Check back for additional items added in coming weeks.
Love to Afghanistan Vigil February 14th in Raleigh
"Dear Peacemakers,
There is a horrific crisis in Afghanistan. Did you know that far more people could die from the human-made famine in Afghanistan in the next year than died in 20 years of war?
It’s U.S. policies, including sanctions and asset freezes that are driving this human-made humanitarian disaster. That means it’s up to you and me to stop it.
This Valentine's Day, we are gathering for a “Love to Afghanistan” Vigil to promote much-needed aid to the people of Afghanistan. If you are able, please consider fasting out of solidarity with the Afghan people.
Stand with us to memorialize the loss of life happening in Afghanistan right now and to ask that the U.S. change its policies. We will be pressuring Congresswoman Ross to increase aid to Afghanistan and end the sanctions policies and asset freezes that humanitarian groups say are driving the current famine.
We will deliver a Valentine to Congress Ross's office along with the attendees’ wishes that the Congressperson deliver that Valentine – hopefully by increasing aid to Afghanistan and unfreezing frozen assets. Join us.
WHO: NC Peace Action and Stop the Arms Race,
WHAT: “Love to Afghanistan” Vigil
WHEN: Monday, February 14, 2022, 11:30 am - 12:30 pm
WHERE: Congresswoman Ross's local office, 300 Fayetteville Street (at Post Office), Raleigh"
Free Julian Assange!
There will be a Christmas Eve Vigil in Support of Julian Assange in front of MSNBC (49th Street between 5th and 6th avenues, on the north side of the street) in New York City Friday, December 24th at 12pm, calling for all charges to be dropped and Assange released, not held in the UK's Belmarsh Prison through a third Christmas. The organizers, Assange Countdown to Freedom, NYC Free Assange, and others are targeting MSNBC because of its "anti-Assange propaganda," and say that the show Morning Joe with Joe Scarborough and former senator Claire McCaskill recently broadcast four lies in just two minutes.
The United National Antiwar Coalition has a petition, Peace and Justice Organizations call for Freedom for Julian Assange, open for both individual and organizational signatures: unac.notowar.net/peace-and-justice-organizations-call-for-freedom-for-julian-assange/
No war with Russia over Ukraine
[UNAC is calling for a week of action March 1st-7th.]
There will be actions across the USA January 30-February 5th and there is a petition and an organizational endorsement form at the link.
There will be a rally February 5th 4-5:30pm in Asheville, NC and others February 4-12th in Nashville; New Orleans; Flower Mound, TX; Jackson, KY; Columbus, OH; Washington, DC; NYC; Chicago; Tucson; Portland; Seattle; Lake Forest Park, WA; Elgin, IL; Kodiak, AK; Fairbanks, AK; Honolulu; Berlin, Germany; Ljubljana, Slovenia; and elsewhere [ www.codepink.org/02052022 ]
Another list, including a rally Saturday, February 5th at 12pm outside the Federal Building at 310 New Bern Avenue, Raleigh: popularresistance.org/nowarwithrussia/
Emergency anti-war rally outside the White House
There will be an Emergency Rally - No War with Russia Over Ukraine Thursday, January 27th 1-2pm at Washington, DC's Lafayette Square, opposite the White House: www.codepink.org/j272022 , www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2022/01/26/washington-d-c-emergency-rally-no-war-with-russia-jan-27/ , Disband NATO - No War on Russia www.answercoalition.org/protest_at_the_white_house_disband_nato_no_war_on_russia
The United National Antiwar Coalition is working with other groups on a joint statement and possibly a day of action February 6th. There will be a webinar February 6th at 12pm EST US/NATO aggression at the Russian Border: A conversation between US, Russian and Ukrainian peace activists; registration at: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_984zj4TsQ8er6Ja5z3F9vg
Vigil in Raleigh against the prison in Guantánamo Bay
NC Stop Torture Now is organizing a vigil outside the Raleigh Federal Building at the intersection of New Bern Avenue and Person Street Tuesday, January 11th 1-2pm, on the 20th anniversary of the prison's founding [which Obama said he would shut down back in 2008]. People are asked to mask and can wear black hoods or orange jumpsuits reminiscent of the prison. The mainstream media has declared the Afghanistan War and the era of "War on Terror" over and water under the bridge, but 39 men, most innocent, many ill, and all tortured, are still being held largely out of sight, out of mind, and without trial in this US-occupied part of Cuba. [According to a recent email from World Can't Wait, 13 prisoners were deemed eligible for release, in some cases years ago, but are still being held there, while another 14 are being held without charges or trial. Twelve prisoners out off a total of 779 were charged, and of those charged nine have died, three by suicide, which WCW calls suspicious.]
[Some details and photos from the rally: ncstn.org/content/2022/01/11/raleigh-protests-20-years-of-guantanamo-prison/ ]
[Close Guantánamo NOW - 20 Years Too Long!
WCW is organizing a rally the same day 4-6pm on the steps of the New York City Public Library (at the corner of 5th Avenue and 41st or 42nd Street): www.facebook.com/events/451444983015945/
Close Guantánamo Now Rally - January 11th in LA
The Interfaith Communities United for for Justice and Peace will hold its 11th annual rally against the prison January 11th 12 -1:30pm in front of the Downtown Los Angeles Federal Building, at 300 North Los Angeles Street, 90012; for more details, the endorsers, and speakers see: www.icujp.org/close_guantanamo_2022 ]
America's Torture Chamber: 20 Years of Guantánamo... It must be closed NOW!
Revolution Books in New York City is hosting an online talk Sunday, January 30th at 4pm EST with Mansoor Adayfi, the author of Don't Forget Us Here: Lost and Found in Guantanamo, who was detained in Guantánamo for 15 years, despite being innocent of any crime; British journalist and co-founder of CloseGuantanamo.org Andy Wothington; and lawyer Shelby Sullivan-Bennis, who has defended Guantánamo prisoners and those harmed by US drone strikes outside of declared wars. The talk will be posted at: www.youtube.com/c/RevolutionBooks1 and registration is here.
The World Stands Up to Sanctions webinar January 23rd
This webinar, organized by the Sanctions Kill Coalition, will be Sunday, January 23rd, at 1pm EST, with speakers including Francisco Campbell, Nicaragua's ambassador to the USA; Carlos Ron, Venezuela's vice minister for North America; Deacon Yoseph Teferi, chairman of the Ethiopian American Civic Council; Foad Izaadi, an associate professor at the University of Tehran; Erica Jung of the Korean-American organization Nodutdol; and Eritrean-American journalist Elias Amare. To register see: tinyurl.com/yx2vaxdh [The organizers say about 42 countries are under US sanctions, harming their people for the purpose of government overthrow.] [The video is online at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBAt4tlHFHw ]
GPUS campaigning webinar
There will be a webinar with recently elected Green Party members Tuesday, January 25th at 9pm EST. Registration TBA at: www.gp.org/calendar
The NC Botanical Garden will host a free hybrid Zoom and in-person Lunchbox Talk Thursday, January 27th 12-1pm, Saving the Wild South: The Fight for Native Plants on the Brink of Extinction, with Georgann Eubanks, author of a book by the same name, looking at plants threatened by construction and changing climate from NC to Alabama: ncbg.unc.edu/event/hybrid-lunchbox-talk-saving-the-wild-south/ The nest Lunchbox Talk will be February 10th, looking at Naval Stores and the Longleaf Pine Industry in Southeastern NC, with Joel Rose, executive director of the Sampson County History Museum.
The Southern Environmental Law Center and the Haw River Assembly will also host an online talk at 12pm on January 27th, PFAS and Protecting Your Drinking Water - SELC's Partnerships in Action; register at: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ChlO1SHRTW2y0bZCbDjHSw
The Gateway Green Alliance and the Universal African Peoples Organization will host a webinar, Protecting Waters of the Earth, February 2nd at 7pm CST, with guest speakers Kathleen Logan Smith, Luwezi Kinshasa, Don Fitz, David Josue, ad Natalie Lowrey: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN__00njCpuSPSRrEz8L7iPSQ
In conversation with Camilla Saab, wife of Venezuela diplomat Alex Saab -Webinar Feb. 3rd at 6:30pm EST; also with special guest Oscar López Rivera, along with Roger Harris, Sara Flounders, and Tony Jeanthenor: afgj.org/camila-saab-webinar
The New Hope Audubon Society's February meeting will also be on the 3rd, at 6:45pm EST online, with guest speaker Olivia Munzer of the NC Wildlife Resources Commission, on "Bats: Friends Not Foes." There will be a birding hike the morning of February 5th, etc.: www.newhopeaudubon.org/ See also: www.wakeaudubon.org/get-involved/calendar/
There will be a UNAC webinar with several speakers February 6th at 12pm EST US/NATO aggression at the Russian Border: A conversation between US, Russian and Ukrainian peace activists; registration at: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_984zj4TsQ8er6Ja5z3F9vg There might also be "street actions" that Sunday.
The Durham City Council will hold public hearings online on the NC55-Hopson, 3602 Westminster Avenue, and Bull City Townhomes rezoning requests at its Monday, February 7th meeting, starting at 7pm; people who want to speak at the hearings have to register by 2pm Monday: cityordinances.durhamnc.gov/OnBaseAgendaOnline/Meetings/ViewMeeting?id=507&doctype=1
Wake Audubon's monthly online meeting for February, with a presentation "Jerry's Backyard," will be on the 8th at 7:30pm, with guest speaker Jerry Reynolds, the NC Museum of Natural Sciences' Head of Outreach. Reynolds lives in Johnston County, which is rapidly changing from rural to more built-up, and he has documented the species found in his yard and an adjacent 50-acre "mixed forest" of pines anddeciduous trees that has so far escaped mass grading, etc. Durham is more "developed," but there is a similar story here in recent decades, while Orange County seems to have more measures to preserve rural landscapes. More on that below.
7:30PM TUE FEB 8
Balance & Accuracy in Journalism online
presents
A conversation on
our role in
NC CLEAN ENERGY STRUGGLES
with
CATHY BUCKLEY of APPPL
NC Alliance To Protect Our People And The Places We Live
+ Climate Reality Project and related groups
&
author ANNE TAZEWELL
Senior Special Projects Manager
NC Clean Energy Technology Center
Some say, “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” regarding the
complex set of unsustainable practices that NC and
the world must change. Our individual choices can
educate and inspire, but can this daunting struggle
produce needed change, at scale, in time?
Cathy Buckley will sketch strategy embodied in the “12 Principles for a NC Carbon Plan…."
drafted by a broad coalition of NC clean energy advocates, and our role in its adoption.
Anne Tazewell’s broad areas of responsibility at the
Clean Energy Technology Center have given her insight
into the [achievement] of efficiency and decarbonization.
She is also informed by her father’s role in MidEast intrigue
around the US/Saudi oil economy… which is the subject of
her recent book, "A Good Spy Leaves No Trace - Big Oil - CIA Secrets
And A Spy Daughter's Reckoning."
Our comments to Gov. Cooper’s office supported his
recent Clean Energy Executive Order, and can encourage an
improved Utilities Commission to act despite Legislative mischief.
Lisa Sorg’s NC Policy Watch article re NC senators challenging
the Governor’s Exec. Order 246 appears in this week’s Indyweek:
This lively [rude language alert] 4 minute video on the climate crisis ends nicely
and clarifies distinction between NET ZERO and ZERO EMISSIONS:
[ ]
Zoom event:
7:30 PM Tuesday Feb 8
Sponsored by Balance & Accuracy in Journalism
and ECO committee, Community Church of Chapel Hill, UU
The NC Botanical Garden's annual Darwin Day Lecture will be Quercus Circus: The Biodiversity and Ecological Value of Oaks, with Duke biology professor Paul Manos. It will be in-person and online Saturday, February 12th 7-8pm: ncbg.unc.edu/learn/adult-programs/
The Audubon North Carolina 2022 Advocacy Kickoff webinar will bee Thursday, February 17th 7-8:30pm: nc.audubon.org/events/audubon-north-carolina-2022-advocacy-kickoff
The annual Great Backyard Bird Count will be February 18-21: www.birdcount.org
Joshua Bradley's Raleigh City Council at-large 2022 campaign will kickoff Sunday, February 27th at 2:30 in Chavis Park's Historic Carousel House. Bradley was active in Occupy Raleigh and the People's Education Working Group of the Triangle People's Assembly and is an officer in both the Northern Piedmont Local of the Socialist Party-USA and the NC Green Party: www.bradleyforraleighworkers.com
The sixth annual best Practices for Pollinators Summit, organized by the Pollinator Friendly Alliance and the Xerces Society, will be March 1-3 online.
HKonJ will be April 4th this year.
Durham Creek Week will be March 12-19 this year, with in-person and virtual events.
Trash cleanups
There will be MLK Day of Service trash cleanups in Durham January 28th and January 29th: keepdurhambeautiful.org/events
The Haw River Assembly's 32nd annual Haw RiverClean-Up-A-Thon will be Satuday, March 19th: www.hawriver.org
Tu B'Shavat: New Year for Trees
Jewish for Good at the Levin JCC and Keep Durham Beautiful will be selling tree seedlings January 30th 12-2pm: keepdurhambeautiful.org/events The Jewish holiday of Tu B'Shavat is apparently also known as Rosh HaShanah La'llanot (New Year of the Trees), and is an environmental day with tree planting in Israel.
There will also be a tree planting at an elementary school Sunday, February 6th, details TBA (see above).
NC55 - Hopson rezoning hearing January 3rd [and February 7th]
The proposed annexation and Industrial Light rezoning of more than 254 acres between Highway 55 and Grandale Road, just south of Northeast Creek and along the border with Wake and Chatham counties, for a business park will be heard by the Durham City Council at its online meeting Monday, January 3rd. Looking back, I missed the first announcement email December 17th and did not realize that this was coming up until late December, but it is still coming up right after major holidays and as of December 28th the agenda hasn't been posted yet, at: durhamnc.gov/AgendaCenter/City-Council-4 The business interests seemed to be in a hurry anway, but was this holiday timing planned to minimize public scrutiny? Given the site's size and location in a rural to suburban area bordering significant publically-owned natural areas and including private land of scientific interest, the lack of specific information about what would be built, the potential impact of the project on surrounding areas and neighborhoods, I think it should be getting more public attention. It was rejected by the Planning Commission a few months ago, but that appointed body can advises the City and County government. I posted about this project earlier at: durhamspark.blogspot.com/2021/02/the-starry-sky-stolen-and-estranged-and.html and durhamspark.blogspot.com/2021/08/some-late-summer-and-early-fall-events.html [The hearing was continued to the February 7th Council meeting.]
Griffin Place on East Geer Street and 2211 Page Road will also have hearings on the 3rd
[In early January I also noticed that there is now a building at the future DPS elementary school site a short distance away on the south side of Scott King Road, just east of the American Tobacco Trail and East Coast Greenway. Community opposition 'prevented' the proposed Scott Mill subdivision from being built there, so (if I recall correctly) Durham County bought the land instead, to compensate the owners. I hope it turns out to have been a good trade-off from an environmental point of view. How much of the remaining woods will be cut? There are also road safety issues. There was an abandoned beaver pond, with alders (uncommon in this part of the Triangle), and a white-flowered vetch and probably pink ladyslipper orchids grew in wooded areas and various milkweeds grew nearby, possibly seeded by someone. Bladderworts, unusual but possibly intentionally introduced for mosquito control, grew in a small farmpond, drained years ago. There were probably breeding indigo buntings and a species of nightjar, maybe chuck-will's-widow. Artifacts were saved from a small, long-abandoned 2-story farmhouse prior to demolition.
There was a good amount of opposition to Scott Mill, while NC55-Hopson, also adjacent to an important public natural area and gameland, seems to be getting less opposition, apart from some neighbors, though it is probably closer to many more people and is a much larger project. There are "Stop RDU Quarry" signs in Durham against proposed quarry expansion adjacent to William B Umstead State Park, the East Coast Greenway, Crabtree Lake, and RDU International Airport many miles away in Wake County ( umsteadcoalition.org/stoprduquarry ). Umstead State Park belongs to 'everyone' in NC and the issue has been going on for a few years, allowing more time for public outreach by non-profit organizations with staff, but still, there are issues very nearby that people and groups concerned about the environment could speak up on and might complain about later, when it is too late. Of course it is also easy to just put up a sign and people can comment to Mayor Elaine O'Neal and the rest of the Durham City Council electronically, by mail, and by phone, not only by attending/speaking at a public meeting: durhamnc.gov/Directory.aspx?DID=131 and durhamnc.gov/FormCenter
Comment on Hopson Road extension in Comprehensive Transportation Plan by February 22nd
Amendment #4 to the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization is open for public comment until February 22nd, and includes the extension of Hopson Road from Highway 55 to Grandale Road. There are also indications that they want to eventually extend Grandale south of Durham County, which would involve at least Kit Creek if not Panther Creek, large tributaries of Northeast Creek. At one time Grandale Road probably did extend further south, but most likely as a barely improved road in a rural landscape [on second thought, I might have been thinking of another road; there have been many changes to the road network since the late 1800's, but many current roads can be recognized on old maps, though their routes have often changed slightly over the decades]. The current Grandale Road was unpaved until the 80's-90's and the bridge over Northeast Creek was wooden and one-lane. Paving the road was probably bad for both roadside floral diversity and crossing wildlife. The Amendment would also remove the defunct Durham-Orange Light Rail Transit Alignment, improve bus stops along four corridors, remove the plan for a Ellis-Glover Connector (blocked by new construction, as if the Durham Planning Department was not involved), etc.
Chapel Hill coal ash dump re-development
Wednesday, January 26th the Chapel Hill Town Council will consider selling the old police headquarters for mixed-use re-development, without resolving the coal ash dump problem. Friends of Bolin Creek is encouraging people to attend the meeting and contact the Mayor and Council at: mayorandcouncil [at townofchapelhill period org]. For more information see: bolincreek.org/blog/additional-information-coal-ash-discussion/ [Friends of Bolin Creek], chapelhill.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=5390135&GUID=6352EB55-45D2-4BE7-A85A-7121D50CD105&Options=&Search= [the agenda] , us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_2eTqe6R8QUaOKPdSDWxhUQ [Zoom registration].
MVP opposition
Through January 31st the Sierra Club is calling on the US Army Corps of Engineers to deny a 404 permit for the mainline of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP):
Some relevant articles
Jacques R Pauwels - How General Winter Did Not Save the Soviet Union: www.counterpunch.org/2021/12/03/how-general-winter-did-not-save-the-soviet-union-in-1941/
KJ Noh - South Korean Dictator Dies, Western Media Resurrects a Myth [General Chun Doo Hwan, who staged a coup December 12, 1979 and died November 23, 2021]: www.counterpunch.org/2021/12/03/south-korean-dictator-dies-western-media-resurrects-a-myth/
www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2022/01/26/havana-syndrome-the-u-s-s-monumental-hoax/
Grover Furr replies to Historical Materialism journal
Montclair State University professor Grover Furr responds to scathing reviews by Jean-Jacques Marie, printed in the December issue of the British journal Historical Materialism ( www.historicalmaterialism.org/journal ), regarding his books Yezhov vs Stalin and Khrushchev Lied. The journal refused to allow him the right of reply: msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/research/reply_to_marie_12.21.html
Viking settlement in Newfoundland founded in 1021 CE
A recent study by Dutch researchers looking at tree rings argues that the Norse or Viking settlement at the site now called L'Anse aux Meadows, on the island of Newfoundland, Canada was founded exactly a thousand years ago, in 1021, long before Columbus' voyages. Earlier studies had suggested earlier dates. There was a severe solar storm in the year 992, which left evidence in the wood, allowing the dating of the settlement, which had three residential areas and a furnace for blacksmithing. Botanical remains indicate that the settlement had contact with areas further south. Habitation in Greenland began earlier and lasted into the 1400's.
A petition demanding that the USA honor its agreement with Iran
A petition from the International Action Center demanding that the USA unconditionally return to the original JCPOA nuclear deal between several powers and Iran, agreed to during the Obama administration; that all sanctions and war threats against Iran end; and that Israel be pressured to join the Non-Proliferation Treaty and give up its nuclear weapons, an open secret in the Middle East:
solidaritycenter.ourpowerbase.net/civicrm/petition/sign?sid=26
Statement against the USA's anti-China propaganda war
Friends of Socialist China is circulating a "Statement opposing the propaganda war on China" that people and organizations can co-sign: socialistchina.org/2021/10/09/statement-opposing-the-propaganda-war-on-china/ The document can be signed without directly commenting on the questionable existence of Chinese socialism.
Renewed FBI targeting of anti-war activists
The FBI is apparently investigating anti-war activist Joe Lombardo of the United National Antiwar Coalition, UNAC, and local groups in New York state: stopfbi.org/news/solidarity-with-joe-lombardo/ Similarly under Obama the Federal government intimidated anti-war and anti-imperialism activists, after they actively supported his election. See also: www.fightbacknews.org/2021/10/3/solidarity-longtime-anti-war-activist-joe-lombardo and nepajac.org/fbiharassment.htm
Listen to the Balance and Accuracy in Journalism talk by Patrick O'Neill
"In response to requests for an audio recording of
Patrick O’Neill's November 2 talk
Plowshares Action & the Prison Industrial Complex
This link downloads an MP3 file of his talk plus the Q/A.
.
Patrick speaks for 30 minutes and responds to questions for 45 minutes.
Also…the Chat from the program:
- [ ]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AFTER COP26’s FAILURE TO MEET THE CLIMATE CRISIS,
IT FALLS TO THE PEOPLE TO ACHIEVE AN ADEQUATE RESPONSE
WE’LL FEATURE THE CLIMATE STRUGGLE
AT OUR DECEMBER 14 PROGRAM"
Annual Cuba Agroecology Tour
The Organic Growers School in Asheville organizes an annual tour looking at sustainable agriculture in Cuba, and the next tour will be January 4 - 13th; it is already full, but there is a waitlist: organicgrowersschool.org/events/travel-cuba/ Despite Trump and Biden's efforts to chill relations with Cuba, which had been improved under Obama, the tour will still go on.
Similar tours in Latin America
Visits to Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela have been listed in past years by the Alliance for Global Justice and a recent email lists four to Nicaragua this spring and summer, with one application deadline coming up very soon: afgj.org
2021 election schedule
A primary election was scheduled for Tuesday, March 8th, but December 8th the NC Supreme Court moved the primary and any rescheduled municipal elections to Tuesday, May 17th and suspended filing (candidates who already filed and were accepted will be included in the rescheduled election): www.ncsbe.gov/voting/upcoming-election
The general election is still scheduled for Tuesday, November 8th.
The NC AFL-CIO has announced some endorsements for Federal and State offices: aflcionc.org/n-c-unions-back-cheri-beasley-for-u-s-senate/
New species recorded by the North Carolina Biodiversity Project
December 10, 2020 NC State Park biologist Brian Bockhahn was doing fieldwork in Onslow County's Stone Creek Game Land and found a blue-eyed darner, a non-migratory Western dragonfly that is usually found west of a line through Texas, Kansas, and Wisconsin. This is the 188th member of the Odonata order of insects, the dragonflies and damselflies, found in North Carolina. One was recorded in Texas on the same day and this could be only the second time it has been recorded on the East Coast (one was recorded on the island of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts in 1943). It is very unusual to find a dragonfly of any species flying during the winter in North Carolina.
An Eastern pygmy-blue butterfly was found by lepidopterist Bob Cavanaugh in Carteret County June 20, 2021 after Tropical Storm Claudette past through, a first for North Carolina and the state's 178th butterfly species. It probably blew in with the storm, but this butterfly of salt marshes is known to breed nearby in Horry County, South Carolina.
There are detailed guides to some less well-studied plant and animal groups in NC and people can sign up for a newsletter at: nc-biodiversity.com/
December stargazing
Mercury, Venus,
Saturn, and Jupiter are lined up in the south or southwest corner of the sky from west to east in the evening in late December while binoculars might reveal distant Uranus and Neptune. Before sunrise on the 31st the thin waning crescent Moon, reddish (more orange to me) Mars,
and Scorpius the Scorpion's reddish heart Antares will appear close together in the southeastern sky.
On December 23rd the Moon will be at the front of Leo, close to the star Eta Leonis, above the brighter star Regulus, the Lion's heart. Seen from the Eastern US and Canada the star will disappear and then reappear from behind the Moon, an occultation. Sky and Telescope magazine says this will happen from 9:50pm to 10:52pm EST as seen from New York City while in Des Moines it will be over by 9:48pm CST. Eta Leonis is actually a very luminous star, but is well over 1000 light years away so it is relatively dim.
Mercury and Saturn will appear closest together in the southwest after sunset January 12-13 and brighter Jupiter is higher up nearby. A waning crescent Moon, Mars, and bright white morning star Venus will be visible before sunrise January 29th, in Sagittarius to the southeast.
Comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard)
might become bright enough to be visible to the unaided eye in December, after a journey of tens of thousands of years to reach the inner solar system. Earlier in the month it was visible before dawn, but now it is up in the early evening. A few other comets are also nearby this month, bu are only visible with optical aids.
Ceres, the
largest asteroid in the Asteroid Belt and the closest "dwarf planet," will be visible using
binoculars in the constellation Taurus. It was the first asteroid
discovered, by Giuseppe Piazzi on January 1, 1801, and has an extremely thin atmosphere, cryovolcanoes, and it is possible that life exists beneath its surface. Asteroid 7 Iris can be seen with binoculars in Gemini in January.
There are some annual meteor
showers, most offering only a handful of meteors per hour in an average year, but some are occasionally so dense that they become meteor storms, as happens with November's Leonids every 33 years. David H Levy's 1991 book The Sky: A User's Guide is a good resource and there is information in the Audubon and Peterson astronomy guides. Detailed information about both strong and very weak and obscure showers is listed on the American Meteor Society's website. The Monocerotids will fall through December 26th, and peaked on the
11. Meteors usually appear to radiate from a specific point in the sky and are named for the associated constellation, but appear throughout the sky. The Monocerotids radiate from Monoceros the Unicorn, a newer constellation, created in the early 1600's, as opposed to old to very old constellations like Taurus and Gemini. The Geminids could be the strongest
meteor shower of the year, peaking at 2am on the 14th and were visible until the 22nd. Shortly before dawn on the 14th I went out to look at the sky and as I was walking back I looked over my shoulder and saw one going southeast, roughly towards Corvus the Crow (or Raven) while Gemini stood low in the west. The Ursids, radiating from dim Ursa Minor/the Little Dipper, specifically from a point near the star Kochab in the "dipper," are visible December 17th – 26 and peaked the night of the 21st-22nd. The Little Dipper's handle or tail ends in Polaris, the North Star. The Coma
Berenicids will be visible until December 23rd and peak
December 15th. The Quadrantids, named for an antiquated constellation that bordered Ursa Major/the Big Dipper, will be visible December 28th – January 7th and peak on January 3rd.
Satellites, including constellations of new communication satellites cluttering up low-Earth orbit, the very bright International Space Station, and presumably the DPRK's Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3 Unit 2 (launched December 12, 2012, see below) and China's new space station, Tiangong (Heavenly Palace), can be seen passing overhead more or less easily; some of website below list the dates and times for the ISS and some others.
Stargazing:
Heavens-above.com
spaceweather.com
skyandtelescope.com
astronomy.com
amsmeteors.org
chaosastro.org
moreheadplanetarium.org
spacewatchtower.blogspot.com
This is also the best time of year to look for the many kinds of atmospheric optical phenomena created as sun or moonlight interacts with ice crystals in motion and there are other phenomena created with water droplets. Phenomena like haloes and sundogs are pretty common, but some optical effects are very rare. Further down there are some strange reports from central Europe hundreds of years ago that have been attributed to spectacular optical effects:
atoptics.co.uk
atoptics.wordpress.com
Dense construction adjacent to Raleigh's Horseshoe Farm Nature Preserve
At its December 7th meeting the Raleigh City Council voted 6 to 2 to approve a dense apartment and mixed-use project next to the City's very biodiverse Horseshoe Farm Nature Preserve, zoning case Z-40-21, opposed by the Wake Audubon Society. According to comments on Wake Audubon's Facebook group City Council members David Cox and Stormie Forte voted against while the rest of the Council and the mayor voted for:
www.wakeaudubon.org/initiatives/advocacy/horseshoe-farm-park/
www.facebook.com/wakeaudubon
www.wakeaudubon.org/horseshoe-farm-nature-preserve-an-educators-perspective/ [background on the park]
raleighnc.gov/places/horseshoe-farm-nature-preserve [official park website]
Industrial chemicals in the Haw River
Greensboro again released a large amount of the most likely carcinogenic chemical 1,4 dioxane, from a wastewater treatment plant dumping into South Buffalo Creek [I think I heard that there was just another spill in late December, this time into North Buffalo Creek], which flows into the Haw River, a source of drinking water, November 3rd and issued a warning November 8th. The original source of the 1,4 dioxane is unknown.
The Haw River Assembly and NC State University are seeking volunteers, who will be compensated, for a study of human exposure to GenX and other PFAS industrial chemicals released into the Cape Fear River (the Haw River, source of drinking water for Pittsboro and potentially for Durham and other cities in the Triangle, if they withdraw from Jordan Lake, is a tributary of the Cape Fear): genxstudy.ncsu.edu
The HRA is organizing a community meeting January 6th regarding contamination at Western Electric's Burlington Missile Plant. Burlington is testing the city-supplied drinking water and the HRA is testing the groundwater.
Toyota plans to build an electric car battery plant at a site owned by Randolph County and the City of Greensboro, which will supply the water and sewer utilities. The Southern Environmental Law Center and the HRA are requesting that an environmental impact statement be compiled.
Trash trout to be installed in Third Fork Creek
The HRA reports that, through Waterkeeper Carolina, a trash trout will be placed in Durham's Third Fork Creek in January to catch plastic and other trash. This is one of 15 that will be installed around the State.
Opposition to asphalt plants and quarries in Caswell County: www.protectcaswell.org and www.facebook.com/Protect-Caswell-105727088325440/
Addressing light pollution for bird conservation in Wake County
Some high-rise buildings in Raleigh will beginning turning off lights at night when birds are migrating through, a first in North Carolina, but not elsewhere in the country [Wake Audubon says lights should be left off March 15th to May 31st this spring]. Huge numbers of migrating songbirds are killed due to light pollution during their annual migrations, through collisions, crashes, and exhaustion; here are some pictures of the hundreds killed in a two and a half hour period early September 14, 2020 in New York City and picked up by an NYC Audubon Society volunteer: gizmodo.com/i-was-just-in-shock-mass-bird-death-reported-in-new-1847682742 ; smaller numbers of birds killed by collisions can be found here and maybe even outside your own home. The first and only black-throated blue warbler I've seen was a male lying dead in the courtyard between the old and new parts of the UNC Student Union, presumably killed after hitting the building while migrating south one October.
In Raleigh and Cary, probably related: www.wakeaudubon.org/heads-up-for-lights-out/ , www.wakeaudubon.org/initiatives/advocacy/lights-out/
 |
| A male black-throated blue warbler found dead in the courtyard of the UNC Student Union in late October 2014. © |
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| A chickadee found dead at the bottom of a driveway on Scott King Road east of the Tobacco Trail in late March 2015, probably killed by a vehicle. © |
About a year ago I posted about light pollution: durhamspark.blogspot.com/2021/02/the-starry-sky-stolen-and-estranged-and.html I mentioned how the light from the LED streetlights at the relatively new traffic circle at the intersection of Herndon and Barbee roads in Durham seemed blue or even violet, and this month I noticed or again noticed the same situation at a [new] residential project a few miles up Barbee, on the west side of Barbee north of I-40. If not for the supposedly community-oriented refusal by the previous owner of the land, this mostly residential area could have been the site of a library branch, probably instead of the mostly commercial and institutional area in Lowes Grove where the South Regional Library was built. [Those lights in Durham might have been changed and I recently noticed that there are now some very blue-tinged lights in Chapel Hill as well.]
Until several years ago unshielded jar-shaped lights that seemed slightly greenish or yellow were common in Durham and I thought they had some aesthetic charm, more so than the new LED streetlights, despite allowing light to radiate upward and not being as energy efficient as LEDs.
Beyond blue-rich white light (BRWL), a blue or even blue-violet streetlight at the newest subdivision on Grandale Road in January. A few of these lights have been installed in older neighborhoods as well, and not all new construction in Durham uses blue streetlights. These lights might be a problem: www.darksky.org/our-work/lighting/lighting-for-citizens/led-guide/ © |
Leave the Leaves: www.newhopeaudubon.org/blog/1657/ , xerces.org/blog/leave-leaves-to-benefit-wildlife , xerces.org/blog/leave-the-leaves [Keep Durham Beautiful has a pledge, and signs, through March 1st: keepdurhambeautiful.org/events ] [The New Hope Audubon Society recently received a $15,000 dollar Sustainable Communities grant from the Triangle Community Foundation to do public education on leaving the leaves!]
Amphibians crossing
Spotted salamanders cross roads to the vernal pools where they breed, such as in seasonal pools close to the NC Botanical Garden's visitor center in Chapel Hill, during the winter and it won't be long before other amphibians begin possibly perilous journeys to breeding locations, followed by the herpetological carnage on roads in the Triangle and elsewhere in late spring and summer (especially).
Durham beaver trapping
Last April the City of Durham harassed and probably killed beavers along Northeast Creek near the intersection of NC 54 and 55, presumably because businesses or sewer lines knowingly put in flood-prone areas were getting too wet. Apart from beaver dams, flooding could also be increased by construction that sends large amounts of water surging off roofs, streets, and parking lots straight into waterways and a changing climate bringing more heavy downpours or prolonged rainy periods, possibly alternating with severe droughts. I'm still looking into how long this has been going on and where, but it probably wasn't just a one time action on private and City-owned land in this one area. Could anything be done to address flooding caused by human activity, instead of just blaming and killing beavers? Are there natural controls or people who trap beavers for reasons other than just doing it to limit their population? It is also likely that a little trapping and harassment won't be very effective, because more will soon move in. There is probably also private trapping in the area at times.
How to recycle plastic toys
Library booksales
The Friends of the Durham Library's Books Among Friends has a new location, at 3825 South Roxboro Road, #131, zipcode 27713, but no sales have been announced for 2022. There were books for sale at each library, so if the libraries are open those sales are probably going on. The renovated Main Library re-opened at some point, despite the pandemic. For more information and the membership form, see:
fodlnc.org/book-sales/ FODL's online store is at:
www.shopfodlnc.org/
As of mid-January FODL is seeking volunteers:
"We already have many fine volunteers, but we need a little more help handling donations at our Books Among Friends bookstore. Specifically, we need help getting incoming donations into the store, and moving some heavy boxes of books around.
We hope to find one or two volunteers who are capable of heavy lifting and are willing to do it weekly, for three hours on Tuesday and/or Saturday afternoons. A box of books typically weighs 30-40 lbs. We have carts to move them, so nobody needs to carry them around, but they still need to be picked up and put down to keep things moving.
If you can't volunteer for it, maybe you or someone you know would be willing to do it for pay? If we cannot find enough volunteers, we are willing to pay $15/hr. on an 'independent contractor' basis for this work.
If you can help us with this either way, please contact us at [booksamongfriends <at gmail>]."
The Friends of the Chatham County Library has not announced any sales:
friendsccl.org/Coming-Book-Sales As of September 5th, all sales were postponed and book donations are not being accepted.
The Friends of the Chapel Hill Public Library has an online store at:
friendschpl.org/online-book-store and currently plans to hold in-person sales March 25-27, August 26-28, and December 2-4, 2022:
friendschpl.org/FCHPLevents
Not much is going on in nearby counties and municipalities:
New Hope Audubon Society Shop
New Hope Audubon is selling bluebird, brown-headed nutchatch, and Eastern screech-owl nest boxes and bird-friendly habitath certifications and has a Bird Seed Sale every fall:
www.newhopeaudubon.org/shop/
There are
self-service plant sales at NCSU's JC Raulston Arboretum and probably at other public gardens in the area, as was the case before the pandemic. Before the pandemic the NC Botanical Garden had plants for sale outside and an indoor shop, and books and other items can be ordered on their website,
ncbg.unc.edu
Chapel Hill-based Camellia Forest Nursery's annual Winter Wonderland open house will be February 18-20, 25-27 and March 11-13 and 18-20 and the Spring Fling open house will be April 1-3 and 8-10: camforest.com/pages/open-house and there are sometimes other events.
DPRK collection at the Library of Congress being digitized
Chinese New Year Festival and NC Chinese Lantern Festival
The Haw River Assembly's 40th anniversary year
The Haw River Assembly (www.hawriver.org) was founded in March 1982, at a meeting in Pittsboro's Agriculture Building attended by almost 150 people. Back then Jordan Lake, created by damming the Haw River and the New Hope River, a large tributary that includes much of the Triangle, was very new.
CALENDAR
Mark Twain (Samuel L Clemens), acclaimed author as well as vice president of the American Anti-Imperialist League, was born November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri.
November 30, 1981 the Reagan administration signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Strategic Cooperation, making Israel a strategic partner of the US. The partnership was suspended after Israel annexed Syria's Golan Heights December 14, 1981, but it came back into force in 1983. This is described in Fifty Years of Israel by Donald Neff, published in 1998. More recently, the US military began training with the Israeli military in territory held by Israel.
Strategic partnership could bring to mind the way Democrats in the House of Representatives proclaimed Ukraine a vital partner during waning days of the Trump administration. There is talk of absorbing both Ukraine and the Republic of Georgia into NATO, but regions in both countries are trying to separate and involvement could result in bloodshed between the US and Russia (Abkhazia and South Ossetia want national independence from Georgia and Donetsk, Luhansk, and Crimea want to separate from Ukraine, and Crimea is now considered part of Russia).
Tens of thousands of people, many anarchists, protested the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference of 1999 in Seattle November 30th - December 1st, sometimes called the Battle of Seattle and N30. It was a major event of the anti-globalization movement, later overshadowed by the need for anti-war organizing after 9/11. Students for Economic Justice and probably other groups organized against exploitative globalization at UNC-Chapel Hill around then and some concessions against sweatshops overseas were gained from the administration. The Battle of Seattle also included features seen in many large protests later in the early 2000's such as the black bloc, heavy police repression, bans on protesting, etc. .
Rosa Parks refused to yield her bus seat December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama. Her trial began December 5th and there was a bus boycott for over a year.
December 1st is World AIDS Day, the first global health day:
www.un.org/en/observances/world-aids-day
Tens of thousands of people were killed or injured, as well as livestock and animals and even plants, the night of December 2-3, 1984 in Bhopal, India when gases were released from a pesticide plant owned at the time by Union Carbide India Limited and more recently by the Dow Chemical Company. The land was left contaminated and there are lingering health effects. Beginning February 27, 2012 WikiLeaks posted leaked documents (labelled the Global Intelligence Files) indicating that the intelligence company Stratfor spied on activists for Dow, as well as spying on Occupy Wall Street. It also reveals that Stratfor employees advocated bankrupting and torturing Julian Assange and charging him with crimes in several countries, which is similar to what is happening now (he was charged with a crime in Sweden, is now being held by the UK following years spent beseiged in Ecuador's London embassy, and the US government wants him extradited, which Stratfor knew).
NC Regulator leader Herman/Harmon Husband was born December 3, 1724 in Cecil County, Maryland.
The Troops Out Now Coalition was founded December 3, 2004.
The People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen), the first and so far only Arab Marxist state, was founded December 1, 1970. It merged with the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) in 1990, creating the Republic of Yemen. Yemen is currently suffering armed intervention by other Arab states and the USA in its civil war and there are still Southern Yemen secessionists.
According to Wikipedia, Aztec ruler Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin's successor Cuitlahuac ruled from mid-September 1520 until dying December 4th, possibly of smallpox. He was succeeded by Cuauhtemoc. In late December 1520 a massive Spanish and allied Indian army returned to the Basin of Mexico and defeated the Mexica in August 1521.
Black Panther leader Fred Hampton was killed by the Chicago Police December 4, 1969.
The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) declared Acehnese independence from Indonesia December 4, 1976. Following the December 26, 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami a peace agreement was negotiated, to be signed August 15, 2005.
Plowshares Number Seven
The first Plowshares direct action disarmament in Europe and the 7th in all was carried out December 4, 1983 in West Germany. Carl Kabat, one of the Plowshare Eight defendants from the first action, in Pennsylvania; and Herwig Jantschik; Dr Wolfgang Sternstein; and Karin Vix of Germany cut through a fence at a US Army base in Schwabisch-Gmund, in the Federal Republic of Germany and damaged a Pershing II missile launcher. The deployment of these American intermediate-range nuclear missiles in West Germany was apparently very unpopular and they no longer exist, thanks to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which Trump wanted to withdraw from (Russia and China support the INF Treaty). Kabat left the country while the three Germans were charged with trespassing, attempted sabotage, and destruction of property. The defendants had the option of imprisonment or fines, so Jantschik was imprisoned for 90 days, Vix for 60 days, and Dr Sternstein paid 1800 Deutsche Marks. Similar direct actions continue today, such as the one discussed at a recent Balance and Accuracy in Journalism meeting in Chapel Hill (see the top of this post). See Swords Into Plowshares: Nonviolent Direct Action for Disarmament, edited by Arthur J Laffin and Anne Montgomery, and published in 1987.
Soviet Constitution Day was December 5th from 1936 until 1977, when a new constitution was promulgated (October 7th, the more recent Soviet Constitution Day).
DPR Korea's Korean Central New Agency (KCNA) was founded December 5, 1946 (
www.kcna.kp ; includes sections in English, Chinese, Russian, Spanish, and Japanese).
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations joined to create the AFL-CIO December 5, 1955.
December 5th is also
World Soil Day, raising awareness about soil erosion, depletion, and the importance of healthy soil for humanity and other species:
www.un.org/en/observances/world-soil-day This year's theme is "Halt soil salinization, boost soil productivity. This isn't a problem in NC, except maybe near coast, slowing being inundated by the rising sea level, though the soil is probably in general much poorer than it was when the English Lost Colony was founded on Roanoke Island. It isn't good for the soil or other environmental systems that construction in Durham typically involves clearcutting a site and mass grading, often leaving large areas of exposed soil to erode for weeks, months, and even years. It seems like large areas of torn up soil and bedrock, already close to the surface, were left to erode for years along Ellis Road near the Durham Freeway, a hot spot for "development" in recent years.
National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day is December 7th, marking the 1941 attack. There are allegations of conspiracy on the part of the Roosevelt administration, for example search counterpunch.org or see
Covert Action Magazine. Many, but not all, citizens of Japanese descent and Japanese nationals were later interned in the US and Canada and their property taken (
Wikipedia seems to indicate that other countries were involved as well). The last people were freed in 1946 in the US and 1949 in Canada.
Apollo 17, the last mission of the Apollo program, was December 7 - 19, 1972. Apollo 17 was the last time a human mission left Earth orbit, the only time a Saturn V was launched at night, it was the first and only time a professional geologist went to the Moon, it returned the largest lunar sample, had the most orbits and longest time in lunar orbit, the longest total time doing EVAs on the surface of the Moon, etc. (according to Wikipedia). The crew included Eugene Cernan, Harrison Schmitt, Ronald Evans, and five pocket mice.
Indonesia invaded newly independent East Timor December 7, 1975, with the complicity of Australia, Belgium, Canada, India, Japan, the UK, the USA, and other countries.
The First Palestinian Intifada began December 9, 1987. There wasn't a single trigger, but on December 8th an Israeli military truck hit Palestinians close to the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza, killing four and injuring seven. Many thought it was retaliation for the killing of an Israeli salesman in Gaza a few days earlier.
The Treaty of Paris, ending the Spanish-American War, was signed December 10, 1898. This war is often seen as the beginning of the imperialist phase of US capitalism, when it became one of the great powers, eclipsing the old imperialist powers by 1945. There is a monument commemorating this imperialist war in Durham.
Human Rights Day is December 10th (
www.un.org/en/observances/human-rights-day ), marking the UN General Assembly's adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 (
www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/index.html ). December as a whole is
Human Rights Month. The US and its allies like to use "human rights" to sell wars and policies carried out for economic or geopolitical reasons. In addition, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights goes beyond the rights the US government talks about most prominently, as the Black Alliance for Peace recently highlighted. A UK court ruled that Julian Assange could be extradited to the USA on December 10th this year, I think even as opposition journalists from the Philippines and Russia were receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for their work.
Environmental activist Julia Butterfly Hill occupied an 180' tall coast redwood in California for 738 days, beginning December 10, 1997, to save a forest from being clearcut by Pacific Lumber Co. She endured winter storms and company harassment from the air and ground. The tree was named Luna and is thought to have sprouted 1000 years ago.
Hundreds of civilians were killed in El Mozote, El Salvador by the US Army-trained Atlacatl Battalion December 11, 1981. There were other massacres nearby before and after the El Mozote Massacre. This was during the Salvadoran Civil War, but El Mozote was seen as a neutral village.
The DPRK launched its Kwangmyŏngsŏng -3 Unit 2 Earth observation satellite into polar orbit December 11, 2012, making the DPRK one of the few countries able to independently manufacture satellites and place them into orbit. The satellite's name translates as Bright Star or Lodestar. There is tracking information to see it pass overhead at: www.heavens-above.com
December 12, 1954 Israel forced a Syrian Airways Dakota passenger plane to land at Israel's Lydda airport. The four passengers and five crew were held and investigated for two days before being freed. Allegedly Israel wanted hostages to bargain for the release of five Israeli soldiers captured a few days earlier inside Syria while retrieving equipment being used to wiretap Syrian phone lines. This also comes from Donald Neff's Fifty Years of Israel. Similarly European countries forced Bolivian president Evo Morales' plane to land in July 2013, thinking Edward Snowden might be onboard. The USA and EU countries only have a problem when an unfavored country like Belarus does something like this, though it seems like a more serious step to stop and search a head of state's flight, the equivalent of Air Force One.
December 11, 1955 paratroops, artillery, and mortar units under Ariel Sharon invaded Syria, killing 56 (including three women), injuring nine, and capturing 30, later exchanged for the Israeli soldiers captured in Syria's Golan Heights. There was speculation that Israel also wanted to provoke a war with Egypt (Syria and Egypt were unified as the United Arab Republic at the time).
The
Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura (National Agrarian Bank) on Milan's Piazza Fontana was bombed December 12, 1969, killing 12 and wounding 88; there were other bombings and attempted bombings elsewhere in Italy the same day. Initially more than 80 anarchists were arrested, and late on December 15th anarchist railroad worker Giuseppe Pinelli fell to his death from a fourth-floor window at a police station, which was ultimately ruled an accident. Later fascists were charged for the bombings. There are allegations that intelligence agencies of NATO countries, including the CIA, abetted the bombings to stop massive strikes and keep the Communist Party of Italy (PCI) out of the government. This also relates to NATO's formerly secret terrorist network, called Gladio in Italy. Italy's Years of Lead began in fall 1969 and lasted until the late 80's. The PCI was the largest "Western" communist party and scared the bourgeoisie, but it took a revisionist course and became a prominent example of Eurocommunism. In 1991 it became the social-democratic (or "democratic socialist") Democratic Party of the Left. See: www.counterpunch.org/2019/12/20/gladio-the-story-of-a-conspiracy/
There was a military coup in the Republic of Korea December 12, 1979, followed by a bloodier coup beginning May 17, 1980 (see the Counterpunch article referenced at the top off this post).
Plowshares Number Two
December 13, 1980 Peter De Mott damaged the USS Florida (SSBN-728), an Ohio-class submarine originally equipped with Trident ballistic nuclear missiles, just before it was launched at the General Dynamics Electric Boat shipyard in Groton, Connecticut. DeMott was a member of Jonah House in Baltimore, Maryland and a former seminarian and Vietnam veteran. During the launch ceremony for the USS Baltimore (SSN-704), a Los Angeles-class fast attack submarine, DeMott came upon a security van left unlocked and with its keys in the ignition, and spontaneously used it to dent the USS Florida's rudder. He was convicted of criminal mischief and criminal trespass and was imprisoned for one year (
Swords Into Plowshares). According to
Wikipedia, the USS Florida launched Tomahawk cruise missiles to disable Libyan air defenses at the start of Obama's 2011 war, the first military action by that doubtlessly very costly submarine or any of its sister ships. For more on DeMott see:
www.commondreams.org/news/2009/02/21/peace-activist-peter-demott-dead-after-fall and
www.ncronline.org/blogs/road-peace/committed-life-peter-demott
Republican NC Governor William Woods Holden was impeached December 14, 1870, and convicted March 22, 1871, making him the second governor in US history to be impeached and the first to be removed from office. He was pardoned April 12, 2011 and is so far the only NC governor impeached.
December 14, 1981 Israel's Knesset passed the Golan Heights Law, applying Israeli laws to the Golan Heights, Syrian and disputed Lebanese territory occupied by Israel. This was seen as annexation and condemned even by the Reagan administration, demonstrating how much more pro-Zionist the US government has become. The Trump administration gave US recognition to this March 25, 2019, and moving the embassy to Jerusalem May 14, 2018 might have been recognition of Israel's claim to all of the city and violated UN Security Council Resolution 478.
The Dayton Accords were signed December 14, 1995 in Paris, ending the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Recently there has been talk in the mainstream media of renewed contention in the Balkan country on the Adriatic Sea, a republic in the former Yugoslavia.
Muntadhar al Zaidi famously threw his shoes at George W Bush December 14, 2008 in Baghdad, among other things saying "This is for the widows and orphans and all those killed in Iraq!"
US vaccinations against the coronavirus began December 14, 2020.
Bill of Rights Day is December 15th (the US Bill of Rights was ratified December 15, 1791). Durham City and County used to make annual proclamations for December 15th, thanks to a campaign by the Durham Bill of Rights Committee, but that might no longer be done. The DBORDC no longer exists, but there might still be an Orange County BORDC, and there is a national organization (it changed names in 2016):
rightsanddissent.org/news/bill-rights-day-celebrate-mobilize-remember/ There is normally a public reading of the Bill of Rights at Chapel Hill's Peace and Justice Plaza on the 15th.
December 15, 1970 the Soviet space probe Venera 7 (Venus 7) was the first human spacecraft to land on another planet and send telemetry, confirming that our physically similar sister planet is actually a hell of runaway greenhouse warming, sulfuric acid, and crushing atmospheric pressure, not a tropical and watery cloud-covered world. On the other hand in 2020, phosphine, a chemical produced by earthly life might have been detected in the Venusian cloudtops, possibly indicating that Venus is a life-bearing planet after all.
The US and UK bombed Iraq December 16 - 19, 1998, calling it Operation Desert Fox. This occurred during the effort to impeach President Bill Clinton. The US attacked Iraqi military and civilian targets off and on throughout the period between the two US-Iraq wars (1991 to 2003), so it could be seen as one long period of war and Clinton laid the groundwork for George W Bush's war, weakening Iraq's defensive capability and preparing domestic public opinion and the world for renewed war. What future wars are being prepared now, even if Biden and Harris don't start any themselves?
India seized Goa from Portugal December 17-19, 1961.
Tarek el-Tayeb Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in protest outside a government office in Tunisia December 17, 2010, setting in motion the protest movement that overthrew authoritarian President Ben Ali January 14, 2011 and spread to other countries, becoming the Arab Spring. Bouazizi was left comatose and died January 4, 2011. Many others in Tunisia and a few people in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Europe set themselves on fire in similar acts of protest in early 2011.
The Cuban 5 political prisoners were all free by December 17, 2014. They had been arrested in 1998 while monitoring anti-Cuban terrorist groups in Florida:
freethefive.org/ The Obama administration released the last of the Cuban 5 as part of its effort to improve relations with Cuba, which Trump worked to undo, but Biden has continued Trump's policies. So-called "doves" in the US government could be hoping for a repeat of the Libyan scenario, in which the Libyan government agreed to US and EU demands in exchange for normalization, but was overthrown at the first opportunity (and Russia and China allowed it to happen with UN approval).
In
Operation Linebacker II the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was heavily bombed (with about the same explosive force as the two nuclear bombs used on Japan) from December 18 - 29, 1972, hitting a hospital, residential areas, dikes, electrical facilities, etc. and killing over one to two thousand civilians just weeks before the Paris Peace Accords were signed to end the Vietnam War (
revcom.us/a/574/american-crime-case-number-34-1972-christmas-bombings-of-north-vietnam-en.html ).
The last Japanese soldier from WW2 (actually Taiwanese) was arrested in Indonesia December 18, 1974, but a Wikipedia article claims others joined communist guerillas in southern Thailand (perhaps this refers to Malaysian guerillas). This might not be true, though in other cases I think surrendered Japanese soldiers did join local national liberation struggles following WW2.
There are UN days celebrating several languages, and
Arabic Language Day is December 18th:
www.un.org/ar/observances/arabiclanguageday/ , in Arabic.
French Language Day is March 20th:
www.un.org/fr/observances/french-language-day/ , in French.
Chinese Language Day April 20th:
www.un.org/zh/observances/chinese-language-day , in Chinese.
According to
The Long Surrender, by Burke Davis,
Walter Williams of Houston was the last veteran of the Civil War, dying December 19, 1959 at age 117
. He had served under Confederate General John Hood. The
last Federal veteran was
Albert Woolson of Duluth, who died about three years earlier. According to
Wikipedia, the last known widow of a veteran of the Civil War died August 17, 2008, but someone receiving a Civil War pension was still alive more recently. The last people enslaved prior to Emancipation also probably lived well into the 20th century. Forced prison labor remains legal (forced labor or not, prisons produce most of the cleaning chemicals used by state entities in North Carolina, such as the state parks; visitors can easily look into cleaning closet in the parks), and people are illegally enslaved in the US today.
South Carolina was the first state to secede, December 20, 1860.
George HW Bush attacked Panama December 20, 1989, resulting in hundreds to thousands of civilian deaths, including American civilians and a Spanish journalist. Poor neighborhoods were burned and demolished, thousands were deprived of work, and churches, embassies, unions, and other institutions were violated by searches and seizures (
revcom.us/a/540/american-crime-case-43-the-US-invasion-of-panama-1989-1990-en.html ). The war also allowed the USA to test what were new weapons at the time, including the Humvee, AH-64 Apache attack helicopter, and the F-117A Nighthawk stealth fighter.
Portugal restored Macau to Chinese sovereignty December 20, 1999.
The Winter Solstice was Tuesday, December 21st, with the longest night of the year. The Earth is actually closest to the Sun in the Northern Hemisphere's winter.
very early in the Afghanistan War, according to a recent article. I only heard about this recently, but I can't remember where; here is a
New York Times article discussing a surrender offer as early as November 2001:
www.nytimes.com/2021/08/23/world/middleeast/afghanistan-taliban-deal-united-states.html Also:
www.consortiumnews.com/2011/020811b.html Whether there really was a genuine offer of full surrender, the Taliban faced armed opposition and did not control all of Afghanistan at the beginning of October 2001, but now they are the national government, well-armed, and apparently have at least some support among non-Pashtuns and even among the Hazara ethnic group, who they formerly and are apparently still persecuting. The US and other countries are withholding aid, after destroying Afghanistan's economy and making it dependent on foreign aid over 40 years of war, hammering the Afghan population for leverage against the Taliban.
Thomas Sankara, called Africa's Che Guevara, was president of Burkina Faso from 1983 until he was assassinated October 15, 1987. Sankara was born
December 21, 1949, in the northern town of Yako, in what was then the French colony of Upper Volta. Some of his writings are posted at:
www.marxists.org/archive/sankara/index.htm
The Cambodian-Vietnamese War, in which Vietnam overthrew the Khmer Rouge government of Democratic Kampuchea, began December 21, 1978.
The First Battle of Fort Fisher was December 23-27, 1864.
Christmas is December 25th and it seems strange that Jesus is supposed to be a Capricorn, conventionally set as the period from December 22nd to January 19th. Two thousand years ago the Sun actually was in Capricornus in late December, but now it is in Sagittarius around the solstice.
Soldiers organized informal Christmas truces during WWI (especially on the Western Front, but also in the East), especially early in the war (1914) and less so in later years. In many cases these fraternizing truces were repressed and there might have been cover ups.
WWI was supposed to be over by Christmas; a war over Serbia became a world war, and today the US elite portrays the potential for war over Taiwan or Crimea as nothing to be worried about, it won't be big or go nuclear. Are they taking the world towards a global conflagration or are they bluffing? Soon women might be required to register for the draft, so they can die for US imperialism as well, assuming it takes a while for WWIII to go nuclear on a large scale or maybe by then autonomous swarms of drone will be at the level of WMDs.
Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu were executed December 25, 1989
Romanian President and General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party Nicolae Ceaușescu, his wife Elena, Romania's Deputy Prime Minister, and others were captured December 22, 1989. Whatever their revisionism or alleged crimes, the Ceaușescus were barely given a trial before being executed by firing squad on the 25th (which is apparently also Romania's date for Christmas). The Romanian Communist Party vanished, but former members continued to run Romania, as happened elsewhere in Eastern Europe and the former USSR. Apparently the Ceaușescus were the last people killed before Romania abolished the death penalty.
Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as president of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics December 25, 1991, one of the last events after years of active destruction and dismantling, not passive, natural, and inevitable "collapse" of the Soviet socialist project.
The James Webb Space Telescope is supposed to be launched from French Guiana in South America December 25th, and will be placed at the distant Earth-Sun Lagrange Point L2 and orbit the Sun, unlike the Hubble Space Telescope, which orbits the Earth. It is often said that unlike the HST, the JWST can't be reached if there is a problem and apparently it isn't designed for refurbishing, but that shows how little progress there has been in human spaceflight since Apollo, beyond living in space stations orbiting close to the Earth. Decades ago there was talking of sending humans to Mars by now, but today the USA is having trouble even getting back to the Moon and might be beaten by corporations or other countries.
Sen Katayama, co-founder of the Japanese Communist Party and an official in the Comintern, was born December 26, 1859. He was also one of the first members of the CPUSA and was also active in Canada and Mexico; he is buried in Moscow's Kremlin Wall Necropolis. Some of his writings are available at
www.marxists.org/archive/katayama/index.htm and there is a book about his legacy at
redstarpublishers.org
December 26, 1862, following the Dakota War, 38 Dakota or Dakota Sioux were hung, the largest mass execution in US history. 303 Dakota were convicted of murder or rape, some in trials lasting less than 5 minutes, and without defense attorneys, but Lincoln commuted the sentences of 264 prisoners and one more received a reprieve. They were buried in a mass grave, possibly after skin was taken from some of the bodies, and graverobbers later stole bodies for anatomy specimens. Except for a group that helped the American settlers, the rest of the Dakota lost their reservation and were exiled from Minnesota over the next few months, and many died during the journey. Any Dakota found in Minnesota could be killed, with the offer of a $25 dollar bounty. The unrelated Ho-chunk tribe was also expelled. Nonetheless some Dakota remained or returned 20 years later.
Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet politician Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky was born November 23 or 24 in what is now Poltava, Ukraine. He was appointed as the USSR's ambassador to Spain but died December 26, 1933 en route through France. In 1932 he had represented the USSR at the League of Nations.
The great Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami / Boxing Day Tsunami/ Sumatra/Andaman Earthquake was December 26, 2004 off northern Sumatra, Indonesia, close to Aceh.
Hinton Rowan Helper was born December 27, 1829 near Mocksville, North Carolina and is known for his 1857 book The Impending Crisis of the South: How to Meet It, arguing that slavery and the planter aristocracy based on it were hindering the South's material progress, harming poorer whites, and causing deforestation. I'm surprised that not that long ago a copy from something like 1859 could be checked out from Durham's Main Library like any other loanable book. Starting several years ago the Library gets rid of books after a while, even if they are in good condition and still get checked out, while in other cases books were lost, and misshevelling seemed common then if not now.
The USSR intervened in Afghanistan December 27, 1979, killing President Hafizullah Amin, accused of conspiring with the CIA, and installing Babrak Karmal. The Afghan government had previously requested additional Soviet military support, but obviously not the overthrow of the Khalq faction of the People's Democractic Party of Afghanistan, in favor of Karmal's Parcham faction. The US and other countries were materially supporting Afghan Islamists before December 1979, ultimately leading to the creation of al-Qaida, the Taliban, and the Afghan branch of ISIS, and fueling the civil wars that destroyed Afghanistan. Choosing to get involved in Afghanistan was also disastrous for the USSR. During this period the US, UK, China, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt aided anti-government forces, often brutal Islamic fundamentalist warlords, though there were also Maoists.
Martian meteorite ALH84001 was found December 27, 1984 in the Allan Hills West Ice Field in Antarctica and August 6, 1996 it was announced that possible evidence of [past] Martian life had been found. President Bill Clinton made a televised statement August 7th.
Israel attacked Gaza from December 27, 2008 to January 18, 2009 (Operation Cast Lead), killing or displacing thousands of Palestinians, mostly civilians, while 10 Israeli soldiers were killed, four by friendly fire. Rockets fired by various armed resistance groups killed three Israeli civilians and injured or scared hundreds. Israel was accused of using white phosphorus as a chemical weapon, as well as depleted uranium, and birth defects and blood cancer became more common after the war. Palestinian civilians were used as human shields, Israeli soldiers robbed homes, etc. though there was some prosecution in Israel later. Agricultural, fisheries, humanitarian aid facilities, universities, schools, mosques, hospitals, and civilian shelters were damaged or destroyed, including the UN Relief and Works Agency headquarters in Gaza City where tons of food, medicine, and fuel were stored (the building was hit by white phosphorus munitions, and the chemical fires could not be extinguished). As in Yemen today, much of this was done with American weapons, which supposedly are not to be used to commit war crimes. The Gaza War was followed by a joint Israeli and Egyptian blockade.
During this time, Democratic Party House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said "We support Israel, very strongly as a national policy, because it is in our national interest to do so" (and the Democratic Party still has or recently had this in its platform, as well as calls for an "undivided" Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, giving Israel state of the art weapons, and condemnation of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement:
democrats.org/about/party-platform/#middle-east (an old link). On the way to recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, Trump moved the US embassy there, with Democratic support, and Biden hasn't attempted to go back to the previous international "norm." In June 2010 Senator Chuck Schumer endorsed Israel's policy of collective punishment, saying "...since the Palestinians in Gaza elected Hamas, while certainly there should be humanitarian aid and people not starving to death, to strangle them economically until they see that's not the way to go, makes sense." He also said Hamas was waging "total war." Pelosi and Schumer both had both long advocated moving the US embassy in Israel to disputed Jerusalem. In the summer of 2008 and again in 2013 Obama went to southern Israel and said war is justified over simple rockets fired from Gaza, while doing little to end the suffering of the Palestinian people and Trump was even less interested in appearing even-handed (
revcom.us/a/574/american-crime-case-30-us-armed-backed-massacre-in-gaza-en.html and
Wikipedia).
The Apollo 8 mission was December 21 - 28, 1968, and was the first Saturn V launch with a crew and the first crewed mission to leave Earth orbit and orbit the Moon. The three crew members, Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders, were the first to visit another celestial body and see the Earth 'rise.' An influential photo taken on the 24th by Anders might have aided the development of environmental protection movements.
American entomologist E.O. Wilson, known for his work on ants, sociobiology, island biogeography, biodiversity, and the online Encyclopedia of Life, though he was also condemned by the PLP, died December 26, 2021. He was born June 10, 1929 in Birmingham, Alabama.
Comet 19P/Borrelly or Comet Borrelly was discovered December 28, 1904 by French astronomer Alphonse Borrelly, working in Marseille. [It was the 19th comet known to be periodic, and will be brighter when it returns in December 2028, at a similar location.] It will pass close to the Sun this February 1st, the first time since May 2015, but is not very visible from the Earth during this apparition. It probably requires a small telescope to see it, in Cetus the Whale, though it is an object 5 miles long, comparable to Halley's Comet, and it has an asymmetrical bowling pin shape. It was also in Cetus when it was discovered in 1904. NASA's Deep Space 1 probe took detailed images of the comet in 2001, the third time a comet has been examined more or less up close. Borrelly the astronomer was born December 8, 1842 and died Februay 2, 1926.
Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko also very dim, near the M44/Praesepe/Beehive Cluster of stars in Cancer. Churyumov-Gerasimenko was discovered by Soviet astronomers Klim Ivanovych Churyumov (February 19, 1937 - October 14, 2016) and Svetlana Ivanovna Gerasimenko in 1969. March 2, 2004 the European Space Agency sent a mission to the comet, with the probe Rosetta becoming the first spacecraft to orbit a comet and Philae becoming the first lander on a comet. Rosetta was also the first spacecraft to rely on solar power while about as far from the Sun as Jupiter (deep space missions are usually powered by the decay of radioactive elements, leading to some anti-nuclear opposition, as with NASA's Cassini).
The anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, itself in danger from Trump and Republicans, but also from Democrats, is December 28th.
The Wounded Knee Massacre was December 29, 1890 in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. US soldiers went to disarm a camp of Miniconjou and Hunkpapa Lakota and it became a massacre of 300 men, women, and children, with an additional 51 wounded, some fatally. 25 soldiers were killed and 39 wounded, some fatally. Many of the soldiers subsequently received the Medal of Honor.
December 29th a Free Gaza ship carrying relief supplies, doctors, journalists, and others, including former Congresswoman and Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney was intercepted by the Israeli navy. Free Gaza says their ship was in international waters when shots were fired and it was rammed after refusing to turn back. Another Free Gaza ship was intercepted January 15th.
Saddam Hussein was executed by hanging by the US-installed government December 30, 2006, which was the beginning of Eid ul-Adha and the timing was criticized. Apparently he wanted to be executed by firing squad. The fairness of the trial was questionable and he was insulted before the execution, as shown on a cellphone video; there were allegations that the execution was done poorly and that he was stabbed after death. His body was buried the next day in his hometown of Tikrit; allegedly his body was removed and hidden at some point, and his tomb has been destroyed.
The groundbreaking ironclad USS Monitor sank 16 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras during a storm December 31, 1862. Sixteen crew members were killed while 47 were rescued by the USS Rhode Island, which had been towing the Monitor to the southeast coast of NC. I think I read that the ship had a cat, and I wonder if its remains were found (as were human remains) when the turret was salvaged. Parts of the ship are on display at the Mariners' Museum and Park in Newport News, Virginia. The first US national marine sanctuary was established January 30, 1975, to protect the wreck site.
The Communist Party of Germany's founding congress was December 31, 1918 to January 1, 1919 in Berlin.
Cuban president Fulgencio Batista fled the country early on January 1, 1959, following the December 31st Battle of Santa Clara.
The People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan was founded at a small unity meeting January 1, 1965 and was strong enough to carry out a revolution in 1978.
According to Wikipedia, the Soviet supersonic airliner Tupolev Tu-144 first flew December 31, 1968, though that flight wasn't at supersonic speeds. Its first flight, first supersonic flight, and operational use all preceded the Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde, the only other supersonic airliner. There were technical and economic problems, so the Tu-144 was last used to transport passengers in the summer of 1978, but use for mail and research, including by NASA, continued until 1999. The Concorde was retired in 2003, due to financial and environmental issues.
According to Wikipedia, Occupy Wall Street began in New York City's Zuccotti Park September17, 2011, and the protesters were forecefully removed later that year, especially November 11th and December 31st. The Federal government under Obama and Biden at least spied on the national Occupy movement, and has been accused of actively conspiring it. There were encampments in Chapel Hill, but I think Occupy Durham took the form of mass meetings rather than occupation.
China announced the detection of what became known as the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, cause of COVID-19 December 31, 2019.
The asteroid Ceres was discovered January 1, 1801 by Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi. 1 Ceres is the first and largest asteroid yet found by astronomers, the largest member of the Asteroid Belt, and the closest dwarf planet. It is geologically active and potentially could support life or once did, and a space colony could be established on Ceres some day.
Kwanzaa ends on January 1st.
New Year's Day there is a tradition of hikes at NC State Parks. There might be a tradition of viewing the sunrise and visiting temples on New Year's Day in Japan, among other traditional observances. As mentioned above there will be a conjunction of the Moon, Mars, and Antares the previous morning [The clouds parted, and then closed in again all morning, so I missed the sight, but Mars and Antares will still be visible the weekend of January 1st].
The
Cuban Revolution overthrew Fulgencio Batista
January 1, 1959. There is some analysis of the nature of the Cuban revolution at
ml-review.ca/aml/index/subject.html but some of the debate seems to be be missing; it might have been in the related International Struggle Marxist-Leninist.
Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia January 1, 1993.
January 1, 2019 NASA's New Horizons probe executed a flyby of a Kuiper Belt object. The object was found using the HST and was called Ultima Thule at the time of the flyby, as a result of public input, but is now called 486958 Arrokoth, a sky-related word from the Powhatan language of coastal Virginia. New Horizons is expected to continue working into the 2030's or even longer as it heads into the outer reaches of the Solar System.
The Workers' Party of Tunisia was founded January 3, 1986 as the Communist Party of the Workers of Tunisia or PCOT (Parti communiste des ouvriers de Tunisie): albadil.info
China's Chang'e 4 was the first human probe to land on the lunar far side, January 3, 2019, and it released a rover, Yutu 2. There was some involvement with NASA's lunar programs, despite April 2011 legislation severely limiting scientific collaboration with China.
Issac Newton was born January 4, 1643 under the Gregorian calendar.
Jewish terrorist group Irgun Zvai Leumi carried out a truck bombing outside the city hall in Jaffa January 4, 1948 killing 26 and injuring about 100 civilians. The driver wore a uniform of the British army, the occupiers of Palestine at the time.
World Braille Day is January 4th: www.un.org/en/observances/international-days-and-weeks
The assassination of Qassem Soleimani and Trump's destabilization of the Middle East
A US drone strike killed Iranian major general Qassem Soleimani, Abd Mahdi al-Muhandis of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces, and others outside the Baghdad International Airport early on January 3rd. In assassinating Iranian and Iraqi officials, with whom the US is not in a declared war, in Iraq, without consulting other parties, the Trump administration probably violated international law, agreements with Iraq, and US law. Subsequently Trump threatened to attack Iran's cultural heritage, which would most likely be a war crime, similar to actions by IS, the Taliban, Nazi Germany, and the Spanish conquistadors, though it took a while for the media to admit the magnitude of what Trump said.
Alexander Dubček became first secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia January 5, 1968, which Wikipedia labels the beginning of what is often called the "Prague Spring."
Eris, the most massive dwarf planet, was discovered January 5, 2005, and its discovery is one reason Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet (slightly larger than Eris, but less massive).
The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance or Comecon was founded at a conference of Eastern European countries in Moscow January 5-8, 1949 and eventually involved countries around the world; for example Mongolia, Cuba, and Vietnam were full members and Finland, Iraq, Mexico, Nicaragua, Ethiopia and South Yemen were observers.
The Khmer Rouge declared their state Democratic Kampuchea with the proclamation of a new constitution January 5, 1976.
According to Democratic Party propaganda, repeated by Democrat-controlled media such as NPR throughout 2021, "insurgents" or even "terrorists" (the same terms the media and government used for the other side in actual wars) staged a pro-Trump "insurrection," to overthrow "our democracy," at the ("sacred") US Capitol January 6, 2021 and a "cold civil war" is now going on. Usually if an attempted "coup" fails, it isn't "practice," because those behind such an action lose their heads, figuratively or literally, such as Guy Fawkes, though Hitler was only fined and imprisoned after the attempted Munich Putsch. US politics seems to be far less violent than before the US Civil War or in Germany before the rise of the Nazis (and this might apply to militarist pre-1945 Japan as well), and there is violence between legislators and assassination in some contemporary countries with bourgeois democratic systems. There was just a headline about violence in a national legislature somewhere a day or two ago, while the violence against members of Congress in recent times has been committed by non-legislators. Ashlii Elizabeth Babbitt was shot by the Capitol Police while entering the building. The Wikipedia article also lists a woman who died of an amphetamine overdose and apparently trampling by rioters; two men who died of heart problems, a Capitol Police officer who was pepper-sprayed that day and died due to two strokes a day later; and subsequent officer suicides.
There were huge anti-war demonstrations in DC in the 2000's and the events of January 6, 2021 and other recent demonstrations leave me wondering if things might be better today if the left had been much more aggressive, though it would have meant personal and organizational risk. Lesser locations were occupied, including Congressman David Price's Chapel Hill office, I think twice, and it was later moved further away from UNC. At one demonstration in Washington a column of tens or hundreds of protesters lined up through what seemed to be a museum or other public building to reach the rest of the march. It takes organization and media to coordinate national action and convince the mass of people, but the leadership probably wasn't interested in risky actions and people didn't take it upon themselves in an anarchist or city-based fashion to occupy buildings and hinder government functioning and war preparation. Some of this did happen, but it was far from hindering the government. There was so much effort and activism back then (I joined protests at least 1-2 times every week for a long time and some of the regional and national demonstrations, in addition to meetings and other anti-war activity), and while it might have delayed the invasion of Iraq, the "War on Terror" and the attacks on Libya and Syria still happened and these wars haven't completely ended yet. The Occupy movement wasn't enough to scare the state and the state obviously isn't worried about today's climate activism. Today people sometimes talk about a point when the situation becomes intolerable and people throw themselves upon the gears of the monstrous social machine, breaking it, but people rarely make great personal sacrifices, while rightists were willing to attack the US Capitol for Trump and shook the government and mainstream media, though they are now being prosecuted individually and as groups and there were casualties. Maybe they expected Trump to shield them. In 2000 the Gore campaign did fight for its voters in the courts, but didn't mobilize supporters to stop the Republicans from physically attacking vote counting locations in Florida.
There is also the issue of the mainstream media and the Democratic Party defending the election system today and seeking to benefit the establishment parties when they do advocate reforms, while in 2004 grassroots Democrats and leftists argued that the 2004 presidential election was stolen in Ohio and more recently there were insinuations about the 2018 gubernatorial election in Georgia. Not that long ago some Democrats were talking about military coups in favor of the technocracy and the "deep state" has been accused of being behind many assassinations of leaders and activists in the US. There is also the fact that Trump or someone like him could be legally resisted by the other branches of the Federal government and by the states and other entities, if they really opposed what he was doing. During the menacing years of Bush and Cheney the national Democratic leadership had little interest in impeachment on principled grounds and then-Senator Biden collaborated with Bush to launch the invasion of Iraq. I advocated impeachment, but maybe I was just helping the Democrats fire up their base and whitewash themselves a few years before Obama was elected and continued Bush policies and tried to hid others under the carpet.
Some communist parties are tailing the Democrats and focusing on Trump and the Republicans, but Joe Biden is in charge today and the warmongering pro-corporate deep state favors the Democrats, as do some business interests, probably including some that were formerly pro-Republican and there has been talk of the Democrats taking on the "pro-business" role once held by the Republicans, though both parties were and are violently capitalist and imperialist. In many cases Biden favors the similar policies as Trump, only with different words. It was the Biden administration that killed 10 Afghan cvilians, including an aid worker and 7 children, August 26th this year in Kabul, and recently concluded that no one should be punished, and uses sanctions if not missiles to impoverish and kill people in many countries. They talk about climate change much more, but are they really addressing it? And it is the "centrist" right of the Democratic Party blocking the domestic programs they claim to want. Some of the talk of January 6th is just to stir up voters for the midterm elections, and leftists are helping the Democrats in this effort.
Writing on December 19th, the Democrats could 'purge' Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema and enact their proposed reforms, to impress their base, but won't. Trump was very unpopular in general, but apparently remained a serious contender because he had an energized base, while Biden's approval rate has fallen to a new low, and the obstruction by Manchin and Sinema, revealing the Biden administration as weak and ineffectual, is probably one cause.
Stephen Hawking was born January 8, 1942.
Kim Jong-un was born January 8, 1982 (this is the DPRK's official date while other countries dispute the year).
Iran fired ballistic missiles at US bases in Iraq January 8, 2020 in retaliation for the assasination of Qassem Soleimani and others a few days earlier.
Iranian air defenses accidentally shot down Ukraine International Arlines Flight 752 as it left Tehran's airport January 8, 2020.
Conservationist Aldo Leopold was born January 11, 1887 in Burlington, Iowa. He is best known for his book A Sand County Almanac, published posthumously in 1949. For more information, see: www.aldoleopold.org/about/aldo-leopold/
Following US calls for full-spectrum dominance, including in space, and missile shields, China used a missile to destroy one of its old weather satellites January 11, 2007. The Dong Neng-3 missile, possibly an anti-satellite weapon, was tested February 5, 2008. More recently Russia and India have also tested anti-satellite weapons. The USSR and the USA worked on such weapons throughout the Cold War, and the first successful interception seems to have been by the USSR in February 1970. The US tested anti-satellite missiles fired from a modified F-15 fighter in 1984-85.
Warfare in space could produce debris that would prevent human use of space long-term and anti-ballistic missile weapons make a nuclear war more likely. One country would think it had an edge and could escape retaliation by using nuclear weapons first, so other countries would be more likely to use their weapons, under the idea of 'use them or lose them.'
The genome of the coronavirus was published January 11, 2020.
Sergei Pavlovich Korolev was born January 12, 1907. He led the early Soviet space program to successes such as putting Sputnik I and Yuri Gagarin into orbit, and sending the first spacecraft to the Moon (though it was not intended to be a soft landing). His name was hidden, to avoid assassination attempts by the US government, until after his death on January 14, 1966, and he was honored with the placement of his ashes in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.
Among the Iranian scientists probably assassinated by Israel, the USA, or Arab countries during the Bush and Obama years, Ardeshir Hosseinpour might have been murdered or died in an accident January 15, 2007, Masoud Alimohammadi was killed January 12, 2010, Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan was killed January 11, 2012, and in January 2015 an assassination attempt was foiled.
German naturalist and artist Maria Sibylla Merian died January 13, 1717 in Amsterdam. She was born April 2, 1647 in Frankfort, at the time part of the Holy Roman Empire.
The Second Battle of Fort Fisher, was January 13 - 15, 1865, ending with the fort's surrender. Known as the "Gibraltar of the South," this was the largest Confederate fortification and part of the defenses around the mouth of the Cape Fear River, leading to the Confederacy's last major port at Wilmington. The final battle is supposed to have involved the largest bombardment and amphibious assault in history up to that time. [The Fort's main magazine touched off just after sunrise on January 16th, probably due to negligence, and many soldiers on both sides were killed. Federal forces took Wilmington February 22nd.] There is now a Fort Fisher State Recreation Area, but much of the site was destroyed for US Highway 421 and a WWII landing strip, as well as by coastal erosion as the ocean rises. Conservation of this historic site only began in 1960 and it is a biologically rich park as well. Visitors in the general area might see whales, painted buntings, giant swallowtail butterflies, and golden silk orbweaver spiders.
The area is also known for the Fort Fisher Hermit, Robert E Harrill, born February 2, 1893. He is officially supposed to have died of a heart attack June 3, 1972, but appears to have been murdered, possibly to remove an obstacle for "development."
The last recorded sighting of the Las Vegas (or Vegas Valley) leopard frog, native to Clark County, Nevada, was January 13, 1942, when 10 were collected at Tule Springs. It was thought to be extinct, due to habitat loss, making it the only frog native only to the USA to have become extinct in historical times, but a 2011 study argued that the Las Vegas leopard frog was genetically to the Chiricahua leopard frog, which still lives and inhabits a larger area, but is also imperiled, by habitat destruction and the chytrid fungus epidemic.
The Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia sank off Isola del Giglio in Tuscany, Italy January 13, 2012.
Rightist Japanese author Yukio Mishima (Kimitake Hiraoka) was born January 14, 1925 in what is now part of Tokyo's Shinjuku district.
Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were tortured and killed in Berlin January 15, 1919 by the Freikorps working with the Social-Democratic government of Germany.
January 15th is Chosŏn'gŭl Day in DPR Korea, celebrating the creation of Korea's writing system in the 15th century [1444]. The ROK also has a commemoration, but on different date [Hangul Proclamation Day, commemorating October 9, 1446].
UNC - Chapel Hill apparently opened January 16, 1795, but did not have any students until that February.
Martin Luther King Jr Day is Monday, January 17th, marking his birth January 15, 1929.
George HW Bush launched the Gulf War against Iraq, over its occupation of Kuwait, January 16, 1991. Americans often aren't aware that other recent wars have been referred to as the Persian Gulf War.
The 2022 AFL-CIO Dr Martin Luther King Jr Civil and Human Rights Conference will be held virtually January 16-22: themlkconference.org/
The Revolutionary War Battle of Cowpens was January 17, 1781 near Cowpens, South Carolina.
Queen Lili'uokalani of Hawaii was overthrown January 17, 1893 with the involvement of the US (though President Grover Cleveland was apparently against the overthrow), creating the Republic of Hawaii, which was annexed as a US territory in 1898. Hawaii did not become a state until 1959, apparently because territorial status benefitted capitalist interests. There was a brief pro-monarchy uprising in January 1895. The US lease of Pearl Harbor as a naval base began January 20, 1887 and that year King Kalakāua was forced to accept a constitution limiting the monarchy and empowering Americans and Europeans over native Hawaiians, Asians, and those with less than a certain amount of income or wealth.
Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of newly independent Democratic Republic of Congo, was executed January 17, 1961, with the involvement of Belgium (which had held the DRC as a colony), the UK, and the USA. November 25, 1965 Mobutu seized power and later renamed the country Zaire; he wasn't deposed until 1997 and was supported by the USA and China.
As part of the movement against the Afghanistan War and the Bush administration's plans for an invasion of Iraq, poorly covered by the US media at the time, there were demonstrations around the world and in the USA in January 2003, including massive demonstrations January 18th in Washington, DC and San Francisco, as well as smaller demonstrations elsewhere, organized by International ANSWER and Not In Our Name (NION).
Saturnino Paredes Macedo, one of the founders of the Communist Party of Peru (Marxist-Leninist) (with José Sotomayor, and Abimael Guzmán, according to the Wikipedia entry), was born January 19, 1921 in Ancash, on the northern coast: pcpml.com/2021/01/20/viva-el-centenario-del-natalicio-del-dr-saturnino-paredes-macedo/. The PCP(M-L) itself was founded in January 1964, splitting from the Peruvian Communist Party (according to Wikipedia, while the party's website traces its origin to October 28, 1928 and Mariátegui), and is a member of the ICMLPO.
The first known case of the novel coronavirus in the USA was detected January 20, 2020, it was known to be passing from person to person in the US by the 30th and people were dying in the US by that February. A US public health emergency was declared January 31st and WHO had issued an international warning the day before.
The last king of France, Louis XVI (citizen Louis Capet), was executed by guillotine January 21, 1793.
Russian Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet statesman Vladimir Ilyich Lenin passed away January 21, 1924.
A unit of DPRK special forces attempted to storm the ROK's Blue House and assassinate authoritarian president Park Chung-hee January 21, 1968. About a decade later the director of the ROK's Korean Central Intelligence Agency assassinated Park, October 26, 1979.
The Vietnam War Battle of Khe Sanh began January 21, 1968 and lasted until July 9th.
The DPRK seized the spy ship USS Pueblo in or near its coastal waters January 21, 1968.
Italian communist leader Antonio Gramsci was born January 22, 1891. He was a leader of the Communist Party of Italy, founded January 21, 1921 and is well-known for works such as the Prison Notebooks, written while imprisoned by Italy's Fascist government. Prison conditions resulted in his death April 7, 1937. [Some of his works are online at: www.marxists.org/archive/gramsci/index.htm ]
A peasant uprising began in western El Salvador January 22, 1932 but it was quickly defeated. Afterward the government killed tens of thousands of alleged communists and Indians.
The first Boeing 747 jetliner went into regular service with Pan Am (Pan American World Airlines) January 22, 1970, flying between New York and London. This iconic humpbacked passenger jet was the original "jumbo jet" and the first wide-body airliner. It is still being produced or was until recently, but the cost of initial development almost destroyed Boeing. A prototype first flew February 9, 1969. Apparently at the time it was thought that supersonic airliners would soon make the 747 obsolete, except as a cargo carrier.
Evo Morales became president of Bolivia January 22, 2006 and was elected to two more terms, until he was toppled by a violent US-backed coup and received asylum in Mexico, November 12, 2019. An unelected rightist and anti-Indian government temporarily ruled Bolivia and while the security forces refused to protect the elected government, they violently repressed and killed Morales supporters.
Around midnight on January 24, 1961 a B-52 from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base disintegrated in the air near Goldsboro, releasing two thermonuclear bombs. One bomb parachuted down, but the other ploughed into the ground, breaking into pieces, some estimated to have gone up to 180 feet underground. In one of the bombs every switch necessary for a nuclear explosion was on, save one. Reportedly the explosive yield wouldn not have been as powerful as the designed yield, much greater than the atomic bombs used on Japanese cities; instead only the first fission-based part of the bomb would have gone off, and not the second fusion-based component. Parts of the buried bomb were recovered, but much of the bomb, including uranium and plutonium, is still buried, on land now owned by the Army Corps of Engineers, and the groundwater is occasionally tested for radioactivity. In Eureka, three miles north of the bomb site, there is a relatively new state historical marker titled "Nuclear Mishap." Of the 8 person crew, 3 were killed, and this is the only time someone is known to have bailed out of the top hatch of a B-52 without using an ejection seat.
There is an eye-opening list of military nuclear accidents at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_military_nuclear_accidents , in some instances potentially risking WWIII. Among other accidents around this time of year, February 13, 1950 a USAF B-36 Peacemaker bomber jettisoned a simulated but still radioactive bomb, a dirty bomb, in British Columbia, Canada; January 31, 1958 a USAF B-47 carrying an armed nuclear bomb crashed and burned in Morocco; February 5, 1958 a nuclear bomb was jettisoned and lost in the ocean off Georgia; February 28, 1958 at a USAF base in the UK a B-47 ejected its external fuel tanks, setting a parked and manned B-47 carrying a nuclear bomb on fire for 16 hours, and the incident was kept secret for decades; January 18, 1959 a parked F-100 Super Sabre fighter carrying a nuclear bomb burned at an undisclosed US base in the Pacific; January 13, 1964 a B-52 carrying nuclear weapons broke up over Pennsylvania; January 17, 1966 a collision during midair refueling in Francoist Spain released four nuclear bombs, and the conventional explosives in two of the bombs went off, scattering plutonium over the countryside; January 21, 1968 a B-52 carrying four bombs crashed near the Thule Air Base in Greenland, where an explosion could have been confused with a nuclear attack, and the crash caused a nuclear weapons scandal in Denmark.
January 24, 1978 Kosmos 954, a malfunctioning nuclear-powered Soviet naval surveillance satellite disintegrated over Canada, requiring clean up of radioactive debris and the USSR paid restitution, though only half of what Canada asked for. Another malfunctioning nuclear-powered satellite, Kosmos 1402, fell to Earth early in 1983, but completely burned up or sank into the ocean.
January 25, 1995 a scientific rocket was launched from Norway to study the aurora borealis and Russia thought it could be a nuclear missile and prepared to launch a nuclear counterattack, marking the first and only time a nuclear power is known to have activated its "nuclear football" and prepared to fire off its weapons, though nuclear war almost began during the Cuban Missile Crisis as well.
The demonstrations that ultimately led to the overthrow of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak began January 25, 2011 (Egypt's National Police Day); Mubarak withdrew from office February 11th. Like the revolution in Tunisia, several people set themselves on fire in protest, starting January 18th.
Well-known Trotskyist blogger, founder (?) of the Marxmail listserve, and subject of a comic book autobiography drawn by Harvey Pekar Louis Proyect passed away in his sleep August 25, 2021 due to long-standing illness. According to the announcement on his blog he was born January 26, 1945. Some memorial articles were posted at counterpunch.org, a site that frequently carried his articles.
The siege of Leningrad by German and allied Finnish forces during WW2 lasted from September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944, killing well over a million Soviet citizens, civilians and military personnel.
The Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated by the USSR January 27, 1945 and January 27th is International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The Vietnam War ended January 27, 1973, from the US point of view, with the signing of the Paris Peace Accords [between the US, the Republic of Vietnam, what was then called the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, and the Provisional Revolutionary Government], but fighting continued in divided Vietnam.
Xiomara Castro will be sworn in as president of Honduras January 27, 2022, with the US vice president and other international representatives in attendance, and even a reporter from NPR - I have yet to hear any mention on NPR of relevant issues such as the Obama-Biden administration-supported 2009 coup against Castro's husband, Manuel Zelaya which led to the government whose corruption and poor record is now openly criticized on NPR. Instead there is talk of mending fences to address the "root causes" of the mass migration from Central America (with no mention of even the possibility working with Nicaragua) and whether Honduras will continue to diplomatically recognize Taiwan, in the continuing US campaign against China.
José Martí, one of the leaders of the movement for Cuban independence from Spain and the US, was born January 28, 1853 and died in the Battle of Dos Ríos against the Spanish military, May 19, 1895. The US later entered what became Spanish-American War and gained control of Cuba, the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico. This is often seen as the beginning of US imperialism, though the seizure of Hawaii and the idea of Manifest Destiny predate the Spanish-American War.
Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed and the seven crewmembers killed January 28, 1986 shortly after liftoff, due to the failure of an O-ring on one of the solid rocket boosters.
Astronauts Day
Astronauts Day, January 28th this winter, commemorates deaths in the US space program, many of which happened in late January and early February, and is on the last Friday of January each year. According to Wikipedia, one way to commemorate is by placing a lit candle in your window and thinking of those who died for the space program and re-committing to achieve a personal goal.
International Zebra Day is also supposed to be in late January.
Over 100 and possibly a few hundred Shoshone men, women, and children were killed in the
Bear River Massacre on bitterly cold January 29, 1863 near what is now Preston, Idaho. There was a battle, but many Shoshone were killed, others captured, and much of their property destroyed or seized, while only a few Federal soldiers were killed or wounded.
During the night on January 29, 2001
someone used a commandeered bulldozer to destroy the Vietnam Veterans Living Memorial, near the Museum of Life and Science in Durham. A few days later the memorials US flag was stolen. Except for the granite base, the memorial had to be rebuilt from scratch, and was re-dedicated that November. No suspects were arrested. The memorial was first dedicated August 8, 1992. For more information see:
docsouth.unc.edu/commland/monument/195/
The first US national marine sanctuary was established January 30, 1975, to protect the remains of the USS Monitor, off Cape Hatteras.
The Obama administration used a drone to kill US citizen and alleged al Qaida leader Anwar al-Awlaki September 30, 2011 in Yemen, the first such assassination of a citizen. October 14th that year they killed his 17-year-old son Abdulrahman Anwar al-Awlaki, also an American citizen and not known to be involved in terrorism. Allegedly the military had been trying to kill someone else, not present at the time. January 29, 2019 Anwar al-Awlaki's 8-year-old daughter Nawar (Nora) al-Awlaki, another US citizen, was killed during a US-UAE raid in the Yakla area of Yemen, and took two hours to die from a bullet wound. According to the Wikipedia article, more non-combatants (25) were killed than al Qaida members (14), including a three-month-old and other children and a pregnant woman, and more than 120 livestock were killed and over 12 buildings damaged. US losses were one soldier and an Osprey aircraft.
British naturalist and author Gerald Malcolm Durrell was born January 7, 1925 and passed away January 30, 1995.
The Battle of Hue or Siege of Hue, part of the Tet Offensive and one of the longest and costliest battles during the Vietnam War, was January 31 - March 1, 1968; at the time the city of Hue was at the northern end of the southern Republic of Vietnam.
Nguyen Van Lem or Bay Lop, an officer of the National Liberation Front, was captured during the Tet Offensive February 1st in what was known as Saigon at the time and summarily executed by Nguyen Ngoc Loan, leader of the South Vietnamese National Police, a famous image captured by NBC and the Associated Press. Loan later took refuge in the US and lived near Washington, DC.
Space Shuttle Columbia was destroyed during reentry February 1, 2003, due to damage from insulating foam that came off of the large brown external tank during launch. The seven-member crew was killed. The shuttle's remains landed in East Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana. NASA management might have been able to prevent the loss, but did not allow a search for damage while Columbia was in space.
According to the Audubon Society's 2022 calendar, Lunar New Year will be February 1st.
February 2nd is Groundhog Day and Candlemas.
World Wetlands Day is also on the 2nd.
Taíno leader Hatuey fought the Spanish conquistadores in Hispaniola and Cuba, but was burned at the stake February 2, 1512 near what is now Bayamo, Cuba (also near where one of Cuba's 19th century wars for independence began). Before he was killed, a priest is supposed to have asked Hatuey if he would become a Christian and go to heaven, and he asked if the Spanish went to heaven. Hearing the answer he said he would rather go to hell where the Spaniards and their cruelty would be absent. He is a Hero of the Republic of Cuba.
The Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo was signed February 2, 1848, ending the Mexican-American War and ceding a large part of Mexico to the USA (though I imagine much of this territory was still controlled by Indian groups, who might have been living there for hundreds or thousands of years, and was only claimed by the Mexican government or controlled to a limited extent).
The Fort Fisher Hermit, Robert E Harrill, was born February 2, 1893 in Shelby, NC.
Germany's 6th Army, occupying Stalingrad, surrendered February 2, 1943. [The Battle of Stalingrad lasted from August 23, 1942 to February 2, 1943, with pockets of resistance afterwards, and was a major turning point in WWII; February 23, 1943 was marked as Red Army Day in the UK, while today media in the USA and UK often give the public the impression that WWII was mainly a victory won by the Americans and British, though much or most of the fighting in Europe was on the Eastern front and it has been argued that Japan surrendered in the end because the Soviets entered the Pacific War, not because of the horror of nuclear war.]
World Wetlands Day is February 2nd, marking the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands February 2, 1971 in Ramsar, Iran - www.worldwetlandsday.org/
Iran's first home-made satellite, Omid (Persian for hope), a research and telecommunications satellite, was launched February 2, 2009. It weighed about 60 pounds and 16" cube in shape.
Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard's 2020 presidential campaign kicked off with an event February 2, 2019 in Hawaii. She appeared to be running as a left Democrat and was attacked as if she were against the US aggression, but then things came out like her, disappointing vote for a pro-Israel bill in Congress, etc and finally Gabbard endorsed Biden when she dropped out of the race March 19, 2020.
According to Wikipedia traditional Japanese Setsubun will be Thursday, February 3rd in 2022, so the next day will be Risshun, the traditional beginning of spring.
Much of December was like early spring in NC this winter, and warm weather in December seems to have become more common, but I don't know what the statistics would indicate. The coldest weather is usually in January, allowing snow and ice to linger and thick ice to seal waterways. In recent decades significant snow and ice can fall between December and early March.
The Communist Party of Vietnam was founded through the merging of a few groups February 3-7, 1930 in Kowloon, Hong Kong.
Aafia Siddiqui was convicted February 3, 2010 and sentenced to 86 years of Federal imprisonment and is held [in Fort Worth's Federal Medical Center, Carswell.] She was born March 2, 1972 in Karachi, Pakistan.
[January 15th Malik Faisal Akram, an allegedly mentally ill native-born British citizen of Pakistani ethnicity, held four people hostage at the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, near Ft. Worth, seeking Siddiqui's release. He also falsely claimed to have a bomb. Akram released one hostage and the rest safely escaped later, after which an FBI Hostage Resuce Team entered the building and killed Akram. His two teenage sons and two men were arrested in the UK.]
"Big Bill" Haywood, a founder of the Industrial Workers of the World and at one time a leader of the Socialist Party of America, was born February 4, 1869 in Salt Lake City. He was charged under the Espionage Act of 1917 and in 1921 sought refuge in the USSR, where he died May 18, 1928. Half of his ashes are in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis and the other half in the Haymarket Martyr's Monument in Chicago.
Astronomer Clyde William Tombaugh was born February 4, 1906 in Streator, Illinois and discovered Pluto February 18, 1930. He passed away January 17, 1997 in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Some of his ashes are onboard NASA's New Horizons probe, which flew by Pluto in 2015, and the "Heart of Pluto," imaged in unprecendented detail by that mission, has been officially named the Tombaugh Regio.
Rosa Parks was born February 4, 1913 in Tuskgee, Alabama.
The Yalta Conference between Churchill, FDR, and Stalin met February 4 - 11, 1945 in Yalta, Crimea.
The XXIV Olympic Winter Games will be held in and near Beijing February 4-20, despite attempted political sabotage by the US government and some others.
World Cancer Day is February 4th.
February 5, 2003 Colin Powell spoke before the UN Security Council, claiming that Iraq had mobile biological weapon labs and was developing nuclear weapons, helping pave the way for the war the US and UK launched in late March. During press conferences by Powell and John Negroponte a tapestry copy of Pablo Picasso's Guernica hanging in the UN headquarters was covered with a blue curtain, allegedly just for the aesthetics of TV broadcasts.
When Colin Powell and John Negroponte appeared before the UN February 5, 2003 to justify invading Iraq a full-sized tapestry of Picasso's painting Guernica was temporarily covered up.
American revolutionary
Harry Haywood was born February 6, 1898 in South Omaha, Nebraska. He was a leader of the CPUSA, but clashed with the revisionist leadership during the Khrushchev era. He was a leader in the Comintern during the 20's and wrote
Negro Liberation (1948), arguing that the Black Belt was an oppressed nation with the right to self-determination. After leaving the CPUSA, he was a leader of the Provisional Organizing Committee for a Communist Party and later the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist). His known for
Black Bolshevik: Autobiography of an Afro-American Communist (1978) [available from
Red Star Publishers]. He fought in WWI, the Spanish Civil War, and WWII, and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery after his death January 4, 1985.
The
Seattle General Strike began February 6th and ended February 11th in 1919:
www.counterpunch.org/2019/02/08/the-seattle-general-strike-a-100-year-legacy/Cuban revolutionary Camilo Cienfuegos, the Hero of Yaguajay, was born February 6, 1932 and is thought to have died in plane crash over the ocean October 28, 1959. Cuba's Order of Cienfuegos award is named for him.
Novelist
Charles Dickens was born February 7, 1812.
Albanian revolutionary Nexhmije Xhuglini was born February 8, 1921 in Bitolj, today part of Macedonia. She fought in the war to liberate Albania from Italian and German occupation during WWII and served in leading positions in the Party of Labor of Albania, the Democratic Front, the Institute of Marxist-Leninist Studies, the Albanian Women's League, the National Assembly of Albania, and other bodies during her political career. She was imprisoned for 5 years after the counterrevolution. Apparently she was arrested on December 10, 1991, Human Rights Day, and charged with embezzlement, sentenced in January 1993, and released in January 1997. She was married to PLA First Secretary Enver Hoxha and she is supposed to have been the oldest living member of the PLA leadership before passing away February 26, 2020. For more information on the Kombinat (Factory) cemetery in Tirana where the the Hoxhas rest (Enver Hoxha had been buried in the National Martyrs' Cemetery, but was disinterred by the counterrevolutionaires) see: michaelharrison.org.uk/2021/12/nexhmije-and-enver-together-in-kombinat/
The Orangeburg Massacre was February 8, 1968 at South Carolina State University, killing 3 and injuring 27.
According to Wikipedia, the first and only time a submarine has sunk another submarine while both were underwater happened February 9, 1945, when British HMS Venturer sank U-864 off Norway. U-864 was carrying jet engine and missile guidance system components, as well as mercury, to aid Japan.
Hernán Cortés, disobeying the governor, set sail from Cuba February 10, 1519 on the expedition that would result in the defeat of the Aztecs and the colonization of Mexico.
Playwright Bertolt Brecht was born February 10, 1898 in Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany.
World Pulses Day, devoted to important food plants such as kidney beans, lima beans, black-eyed peas, chickpeas, broad beans, and lentils, is February 10th. The UN General Assembly declared 2016 the International Year of Pulses: www.un.org/en/observances/international-days-and-weeks
The Battle of Wilmington was February 11-22, 1865, resulting in the Federal capture of the City.
Gabriel Boric, winner of the December 19th presidential election in Chile, was born February 11, 1986 in Punta Arenas in southern Chile.
Very similar to Tarek el-Tayeb Mohamed Bouazizi in Tunisia, 27-year-old Moroccan street vendor Nourredine Adnane set himself on fire February 11, 2011, following threats of suicide, protesting the seizure of his goods and humiliation in Palmero, Sicily. Earlier on January 21st an unnamed 65-year-old man died a few days after setting himself on fire in Samtah, Jizan, Saudi Arabia, reportedly a first in Saudi Arabia (according to Wikipedia), and possibly over the barriers to becoming a Saudi national.
The International Day of Women and Girls in Science is February 11th: www.un.org/en/observances/international-days-and-weeks
World Radio Day is February 13th: www.un.org/en/observances/international-days-and-weeksCharles Darwin was born February 12, 1809 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, UK.
British and American bombers targeted
Dresden, capital of the German state of Saxony, February 13 - 15, 1945 with high-explosive and incendiary bombs, causing a firestorm and killing up to 25,000 people. Kurt Vonnegut witnessed the bombing as a POW.
The NC Green Party's Winter Gathering, held every year, will be held virtually again this year, Sunday, February 13th 1-6pm, and will probably be partially open to non-members.
Valentine's Day is Friday, February 14th, and is controversial from a left or nationalist point of view in some countries (and a right or religious point of view elsewhere), according to Wikipedia. Apparently the 14th day of each month has romantic allusions in the ROK, and April 14th is Black Day, for people who didn't have a valentine.
The Polish-Soviet War began February 14, 1919 and ended in October 1920. The March 18, 1921 Peace of Riga agreement established the Soviet-Polish border that held during the interwar period.
Maurice Audin, a French member of the Algerian Communist Party and a mathematics assistant at the University of Algiers, was born February 14, 1932. The French Army seized him at his apartment June 11, 1957, during Algeria's war for independence, and then used his home as a trap for others. He was taken elsewhere and tortured to death, something French President Macron acknowledged in September 2018. This was not an isolated case.
The 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was held February 14-25, 1956 and Khrushchev's "Secret Speech" was February 25th.
Allegedly to prevent the potential of injuries from a toxic hydrazine leak on a malfunctioning surveillance satellite, the US Navy was ordered to destroy it with an anti-ballistic missile on February 14, 2008. This also conveniently allowed the military to test a space weapon.
Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei was born February 15, 1564 in Pisa, then part of the Duchy of Florence.
Following an explosion, the USS Maine sank in Havana, Cuba February 15, 1898, killing 260 crew. The explosion was probably accidental, but a spark for the Spanish-American War later that spring.
Military construction on Great Gull Island, New York during this war was a factor in the extinction of the Gull Island vole, discovered by science and then exterminated in a few months. In 1962 the US military proposed various terrorist acts to justify war with Cuba (Operation Northwoods), including blowing up a US ship in Guantánamo Bay.
The USS Maine exploded in Havana Harbor February 15, 1898, cause unknown, contributing to the start of the Spanish-American War. In the 1960's the US military discussed blowing up a ship or airplane and other false flag terrorist operations to justify aggression against Cuba (Operation Northwoods).
February 17, 1864 Confederate submarine Hunley sank the USS Housatonic outside of Charleston Harbor using a spar torpedo (a pole tipped with an explosive), becoming the first submarine to sink an enemy ship, though the Hunley was not underwater during the attack. It was not meant to be a suicide mission, but the eight volunteers operating the Hunley were killed, possibly instantaneously. Five crew members were killed on the USS Housatonic. The Hunley was raised in 2000 and can be seen at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center in Charleston and there was a movie about it on TNT. Apparently there were other Confederate submarines, a Union submarine lost off Cape Hatteras, and a submarine was even deployed in the Revolutionary War, but it was unsuccessful.
China invaded Vietnam February 17, 1979 in retaliation for Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia (called Democratic Kampuchea) to topple the Khmer Rouge government. China, the USA, Thailand, and other countries supported the Khmer Rouge against Vietnam, which was an ally of the USSR. [The war was over by March 16, 1979, but there was sporadic fighting afterward, such as in May-June 1981, April 1984, and a naval battle over Johnston South Reef in the Spratly Islands March 14, 1988. Relations later improved and agreement was reached on the land border between Vietnam and China, while the US government seeks to exploit disagreements over ocean boundaries.]
Clyde W Tombaugh discovered Pluto February 18, 1930 [and it was announced March 13th]. Pluto was considered the 9th planet, but the International Astronomical Union now classifies it as a dwarf planet (the largest yet discovered) and the first member of the Kuiper Belt to be discovered. [Pluto orbits so far from out that it has not gone completely around the Sun, even once since 1930. A year on Pluto is equal to almost 250 of Earth's years.]
President Ford signed Executive Order 11905 February 18, 1976, among other things banning "political assassination." Similar executive orders were signed by Carter on January 24, 1978 and Reagan on December 4, 1981.
Republic of Kosovo or Kosova declared independence February 17, 2008.
Nicolaus Copernicus was born February 19, 1473.
The WWII Battle of Iwo Jima was February 19 - March 26, 1945.
Construction of the Soviet space station Mir (Peace or World in Russian) began February 19, 1986. Until 2010 the record for longest continuous human presence in space was the habitation of Mir and some individual cosmonauts spent at least a year on the station. Mir was retired and deorbited into the South Pacific in late March 2001.
The last known Carolina parakeet died February 21, 1918 at the Cincinnati Zoo, apparently in the same place where the last captive passenger pigeon, Martha, died September 1, 1914. He was named Incas and died months after his mate Lady Jane. The last known wild bird was killed in Okeechobee County, Florida in 1904, though sightings were reported in southern Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp in 1937 and in swamps near the Santee River in South Carolina in 1938, but of course the Santee was dammed the next year. It would seem like Carolina parakeets could be cloned with DNA from preserved specimens.
A chapter of the Deacons for Defense and Justice was founded February 21, 1965 in Bogalusa, Louisiana.
Two Israeli F-4 Phantom II fighter jets shot down Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 February 21, 1973 over part of the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula occupied by Israel, killing 108 people and leaving 5 survivors.
Bob Sheldon, founder of leftist Internationalist Books in Chapel Hill, was killed the evening of February 21, 1991, and the case remains unsolved. The police concluded that this happened during a robbery, but others think it was a political murder.
Writer Hal Borland (Harold Glen Borland) passed away February 22, 1978.
According to Wikipedia, President Theodore Roosevelt signed the first agreement to lease Guantánamo Bay from Cuba February 23, 1903. This was one of the demands of the Platt Amendment giving the US control of Cuba in exchange for ending the direct military occupation that followed the Spanish-American War. The Platt Amendment was added to Cuba's constitution verbatim December 25, 1901 and the same demands were included in a treaty signed May 22, 1903. Today the US government attempts to hide some of its crimes, such as extrajudicial detention and torture, by carrying them out on stolen Cuban territory.
The Revolutionary War Battle of Haw River was February 24, 1781 in what is now Alamance County, NC.
Russia attacked Ukraine February 24, 2022; Russia had earlier annexed Crimea in late February 2014, following the overthrow of the Ukrainian government by pro-US and EU forces.
February 25, 2019 the International Court of Justice made a non-binding determination that the UK illegally separated the Chagos Archipelago from what was then its colony of Mauritius in the western Indian Ocean: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diego_Garcia and www.bbc.com/news/uk-47358602 The Chagossians were driven from their homes, such as by killing their pets, not allowing people who left for medical treatment back in, limiting vital imports, etc. The UK gave the islands to the US for military use, such as the base on Diego Garcia, from which the US can carry out its adventures in the Middle East and possibly torture and rendition as well; the US also dumped waste. In 2010 the UK tried to maintain its control by declaring the ocean around the islands a marine reserve. Supposedly the UK will return the islands someday, when they are no longer needed by the military, similar to the declaration that the nuclear powers will disarm, at some undetermined time in the future. William Z Foster, the CPUSA's General Secretary between 1945 and 1957, was born February 25, 1881.
Biden first bombed Syrian territory February 25, 2021. Unlike Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah the USA, Turkey, Israel, etc. are operating in Syria without the authorization of the internationally recognized government.
Graham, NC town commissioner and constable Wyatt Outlaw was killed February 26, 1870. After state senator John W Stephens was killed May 21st in Caswell County Governor William Holden declared Alamance and Caswell counties insurrectionary and the Kirk-Holden War against the KKK began, with actions in places such as Yanceyville, Caswell Co. and in Pittsboro, Chatham Co., which the KKK apparently intended to seize. The state of insurrection was declared over by November, but the newly Democrat-dominated legislsture impeached Governor Holden in December 1870. [Tennessee Unionist Colonel George Washington Kirk, who led the 3rd North Carolina Mounted Infantry or Kirk's Raders during the Civil War commanded the militia fighting the KKK forces.]
Robert Franklin Williams, born February 26, 1925 in Monroe, North Carolina, was president of the local NAACP chapter and formed the NRA-affiliated Black Armed Guard. He wrote Negroes with Guns (1962). He spent some time in Cuba, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, and China. He died October 15, 1996 in Baldwin, Michigan.
The night of February 26 - 27, 1991 the US, British, Canadian, and French forces intercepted Iraqi forces retreating from Kuwait, creating the famous Highway of Death. Recently the videogame Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was condemned for having a "Highway of Death," but created by a Russian attack on fleeing civilians in fictional Urzikstan. Wikipedia also mentions that players can use illegal white phosphorus as a weapon. As we know from the mainstream "Western" media, the US only violates the rules of war inadvertently and intermittently, unlike Russia and other countries the US government (joined by the "free" and "independent" media) has problems with.
Trayvon Martin, born February 5, 1995, was killed by George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida February 26, 2012.
February 27, 2012 WikiLeaks began releasing leaked internal emails from the Austin, Texas-based private intelligence company Stratfor, titled the Global Intelligence Files.
Apparently the only Antonov An-225 Mriya in existence, a gigantic Soviet cargo plane built in Ukraine in the 80's to transport Buran, the Soviet space shuttle, was destroyed at Antonov Airport near the Ukrainian capital by February 27th. The one and only An-225 was still in use and is supposed to have been the heaviest aircraft ever and had the widest wingspan of any aircraft in operation, and was the first Soviet aircraft witha Ukrainian name. An article from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum plays up Ukrainian nationalism in service to US and EU imperialism in competition with Russian imperialism, but according to the Wikipedia entry the plane's pilot has blamed management for not following advice from NATO about relocating the aircraft to Germany.
The National Invasive Species Awareness Week will be February 28th - March 4th this year: nisaw.org
The siege of the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas began February 28, 1993 and came to a fiery end April 19th.
The elected government of Haiti was toppled February 28, 2004, with the involvement of the USA, Canada, and France. Haitian president Jean Bertrand Aristide says US special forces forcible flew him to exile in the Central African Republic as paramilitaries approached the capital. This was the second coup to overthrow Aristide and there were several assassination attempts.
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 nsnbc.me/2013/03/02/tree-planting-day-in-the-dpr-korea-embodies-socialist-and-traditional-asian-cultural-values
The Battle of Zhenbao or Damansky Island, part of the long border dispute between China and the USSR, was March 2-17, 1969.
March 2, 1978 Vladimír Remek became the first person in space not from the USSR or USA, he is the only cosmonaut from Czechoslovakia [the CSSR at the time] (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 to 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 is named after him.
March 2, 2004 the European Space Agency launched the Rosetta probe, with lander Philae, on a mission to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
The first woman in space, cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, was born March 6, 1937, and went into space June 16, 1963.
British astronomer Sir John Frederick William Herschel was born March 7, 1792.
International Women's Day is Sunday, March 8th.
Russian revolutionary and Soviet statesman Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov was born March 9, 1890.
The first human in space, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, was born March 9, 1934 and went into space April 12, 1961.
The 2011 Touhoku earthquake and tsunami or Great East Japan Earthquake was March 11th.
The Maoist Revolutionary Internationalist Movement was founded March 12, 1984 at a conference in France.
According to Wikipedia, by convention (set in 1925) the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, now Mexico City, was founded March 13, 1325. The decision to build on what was then an island in a series of fresh and saltwater lakes in a basin in Mexico's central mountains is supposed to have been based on an oracle about looking for a bird of prey holding a snake while perched on a prickly pear cactus, an event depicted on the Mexican flag and coat of arms.
Astronomer William Herschel discovered Uranus March 13, 1781, observing from his garden in Bath, UK. Uranus had been observed before, and is apparently visible to the eye unaided, but was mistaken for a star, and Herschel reported it as a comet.
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.
Many people, including the then governor of Arizona Fife Symington III, saw the Phoenix Lights March 13, 1997 over Nevada, Arizona, and Mexico's Sonora state. I think it was reported on the front page or at least in the front section of the Durham Herald-Sun.
The Civil War Battle of New Bern, in coastal NC, was March 14, 1862; Federal forces captured the city and held it for the rest of the Civil War. A Confederate offensive February 1-3, 1864 failed to retake the city.
Albert Einstein was born March 14, 1879. He is famous for his discoveries in physics, but he also wrote the article "Why Socialism?," published in the May 1949 first issue of
Monthly Review:
monthlyreview.org/2009/05/01/why-socialism
The Revolutionary War Battle of Guilford Courthouse was March 15, 1781 in what is now Greensboro, NC.
British artist, illustrator, and art instructor Edith Blackwell Holden died March 15, 1920, having fallen into a part of the Thames River near the Kew Gardens Walk. She was born September 26, 1871 and is probably most known for her nature journal, The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady, published in 1977 and the subject of a TV documentary.
Buzzards Day is supposed to be March 15th.
US soldiers carried out the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam March 16th, 1968.
Panda Day is March 16th.
Robert Simeon Arbib Jr, ornithologist and author of the award-winning 1971 book The Lord's Woods: The Passing of an American Woodland, among others, was born March 17, 1915 in Gloversville, New York, but grew up in Woodmere on Long Island. He passed away July 20, 1987.
The Paris Commune was March 18 to May 28, 1871. Communes were formed or attempts were made in several other French cities.
Cosmonaut Alexey Leonov stepped outside of his spacecraft, the first ever extravehicular activity (EVA) in space, March 18, 1965.
Under Operation Menu the US Strategic Air Command bombed eastern Cambodia March 18, 1969 to May 26, 1970 during the Vietnam War. This was not the first or last US bombing of Cambodia, and it escalated over time.
The Communist Party of the Workers of France or PCOF (Parti communiste des ouvriers de France) was founded March 18, 1979, the anniversary of the beginning of the Paris Commune: www.pcof.net
Chinese revolutionary and wife of Mao Tse-tung, Jiang Qing/Chiang Ching, was born March 19, 1914.
The war for Algerian independence from France ended March 19, 1962. The Battle of Algiers is a well-known film on the national liberation war, banned in France for years.
The Northern Hemisphere's spring equinox will be March 20th in 2022 [also Nowruz].
The first US aircraft carrier, the USS Langley, was commissioned March 20, 1922, remodeling the older USS Jupiter, a collier, following the Washington Naval Treaty limiting naval armaments. [There is an article from the National Air and Space Museum here.]
The Iraq War began around March 20, 2003, though the US was carrying out economic and "kinetic" war against Iraq throughout the period between 1991 and 2003. [What will the mainstream media say, what can they say, given how they talk about the war in Ukraine? In early March NPR's Morning Edition even interviewed Condoleezza Rice about Ukraine.]
World Frog Day is supposed to be March 20th, and is separate from Save the Frogs Day, the last Saturday in April.
World Rewilding Day is also supposed to be on March 20th.
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, also non-native, seem to be replacing house sparrows here. House sparrows are also in decline in places where they are native, such as in India. American species of sparrow aren't closely related to house sparrows.
Arbor Day is Friday, March 18th (the first Friday after March 15th - www.arborday.org/celebrate/dates.cfm ). There is usually a Durham Arbor Day celebration.
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.
International Seal Day is supposed to be March 22nd.
Patrick Henry is supposed to have said "Give me liberty, or give me death!" during a speech before the Second Virginia Convention in Richmond, March 23, 1775.
The Lao People's Democratic Party, at the time called the Lao People's Party, was founded at a congress March 22-April 14, 1955 in Vientiane, Laos.
US forces beseiged Fort Macon, on the coast of North Carolina near Beaufort, March 23-April 26, 1862 and took the fort with few losses on either side. The Fort built of brick and stone, was becoming antiquated by the 1860's with the development of more accurate rifled artillery, unlike earthen Fort Fisher, but much of Fort Fisher has been destroyed or eroded away. Fort Macon has been used by the US military as recently as WWII, but is now a small state park.
World Bear Day is supposed to be March 23rd; black bears are occasionally seen in the Triangle but probably no longer live here permanently, though they breed elsewhere in NC. Bears are rumored to have lived in the bottomlands flooded for Jordan Lake.
Former secretary of state Madeleine Albright passed away March 23, 2022 and was born May 15, 1937 in Prague, Czechoslovakia. She is well-known for defending the deadly sanctions against Iraq during the 90's and other service to US imperialism and neoliberalism with the Clintons, Zbigniew Brezezinski, etc.
Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdamez was assassinated March 24, 1980 in El Salvador.
Christiaan Hyugens, born April 14, 1629 in The Hague, Netherlands, discovered Titan, Saturn's largest moon, March 25, 1655. Titan has a thick atmosphere, lakes of liquid hydrocarbons, and possibly subsurface oceans, and therefore could potentially harbor extraterrestrial life or even descendents of earthly microbes through panspermia.
The infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire was March 25,1911 in Greenwich Village, Manhattan.
Ida B Wells (Ida Bell Wells-Barnett) passed away March 25, 1931 in Chicago.
Earth Hour 2020 is a day in March [March 26th, especially 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, and highlights light pollution and stargazing.
Two Boeing 747s collided on a runway in Tenerife in the Canary Islands March 27, 1977, the deadliest airliner crash.
The second known asteroid, 2 Pallas, was discovered March 28, 1802 by German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthaus Olbers.
Manatee Appreciation Day is supposed to be the last Wednesday in March, the 30th this year.
The WWII Battle of Okinawa began April 1, 1945.
Ramadan begins at sunset April 2nd in 2022.
World Aquatic Animal Day is supposed to be April 3rd.
Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated April 4, 1968 while organizing in support of black public workers in Memphis.
The Civil War Battle of Shiloh was April 6-7, 1862 in Tennessee, very close to Mississippi.
International Beaver Day is supposed to be April 7th.
April 9, 1948 a neutral Palestinian village near Jerusalem, Deir Yassin, was attacked by Zionist terror groups, which later became part of the Israeli military. The residents were killed during and after the fighting. The Kfar Shaul Mental Health Center was built over the remains of the village.
Impached North Carolina governor William Holden was pardoned by the State Senate April 12, 2011.
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.
It is predicted that asteroid 99942 Apophis will come closer to the Earth than many geosynchronous communication satellites (I think this will be a Friday) April 13, 2029. In the apocalyptic sci-fi novel Lucifer's Hammer, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, a comet passes extremely close to the Earth and a slight change in its trajectory results in the comet breaking up and impacting the Earth in multiple places, which is catastrophic, but human actions make the situation worse. Apparently even approaching so closely Apophis will still be obscured by light pollution in urban areas, which will probably be even worse by 2029. [Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko will return to the inner solar system again the year before, in April 2028, but is not a threat to the Earth.]
Speaking of asteroids hitting the Earth, a novel from I think 1997 by a British author foreshadows the Obama-Trump-Biden cold war with China, and has China intentionally bring down a 'world-ending' asteroid, though that is not actually the focus of the novel. In reality today it is the US government and its allies who seem to prefer to wreck the world. Surely more could be done to prevent climate change and address other issues if time and funding weren't being spent on creating a cold war with China and encircling Russia and if there were more international cooperation. The US and China could also cooperate more in space exploration, if Congress had not banned such cooperation years ago. Some US allies cooperate with China, and the US manages to work with Russia on the ISS. Again the question is how serious the hostility is.
Many people were reported to have witnessed hundreds of objects battling over Nuremberg, at the time part of the Holy Roman Empire, early on April 14, 1561. Something similar was reported over Basel, Switzerland in July and August 1566. Phenomena ranging from naturalistic to what might be called UFOs, ghosts, and monsters are said to have appeared in the years before Spanish conquistadors reached what is now Mexico.
Christiaan Huygens was born April 14, 1629 in The Hague, in what was then known as the Dutch Reoublic
Good Friday will be April 15th, and there is usually an annual NC pilgrimage for peace and justice prior. Passover will begin at sunset.
Leonardo da Vinci (Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci) was born April 15, 1452 in the Republic of Florence, now capital of Italy's Tuscany.
The land and naval Battle of Plymouth, in coastal Washington County, NC, was April 17-20, 1864 and included the ironclad ram CSS Albemarle, and apparently there is now a smaller self-powered replica, one of at least two replica ironclads in NC).
The first congress of Khmer Issarak national liberation groups is supposed to have been held April 17-19, 1950 in Kompong Som Loeu, Cambodia, founding the United Issarak Front, under Son Ngoc Minh and with a third of its leadership belonging to the Indochinese Communist Party
The Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, April 17, 1975
Bat Appreciation Day is supposed to be April 17th and according to the NC Wildlife Resources Commission they have their pups around May 1st.
The Revolutionary War or War for Independence began with battles in Massachusetts April 19, 1775.
Freddie Gray died April 19, 2015 after having been arrested April 12th and injured while in a Baltimore Police van.
Russian Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet statesman Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov Lenin was born April 22, 1870.
Earth Day is April 22nd.
Easter Rising for Irish independence began April 24, 1916.
The Dominican Civil War began April 24, 1965; the US military's evacuation effort became the Operation Power Pack intervention and occupation April 30th, featuring the 82nd Airborne Division. US and Organization of American States personnel remained until September 21, 1966, after an election that July had installed former Trujillo official Joaquín Balaguer as president.
Save the Frogs Day is the last Saturday in April [the 30th] ( www.savethefrogs.com/d/day/index.html ).
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 Khalq faction of the PDPA.
World Tapir Day and International Hyena Day are supposed to be on April 27th.
The Treaty of San Francisco formally restoring diplomatic relations of the US and allied countries with Japan was signed September 9, 1951 and came into effect April 28, 1952. Several countries that had been belligerents in the war refused to participate in the negotiations or were not invited.
The last French soldiers withdrew from Vietnam April 28, 1956, but US intervention increased and became the Vietnam War.
Workers' Memorial Day is April 28th, and there is usually an NC AFL-CIO commemoration in Raleigh.
German mathematician and physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss was born April 30, 1777.
Business interests and the local American Legion attacked an IWW hall in Centralia, Washington November 11, 1919, using an Armistice Day parade as cover, resulting in several deaths on each side. Wesley Everest, a logger and International Workers of the World member, was taken from jail and lynched later that day. Only members and supporters of the International Workers of the World were prosecuted and convicted. Other attacks preceded the events of Armistice Day, including an attack on an IWW hall during a Red Cross parade April 30, 1918. For a more detailed account see: www.counterpunch.org/2019/11/11/class-war-violence-centralia-1919/
International Workers' Day / May Day is May 1st. There will probably be events around the 1st locally.
According to the NC Wildlife Resources Commission bats have pups around May 1st.
World Tuna Day is May 2nd.
International Leopard Day and Wild Koala Day are supposed to May 3rd.
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.
World Donkey Day is supposed to be May 8th.
International Migratory Bird Day is May 9th (the second Saturday in May)
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 (www.ncparks.gov/occoneechee-mountain-state-natural-area ). The end of the ice ages left 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 below). 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.
The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia was founded at a congress of the Czechoslovak Social-Democratic Party (Left) held in Prague May 14-16, 1921.
World Migratory Bird Day will be May 14th.
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.
Writer Hal Borland was born May 14, 1900.
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 a chytrid fungus epidemic, possibly assisted by climate change, and a major threat to frog species in many countries.
Endangered Species Day is supposed to be May 15th: www.endangered.org/campaigns/endangered-species-day/
The Battle of Alamance was May 16, 1771 in what is now Alamance County, NC, near Great Alamance Creek, and was the end of the Regulator Movement.
National Invasive Species Awareness Part II is May 16-23: www.nisaw.org/ [This is from a previous year]The [12th?] annual Longleaf Festival will be May [14th this year] 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.
May 20th (the third Friday in May) is supposed to be Endangered Species Day and Bike-to-Work Day.
The European Day of Parks is supposed to be May 24th.
World Otter Day is supposed to be May 27th, and river otters probably live in many of Durham's creeks and rivers, though are rarely seen. Mink, another water-loving weasel relative, also live in the area.
The WWI Battle of Jutland between the British and German navies was May 31-June 1, 1916, in the waters off Denmark and Norway.
During the Tulsa Race Riot May 31 - June 1, 1921 in Oklahoma there was fighting on the ground and private airplanes dropped incendiaries.
World Parrot Day is supposed to be May 31st.
World Reef Day is supposed to be June 1st.
June 3, 1844 a breeding pair of great auks (Pinguinus impennis), the original penguin, though they are not related to the penguins of Antarctica, and their egg were killed by commercial collectors (Jón Brandsson, Sigurður Ísleifsson, and Ketill Ketilsson) 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. Wikipedia says a lone auk was seen off Newfoundland, Canada in 1852. There were conservation laws as early as 1553, but the the great auk was 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 it should be remembered that cloning is not the same as resurrecting a species exactly as it once was.
World Environment Day is June 5th.
World Oceans Day is June 8th.
International Lynx Day is supposed to be June 11th.
National Cougar Day is supposed to be June 12th.
Global or World Wind Day is June 15th.
World Sea Turtle Day is supposed to be June 1th.
World Croc Day is supposed to be June 17th.
The Northern Hemisphere's summer solstice will be Tuesday, June 21 in 2022.
World Rainforest Day and World Camel Day are both supposed to be June 22nd.
Bastille Day, July 14th, is also supposed to be Shark Awareness Day and World Chimpanzee Day.
World Snake Day is supposed to be July 16th.
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| A red Potain tower crane on West Corporation Street, near Durham Central Park in late January 2022. © |
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