night of April 14, 1715. The war lasted into 1717 or longer and is supposed to have been one of the bloodiest in US history.
World Art Day is April 15th, coinciding with Leonardo da Vinci's birth in 1452.
Many of the tribes that had fought with the colonists in North Carolina's Tuscarora War decided soon afterward to ally against the colonists themselves and launched the Yamasee War, centered in South Carolina, the night of April 14, 1715. The war lasted into 1717 or longer and is supposed to have been one of the bloodiest in US history.
World Art Day is April 15th, coinciding with Leonardo da Vinci's birth in 1452.
Abraham Lincoln was assassinated April 14, 1865.
Black Day, April 14th, is a day for single people in the ROK.
START II (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) went into effect April 14, 2000.
Korean national liberation fighter, revolutionary, and statesman Kim Il-Sung was born April 15, 1912. Some of his works are online at: www.marxists.org/archive/kim-il-sung/index.htm and www.naenara.com.kp/main/index/en/politics?arg_val=leader3 I think UNC's Davis Library has his collected works and other books, and they might be available at other university libraries in the Triangle.
Revisionist Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was also born April 15, 1894 in southwest Russia (now in Kursk Oblast). He has a Marxist Internet Archive page at: www.marxists.org/archive/khrushchev/index.htm
Ronald Reagan bombed Libya April 15, 1986, killing many military personnel and civilians, reportedly including an infant child of Qaddafi. Libya shot down an F-111, killing the two person crew. In 2011 Obama and Hillary Clinton used so-called humanitarian interventionism as a pretext to achieve the long-term US and European imperialist goal of neutralizing Libya. A few years earlier Libya had given up its weapons of mass destruction programs, a lesson to the DPRK about trusting pledges made by the American imperialist government, and John Bolton makes a point of highlighting this, undermining US-DPRK negotiations, one of the few beneficial foreign policy initiatives by the Trump administration, though leading Congressional Democrats seem to prefer it when Trump talks about starting a major war.
Ernst Thälmann, leader of the Communist Party of Germany during the Weimar period, was born April 16, 1886, and shot in Buchenwald August 18, 1944 after years of solitary confinement. The Nazis claimed he was killed by Allied bombing. Many groups were named for him, such as the Thälmann Brigade of German volunteers fighting in the Spanish Civil War on the side of the Republic, and there are songs such as "The Thaelmann-Column" and "Marsch der Thaelmann-Pioniere." [also Thalmannlied] There are possibly questionable translations of some of his works at: aredinohio.wordpress.com/ernst-thalmann-library/
Tsarist soldiers killed or wounded hundreds of striking workers at the Lena River goldfields April 17, 1912.
Margot Feist Honecker was born April 17, 1927 in the Halle, Germany. During her political career she was a leader of the Free German Youth, chair of the Ernst Thälmann Pioneer Organization, was elected to the GDR's legislature, and served as Minister of National Education. In 2008 she received an honor from Nicaragua for aiding the Sandinista literacy campaign during the 80's. She was married to Erich Honecker, a general secretary of the Socialist Unity Party.
A barely disguised US proxy army created by the CIA invaded Cuba at the Bay of Pigs beginning April 17, 1961 (though acts of war had been committed days earlier), but was routed within a few days. In Cuba the battle is named after Playa Girón (Girón Beach). It has been speculated that the defeat was a motive for forces within the US government to assassinate President Kennedy in November 1963.
British political economist David Ricardo was born in London April 18, 1772.
British political economist David Ricardo was born in London April 18, 1772.
UNESCO's International Day for Monuments and Sites / World Heritage Day is April 18th.
Trident II Pruning Hooks
Trident II Pruning Hooks
April 18, 1985 six anti-nuclear weapons activists damaged three Trident II missile tubes at General Dynamics Electric Boat's Quonset Point facility in North Kingston, Rhode Island. Six tubes had been damaged October 1, 1984. They hammered the tubes, put blood on them, wrote Dachau with spraypaint, and left a "Call to Conscience" accusing the company of supporting war crimes. They also performed a Jewish and Christian religious ceremony. They were arrested soon after and charged with the possession of tools for burglary, malicious damage to property, and criminal trespassing, with an $18,000 dollar bond. Three were released after weeks in jail with a promise to appear, while three others chose to stay in jail on conscientious grounds, but were released just before the trail. There was a two-week trial before a jury, with a justification defense being barred. They were found guilty and sentenced to three years imprisonment, changed to a one year suspended sentence with credit for their previous time in jail and two years of probation. Three appealed.
Greensboro plans to celebrate Earth Day April 18th 11am - 4pm at Greensboro County Park.
The 2020 National Cannabis Festival will be Saturday, April 18th 12 - 8pm at the RFK Stadium in Washington, DC ( www.facebook.com/events/604500546690963/ ).
A benefit for the Farm Labor Organizing Committee featuring president Baldemar Velasquez scheduled for April 18th in Durham has been cancelled. There are two CDs of songs by Velasquez and the Aquila Negra Band: www.floc.com/wordpress/floc-shop/ (one is sold out, but could probably be found on Amazon, etc.).
April 19th is apparently National Garlic Day and National Rice Ball Day in the USA.
National Library Week is April 19 - 25: www.ala.org/conferencesevents/celebrationweeks/natlibraryweek
International Dark-Sky Week is April 19 - 26th: www.darksky.org/
The Jordan Lake Family Fishing Fiesta was scheduled to be Sunday, April 19th 11am - 3pm at Jordan Lake State Recreation Area's White Oak access, but must have been cancelled: www.ncparks.gov/jordan-lake-state-recreation-area/events-and-programs The state parks are open, but facilities such as visitor centers, bathrooms, campgrounds, etc. are closed: www.ncparks.gov/
April 20, 1914 in Ludlow, Colorado the Colorado National Guard and agents of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company supported by machine guns attacked a tent camp housing about 1200 striking workers and their families. The attack lasted all day and is called the Ludlow Massacre, and was carried out months into the Colorado Coalfield War, which lasted for more than a year.
The UN's Chinese Language Day is April 20th.
An explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico April 20, 2010 killed 11 workers (a total of 126 were onboard that day) and led to history's largest oil spill. The rig sank April 22nd and an oil slick was visible on the surface. The leaking well, about 5000 feet underwater, was not considered sealed until September 19, 2010.
A rightist military junta (the Regime of the Colonels) took power in Greece April 21, 1967 and lasted until July 1974.
Russian revolutionary and Soviet statesman Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov Lenin was born 150 years ago, April 22, 1870. Many of his works are online at: marx2mao.com/Lenin/Index.html and www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/index.htm and can often be found at library book sales in Durham and probably elsewhere (as can other classic Marxist works), sometimes cheaper than the when originally printed by International Publishers, etc. Inexpensive new copies in English and Spanish are available from: redstarpublishers.org/
Italian-American anarchist Nicola Sacco was born April 22, 1891. Together with another Italian-American anarchist, Bartolomeo Vanzetti (born June 11, 1888), Sacco was executed August 23, 1927 for two murders committed during a robbery April 15, 1920 in Braintree, Massachusetts. Sacco and Vanzetti were famous worldwide as political prisoners and there was a lot of organizing around the case and many places and groups have been named after them. In 1977 Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis signed a proclamation that Sacco and Vanzetti had been unfairly convicted and executed and should not bear any "disgrace" for the alleged crime, though he did not say that they were actually innocent or officially pardon them.
Earth Day turns 50 this year (it began in 1970), Wednesday, April 22nd, but thanks to the coronavirus crisis, it might not be much celebrated.
Donations to the Triangle Land Conservancy, which has preserved over 20,000 acres in the Triangle since its founding February 17, 1983 (including publicly accessible preserves with trails currently open and often near empty), on Earth Day (TLC Giving Day) will be matched up to $25,000 dollars: www.triangleland.org/givingday
Pershing Plowshares
April 22, 1984 (Easter Morning) seven Americans (including Patrick O'Neill, then a student and "peace worker" from Greenville) and a Swedish student and peace worker went into an Orlando, Florida Martin Marietta, where they hammered and put their blood on Pershing II ballistic missile parts and a Patriot missile launcher at a Martin Marietta facility. They indicted the company on religious grounds and international and US law for manufacturing nuclear weapons and unfurled a banner saying "Violence Ends Where Love Begins." Hours later they were arrested. They were given a Federal jury trial, without being able to make a justification defense. They were found guilty of depredation of government property and conspiracy, and sentenced to three years imprisonment, five-year suspended sentences with probation, and restitution of $2900 dollars each. Their appeals and motions for sentence reduction were denied. The Swedish activist spent more than a year in prison before being deported.
NATO bombed the headquarters of Radio Television Serbia April 23, 1999, killing 16 civilian employees. Apparently the general manager was jailed for not ordering an evacuation, but no one has been punished for the bombing, though Amnesty International called it a war crime, Human Rights Watch condemned it, and apparently even the French government was opposed to it. According to the BBC the station was only silenced for 4 hours. NATO bombed Yugoslavia from March 24th to June 10th. From the way NPR, etc. discuss war they don't seem to realize that US policies and those of other countries have normalized targeting and prosecuting the media, professional journalists, citizen journalists, and whistleblowers. War might not always stay far away across the oceans and Julian Assange is being held by the UK right now.
Easter Rising for Irish independence began April 24, 1916.
The World Day for Laboratory Animals is April 24th. World Day for Laboratory Animals / World Lab Animals Day is April 24th, started by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in 1980.
Space Shuttle Discovery lifted off on April 24, 1990 carrying the Hubble Space Telescope. The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster led to the HST being kept in storage for years. Once in orbit space shuttles visited Hubble five times for servicing, the first time to install a workaround for a faulty mirror. The last servicing mission, in May 2009, extended the HST's lifespan, but without the shuttles the Hubble will probably be destroyed after it goes out of service, instead of being repaired or retrieved.
The Grand Opening Triangle Land Conservancy's Bailey and Sarah Williamson Preserve was supposed to be April 25th, but has been postponed, date TBD ( www.triangleland.org/blog ). The other preserves, with 35 miles of hiking trails, remain open.
Italian-American anarchist Nicola Sacco was born April 22, 1891. Together with another Italian-American anarchist, Bartolomeo Vanzetti (born June 11, 1888), Sacco was executed August 23, 1927 for two murders committed during a robbery April 15, 1920 in Braintree, Massachusetts. Sacco and Vanzetti were famous worldwide as political prisoners and there was a lot of organizing around the case and many places and groups have been named after them. In 1977 Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis signed a proclamation that Sacco and Vanzetti had been unfairly convicted and executed and should not bear any "disgrace" for the alleged crime, though he did not say that they were actually innocent or officially pardon them.
Earth Day turns 50 this year (it began in 1970), Wednesday, April 22nd, but thanks to the coronavirus crisis, it might not be much celebrated.
Donations to the Triangle Land Conservancy, which has preserved over 20,000 acres in the Triangle since its founding February 17, 1983 (including publicly accessible preserves with trails currently open and often near empty), on Earth Day (TLC Giving Day) will be matched up to $25,000 dollars: www.triangleland.org/givingday
Pershing Plowshares
April 22, 1984 (Easter Morning) seven Americans (including Patrick O'Neill, then a student and "peace worker" from Greenville) and a Swedish student and peace worker went into an Orlando, Florida Martin Marietta, where they hammered and put their blood on Pershing II ballistic missile parts and a Patriot missile launcher at a Martin Marietta facility. They indicted the company on religious grounds and international and US law for manufacturing nuclear weapons and unfurled a banner saying "Violence Ends Where Love Begins." Hours later they were arrested. They were given a Federal jury trial, without being able to make a justification defense. They were found guilty of depredation of government property and conspiracy, and sentenced to three years imprisonment, five-year suspended sentences with probation, and restitution of $2900 dollars each. Their appeals and motions for sentence reduction were denied. The Swedish activist spent more than a year in prison before being deported.
NATO bombed the headquarters of Radio Television Serbia April 23, 1999, killing 16 civilian employees. Apparently the general manager was jailed for not ordering an evacuation, but no one has been punished for the bombing, though Amnesty International called it a war crime, Human Rights Watch condemned it, and apparently even the French government was opposed to it. According to the BBC the station was only silenced for 4 hours. NATO bombed Yugoslavia from March 24th to June 10th. From the way NPR, etc. discuss war they don't seem to realize that US policies and those of other countries have normalized targeting and prosecuting the media, professional journalists, citizen journalists, and whistleblowers. War might not always stay far away across the oceans and Julian Assange is being held by the UK right now.
Easter Rising for Irish independence began April 24, 1916.
The World Day for Laboratory Animals is April 24th. World Day for Laboratory Animals / World Lab Animals Day is April 24th, started by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in 1980.
Space Shuttle Discovery lifted off on April 24, 1990 carrying the Hubble Space Telescope. The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster led to the HST being kept in storage for years. Once in orbit space shuttles visited Hubble five times for servicing, the first time to install a workaround for a faulty mirror. The last servicing mission, in May 2009, extended the HST's lifespan, but without the shuttles the Hubble will probably be destroyed after it goes out of service, instead of being repaired or retrieved.
2020 North Carolina Statewide Star Party
Stargazing events across the State were planned April 24 - 25, as part of the NC Science Festival throughout April, but it has been cancelled due to the pandemic: www.ncsciencefestival.org/starparty
Save the Frogs Day is the last Saturday in April, the 25th this year ( www.savethefrogs.com/d/day/index.html ).The Grand Opening Triangle Land Conservancy's Bailey and Sarah Williamson Preserve was supposed to be April 25th, but has been postponed, date TBD ( www.triangleland.org/blog ). The other preserves, with 35 miles of hiking trails, remain open.
There will be a National Car Day of Protests, with the demand "Cancel the rents! If we can't work, we can't pay!" April 25th: www.canceltherents.org/
April 26th is National Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day.
April 26th is World Intellectual Property Day, with the 2020 theme Innovate for a Green Future: www.wipo.int/ip-outreach/en/ipday/
Nikos Zachariadis, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Greece during the Civil War, was born April 27, 1903. He lived in exile in the USSR after 1949, becoming a thorn in the side of Khrushchev's revisionist USSR and either committed suicide or was assassinated August 1, 1973. For more information, see: anasintaxi-en.blogspot.com/2007/09/three-versions-of-nikos-zachariadiss.html and www.marxists.org/archive/zachariadis/index.htm
The People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan launched the Saur Revolution April 27, 1978, followed by US support for Islamist terrorists, beginning before the Soviet intervention in December 1979 that overthrew the more radical faction of the PDPA. The Afghan government fell after March 18, 1992, but outlasted the Soviet withdrawal in 1989 and the overthrow of the revisionist Soviet government in 1991. This was followed by a civil war among the Islamists and later the formation of the Taliban. The current Afghan government marks Mujahideen Victory Day every April 28th. Afghanistan wasn't always as "medieval" as it became after the civil wars and terrorism, fueled by the US, Pakistan, China, and other countries.
April 28th is World Day for Safety and Health at Work: www.un.org/en/events/safeworkday/
Bill Bland was born April 28, 1916 in Ashton-under-Lyne, UK. He was a founder of the Albanian Society, the Communist League of Great Britain, and the Stalin Society, was involved in Alliance Marxist-Leninist and International Struggle Marxist-Leninist, and produced many works as well as translating documents from Albania. He died March 13, 2001. For more information see: www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv7n2/blandobit.htm (obituary) , www.oneparty.co.uk/compass/intercom/blandmem.html , ml-review.ca/aml/index/subject.html#b , www.mltranslations.org/Britain/StalinBB.htm , www.marxists.org/archive/bland/ , ml-review.ca/aml/index/subject.html#b , [ neodemocracy.blogspot.com/search/label/Bill%20Bland ,] and available in print from redstarpublishers.org/
April 28th is Restoration of Sovereignty Day in Japan, marking the end of the US occupation in 1952. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe proposed the commemoration in 2012, but it is controversial, for example there were demonstrations in Okinawa in 2013, because much of the continuing US military presence in Japan is based in Okinawa. It is questionable how much sovereignty Japan has, if former prime minister Yukio Hatoyama asked the USA to move one or more bases, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton could refuse, but maybe that is not exactly what happened.
The last French soldiers withdrew from Vietnam April 28, 1956, but US intervention increased and turned into the Vietnam War.
Workers' Memorial Day is Tuesday, April 28th, and there is usually an NC AFL-CIO commemoration in Raleigh.
International Noise Awareness Day is Wednesday, April 29th (the last Wednesday in April). raises awareness about noise pollution and the health and environmental problems excessive noise causes.
The rightist Constitution Party, one of five parties with official ballot access in North Carolina, is scheduled to hold its national convention April 29 - May 2 in St. Louis.
The Battle of Chancellorsville was April 30 - May 6, 1863 in Spotsylvania County, Virginia.
Saigon was liberated and Vietnam's long war to end colonial domination and reunite the country ended April 30, 1975, though the US military had withdrawn in 1973.
Children's Book Week is scheduled for April 30th to May 6th ( everychildareader.net/cbw/ ) .
April 26th is National Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day.
April 26th is World Intellectual Property Day, with the 2020 theme Innovate for a Green Future: www.wipo.int/ip-outreach/en/ipday/
Nikos Zachariadis, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Greece during the Civil War, was born April 27, 1903. He lived in exile in the USSR after 1949, becoming a thorn in the side of Khrushchev's revisionist USSR and either committed suicide or was assassinated August 1, 1973. For more information, see: anasintaxi-en.blogspot.com/2007/09/three-versions-of-nikos-zachariadiss.html and www.marxists.org/archive/zachariadis/index.htm
April 27th is also National Independent Bookstore Day, but has been moved to August 29th this year ( www.indiebookstoreday.com/ )
April 28th is World Day for Safety and Health at Work: www.un.org/en/events/safeworkday/
Bill Bland was born April 28, 1916 in Ashton-under-Lyne, UK. He was a founder of the Albanian Society, the Communist League of Great Britain, and the Stalin Society, was involved in Alliance Marxist-Leninist and International Struggle Marxist-Leninist, and produced many works as well as translating documents from Albania. He died March 13, 2001. For more information see: www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv7n2/blandobit.htm (obituary) , www.oneparty.co.uk/compass/intercom/blandmem.html , ml-review.ca/aml/index/subject.html#b , www.mltranslations.org/Britain/StalinBB.htm , www.marxists.org/archive/bland/ , ml-review.ca/aml/index/subject.html#b , [ neodemocracy.blogspot.com/search/label/Bill%20Bland ,] and available in print from redstarpublishers.org/
April 28th is Restoration of Sovereignty Day in Japan, marking the end of the US occupation in 1952. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe proposed the commemoration in 2012, but it is controversial, for example there were demonstrations in Okinawa in 2013, because much of the continuing US military presence in Japan is based in Okinawa. It is questionable how much sovereignty Japan has, if former prime minister Yukio Hatoyama asked the USA to move one or more bases, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton could refuse, but maybe that is not exactly what happened.
The last French soldiers withdrew from Vietnam April 28, 1956, but US intervention increased and turned into the Vietnam War.
Workers' Memorial Day is Tuesday, April 28th, and there is usually an NC AFL-CIO commemoration in Raleigh.
International Noise Awareness Day is Wednesday, April 29th (the last Wednesday in April). raises awareness about noise pollution and the health and environmental problems excessive noise causes.
The rightist Constitution Party, one of five parties with official ballot access in North Carolina, is scheduled to hold its national convention April 29 - May 2 in St. Louis.
The Battle of Chancellorsville was April 30 - May 6, 1863 in Spotsylvania County, Virginia.
Saigon was liberated and Vietnam's long war to end colonial domination and reunite the country ended April 30, 1975, though the US military had withdrawn in 1973.
Children's Book Week is scheduled for April 30th to May 6th ( everychildareader.net/cbw/ ) .
International Workers' Day / May Day (May 1st) is on a Friday this year.
Chose Privacy Week is May 1 - 7: chooseprivacyeveryday.org
May is National Bicycle Month, sometimes celebrated by the Durham County libraries. [There are supposed be events at: www.facebook.com/bikedurham/ ]
May is also Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, Jewish American Heritage Month, Haitian Heritage Month, Oder Americans Month, Mental Health Awareness Month, Hepatitis Awareness Month, National Electrical Safety Month, National Water Safety Month, National Foster Care Month, and National Burger Month, among other commemorations in the USA, according to Wikipedia.
The UN Global Road Safety Week is organized every two years in early May ( www.who.int/roadsafety/week/2019/en/ ).
World Tuna Day is May 2nd: www.un.org/en/events/tunaday/index.shtml
Welsh Journalist James Miller was killed by the Israeli military May 2, 2003 in Rafah, Gaza.
The House of Trade Unions in Odessa, Ukraine was attacked by rightists May 2, 2014, killing 42.
The annual Haw River Festival is scheduled for May 2nd 4 - 8pm in Saxapahaw ( hawriver.org/events/haw-river-festival/ ).
World Press Freedom Day is May 3rd ( www.un.org/en/events/pressfreedomday/ ), but many "free" journalists don't condemn US attempts to punish Julian Assange for his journalistic work and retaliate against whistleblowers who supply the media with information, and much of the "free" press serves the government and imperialist capitalism in heavily backing US plots to regain domination over Venezuela and other Latin American countries, the bipartisan plan to use Russiagate to silence dissent, and other elite foreign and domestic policy decisions.
Under the coup government in Bolivia there was supposed to be a presidential election Sunday, May 3rd but it has been cancelled due to the coronavirus, without setting a new date. Americans might also worry about our primaries and the fall elections, and it is possible something else could happen in addition to the pandemic to derail the elections.
North Carolina Wildflower Week 2020 is May 3 - 9, but can be celebrated just about any time. For Governor Cooper's proclamation and ideas for celebrating, and videos, see: ncbg.unc.edu/2020/05/04/north-carolina-wildflower-week/
There was a bombing at a labor rally in Chicago's Haymarket Square May 4, 1886. Seven police and at least four workers were killed and more wounded that day. The left, labor movement, and immigrant communities in Chicago were subjected to arrests and searches apparently without warrants in a local red scare. Eight anarchists were found guilty of conspiracy, four were hung, one committed suicide, and the survivors were pardoned in 1893. There are still questions about who threw the dynamite, etc. The events helped created modern International Workers' Day (May 1st).
A military coup in Paraguay May 4, 1954 installed Alfredo Stroessner, who ruled until 1989. Under Stroessner Paraguay joined other rightist governments of South America, with the involvement of the USA and European countries, in Operation Condor, torturing and killing tens of thousands and imprisoning many more.
A military coup in Paraguay May 4, 1954 installed Alfredo Stroessner, who ruled until 1989. Under Stroessner Paraguay joined other rightist governments of South America, with the involvement of the USA and European countries, in Operation Condor, torturing and killing tens of thousands and imprisoning many more.
The Kent State Massacre was May 4, 1970 in Kent, Ohio. The Ohio National Guard shot students who were protesting Nixon's bombing of Cambodia during the Vietnam War, killing four, wounding 9, and leaving one student paralyzed. Anti-war protesters were shot, bayoneted, or assaulted elsewhere that May (see below). These protests might have been the first national student strike in the USA, with 4 million participants and hundreds of schools closed.
The 11th annual World Labyrinth Day Walk for Peace is May 4th at 1pm local time (Walk as One at 1): labyrinthsociety.org/world-labyrinth-day
Free Comic Book Day was supposed to be May 4th (the first Saturday every May, since 2002), but has been postponed: www.freecomicbookday.com/
May 4th is Greenery Day / Midori no Hi in Japan, related to the appreciation of nature, but it began as a holiday on April 29th marking the birth of Emperor Hirohito, held responsible for Japanese militarism and imperialism.
May 4, 1937 thousands of people flocked to what is now the Triangle Land Conservancy's Flower Hill Nature Preserve in Johnston County near the border with Nash County as the Catawba Rhododendrons were blooming. The site is unusual in having Rhododendrons, Galax, and other plants more typical of the Appalachians, left behind as the climate warmed after the ice ages.
Karl Marx was born [] years ago, May 5, 1818, in Trier, Germany. Some of his works are available at: marx2mao.com/M&E/Index.html , www.marxists.org/archive/marx/index.htm , and can often be found at library book sales in Durham and probably elsewhere (as can other classic Marxist works), sometimes cheaper than the when originally printed by International Publishers, etc. Inexpensive new copies in English and Spanish are available from: redstarpublishers.org/
Cinco de Mayo (May 5th) commemorates the Mexican victory over invading French forces at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. It has become an important Mexican-American holiday and is celebrated in several countries. Mexico's independence day holiday is September 16th, marking events in 1810.
In Japan May 5th is Children's Day / Kodomo no Hi, part of the Golden Week of holidays, starting April 29th. Before 1948 the holiday was called Boys' Day or the Feast of Banners (traditional Hinamatsuri or Girls' Day was March 3rd). One tradition on the 5th was to raise koinobori, windsocks decorated as carp, because carp, called the warrior's fish, signify strength, fortune, and prosperity. Large Asian common carp are now abundant in many waterways and lakes in the Triangle, and boisterously gather in shallow, weedy or flooded areas in the spring to breed.
Famous Chinese photojournalist Sha Fei (Situ Chuan) was born May 5, 1912 in Guangzhou.
The newspaper Pravda (Truth) was first published legally, representing the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party (Bolshevik), May 5, 1912. According to Wikipedia the paper first began in 1903 as an illegal paper independent of the RSDLP. After 1912 there was repeated repression by the Tsarist government. It continued to represent the Communist Party after the October Revolution and was honored in place names, such as the town of Pravdinsk, and May 5th was Workers' Press Day. In 1996 Yeltsin sold the paper to Greek capitalists, and later it was acquired by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, one of several Russian communist parties. The separate online Pravda was created by Pravda journalists from the Soviet-era. Several newspapers were published by the CPSU before and after the Revolution, including Zvezda, which predated Pravda, but was not meant as a mass newspaper, unlike Pravda.
The USA invaded the Dominican Republic May 5, 1916.
North American Occupational Health and Safety Week is May 5 - 11th this year.
May 4th is Greenery Day / Midori no Hi in Japan, related to the appreciation of nature, but it began as a holiday on April 29th marking the birth of Emperor Hirohito, held responsible for Japanese militarism and imperialism.
May 4, 1937 thousands of people flocked to what is now the Triangle Land Conservancy's Flower Hill Nature Preserve in Johnston County near the border with Nash County as the Catawba Rhododendrons were blooming. The site is unusual in having Rhododendrons, Galax, and other plants more typical of the Appalachians, left behind as the climate warmed after the ice ages.
Karl Marx was born [] years ago, May 5, 1818, in Trier, Germany. Some of his works are available at: marx2mao.com/M&E/Index.html , www.marxists.org/archive/marx/index.htm , and can often be found at library book sales in Durham and probably elsewhere (as can other classic Marxist works), sometimes cheaper than the when originally printed by International Publishers, etc. Inexpensive new copies in English and Spanish are available from: redstarpublishers.org/
Cinco de Mayo (May 5th) commemorates the Mexican victory over invading French forces at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. It has become an important Mexican-American holiday and is celebrated in several countries. Mexico's independence day holiday is September 16th, marking events in 1810.
In Japan May 5th is Children's Day / Kodomo no Hi, part of the Golden Week of holidays, starting April 29th. Before 1948 the holiday was called Boys' Day or the Feast of Banners (traditional Hinamatsuri or Girls' Day was March 3rd). One tradition on the 5th was to raise koinobori, windsocks decorated as carp, because carp, called the warrior's fish, signify strength, fortune, and prosperity. Large Asian common carp are now abundant in many waterways and lakes in the Triangle, and boisterously gather in shallow, weedy or flooded areas in the spring to breed.
Famous Chinese photojournalist Sha Fei (Situ Chuan) was born May 5, 1912 in Guangzhou.
The newspaper Pravda (Truth) was first published legally, representing the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party (Bolshevik), May 5, 1912. According to Wikipedia the paper first began in 1903 as an illegal paper independent of the RSDLP. After 1912 there was repeated repression by the Tsarist government. It continued to represent the Communist Party after the October Revolution and was honored in place names, such as the town of Pravdinsk, and May 5th was Workers' Press Day. In 1996 Yeltsin sold the paper to Greek capitalists, and later it was acquired by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, one of several Russian communist parties. The separate online Pravda was created by Pravda journalists from the Soviet-era. Several newspapers were published by the CPSU before and after the Revolution, including Zvezda, which predated Pravda, but was not meant as a mass newspaper, unlike Pravda.
The USA invaded the Dominican Republic May 5, 1916.
North American Occupational Health and Safety Week is May 5 - 11th this year.
Alan Shepard became the first American to reach space May 5, 1961, in a suborbital trajectory, and his spacecraft, Mercury-Redstone 3/Freedom 7, allowed for some manual control, unlike Yuri Gagarin's Vostok 1. According to Wikipedia, National Astronaut Day celebrates this anniversary.
The Viet Minh (League for the Independence of Vietnam) under General Võ Nguyên Giáp defeated the French military at Dien Bien Phu in northwest Vietnam May 7, 1954. Under the 1954 Geneva Accords France withdrew from its colonies in Indochina, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was established in northern Vietnam with Ho Chi Minh as prime minister, the State of Vietnam was created in the south, and there would be a national election in July 1956. The election was never held, leading to the Vietnam War. For some of Giáp's writings see: www.marxists.org/archive/giap/index.htm
The US bombed China's embassy in Belgrade on the night of May 7 - 8th, 1999, killing three civilians and wounding 20 inside. It has been speculated that the objective was to destroy parts from a F-117A stealth fighter shot down by Yugoslavia March 27th, but the US government claims it was just a mistake.
Inessa Fyodorovna Armand (Elisabeth-Inès Stéphane d'Herbenville) was born in Paris May 8, 1874. Her alleged romantic relationship with Lenin is well-known but her Marxist political career is overlooked. She joined the underground Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party, forerunner of the CPSU, in 1903, and was imprisoned for her revolutionary activities. She represented the Bolsheviks at a conference of the International Socialist Bureau in Belgium as WWI was beginning and organized the International Conference of Socialist Women in Switzerland during the War. Later she was a leader of the Moscow Soviet and led the Moscow Economic Council. In 1920 she was the chair of the First International Conference of Communist Women. She pushed for sexual equality and apparently had important political disagreements with Lenin, despite their personal relationship. She died September 24, 1920 due to a cholera epidemic and her grave is in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.
The Hard Hat Riot, in which pro-Nixon rightists, mostly construction workers, attacked an anti-war rally, a nearby church, and Pace University facilities, was May 8, 1970 in New York City. The New York police were accused of doing little to prevent the violence. Union leader Peter J Brennan went on to become US secretary of labor under Nixon and Ford.
The New Mexico National Guard bayonetted but did not kill 11 students and journalists at the University of New Mexico May 8, 1970. The University had the first Signature School Program, training students for future CIA jobs, in 2016. Legend has it that students drove CIA recruiters off the UNC-Chapel Hill campus sometime in the 80's.
National Public Gardens Week is May 8th - 17th: publicgardens.org/programs/national-public-gardens-week/about-national-public-gardens-week
Victory Day is May 9th and marks the end of WWII in Europe in 1945.
International Migratory Bird Day is May 9th in the USA and Canada (the second Saturday in May). It is celebrated the second Saturday in October elsewhere in the Americas.
National Public Gardens Day is the Friday before Mother's Day (May 8th).
Mother's Day in the US is Sunday, May 10th and has pacifist and social welfare roots.
I've heard that this is also the time to see mountain laurels blooming at Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area, south of Hillsborough, and probably elsewhere along the Eno, and hiking rails at most state parks remain open (www.ncparks.gov/occoneechee-mountain-state-natural-area ). The end of the ice ages left behind species such as the brown elfin butterflies stranded on Occoneechee, white pines at the White Pines Nature Preserve south of Pittsboro, and Eastern hemlocks at Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve in Cary. In many cases species that live on mountains are very at risk from climate change, because they can only retreat up, and at some point there may be nowhere left to go (see the extinction of the golden toad May 15, 1989). In these examples the species are also found elsewhere, so local extinction wouldn't be complete extinction. Hemlocks also face a threat from a non-native insect, but it has been gotten rid of locally, while remaining a catastrophe in the mountains.
The Augusta (Georgia) Riot was May 11 - 13, 1970. Charles Oatman, a mentally disabled black teenager, was held in an adult jail and allegedly died after a fall, but appeared to have been tortured and beaten to death. Hundreds protested at the Augusta Municipal Building and six unarmed protesters were shot in the back and killed ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970_Augusta_riot ).
Julius Rosenberg was born May 13, 1918 in Manhattan and executed in 1953
Former Senator (D-Alaska) and 2020 Democratic presidential primary candidate Mike Gravel was born May 13, 1930 in Springfield, Massachusetts. He endorsed Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard last year.
May 13, 1985 police surrounded the MOVE house in Philadelphia and a few hours later bombed it by helicopter. In all, 11 members of MOVE, including 5 children, were killed, with 2 survivors (1 adult and 1 child), and around 61 houses in the neighborhood burned to the ground.
May 13 - 17th is Green Office Week: Wikipedia and www.avery.co.uk/gow
The Warsaw Pact was formed May 14, 1955 to deter aggression by the already formed NATO alliance of the USA and its weaker European imperialist partners.
Through the USSR's Interkosmos program, the Soyuz 40 mission to the Salyut 6 space station, launched May 14, 1981, included Romanian research cosmonaut Dumitru Prunariu and Soviet commander Leonid Popov. It isn't clear from Wikipedia if Prunariu was the first Romanian in space. This was also the last crewed mission to Salyut 6 and the last launch of a Soyuz 7K-T spacecraft.
Nakba Day is May 15th, marking the dispossession of the native Palestinians in 1948 through violence, such as at Deir Yassin.
Two students were killed and 12 injured May 15, 1970 at Jackson State University in Jackson, Mississippi after state highway patrol and Jackson police fired into a crowd.
The last known sighting of a Costa Rican golden toad was May 15, 1989 and they are thought to be extinct. The species was first described scientifically in 1966. There is still debate about the cause, but this might be an early example of anthropogenic climate change killing a species. Possibly the cause was chytridiomycosis, a fungal epidemic, potentially assisted by climate change and pesticide pollution, and a major threat to frog species in many countries. People are dying of pneumonia caused by our globalized coronavirus epidemic, and in a similar way chytridiomycosis interferes with the ability of amphibians to breathe through their skin and has been spread around the world from wherever it originated. Apparently there are additional still unidentified diseases killing endangered amphibians.
Endangered Species Day is May 15th (the third Friday in May): www.endangered.org/campaigns/endangered-species-day/
National Invasive Species Awareness Part II is May 16-23: www.nisaw.org/
Examples of harmful non-native species around here include emerald ash borer ( durhamspark.blogspot.com/2016/04/emerald-ash-borer-unnecessary.html ), laurel wilt ( durhamspark.blogspot.com/2017/01/redbay-sassafras-and-harm-caused-by.html ), Japanese stiltgrass, kudzu, chestnut blight, and Dutch elm disease.
The 11th annual Longleaf Festival is still scheduled to be 10am - 2pm May 16th at Harris Lake County Park in Wake County ( www.wakegov.com/parks/harrislake/Pages/Longleaf-Festival.aspx ).
Jackie Cochran became the first woman to break the sound barrier May 18, 1953 flying a Canadair Sabre fighter, borrowed from the Royal Canadian Air Force, over Rogers Dry Lake, California. She made several aviation records as a female pilot and Wikipedia says she has the most speed and distance records of any pilot in history.
Culture Freedom Day is May 18th (the third Saturday in May), as is International Museum Day ( imd.icom.museum/ ).
There was a massive eruption, far more powerful than the WWII atomic bombs, at Washington state's Mount St Helens May 18, 1980, killing a number of people and remaking the landscape. Traces to inches of volcanic ash fell over several states.
Through the USSR's Interkosmos program, the Soyuz TM-12 mission to the Mir space station, launched May 18, 1991, included Helen Sharman, the first Briton to go to space, later joined by Franz Viehböck, the first Austrian in space, dubbed an Austronaut. The crew spent 144 days in orbit, landing October 10th, just before the final wrecking of the Soviet state.
Vietnamese revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh was born on or around May 19, 1890. Some of his works are online at: www.marxists.org/reference/archive/ho-chi-minh/index.htm
May 19, 1920 in Matewan, West Virginia seven agents of the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency (employed by the Stone Mountain Coal Corporation), two miners (one just fired for belonging to the United Mine Workers of America and one unarmed), and Mayor Cabell Testerman were killed anda few people wounded in the Battle of Matewan, seen as a victory for the miners and dramatized in the 1987 movie Matewan.
The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence is supposed to have been signed by a citizens' committee in Charlotte May 20, 1775, and would be the first call for independence from the UK following the beginning of hostilities in Massachusetts in April, but there are doubts about its authenticity. The original document is supposed to have been lost in a fire in 1800. Historical or not, the date is emblazoned on North Carolina's flag.
Possibly related to the above date, North Carolina seceded from the USA on May 20, 1861, after the start of the Civil War at Fort Sumter near Charleston, South Carolina April 12th.
May 20 is World Bee Day: www.un.org/en/events/beeday/
The 2020 Libertarian National Convention is scheduled for May 21 - 25 in Austin, Texas.
May 22 is the International Day for Biodiversity: www.un.org/en/events/biodiversityday/
World Turtle Day is Wednesday, May 23rd: www.worldturtleday.org/
May 25 - 31 is the International Week of Solidarity with the Peoples of Non-Self-Governing Territories, such as Western Sahara, the US Virgin Islands, and New Caledonia ( www.un.org/en/events/nonselfgoverning/index.shtml ).
The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty was signed May 26, 1972 and the USA withdrew June 13, 2002 under George W Bush.
The first of several military coups in Turkey was May 27, 1960.
Plowshares disarmament in Michigan
Peace activist and radio technician Tom Hastings sawed off an extremely low frequency radio antenna mast on Michigan's Upper Peninsula May 28, 1985. The ELF antennas were used to communicate with submarines, such as those carrying nuclear missiles. These are supposed to be sensitive facilities handling nuclear weapons systems, but plowshare activists often enter and are not arrested for minutes to hours or are only arrested after leaving or turning themselves in. Hastings stayed at the site for 45 minutes and prayed, sang, and planted a corn circle. He was only arrested after taking part of the pole to the office of Congressman Bob Davis in the morning and surrendering to a sheriff. He was sentenced to 15 days in prison and two years probation for malicious destruction of property.
May 31, 1775 the Mecklenburg County Committee of Safety adopted the Mecklenburg Resolves, declaring that laws based on the power of the British king and parliament were nullified and that legislative and executive power was in the Continental Congress, the first such proclamation. It is thought that this might be the true basis of the alleged Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, but the Resolves did not go as far as declaring independence. The original document was lost in a house fire in 1800, but a copy was found in a South Carolina newspaper.
During the Tulsa Race Riot May 31 - June 1, 1921 in Oklahoma there was fighting on the ground and private airplanes dropped incendiaries. [For background about the massacre in Tulsa and the murder of Osage Indians for their rights to oil and other resources in Oklahoma see: www.counterpunch.org/2020/06/26/trumps-tulsa-travesty-the-missing-connection/ ]
May 31st (the last Sunday in May) is Arbor Day in Venezuela.
The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (informally, the INF Treaty) between the USA and the USSR/Russia was ratified June 1, 1988. Trump Administration suspended the Treaty February 1, 2019, followed the next day by Russia, and the US formally withdrew August 2, 2019, possibly as an act against China rather than Russia.
June is NC LGBT Pride Month ( governor.nc.gov/news/governor-roy-cooper-proclaims-june-lgbt-pride-month ).
National Trails Day is June 1st.
June 3, 1844 a breeding pair of great auks (Pinguinus impennis), the original penguin, though they aren't related to the Antarctic penguins, and their egg were killed by Jón Brandsson, Sigurður Ísleifsson, and Ketill Ketilsson, collecting for a merchant, on the island of Eldey, Iceland, eliminating the last known breeding pair. The UK's last known auk was killed in Scotland in July 1840, suspected of being a malevolent witch. A last auk was seen in 1852 off Newfoundland, Canada. There were conservation laws as early as 1553, but auks were hunted to extinction on both sides of the Atlantic, and specimens became more in demand as their numbers dwindled. During the winter these large penguinlike birds, related to puffins, ranged as far south as the coast of South Carolina and possibly further. Fossils have been found in southern France and Italy. There has been discussion of attempting to bring the auk 'back to life,' which would be good, though cloning isn't the same as resurrecting a species exactly as it once was and a resurrected species would need habitat.
Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov was born June 3, 1885 in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia and died March 16, 1919 of the Spanish flu or typhus, and is buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.
Prior to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, the largest oil spill was at the Ixtoc I well, 164 feet deep in the Gulf of Mexico near the Yucatan Peninsula, on June 3, 1979. The well was operated by Pemex, Mexico's state-owned oil company.
World Bicycle Day is June 3rd: www.un.org/en/events/bicycleday/
The International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression is June 4, and was created in 1982 following the deaths of many Palestinian and Lebanese children due to Israeli aggression.
Naksa Day is June 5th. According to Wikipedia it marks Palestinian losses after the 1967 war.
World Environment Day is June 5th ( www.un.org/en/events/environmentday/ ) and the International Day for the Fight against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing, for example the plundering of fisheries around war-torn or weak countries that can't adequately patrol their coastlines ( www.un.org/en/events/illegalfishingday/ ).
Durham Spark went public June 6, 2005.
Nuclear-armed Israel bombed Iraq's unfinished Osirak nuclear reactor June 7, 1981, killing 10 Iraqi soldiers and a young French engineer. Earlier in 1980, at the beginning of the Iran-Iraq War, Iran bombed the facility.
World Food Safety Day is June 7th: www.un.org/en/events/foodsafetyday/
The Israeli military tried to sink the USS Liberty in international waters bordering Egypt June 8, 1967, killing 34 and wounding 174.
World Oceans Day is June 8th: www.un.org/en/events/oceansday/
Italian-American anarchist Bartolomeo Vanzetti was born June 11, 1888.
The World Day against Child Labor is June 12th: www.un.org/en/events/childlabourday/index.shtml
Ernesto (Che) Guevara was born June 14, 1928 in Rosario, Argentina, but became famous for his role in the ongoing Cuban Revolution, and also fought in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Bolivia, and traveled to many other countries. See also: www.marxists.org/archive/guevara/index.htm
World Elder Abuse Awareness Day is June 15th: www.un.org/en/events/elderabuse/
Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman to go into space, on June 16, 1963, piloting Vostok 6 and spending about three days in orbit. According to Wikipedia, with this mission, Tereshkova logged more time in space than the entire US astronaut corps at the time.
The International Day of Family Remittances is June 16th: www.un.org/en/events/family-remittances-day/
The World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought is June 17th: www.un.org/en/events/desertificationday/
Bulgarian communist Georgi Dimitrov was born June 18, 1882 and was a general secretary of the Comintern and prime minister of Bulgaria. Among other things, he is well-known for his definition of fascism and advocating popular fronts against the fascists. Some of his works are online at: marx2mao.com/Other/Index.html#GD , www.marxists.org/reference/archive/dimitrov/index.htm [ neodemocracy.blogspot.com/search/label/Dimitrov ] and in print from redstarpublishers.org/
Juneteenth is June 19th.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed by electric chair June 19, 1953 for giving the USSR information on US military technology, though whatever they provided might not have been very useful and the charges mainly apply to Julius Rosenberg. There are charges that Ethel Rosenberg was prosecuted to threaten her husband and there was misconduct during the trial. Reportedly Elizabeth Warren to her credit in January 2017 petitioned President Obama to posthumously pardon Mrs Rosenberg. The Rosenbergs were apparently the only American civilians executed for spying during the Cold War, and were tried during the Korean War. They were both from Jewish families and born in Manhattan, New York, and left behind two young children.
As early as 1945 the UK and USA considered plans to attack their Soviet ally, which lay devastated by the heavy fighting against Germany on the Eastern Front, though the Soviets were still very strong militarily and even with a re-activated German military the "West" had too few conventional forces and the US didn't have enough nuclear bombs to risk starting WWIII so soon.
The International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict is June 19th: www.un.org/en/events/elimination-of-sexual-violence-in-conflict/index.shtml
World Refugee Day is June 20th: www.un.org/en/events/refugeeday/
The summer solstice is Saturday, June 20th this year.
Tanabata and related traditional festivals in East Asia (Tanabata is the Japanese festival) are Tuesday, July 7th; a new way of celebrating is to turn off the lights and go outside to look at the stars.
Former 2020 Democratic presidential primary candidate Marianne Williamson was born July 8, 1952 in Houston and apparently endorsed Sanders after suspending her campaign in January.
The 2020 Green National Convention (GPUS) is scheduled for July 9 - 12th at Wayne State University in Detroit.
July 9th is Día del Árbol (Day of the Tree), Mexico's version of Arbor Day (the second Thursday in July); see Wikipedia and: www.arborday.org/celebrate/world-dates.cfm
US tax day is July 15th, moved from April 15th due to the coronavirus: www.irs.gov/newsroom/tax-day-now-july-15-treasury-irs-extend-filing-deadline-and-federal-tax-payments-regardless-of-amount-owed
The 2020 Democratic National Convention is scheduled to be July 13 - 16th in Milwaukee.
The UN gave the USA control of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (but under this "trusteeship" only the Security Council could change its status, not the General Assembly) July 18, 1947, and the Pacific Proving Grounds for nuclear weapon tests was established five days later, though testing had started there in the summer of 1946.
National Moth Week is July 18 – 26 this year ( www.nationalmothweek.org/ ).
The Downing Street Minutes come from a British government meeting July 23, 2002 discussing the Bush administration's plans engineer a war with Iraq. The memo was revealed by a British newspaper May 1, 2005, but seems to have been poorly covered in the USA.
The Carolina Labor School is scheduled to be July 19 - 24th in Wilmington (see the NC AFL-CIO for more information.
The Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) triumphed in Nicaragua July 19, 1979, and had been founded July 19, 1961. The Sandinistas were defeated in a 1990 election agreed to in a peace deal, after years of US-backed Contra terrorism, economic warfare, and US meddling in the election, interference far beyond what the US claims Russia has done in our elections.
The 2020 Summer Olympics were scheduled for July 24 - August 9th in Tokyo, the second time the city has been the host and making Tokyo the first Asian city to host the summer Olympics twice. They will be rescheduled to sometime before fall 2021, a first in the history of the Olympics.
The USA occupied Haiti July 28, 1915 to August 1, 1934.
The US first used an atomic bomb in war, against the Japanese city of Hiroshima, the morning (rush hour?) of August 6, 1945, 75 years ago. Under Democrats and Republicans massive amounts of money are being spent on refurbishing the current US nuclear arsenal and developing new weapons, though nuclear weapons are supposedly unusable, because of mutually assured destruction and the catastrophic global effects even a 'small' nuclear war would cause.
There was a Revolutionary War battle at the House in the Horseshoe in a bend of the Deep River at the northeast corner of Moore County July 29 or August 5, 1781.
The US dropped a second atomic bomb on the Japanese port city of Nagasaki late in the morning of August 9, 1945. It has been argued that this was a signal to the USSR, possibly like the firebombing of Dresden, Germany that February by the UK and US using conventional weapons, and that the Soviet entry into the war against Japan was more of a factor in Japan's surrender than the beginning of nuclear war, though the US apparently planned to use many more nuclear bombs if the war had continued.
The 2020 Republican National Convention is scheduled to be August 24 - 27th in Charlotte.
Bernie Sanders was born September 8, 1941 in Brooklyn, New York City.
Former Democratic presidential primary candidate Julián Castro was born September 16, 1974 in San Antonio, served as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development during Obama's second term and endorsed Elizabeth Warren earlier this year (he endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2015). He campaigned at a grassroots event in Durham at least once early in the campaign season.
The NC AFL-CIO's 63rd Annual Convention is scheduled to be September 24 - 25th in Raleigh.
Jackie Cochran became the first woman to break the sound barrier May 18, 1953 flying a Canadair Sabre fighter, borrowed from the Royal Canadian Air Force, over Rogers Dry Lake, California. She made several aviation records as a female pilot and Wikipedia says she has the most speed and distance records of any pilot in history.
Culture Freedom Day is May 18th (the third Saturday in May), as is International Museum Day ( imd.icom.museum/ ).
There was a massive eruption, far more powerful than the WWII atomic bombs, at Washington state's Mount St Helens May 18, 1980, killing a number of people and remaking the landscape. Traces to inches of volcanic ash fell over several states.
Through the USSR's Interkosmos program, the Soyuz TM-12 mission to the Mir space station, launched May 18, 1991, included Helen Sharman, the first Briton to go to space, later joined by Franz Viehböck, the first Austrian in space, dubbed an Austronaut. The crew spent 144 days in orbit, landing October 10th, just before the final wrecking of the Soviet state.
Vietnamese revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh was born on or around May 19, 1890. Some of his works are online at: www.marxists.org/reference/archive/ho-chi-minh/index.htm
May 19, 1920 in Matewan, West Virginia seven agents of the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency (employed by the Stone Mountain Coal Corporation), two miners (one just fired for belonging to the United Mine Workers of America and one unarmed), and Mayor Cabell Testerman were killed anda few people wounded in the Battle of Matewan, seen as a victory for the miners and dramatized in the 1987 movie Matewan.
The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence is supposed to have been signed by a citizens' committee in Charlotte May 20, 1775, and would be the first call for independence from the UK following the beginning of hostilities in Massachusetts in April, but there are doubts about its authenticity. The original document is supposed to have been lost in a fire in 1800. Historical or not, the date is emblazoned on North Carolina's flag.
Possibly related to the above date, North Carolina seceded from the USA on May 20, 1861, after the start of the Civil War at Fort Sumter near Charleston, South Carolina April 12th.
May 20 is World Bee Day: www.un.org/en/events/beeday/
The 2020 Libertarian National Convention is scheduled for May 21 - 25 in Austin, Texas.
May 22 is the International Day for Biodiversity: www.un.org/en/events/biodiversityday/
World Turtle Day is Wednesday, May 23rd: www.worldturtleday.org/
May 25 - 31 is the International Week of Solidarity with the Peoples of Non-Self-Governing Territories, such as Western Sahara, the US Virgin Islands, and New Caledonia ( www.un.org/en/events/nonselfgoverning/index.shtml ).
The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty was signed May 26, 1972 and the USA withdrew June 13, 2002 under George W Bush.
The first of several military coups in Turkey was May 27, 1960.
Plowshares disarmament in Michigan
Peace activist and radio technician Tom Hastings sawed off an extremely low frequency radio antenna mast on Michigan's Upper Peninsula May 28, 1985. The ELF antennas were used to communicate with submarines, such as those carrying nuclear missiles. These are supposed to be sensitive facilities handling nuclear weapons systems, but plowshare activists often enter and are not arrested for minutes to hours or are only arrested after leaving or turning themselves in. Hastings stayed at the site for 45 minutes and prayed, sang, and planted a corn circle. He was only arrested after taking part of the pole to the office of Congressman Bob Davis in the morning and surrendering to a sheriff. He was sentenced to 15 days in prison and two years probation for malicious destruction of property.
May 31, 1775 the Mecklenburg County Committee of Safety adopted the Mecklenburg Resolves, declaring that laws based on the power of the British king and parliament were nullified and that legislative and executive power was in the Continental Congress, the first such proclamation. It is thought that this might be the true basis of the alleged Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, but the Resolves did not go as far as declaring independence. The original document was lost in a house fire in 1800, but a copy was found in a South Carolina newspaper.
During the Tulsa Race Riot May 31 - June 1, 1921 in Oklahoma there was fighting on the ground and private airplanes dropped incendiaries. [For background about the massacre in Tulsa and the murder of Osage Indians for their rights to oil and other resources in Oklahoma see: www.counterpunch.org/2020/06/26/trumps-tulsa-travesty-the-missing-connection/ ]
May 31st (the last Sunday in May) is Arbor Day in Venezuela.
The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (informally, the INF Treaty) between the USA and the USSR/Russia was ratified June 1, 1988. Trump Administration suspended the Treaty February 1, 2019, followed the next day by Russia, and the US formally withdrew August 2, 2019, possibly as an act against China rather than Russia.
June is NC LGBT Pride Month ( governor.nc.gov/news/governor-roy-cooper-proclaims-june-lgbt-pride-month ).
National Trails Day is June 1st.
June 3, 1844 a breeding pair of great auks (Pinguinus impennis), the original penguin, though they aren't related to the Antarctic penguins, and their egg were killed by Jón Brandsson, Sigurður Ísleifsson, and Ketill Ketilsson, collecting for a merchant, on the island of Eldey, Iceland, eliminating the last known breeding pair. The UK's last known auk was killed in Scotland in July 1840, suspected of being a malevolent witch. A last auk was seen in 1852 off Newfoundland, Canada. There were conservation laws as early as 1553, but auks were hunted to extinction on both sides of the Atlantic, and specimens became more in demand as their numbers dwindled. During the winter these large penguinlike birds, related to puffins, ranged as far south as the coast of South Carolina and possibly further. Fossils have been found in southern France and Italy. There has been discussion of attempting to bring the auk 'back to life,' which would be good, though cloning isn't the same as resurrecting a species exactly as it once was and a resurrected species would need habitat.
Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov was born June 3, 1885 in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia and died March 16, 1919 of the Spanish flu or typhus, and is buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.
Prior to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, the largest oil spill was at the Ixtoc I well, 164 feet deep in the Gulf of Mexico near the Yucatan Peninsula, on June 3, 1979. The well was operated by Pemex, Mexico's state-owned oil company.
World Bicycle Day is June 3rd: www.un.org/en/events/bicycleday/
The International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression is June 4, and was created in 1982 following the deaths of many Palestinian and Lebanese children due to Israeli aggression.
Naksa Day is June 5th. According to Wikipedia it marks Palestinian losses after the 1967 war.
World Environment Day is June 5th ( www.un.org/en/events/environmentday/ ) and the International Day for the Fight against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing, for example the plundering of fisheries around war-torn or weak countries that can't adequately patrol their coastlines ( www.un.org/en/events/illegalfishingday/ ).
Durham Spark went public June 6, 2005.
Nuclear-armed Israel bombed Iraq's unfinished Osirak nuclear reactor June 7, 1981, killing 10 Iraqi soldiers and a young French engineer. Earlier in 1980, at the beginning of the Iran-Iraq War, Iran bombed the facility.
World Food Safety Day is June 7th: www.un.org/en/events/foodsafetyday/
The Israeli military tried to sink the USS Liberty in international waters bordering Egypt June 8, 1967, killing 34 and wounding 174.
World Oceans Day is June 8th: www.un.org/en/events/oceansday/
Italian-American anarchist Bartolomeo Vanzetti was born June 11, 1888.
The World Day against Child Labor is June 12th: www.un.org/en/events/childlabourday/index.shtml
Ernesto (Che) Guevara was born June 14, 1928 in Rosario, Argentina, but became famous for his role in the ongoing Cuban Revolution, and also fought in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Bolivia, and traveled to many other countries. See also: www.marxists.org/archive/guevara/index.htm
World Elder Abuse Awareness Day is June 15th: www.un.org/en/events/elderabuse/
Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman to go into space, on June 16, 1963, piloting Vostok 6 and spending about three days in orbit. According to Wikipedia, with this mission, Tereshkova logged more time in space than the entire US astronaut corps at the time.
The International Day of Family Remittances is June 16th: www.un.org/en/events/family-remittances-day/
The World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought is June 17th: www.un.org/en/events/desertificationday/
Bulgarian communist Georgi Dimitrov was born June 18, 1882 and was a general secretary of the Comintern and prime minister of Bulgaria. Among other things, he is well-known for his definition of fascism and advocating popular fronts against the fascists. Some of his works are online at: marx2mao.com/Other/Index.html#GD , www.marxists.org/reference/archive/dimitrov/index.htm [ neodemocracy.blogspot.com/search/label/Dimitrov ] and in print from redstarpublishers.org/
Juneteenth is June 19th.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed by electric chair June 19, 1953 for giving the USSR information on US military technology, though whatever they provided might not have been very useful and the charges mainly apply to Julius Rosenberg. There are charges that Ethel Rosenberg was prosecuted to threaten her husband and there was misconduct during the trial. Reportedly Elizabeth Warren to her credit in January 2017 petitioned President Obama to posthumously pardon Mrs Rosenberg. The Rosenbergs were apparently the only American civilians executed for spying during the Cold War, and were tried during the Korean War. They were both from Jewish families and born in Manhattan, New York, and left behind two young children.
As early as 1945 the UK and USA considered plans to attack their Soviet ally, which lay devastated by the heavy fighting against Germany on the Eastern Front, though the Soviets were still very strong militarily and even with a re-activated German military the "West" had too few conventional forces and the US didn't have enough nuclear bombs to risk starting WWIII so soon.
The International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict is June 19th: www.un.org/en/events/elimination-of-sexual-violence-in-conflict/index.shtml
World Refugee Day is June 20th: www.un.org/en/events/refugeeday/
The summer solstice is Saturday, June 20th this year.
National Record Store Day was moved to June 20th ( www.recordstoreday.com ).
Elizabeth Warren was born June 22, 1949 in Oklahoma City and was a registered Republican until 1996, though her views evolved over time, and says she is a "capitalist" while Sanders at least claims the socialist label.
Elizabeth Warren was born June 22, 1949 in Oklahoma City and was a registered Republican until 1996, though her views evolved over time, and says she is a "capitalist" while Sanders at least claims the socialist label.
National Pollinator Week is June 22 – 28: www.pollinator.org/pollinator-week
The Korean War officially began June 25, 1950, but fighting was already going on between revolutionary and counterrevolutionary forces, for example the Jeju Uprising officially began April 3, 1948.
See also:
koryogroup.com/blog/pre-korean-war-buildings-in-pyongyang-north-korea
Former Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer was born June 27, 1957 in Manhattan.
The Stonewall Riots began June 28, 1969.
The International Day of the Tropics is June 29th: www.un.org/en/events/tropicsday/
International Asteroid Day is June 30th, and something from space exploded over Siberia that day in 1908 with far more force than the WWII atomic bombs, leveling a large area of forest with a sparse human population. More recently an asteroid exploded high above the city of Chelyabinsk in the Ural Mountains of Russia February 15, 2013 with the force of 440 kilotons of TNT, far more powerful than the atomic bomb used on Hiroshima, and injured many people and damaged buildings ( www.un.org/en/events/asteroidday/ ).
The Battle of Gettysburg was July 1 - 3, 1863 in Pennsylvania, and was the Civil War battle with the most casualties, missing, wounded, or killed. Together with the Federal victory at Vicksburg, Mississippi on July 4th it is seen as a major turning point.
July 3, 1988 the USS Vincennes shot down Iran Air Flight 655 in Iranian airspace and while the ship was in Iranian territorial waters in the Persian Gulf, killing 290 civilians (66 children) from several countries. The US government paid restitution, but refused to apologize and the captain and crew of the Vincennes received various awards.
Eno River Festival
This 41st edition of the annual celebration will be July 3rd - 4th at Durham's West Point on the Eno: www.enofest.org/#welcome
German revolutionary Clara Zetkin was born July 5, 1857. Some of her works are online at: www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/index.htm and available in print from redstarpublishers.org/
The Korean War officially began June 25, 1950, but fighting was already going on between revolutionary and counterrevolutionary forces, for example the Jeju Uprising officially began April 3, 1948.
See also:
koryogroup.com/blog/pre-korean-war-buildings-in-pyongyang-north-korea
Former Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer was born June 27, 1957 in Manhattan.
The Stonewall Riots began June 28, 1969.
The International Day of the Tropics is June 29th: www.un.org/en/events/tropicsday/
International Asteroid Day is June 30th, and something from space exploded over Siberia that day in 1908 with far more force than the WWII atomic bombs, leveling a large area of forest with a sparse human population. More recently an asteroid exploded high above the city of Chelyabinsk in the Ural Mountains of Russia February 15, 2013 with the force of 440 kilotons of TNT, far more powerful than the atomic bomb used on Hiroshima, and injured many people and damaged buildings ( www.un.org/en/events/asteroidday/ ).
The Battle of Gettysburg was July 1 - 3, 1863 in Pennsylvania, and was the Civil War battle with the most casualties, missing, wounded, or killed. Together with the Federal victory at Vicksburg, Mississippi on July 4th it is seen as a major turning point.
July 3, 1988 the USS Vincennes shot down Iran Air Flight 655 in Iranian airspace and while the ship was in Iranian territorial waters in the Persian Gulf, killing 290 civilians (66 children) from several countries. The US government paid restitution, but refused to apologize and the captain and crew of the Vincennes received various awards.
Eno River Festival
This 41st edition of the annual celebration will be July 3rd - 4th at Durham's West Point on the Eno: www.enofest.org/#welcome
German revolutionary Clara Zetkin was born July 5, 1857. Some of her works are online at: www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/index.htm and available in print from redstarpublishers.org/
Tanabata and related traditional festivals in East Asia (Tanabata is the Japanese festival) are Tuesday, July 7th; a new way of celebrating is to turn off the lights and go outside to look at the stars.
Former 2020 Democratic presidential primary candidate Marianne Williamson was born July 8, 1952 in Houston and apparently endorsed Sanders after suspending her campaign in January.
The 2020 Green National Convention (GPUS) is scheduled for July 9 - 12th at Wayne State University in Detroit.
July 9th is Día del Árbol (Day of the Tree), Mexico's version of Arbor Day (the second Thursday in July); see Wikipedia and: www.arborday.org/celebrate/world-dates.cfm
US tax day is July 15th, moved from April 15th due to the coronavirus: www.irs.gov/newsroom/tax-day-now-july-15-treasury-irs-extend-filing-deadline-and-federal-tax-payments-regardless-of-amount-owed
The 2020 Democratic National Convention is scheduled to be July 13 - 16th in Milwaukee.
The UN gave the USA control of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (but under this "trusteeship" only the Security Council could change its status, not the General Assembly) July 18, 1947, and the Pacific Proving Grounds for nuclear weapon tests was established five days later, though testing had started there in the summer of 1946.
National Moth Week is July 18 – 26 this year ( www.nationalmothweek.org/ ).
The Downing Street Minutes come from a British government meeting July 23, 2002 discussing the Bush administration's plans engineer a war with Iraq. The memo was revealed by a British newspaper May 1, 2005, but seems to have been poorly covered in the USA.
The Carolina Labor School is scheduled to be July 19 - 24th in Wilmington (see the NC AFL-CIO for more information.
The Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) triumphed in Nicaragua July 19, 1979, and had been founded July 19, 1961. The Sandinistas were defeated in a 1990 election agreed to in a peace deal, after years of US-backed Contra terrorism, economic warfare, and US meddling in the election, interference far beyond what the US claims Russia has done in our elections.
The 2020 Summer Olympics were scheduled for July 24 - August 9th in Tokyo, the second time the city has been the host and making Tokyo the first Asian city to host the summer Olympics twice. They will be rescheduled to sometime before fall 2021, a first in the history of the Olympics.
The USA occupied Haiti July 28, 1915 to August 1, 1934.
The US first used an atomic bomb in war, against the Japanese city of Hiroshima, the morning (rush hour?) of August 6, 1945, 75 years ago. Under Democrats and Republicans massive amounts of money are being spent on refurbishing the current US nuclear arsenal and developing new weapons, though nuclear weapons are supposedly unusable, because of mutually assured destruction and the catastrophic global effects even a 'small' nuclear war would cause.
There was a Revolutionary War battle at the House in the Horseshoe in a bend of the Deep River at the northeast corner of Moore County July 29 or August 5, 1781.
The US dropped a second atomic bomb on the Japanese port city of Nagasaki late in the morning of August 9, 1945. It has been argued that this was a signal to the USSR, possibly like the firebombing of Dresden, Germany that February by the UK and US using conventional weapons, and that the Soviet entry into the war against Japan was more of a factor in Japan's surrender than the beginning of nuclear war, though the US apparently planned to use many more nuclear bombs if the war had continued.
The 2020 Republican National Convention is scheduled to be August 24 - 27th in Charlotte.
Bernie Sanders was born September 8, 1941 in Brooklyn, New York City.
Former Democratic presidential primary candidate Julián Castro was born September 16, 1974 in San Antonio, served as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development during Obama's second term and endorsed Elizabeth Warren earlier this year (he endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2015). He campaigned at a grassroots event in Durham at least once early in the campaign season.
The NC AFL-CIO's 63rd Annual Convention is scheduled to be September 24 - 25th in Raleigh.
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