I hope to add more items in coming weeks.
In the face of inflation, war, and other disasters, grow food instead of lawn grass, most like non-native and often resource-intensive: www.counterpunch.org/2022/06/13/the-food-shortage-in-your-own-backyard/ There are also the ideas of foodscaping and cottagecore.
Durham City-County Planning Department engagement
Information about the planning process, meeings, a survey, comment on the draft updated Comprehensive Plan (comments due by June 30th): durham.mysocialpinpoint.com/comprehensiveplan
Ask-a-Planner
June 13th 7:30 - 8pm in-person at the Walltown Recreation Center
June 21st starting at 6:30pm in-person at the Rougemont Ruritan Club
June 28th 6:30 - 7:30pm virtual (see the above link for registration)
At What Cost? A Community Information Session on the Hazards of Chapel Hill's Plan to Build on Coal Ash
 |
| The Town of Chapel Hill's plan for the police station coal ash site as presented to the NC Dept of Environmental Quality |
Calamity Again: The Roots of Conflict in Ukraine
The Durham County Library will host a talk by Dr Pamela Kachurin "on the historical, cultural, and political context of the Russo-Ukrainian War," from Kievan Rus to today, Saturday, June 11th 2 - 5pm in-person in the Main Auditorium at the Main Library: durhamcountylibrary.libcal.com/event/9109369 I don't know what the politics will be; this might be the same Dr Kachurin: www.researchgate.net/profile/Pamela-Kachurin , www.smithsonianjourneys.org/experts/pamela-kachurin/
Twilight Thursdays at the NCBG
The NC Botanical Garden will stay open late, until 8pm, from June 2nd to September 1st, possibly with food trucks and music: ncbg.unc.edu/event/twilight-thursdays/
Work on 55-Hopson
Work has begun on at least part of the vast site, with clearing on the west side of Highway 55, south of the powerline, going around a small cemetery. There is what might be a large chipper across Green Level Church Road; maybe the biomass went to fuel European powerplants. A nearby house is gone, possibly related. I wonder what else might vanish in coming years as this land is built on, without any plan having been presented in public hearings, along with surrounding areas and a new through road, despite the existence of a large and 'wild' area of protected public land. Apparently it is currently wild enough to support bobcats, turkeys, and maybe whippoorwills or chuck-will's-widows, with relatively little light pollution.
From STN:
Solidarity with the Incarcerated from North Carolina to Guantanamo
June 26 is UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. Gather to observe the cruel links in the mistreatment of disproportionately Black and Brown prisoners in North Carolina and the all-Muslim Black and Brown prisoners in the Guantanamo Bay detention center.
Per capita, more people are incarcerated in the U.S. than in any other country on earth. North Carolina is one of 12 states in which more than half the prison population is Black. And our state hosts a CIA aviation firm used in the kidnapping and torture of at least 49 Black and Brown people, all Muslim, in the so-called “war on terror.”
What: A gathering to hear speakers, bear witness, connect with others who care, and write letters to Gov. Cooper. Through virtual reality headsets, “experience” solitary confinement briefly. Watch a short documentary on solitary confinement, and hear at least one person who has experienced it. Free and open to the public.
When: Sunday, June 26, from 2:00 to 4:00 pm
Where: John Chavis Community Center, 505 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Raleigh
We call on Governor Cooper to:
* end solitary confinement, which is torture, in NC prisons and jails as recommended by the 2020 NC Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice
* issue a pardon of innocence to Michael Parker, a North Carolina man imprisoned 22 years for a crime he didn’t commit, and waiting for the Governor’s pardon since 2014
* acknowledge NC's vital role in the CIA's post-9/11 rendition and torture program, and end the CIA's use of NC airports for human rights abuses
Sponsors (list in formation): ACLU-NC, Disability Rights NC, National Religious Campaign Against Torture, NC Council of Churches, NC Peace Action, NC Stop Torture Now
The Friends of the Durham Library will have an in-store book sale June 3 - 4 [see below].
News from Foreign Languages Press
The French (?) Maoist publishing house Foreign Languages Press will increase its prices slightly, around $1-2 dollars, on June 1st: foreignlanguages.press
Where is the War in Ukraine Going and What Should be the Response of the Peace Movement?
This UNAC webinar will be Monday, May 23rd at 2pm Eastern.
US nuclear weapons stored in Europe
It is thought that US nuclear weapons are again being stationing in the UK, itself nuclear-armed, and there will be a demonstration May 21st, 1-3pm at the RAF/USAF base Lakenheath in Suffolk, UK, the largest USAF base in the UK: www.counterpunch.org/2022/05/18/are-us-nuclear-weapons-back-in-britain/ and cnduk.org/lakenheath/ Apparently the base is currently being used only by the US military and was the site of serious nuclear weapon accidents July 27, 1956 and in January 1961. It seems obvious that if the US starts wars with Russia or China the UK, Germany, Japan, etc. would receive heavy damage, and the "Western" economic war against Russia is already causing damage worldwide, though unlike the Taliban, Iraq, and Libya Russia and China are capable of bringing war to US territory. Regarding possible fallout of the economic war, I'm surprised no one seems to be bringing up the reported connection between food prices and the "Arab Spring," and there is the additional factor of climate change-induced crop losses this year. Governments might be toppled, but in unexpected places.
Proposed 2015 Wildlife Action Plan Addendum
The NC Wildlife Resources Commission is seeking comments through Friday, May 20th: www.research.net/r/WAP22 One change would apparently work to keep common plants common, currently only a State goal with animal species. The various species of ash tree come to mind, but many are still around in my area and that is an unusual case. The Addendum also relates to the Recovering America's Wildlife Act, currently going through Congress. These are sample comments from the New Hope Audubon Society:
"Plants represent and support a large proportion of the state’s total biodiversity. Insects (which renowned biologist E. O. Wilson called “the little things that run the world”) sustain the earth’s ecosystems by sustaining the plants and animals that run those ecosystems. 90% of insects can complete their life cycle only on the native plants they evolved with. To continue to have a functioning ecosystem, it is imperative that the state include plants most in need of conservation in the plan. Conserving plants conserves ecosystems and all the insects, birds and fauna that live there.
The Wildlife Action Plan’s goal is to keep common species common. Historically, this goal has applied only to animals. The time has come to include our native North Carolina plants in the list of species in greatest need of conservation in order to protect them before they become endangered, threatened, or of special concern. Helping conserve plants also helps us to conserve birds and other species.
Native plants are a major component of the earth’s ecosystems, and they play a crucial role in sustaining the animals that are part of those ecosystems. It only makes sense to include in the plan the plants that wildlife depend on."
Rally for Palestine - Nakba Day Protest in Raleigh
From the Facebook announcement:
"Join Muslims for Social Justice and coalition partners on Sunday, May 15 at 2:00 pm in Moore Square, Raleigh, NC. We are rallying to commemorate 74 years of the Nakba as Palestine continues to face colonization, brutality, and injustice at the hands of Israeli zionism. We will march in solidarity with the fight for Palestinian liberation and an end to Israeli zionism!
When: Sunday, May 15 at 12:00 pm
Where: Moore Square (226 E Martin St), Raleigh, NC
Why: Commemorating 74+ years of the Nakba and calling for a free Palestine
Where: Moore Square (226 E Martin St), Raleigh, NC
Why: Commemorating 74+ years of the Nakba and calling for a free Palestine
Who:
Muslims for Social Justice
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Refund Raleigh
PSL Carolinas
Mapinduzi
Voices for Justice in Palestine
El Pueblo
Jewish Voice for Peace- Triangle NC
Workers World Party- Durham
NC Triangle DSA
Socialist Party of NC
Southern Vision Alliance"
Muslims for Social Justice
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Refund Raleigh
PSL Carolinas
Mapinduzi
Voices for Justice in Palestine
El Pueblo
Jewish Voice for Peace- Triangle NC
Workers World Party- Durham
NC Triangle DSA
Socialist Party of NC
Southern Vision Alliance"
Moldova Caucus Co-Chairs Price and Pfluger Commend Advancement of Moldova Resolution (4/ 6) What retiring NC Congressman David Price has been up to for US imperialism in Eastern Europe - price.house.gov/newsroom/press-releases/moldova-caucus-co-chairs-price-and-pfluger-commend-advancement-moldova For more information see: www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-resolution/833/all-info
Green Party says U.S. complicit in Yemen humanitarian crisis; arms sales to Saudis must end (4/ 25) - www.gp.org/press_releases
The Poor People's Campaign Pushes War Propaganda (5/ 1) - davidswanson.org/the-poor-peoples-campaign-pushes-war-propaganda/
Calendar of Resistance for Palestine
This calendar from the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Network lists events in April and May, including some in South Carolina: samidoun.net/2022/04/calendar-of-resistance-take-action-for-palestine/
The April issue of Towards Marxist-Leninist Unity is out
Towards Marxist-Leninist Unity volume 3, number 6 has been published and will be freely available online at: redstarpublishers.org/TMLU.htm (see also for TMLU's contact information and how to order print copies). They say that comments, critical or not, and content submissions are appreciated. The next issue should come out in June, with content due in May.
Contents
The U.S. Has No Right to Give Lessons to Putin on Invasions
Ukraine – An Analysis of an Inter-Imperialist War
No to our country's involvement in the reactionary war of Biden and Putin!
Cartoon: Welcome to My Moderate Rebels Club
The economic background of the inter-imperialist dispute
Graphic: Combatting Glorification of Nazism
Staten Island Amazon Union Victory
Bessemer Alabama Amazon Workers Continue Struggle to Unionize
The working woman in the face of the current health crisis
Lasso cements dependency on China
New York City – Homeless & Covid Restrictions
New York State – Gov. Hochul’s Measures to Improve the Economy
Sección en español
La victoria del sindicato de Amazon de Staten Island
La mujer trabajadora ante la crisis de salud actual
Lasso remacha dependencia con China
Cuban 5 Archive Project: www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2022/04/11/the-cuban-5-archives-begin-their-journey-home/
Solomon Islands cooperation with China
The BBC reports that Australia is 'concerned' about China "muscling in" to an area of the Pacific Ocean around the Solomon Islands 'traditionally' the colonial 'bailiwick' of Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Japan, and maybe they also said the UK - the same way Russia is concerned about US, EU, and NATO activity in its neighborhood and coming up to its borders and the USA has been concerned about the actions of European powers in Latin America up to WWI; followed by the Cuban Missile Crisis and the prevention of revolutions, whether Soviet-backed or not; and more recently the mere temporary presence of Russian or Chinese military vessels in the Western Hemisphere? [For more details see for example: www.counterpunch.org/2022/04/18/the-china-threat-and-the-solomon-islands/ ]
Durham Planning Commission meeting May 10th
May 10th the Durham Planning Commission will hear rezoning cases concerning a Farrington Road site on the Civil War Trail; the former Catsburg Store site, an area with endangered plant species; the County land at the corner of Highway 55 and TW Alexander Drive, another area with rare species; among other hearings: www.durhamnc.gov/AgendaCenter/Planning-Commission-15
Events in Raleigh for National Bike Month in May: raleighnc.gov/bike-month
Triangle Bikeway Study seeking comments
The DCHCMPO's Triangle Bikeway Study is open for public comment until Saturday, May 14th and there will be an online public hearing Wednesday, May 11th at 9am: www.dchcmpo.org/what-we-do/projects/current-projects/triangle-bikeway-study/
The season and climate are changing
Average last frost dates in the Triangle are in early or mid-April, and seem to be changing due to climate change and urban heating. I doubt it is necessary to go to the polar regions or a montane glacier to see global warming in action, though it might be subtle. The Caterpillars Count! citizen science project also looks for these signs ( caterpillarscount.unc.edu ). Early wildflowers should have been abundant by mid- to late March, though I've heard that they might have been delayed this year. A severe spring drought last year seemed very unusual [but there seems to be a spring drought this year as well]. I was surprised to notice last fall that a very large sweetgum didn't seem to have produced a single gumball that year, though I don't know if that was because of the drought and maybe there are cycles of gumball production I haven't been noticing. A smaller sweetgum seemed to fruit as usual.
Digging Durham Seed Library
The Durham County Library and possibly other area libraries offer open-pollinated vegetable, herb, and flower seeds for free along with information and workshops: durhamcountylibrary.org/digging-durham-seed-library/
Spring meteor showers and stargazing
The Lyrids peaked April 21 - 22 and are visible from about April 15 - 29th and the eta Aquariids peak May 4 - 5 and are visible April 15th to May 27th: amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/ and amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/2020-meteor-shower-list/ [A faint comet is also visible in May and there could be a new meteor shower May 30 - 31, produced by the breaking up of another comet.]
Early evenings in late April are supposed to offer the best views of planet Mercury all year and the crescent Moon and several planets are relativelly close together in the southeast before dawn in late April into May.
[There will be total lunar eclipses May 15th and November 8th this year.]
Art of the Field Guide
Works by Roger Tory Peterson, David Allen Sibley, John James Audubon, Louis Agassiz Fuertes, and others willl be on display at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute in Jamestown, New York April 27 - July 17th: rtpi.org/exhibitions/art-of-the-field-guide/ Locally there are usually botanical illustration exhibits and sculptures at the NC Botanical Garden.
Creek Weeks
Durham County - March 12 - 19: keepdurhambeautiful.org/creek-week-events
Orange County - March 10, 12 -19: www.co.orange.nc.us/2905/Events-and-Activities
Chatham County/Regional - March 12 - 19: www.chathamcountync.gov/government/departments-programs-i-z/watershed-protection/regional-creek-week
Forsyth County - March 19 - 27: forsythcreekweek.squarespace.com/
Charlotte/Mecklenburg Creek Week - March 19 - 26: charlottenc.gov/StormWater/Volunteer/Pages/CreekWeek.aspx
Alamance County - May 14 - 21: alamancecreekweek.wordpress.com/
Guilford County - June 4 - 11: www.guilfordcreekweek.org/ , www.guilfordcountync.gov/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/3822/
This might not be an exhaustive list and some places have creek weeks in the fall, such as Rowan County, where it is September 17 - 24: www.rowancountync.gov/1464/Creek-Week
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.
National Farmworker Awareness Week is March 25 - 31, ending on famous farm labor organizer Cesar Chavez's birthday (Cesar Chavez Day) saf-unite.org/national-farmworker-awareness-week/
NC Pilgrimage for Peace and Justice 2022?
The NC Pilgrimage for Peace and Justice usually walks across the State every spring, I think ending in Raleigh on Good Friday, April 15th this year [see below]. It is organized by wfpse.org and other groups.
US Congress, SOA Watch, and WFP Solidarity Collective delegation to Honduras
In late March a delegation from the US House of Representatives, School of the Americas Watch, and Witness for Peace Solidarity Collective were received by Honduran president Xiomara Castro and also met with the president of the Honduran National Congress and members of its Foreign Affairs Committee: soaw.org/members-of-u-s-congress-soa-watch-and-wfp-solidarity-collective-meet-with-president-xiomara-castro-of-honduras
Maximus call center workers, who take 1-800 calls for Medicare and the the Affordable Care Act, went on strike March 23rd, the anniversary of the ACA's signing, demanding better wages, paid sick leave for all workers, and the right to organize. This is apparently the first time workers handling calls for the Federal government have gone on strike and they have been attempting to organize for years, facing a management anti-union drive. There is a petition at: actionnetwork.org/petitions/maximusstrike
The National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, DC is March 20th - April 17th this year: nationalcherryblossomfestival.org
According to the NC AFLCIO Airport Workers Day of Action is March 30th.
The Camellia Forest Nursery's Open House: Spring Fling is April 1-3 and 8-10 in Chapel Hill: camforest.com/pages/open-house
The Friends of the Chatham County Library will have a book sale by genre April 1-2 (9am-5pm and 9am-2pm respectively) at the Chatham Community Library with fiction, mystery, and sciene fiction books: www.friendsccl.org/April-2022-book-sale
#Defund Climate Chaos Week of Arts Action, demanding that financial institutions stop funding fossil fuel infrastructure, will be April 2 - 10. There will be an online teach-in March 29th at 8pm ( bit.ly/DefundClimateChaos ) and the Haw River Assembly says to contact janmartijnburger at gmail to get involved.
BW Wells Heritage Day 2022 will be Saturday, April 2nd 10am-3pm at Falls Lake State Recreation Area historic BW Wells access: www.bwwells.org/events/ and www.ncparks.gov/falls-lake-state-recreation-area/events-and-programs/bw-wells-heritage-day-2
The Friends of Lower Haw River State Natural Area and park staff will hold a Whack Attack! Invasive Species Removal Workday April 2nd 9:30am - 12pm: www.ncparks.gov/jordan-lake-state-recreation-area/events-and-programs/lower-haw-river-state-natural-area-–-whack There are similar volunteer events at areas managed by the NCBG, through the Green Dragons program/
Sister Cities of Durham will host its 4th annual Festival of Nations April 3rd 11am - 5pm at the Durham Central Park. Durham's sister cities are Arusha, Tanzania; Celaya, Mexico; Durham, UK; Kavala Greece; Kostroma, Russia; Sibiu, Romania; Tilaran, Costa Rica; Toyoma, Japan; and Zhuzhou China: www.facebook.com/sistercitiesofdurham , www.eventeny.com/events/4th-annual-festival-of-nations-2021-1233/ , and sistercities-durham.com
CHALT will host webinars on the affordable housing crisis April 3 and 10 4 - 5:30pm: us02web.zoom.us/j/4800794120 and www.chalt.org/events/
The NC Botanical Gardens' annual Evelyn McNeill Sims Native Plant Lecture will be Sunday, April 3rd 5:30 - 6:30pm, with an in-person and online audience. Julie Moore will talk about "50 years of Native Plant and Habitat Conservation in NC: History and the Road Ahead:" ncbg.unc.edu/calendar/
Call Congress with CODEPINK and Massachusetts Peace Action April 5th at 8pm EDT: www.codepink.org/events
The annual NC Science Festival ( ncsciencefestival.org ) sponsors events throughout the state during April, including the annual Statewide Star Party, April 8th and 9th this year ( ncsciencefestival.org/starparty ). There will be an event 7 - 10pm April 9th at the Triangle Land Conservancy's Williamson Farm and Nature Preserve in Raleigh: www.triangleland.org/explore/events NCSciFest began in September 2010 (the Star Party began in 2013) and is organized by Morehead Planetarium and UNC - Chapel Hill. It is supposed to be the country's first statewide festival of science. There were events at every state park in 2016, the centenary of the state park system; in all of NC's 100 counties in 2017; and its one millionth participant and first million dollar endownment came in 2015.
The Paul J. Ciener Botanical Garden's 2022 Virtual Plant Sale is March 23 - April 6 at noon and their 2022 Spring In-person Plant Sale will be Saturday, April 9th 9am-2pm in Kernersville, North Carolina. Their 2022 Spectacular Tulip Bloom Celebration, featuring over 16,000 flower bulbs, will also be on the 9th, from 10am - 4pm: www.cienerbotanicalgarden.org
Wilmington's annual NC Azalea Festival will be April 6-10: ncazaleafestival.org
The Durham Master Gardener Extension volunteers and Backyard Treasures will have a plant sale April 9th 10am-2pm at the Durham Cooperative Extension center at 721 Foster Street, Durham: keepdurhambeautiful.org/events
NC Squid Game (the 2022 NC KoreaFest?) will be held April 9th 11am - 4pm at Black Belt World in Knightdale: www.nckoreafest.com
There was an NC Union Candidates Town Hall online the evening of April 13th, organized by the NC AFL-CIO.
The NC Pilgrimage for Peace and Justice ends in Raleigh on the 15th, Good Friday:
"The Witness for Peace Economic Justice Way of the Cross observance
has brought people together for decades. It begins at 10 AM:
Good Friday Pilgrimage for Peace and Justice
(Walk, or Meet at the Capitol)
When: Good Friday (April 15) 10 A.M. — Begin at Central Prison on Western Boulevard (abolish the death penalty)
2. Walk to Helen Wright Center for Women (end homelessness, provide affordable housing)
3. Walk to Wake Country Jail (end cash bond, stop racist jail/prison industrial complex)
4. Walk to Justice Center of North Carolina (welcome immigrants, support workers right to organize, Black Lives Matter)
5. Walk to State Capitol (arrive at noon) for Peace and Justice Way of the Cross.
For more information contact Gail Phares [ ] or Patrick O’Neill [ ]
As you know, this Friday event in Raleigh makes visible the solidarity
between our communities and those south of the US who struggle
for survival, for justice and equal rights."
The New Hope Audubon Society and Chapel Hill Public Library will host Project FeederWatch events on the back terrace at the CHPL April 15th 2 - 3:30 and April 16th 3 - 4:30.
The 2022 Triangle Bird Count will be April 15th - May 31st: trianglebirds.org
The North American Rock Garden Society (Piedmont Chapter) Lecture "Salvia: A Natural History" with botanist Scott Zona, PhD, will be held Saturday, April 16th 10 - 11:30am at the JCRA and streamed online through Zoom: jcra.ncsu.edu/events/details.php?ID=2771 The talk might cover Central America's Salvia divinorum, which last I heard is legal to grow as an ornamental in North Carolina, and the ad notes that Mexico and Western Asia are hotspots for this very diverse genus "- there is a Salvia for all occasions."
There will be a spring cleanup at Durham's Geer Cemetery Saturday, April 16th 11am - 1pm with the Friends of Geer Cemetery: keepdurhambeautiful.org/events
The War Industry Resisters Week of Action is April 17 -24th: www.veteransforpeace.org/take-action/war-industry-resisters-network
Taxes are due for most US taxpayers by Monday, April 18th: www.irs.gov/newsroom/2022-tax-filing-season-begins-jan-24-irs-outlines-refund-timing-and-what-to-expect-in-advance-of-april-18-tax-deadline though some people refuse to pay some or all of their income taxes to resist US militarism and imperialism.
The BDS movement's Israeli Apartheid Week #UnitedAgainstRacism is being held March 21 - April 18th, the exact dates varying by region: bdsmovement.net/iaw
Durham's second annual Library Fest: The Food Edition will be April 18 - 23: durhamcountylibrary.org/libraryfest/
Mayor Elaine O'Neal will give her first State of the City Address April 18th at 7pm, followed by the regular Monday evening City Council meeting; people can attend in person or watch on the City website, the Durham Television Network ( www.durhamnc.gov/1104/Durham-Television-Network ), Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Facebook, Roku, Twitter, or YouTube.
The Piedmont Wildlife Center will hold an Earth Day Open House Thursday, April 21st 5:30 - 7:30pm at 34 Leigh Farm Road next to New Hope Creek off of Highway 54 near I-40: www.piedmontwildlifecenter.org
The Haw River Assembly ( hawriver.org ) is organizing a talk, Where Are We Now With Haw River PFAS and 1,4-Dioxane? A Discussion with Haw Riverkeeper Emily Sutton, Thursday, April 21st in the Holmes Room at the Chatham Community Library. Registration is required and there will only be room for 80 people; masks are recommended. There is a related NC Conservation Network petition at: action.ncconservationnetwork.org/page/38767/action/1
There will be a Global Mobilization to Stop Lockheed Martin April 21 - 28: act.worldbeyondwar.org/stoplockheedmartin/
April 22nd, a Friday this year, is Earth Day every year and 2022 is the 152nd birth anniversary of Russian revolutionary Vladimir Ilyich (Ulyanov) Lenin.
There will be an Earth Day Celebration at Greensboro's Kathleen Clay Edwards Family Branch Library April 22nd 3 - 4pm: www.greensboro-nc.gov/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/75329/23
The Carolina Farm Stewardship Association's 25th annual Piedmont Farm Tour will be held April 23 - 24: www.carolinafarmstewards.org/pft/
As part of the North Carolina Science Festival the Operation Earth Day festival will be held at the TLC's Brumley Nature Preserve in Orange County April 23rd 11am - 2pm with parners including Caterpillars Count!, the Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association, Fullstream Brewery, NCBG, PWC, aptor Insights, Schoolhouse of Wonder, and more: www.triangleland.org/event/operation-earth-day?instance_id=909
Tours of the South Wake Landfill and Sonoco Recycling Facility should resume in 2022 and there will be tours as part of the NC Science Festival on April 22nd. For more information and registration see: www.wakegov.com/recycling/outreach/Pages/tours.aspx
The 2022 Chapel Hill Garden Tour will be April 23 - 24: ncbg.unc.edu/calendar/ and chapelhillgardenclub.net/2020-tour-home-page/
Reportedly the annual Party for the Pine at Weymouth Woods Sandhills Nature Preserve will be Saturday, April 23rd this year: festivalnet.com/89883/Southern-Pines-North-Carolina/Festivals/Party-For-the-Pine and www.ncparks.gov/weymouth-woods-sandhills-nature-preserve/home
The free/gratis Earth Day Family Day / Dia familiar por el Dia de la Tierra at the NC Museum of Art in Raleigh will be April 23rd 10am - 2pm: ncartmuseum.org/events/earth-day-family-day/
ApexEarthFest 2022 will be April 23rd 12 - 4pm at the Apex Town Hall and Senior Center [Courtyard, with tabling (including the Carolina Wetlands Association, etc.) , art, live music, dance, food, a KidZone, and a sustainable fashion show]: www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0d48adaf2fa13-apex
The NC Museum of Natural Sciences' Triangle SciTech Expo will be April 23rd: naturalsciences.org/calendar/triangle-scitech-expo-2/
The first annual Orange-Chatham African American Cultural Festival will be April 23rd 10am - 2pm at 750 South Merritt Mill Road in Chapel Hill.
The Raleigh, Triangle, and Durham DSA chapters are organizing a Mini-golf Fund-a-thon for Abortion April 23rd at 2pm at Frankie's Fun Park in Raleigh (11190 Fun Park Drive).
Matthews Earth Day will be April 23rd at Squirrel Lake Park, Matthews.
Statesville Arbor Day will be April 23rd at the Statesville Park and Soccer Complex.
Charlotte Earth Day will be April 23rd 10am - 3pm at First Ward Park, 301 East 7th Street: charlotteearthday.com
Brookgreen Gardens in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina wil have its Spring Plant Sale April 23rd 9:30am - 3:30pm.
The Greensboro Farmers Market's annual Go Green Plant, Garden, and Home Show will be April 24th 9am - 2pm.
The annual Eastern North Carolina Iris Society Show will be April 24th 12 - 5pm at NCSU's JC Raulston Arboretum: jcra.ncsu.edu/events/details.php?ID=2907
[Durham Earth Day was at the Durham Central Park April 24th 12 - 5pm.]
There will be an Alliance for Global Justice webinar, Nicaragua: Bold Leader in the Climate Crisis, April 24th at 3pm ET in English and Spanish: afgj.org/webinar-announcement-nicaragua-bold-leader-in-the-climate-crisis
The BDS #AXADivest Global Day of Action will be Monday, April 25th: bdsmovement.net/news/hello-axa-we-need-urgent-assistance
The South Carolina State Climatology Office and Carolinas Integrated Science and Assessments will hold a series of one-day workshops on planning for upcoming climate challenges in the state, the 2022 Climate Connections Workshop Series. The workshops will be April 26th in North Charleston, April 28th in Florence, and May 12th in Greenville, SC: scclimateconnections.weebly.com/
The 72nd annual Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage in Great Smoky Mountains National Park will be April 26th - 30th: www.wildflowerpilgrimage.org
April 28th is Workers' Memorial Day and there is usually a commemoration in Raleigh. [There will be a press conference followed by a solemn memorial service memorializing 189 workers, Thursday, April 28th at 10am at the NC State Capitol, on the south, Morgan Street side: www.facebook.com/ncstateaflcio/ ]
Early voting for the primary election will be April 28th - May 14th: www.ncsbe.gov/voting/upcoming-election
The 2022 Durham BioBlitz will be April 29 - May 8: keepdurhambeautiful.org/durham-bioblitz-1
The 2022 NC Lake Management Society's Spring Workshop will be April 29th 9:30am - 3:30pm onlineand will include a workshop on "The Ellerbe Beaver Dam Study" in Durham, integrated carp management at Lake Mattamuskeet, etc.: nclakes.org/event-4687516
April 29 - 30 is the Weekend of Art in Hillsborough, with a Last Fridays Art Walk 6 - 9pm on the 29th and the Handmade Market 12 - 7pm and Handmade Parade at 4pm on Saturday the 30th: www.hillsboroughartscouncil.org/handmade-parade
The Beyond the Book Children's Book and Art Festival - Chapter 1: Once Upon a Time will be on the 30th 10am - 4pm at Raleigh's Moore Square Historic Park at 226 East Martin Street: www.paperandstarsstudio.com/beyond-the-book-festival
ClydeFEST 2022 will be 11am - 4pm April 30th in Bynum: www.chathamartscouncil.org/clydefest-2/
The free Coastal Climate Science and Engineering Expo, organized by UNC-Wilmington and Battleship North Carolina and part of April's NC Science Fest, will be April 30th 1 - 4pm at Wilmington's Battlleship Park: uncw.edu/marinequest/expo2022.html
According to the NC AFLCIO March 30th is Airport Workers Day of Action. [This should be above.]
The JCRA's annual Raulston Blooms! A Garden Festival for All Ages will be Saturday, April 30th 10am - 4pm, and includes the in-person JCRA Spring Plant Sale (for the first time there is an online sale, April 8 - 15th), 20th Annual Birdhouse Competition, a used gardening book sale, educational and craft events, tree climbing, food trucks and NC State Howling Cow ice cream, etc.: jcra.ncsu.edu/events/details.php?ID=2778
The NC Museum of Life and Science's Party for the Planet will be April 30th 10am - 3pm with workshops related to conservation and tabling by local environmental organizations: www.lifeandscience.org/explore/party-for-the-planet/
The Belmont Historical Society Living History Day will be April 30th.
May is American Wetlands Month and the Carolina Wetlands Associaton will hold tours of its 2022 Wetland Treasures in North and Suth Carolina during the month, details TBA: carolinawetlands.org/index.php/wetland-treasures-of-the-carolinas/
Deciduous umbrella magnolias or umbrellatrees [Magnolia tripetala] have white flowers around May 1st; there might be some in the RTP area of Durham but they seem to be much more common in Raleigh and Cary. There might be specimens in the NC Botanical Garden and they have a similar deciduous species more common in the Appalachians. [I was thinking of the Garden's bigleaf magnolias, M. macrophylla, which grow naturally near Charlotte and are supposed to have the largest leaves and flowers among native North American trees, other than palms. French naturalist André Michaux encountered the species, which he called "the queenliest of all the deciduous magnolias," south of Charlotte (today called the Queen City) on June 8, 1795, though apparently he had seen it before. Fraser magnollias, M. fraseri, are basically stricted to the mountains.] Tulip-poplars or tuliptrees [Liriodendron tulipfera], also in the magnolia family, have large spring green and bright orange flowers in May and possibly earlier. Fringetrees, black locusts, pinxterflowers, and hawthorns should be blooming in late April and many woodland wildflowers are still blooming or start in late spring. There are also many "weeds" and grasses blooming in lawns and along roads. Mountain laurels along the Eno River are supposed to bloom around Mother's Day. [Northern and Southern catalpas also have showy white flowers in May and the fruit will ripen on red mulberries, common between Carrboro and Chapel Hill and in other built up areas in the Triangle.] There aren't many red flowers now, though roses bloom in May and there could be coral honeysuckle, fire pinks, and crossvines.
There will no doubt be events for International Workers' Day/May Day around Sunday, May 1st.
The CPUSA's People's World will hold an online event to raise money: events.eventgroove.com/event/Peoples-World-Fund-Drive-61939
There will be an open house, drop-in information session on Dutham's South Ellerbe Creek Restoration Project Monday, May 2nd, 4 - 5:30pm at the Durham Central Park Pavilion (at 501 Foster Street downtown): www.durhamnc.gov/1616/South-Ellerbe-Project
On the 8th anniversary of the 2014 rightist attack on the House of Trade Unions in Odessa, the International Action Center will host a webinar Monday, May 2 at 2pm Eastern Time, "Reckoning with the Ukraine Government's armed Nazi militias."
The United National AntiWar Coalition sent a delegation to Odessa for the anniverary in 2019: unac.notowar.net/2019/05/04/odessa-report-2-mayday-and-the-may-2nd-remembrance-in-odessa/ and they recommend a 3-minute video on the attack: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWZCu0fhVbw
UNAC is hosting a webinar, "Stand with Alice Walker: Anti-Zionism is NOT Anti-Semitism!," with Alice Walker, Chris Hedges and Susan Abulhawa, Tuesday, May 3rd at 8pm Eastern. There is a petition at: standwithalicewalker.org and for an article by Hedges see: chrishedges.substack.com/p/alice-walker-and-the-price-of-conscience?s=r
The Missouri Green Party will host a webinar, "Ukraine, Fosils Fuels, and Unanswered Questions," Wednesday, May 4th at 7pm Central Time:
The 18th annual Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance will be May 5 - 8, with more than 50 musical performances, yoga, camping, artisans, workshops on sustainability, and more: ShakoriHillsGrassRoots.org
The North Carolina Botanical Garden's Spring Native Plant Sale will be May 7th 10:30am - 4pm: ncbg.unc.edu/calendar/
There are also self-service plant sales at the NCBG and NCSU's JC Raulston Arboretum and probably at other public gardens in the area. The NCBG also has an indoor shop and books and other items can be ordered on their website, ncbg.unc.edu [The JCRA is having its first online sale April 8 - 15th and an in-person sale at Raulston Blooms! April 30th; see above.]
Duke Gardens might have an annual spring plant sale. They offer classes, such as a free, online presentation May 5th 11am - 2pm on spring ephemeral wildflowers, which are usually in about full bloom by mid to late March in older well-drained to more hydric woodlands here: gardens.duke.edu They might have been delayed this year. Spring ephemerals and other flowers can be seen on the Eno River Assembly's annual spring hike series: www.enoriver.org/events-and-activities/hikes-and-outings/ Duke Gardens' website says the cherry blossoms peaked March 19 - 20, but they are probably still blooming at the end of March and tulips are beginning to bloom. There is probably a similar situation at UNC, though plants there seem to bloom earlier than in outlying areas, probably due to urban heat island effects and UNC's underground steam tunnels, and various cherries and related trees can bloom from very early in the year to April or May. The National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, DC is March 20th - April 17th this year: nationalcherryblossomfestival.org
The Brunswick County Master Gardener Volunteer Association will have a container plant sale in late March, a Spring Plant Sale in late April, Pollinator Plant Sale during National Pollinator Week in June, and a Fall Plant Sale in September.
The Haw River Assembly's Haw River Festival will be May 7th 4 - 8pm in Saxapahaw: hawriver.org
Lexington's 26th annual Multicultural Festival will be May 7th 10am - 5pm.
The last offering of South Carolina's 2022 Climate Connections Workshop Series will be May 12th in Greenville: scclimateconnections.weebly.com/
Haw Riverkeeper Emily Sutton will lead a 40th Anniversary Paddle for the HRA May 14 - 21 from Rockingham County to Jordan Lake, with celebratory gatherings in communities along the way.
Ecology 101: The How and Why of Planting Natives, organized by the Durham County Library and the Durham County extension service,will be online May 14th 10am - 12pm: durhamcountylibrary.libcal.com/event/8660873
The annual Longleaf Celebration at Harris Lake County Park in Wake County will be Saturday, May 14th this year.
The Winterfield Community Garden's A Dozen Years of Digging Festival will be May 14th in Charlotte.
North Carolina will hold its delayed primary elections Tuesday, May 17th. Early voting will be April 28th - May 14th: www.ncsbe.gov/voting/upcoming-election The NC AFLCIO has a new election site, NC Labor 2022, at bit.ly/nclabor2022
The spring NC DWR Surface Water Identification Training and Certification or SWITC course will be held at The McKrimmon Center in Raleigh May 17 - 20th: www.bae.ncsu.edu/workshops-conferences/switc/
The NC Botanical Garden's 10th annual Carolina Moonlight Garden Party fundraiser will be Saturday, May 21st 6 - 9pm: ncbg.unc.edu/event/carolina-moonlight-garden-party/ Also, several months ago the Garden's hours changed, so it is or was regularly open to the public on Thursday evenings.
May 24th 6:30 - 8:30pm the NC Museum of Art will host a "Mindful Musuem Workshop: Processing Ecological Grief Through Art" - ncartmuseum.org/events/mindful-museum-workshop-processing-ecological-grief-through-art/
The annual Animazement Japanese (and other East Asian) pop culture convention in Raleigh is scheduled for May 27-29th, its 25th year, though it hasn't been held since 2019 due to the pandemic: www.animazement.com [South Carolina's NashiCon will be among those tabling; NashiCon is usually in early spring but apparently has not been held since 2020.] Similar Momocon is held the same weekend in Atlanta: www.momocon.com
Sumter, SC's annual Iris Festival will be May 27-29 this year: www.sumtersc.gov/irisfestival
Raleigh's 6th annual International Food Festival will be Saturday, June 4th 12-10pm.
The 18th annual Beaver Queen Pageant will be June 4th at Durham's North Duke Park, originally begun as a celebration of victory in saving a family of beavers from the NC DOT, north of I-85 in the Duke Park area in April 2005: beaverqueen.swell.gives/event
An Aquatic Insect Ecology for Environmental Professionals - Level 2 course will be held June 14 - 17th at the Laurel Community Center in Marshall. Aquatic insects and other organisms are used to judge water quality and pollution problems apart from chemical testing, apparently espcially since the mid-70's: www.ncaep.org/event-4743721
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee's 2022 ADC National Convention will be June 17-18 in Washington, DC: www.adc.org
There will be a Mass Poor People's Assembly and Moral March on Washington will be June 18th 9am - 2pm: www.codepink.org/events CODEPINK will hold an anti-militarism teach-in afterward, 4-6pm, details TBA.
National Pollinator Week is June 20 – 26: www.pollinator.org/pollinator-week and there will be local events in Durham.
The 43rd annual EnoFest will be July 2 and 4 in Durham: www.enofest.org/
The annual Cullowhee Native Plant Conference will be July 20 - 23.
The Green Party US will have its national convention July 21 - 24 this year: www.gp.org [This 2022 Annual National Meeting will meet virtually.]
[The 11th annual National Moth Week will be July 23 – 31, 2022: www.nationalmothweek.org/ ]
The massive annual East Asian pop culture convention Otakon will be held July 29-31 in Washington, DC: www.otakon.com
SIPRAL 26, the 26th annual International Seminar "Problems of the Revolution in Latin America," with the theme "The left, the workers and the peoples in the face of imperialist war" (Las izquierdas, los trabajadores, y los pueblos frente a guerra imperialista) will be held Wednesday, August 17 to Saturday, the 20th in Quito, Ecuador and while most of the participants are from Latin America it includes people from around the world. It is organized by the PCMLE and the Revolutionary Youth of Ecuador (JRE): pcmle.org/semint.php
Multi-genre pop culture gathering Dragon Con will be held September 1 - 5 in Atlanta: www.dragoncon.org
The Friends of the Durham Library's Books Among Friends has a new location, at 3825 South Roxboro Road, #131, zipcode 27713. There are satellite sales at each library. For more information and the membership form, see: fodlnc.org/book-sales/ There is a 20% travel book discount sale during March at the Friends of the Durham Library's online store: shopfodlnc.org
FODL will have an in-store book sale June 3 - 4, with more than 20,000 books available. The Friday, June 3rd sale will be 4 - 7pm and members only, but people will be able to join on site. The general Saturday sale will be 10am - 4pm.
The Friends of the Chatham County Library is having limited sales. There will be a sale April 1-2 (9am-5pm and 9am-2pm respectively) at the Chatham Community Library with fiction, mystery, and sciene fiction books: www.friendsccl.org/April-2022-book-sale
The Friends of the Chapel Hill Public Library has an online store at: friendschpl.org/online-book-store and there will be in-person sales August 26-28, and December 2-4, 2022: friendschpl.org/FCHPLevents
The pandemic and cost seem to have ended the colossal booksale Wake County used to hold every May at the NC State Fairgrounds: www.wral.com/wake-county-public-libraries-stops-annual-book-sales-for-now/20032795/
Albanian revolutionary Nexhmije Xhuglini Hoxha was born February 8, 1921 in Bitolj, today part of recently renamed North Macedonia, formerly a Yugoslav republic and having a significant ethnic Albanian minority. She passed away February 26, 2020 at age 99. Xhuglini joined the Shkodra Communist Group at 19 and was a founder of the Communist Party of Albania (later renamed the Party of Labor of Albania) in November 1941. For organizing protests against the Italian occupation she was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment, but escaped. She was a founder of the Anti-Fascist National Liberation Front at the Peza Conference in 1942 and fought in the 1st Division of the National Liberation Army against Italian and then German occupation during WWII. She was a delegate at the First National Conference of the CPA in Labinot in March 1943. She met Enver Hoxha through her CPA activities and they married after liberation. Nexhmije Hoxha served in various offices after WWII, including member of the National Assembly, member of the PLA's Central Committee, director of the Ministry of Culture, director of the Institute of Marxist-Leninist Studies, director of the VI Lenin Higher Party School, member of the Secretariat of the Albanian Women's League, and chair of the Democratic Front. She wrote works, such as Some Fundamental Questions of the Revolutionary Policy of the Party of Labor of Albania about the Development of the Class Struggle in 1977, during the struggle against Soviet and Chinese revisionism. After the capitalist restoration she was charged with embezzlement and imprisoned for years. During this period she wrote My Life with Enver Hoxha. Some of her memoirs are translated at: ml-review.ca/aml/index/subject.html and some short writings are posted at www.mltranslations.org/Albania/index.htm She had a daughter Pranvera; two sons, Sokol and Ilir (born March 31, 1949 and also imprisoned for years after the counterrevolution); and several grandchildren.
Some left statements and generally scathing and similar articles from the "Western" mainstream media, especially those from the US:
ml-today.com/
theredphoenixapl.org/2020/02/26/a-bright-red-star-has-joined-the-heavens/
revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv25n1/NHObituary.pdf
www.nytimes.com/2020/03/04/world/europe/nexhmije-hoxha-dead.html
www.reuters.com/article/us-albania-hoxha-idUSKCN20K30K
www.france24.com/en/20200226-nexhmije-hoxha-widow-of-albania-s-communist-tyrant-dies-aged-99
(I'm surprised to read what could be praise from counterrevolutionary Albanian Democratic Party leader Sali Berisha here.)
"WAR VETERANS ASSOCIATION OF THE NATIONAL LIBERATION ARMY
Died comrade Nexhmije Hoxha
A young girl born in Saint Naum (Bitola), raised in Dibra, married in Gjirokastra, with a more sensational life in Tirana, where she supported the Gervalla family, left behind one [major] Nationwide Works, testament to be realized from generations of dedication for National Unity ...
Glory!
War Veterans Association of the National Liberation Army
Fazli Veliu, Chairman
Tetova, February, 2020"
The Friends of the Lee County Libraries has sales at open libraries: library.leecountync.gov/friends
Not much is going on in nearby counties and municipalities:
There is a sale every Monday 2-4pm at the Warren County Memorial Library: www.wcmlibrary.org/friends-of-the-library-book-sale/
Granville County: granville.lib.nc.us/friends-of-the-library/ and www.facebook.com/FriendsOfTheGranvillePublicLibrarySystem/
Person County: www.personcountync.gov/departments-services/departments-i-z/library/friends-of-the-library-1603
Moore County: www.facebook.com/moorecountylibrary/
Alamance County: www.facebook.com/AlamanceLibraries , www.alamance-nc.com/library
The Friends of the High Point Library: www.highpointnc.gov/927/Friends and www.facebook.com/HighPointPublicLibrary/
Forsyth: www.facebook.com/groups/105298719513537 , www.forsyth.cc/library/ www.facebook.com/FCPublicLibrary , www.facebook.com/GSOLibrary , library.greensboro-nc.gov
See also Book Sale Finder: www.booksalefinder.com/NC.html
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/
Some left statements and generally scathing and similar articles from the "Western" mainstream media, especially those from the US:
ml-today.com/
theredphoenixapl.org/2020/02/26/a-bright-red-star-has-joined-the-heavens/
revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv25n1/NHObituary.pdf
www.nytimes.com/2020/03/04/world/europe/nexhmije-hoxha-dead.html
www.reuters.com/article/us-albania-hoxha-idUSKCN20K30K
www.france24.com/en/20200226-nexhmije-hoxha-widow-of-albania-s-communist-tyrant-dies-aged-99
(I'm surprised to read what could be praise from counterrevolutionary Albanian Democratic Party leader Sali Berisha here.)
www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/26/nexhmije-hoxha-widow-of-albanias-dictator-dies-aged-99
www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/02/nexhmije-hoxha-obituary
livre.fnac.com/a2422752/Fahri-Balliu-La-femme-du-diable-Nexhmije-Hoxha-veuve-du-dictateur-albanais-Enver-Hoxha
Translated statement from the War Veterans Association of the NLA (posted on the For a People's Democracy Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/312850322214080/ ; there is also an untranslated announcement from Ilir Hoxha there):
www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/02/nexhmije-hoxha-obituary
livre.fnac.com/a2422752/Fahri-Balliu-La-femme-du-diable-Nexhmije-Hoxha-veuve-du-dictateur-albanais-Enver-Hoxha
Translated statement from the War Veterans Association of the NLA (posted on the For a People's Democracy Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/312850322214080/ ; there is also an untranslated announcement from Ilir Hoxha there):
"WAR VETERANS ASSOCIATION OF THE NATIONAL LIBERATION ARMY
Died comrade Nexhmije Hoxha
A young girl born in Saint Naum (Bitola), raised in Dibra, married in Gjirokastra, with a more sensational life in Tirana, where she supported the Gervalla family, left behind one [major] Nationwide Works, testament to be realized from generations of dedication for National Unity ...
Glory!
War Veterans Association of the National Liberation Army
Fazli Veliu, Chairman
Tetova, February, 2020"
(I assume the Gervalla family refers to brothers Jusuf and Bardhosh Gervalla, Kosovar Albanian activists assassinated in West Germany January 18, 1982, and Tetova is a city in Macedonia with a large ethnic Albanian population.)
Annual National Invasive Species Awareness Week was February 28th - March 4th this year: nisaw.org [Some related older posts: durhamspark.blogspot.com/2016/04/emerald-ash-borer-unnecessary.html , durhamspark.blogspot.com/2017/01/redbay-sassafras-and-harm-caused-by.html .]
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.
After March 1983 it looked like the city of Rancho Palos Verdes (in Los Angeles County, California) had (intentionally?) killed off the last population of the Palos Verde blue butterfly (a subspecies of the more abundant silvery blue), but in 1994 another population was discovered, though it differed from the others in having an additional larval foodplant, and so a conservation program was started. The Palos Verde blue was classified as endangered July 2, 1980. Rancho Palos Verde was charged with violating the Endangered Species Act in 1987, but the case was dismissed because at the time only a person could be charged with this crime (this error was fixed in 1988). www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/esa_works/profile_pages/PalosVerdesBlueButterfly.html
www.urbanwildlands.org/pvb.html www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Glaucopsyche-lygdamus terranealife.com/rediscovering-palos-verdes-blue-butterfly/ butterflywebsite.com/endangered-butterflies.cfm
The Xerces blue was driven to extinction by military construction near San Francisco in 1943. The species is remembered in the name of the Xerces Society, an invertebrate conservation group ( www.xerces.org ). The Xerces and Palos Verde blues are in the same genus and their caterpillars eat some of the same plant species. Militarism today contributes to climate change and other problems, threatening to kill off many species this century, even if some endangered species, such as the St. Francis' satyr butterfly and the red-cockaded woodpecker in North Carolina, have unwittingly been temporarily sheltered on military bases. Rare wildlife has also found shelter along militarized borders, such as inside the DMZ across Korea. In 2020 supposedly "liberal" California was allowing a fish, the delta smelt, to go extinct due to human actions (see for example: www.counterpunch.org/2020/01/24/will-the-extinction-of-delta-smelt-be-governor-gavin-newsoms-environmental-legacy/ ).
German botanist and painter Catharina Helena Dörrien was born March 1, 1717.
Korea's March 1st Movement for the end of Japanese colonial rule began March 1, 1919 with a reading of the Korean Declaration of Independence in Seoul, and was brutally suppressed. See: koryogroup.com/blog/the-march-1st-movement
The Mongolian People's Revolution of 1921 began March 1st.
The Comintern, the third international organization of revolutionary communist and socialist parties and organizations, was founded during a congress held in Moscow March 2 - 6, 1919 with 34 groups participating.
A prototype Concorde supersonic airliner first took to the air March 2, 1969.
The Mongolian People's Revolution of 1921 began March 1st.
March 1 is Remembrance Day (Nuclear Victims' Day and Nuclear Survivors' Day) in the Marshall Islands, remembering those impacted by US nuclear tests, conducted when the islands were under direct US control (today there is a "free association" agreement and dependence on the US).
Castle Bravo, the USA's biggest nuclear weapon test and the fifth largest ever, was March 1, 1954 in the Bikini Atoll, part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean. It tested a new type of fusion-based hydrogen or thermonuclear bomb, more powerful than the fission-based atom bombs dropped on Japan. The US tested the first hydrogen bomb at a nearby atoll in 1952, escalating the arms race that could still lead to human extinction. The Castle Bravo test was much more powerful than the physicists expected and radioactive fallout fell on several islands, a US Navy ship, and up to 100 fishing boats outside of the area that had previously been announced as dangerous, including the Japanese bonito fishing ship Daigo Fukuryū Maru. Its 23 crewmen contracted radiation sickness and one died September 23rd, though not directly from radiation sickness, and this caused a an international incident . The fallout also sickened nearby islanders and US military personnel, and blanketed the world in smaller amounts. Bikini was left contaminated, though there is an effort at remediation. The atoll's original inhabitants were shuffled around to different islands and at one point were left starving to death. Testing destroyed some of the small islands, but there is still rich marine life.
Castle Bravo, the USA's biggest nuclear weapon test and the fifth largest ever, was March 1, 1954 in the Bikini Atoll, part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean. It tested a new type of fusion-based hydrogen or thermonuclear bomb, more powerful than the fission-based atom bombs dropped on Japan. The US tested the first hydrogen bomb at a nearby atoll in 1952, escalating the arms race that could still lead to human extinction. The Castle Bravo test was much more powerful than the physicists expected and radioactive fallout fell on several islands, a US Navy ship, and up to 100 fishing boats outside of the area that had previously been announced as dangerous, including the Japanese bonito fishing ship Daigo Fukuryū Maru. Its 23 crewmen contracted radiation sickness and one died September 23rd, though not directly from radiation sickness, and this caused a an international incident . The fallout also sickened nearby islanders and US military personnel, and blanketed the world in smaller amounts. Bikini was left contaminated, though there is an effort at remediation. The atoll's original inhabitants were shuffled around to different islands and at one point were left starving to death. Testing destroyed some of the small islands, but there is still rich marine life.
The Comintern, the third international organization of revolutionary communist and socialist parties and organizations, was founded during a congress held in Moscow March 2 - 6, 1919 with 34 groups participating.
A prototype Concorde supersonic airliner first took to the air March 2, 1969.
March 2nd is Tree Planting Day in DPR Korea. This is similar to Arbor Day and Earth Day and was instituted by Kim Jong Il. For more information see: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbor_Day#Korea 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 (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.
National Reading Day is March 2nd or the closest school day to that date, marking Dr Seuss' (Theodor Seuss "Ted" Geisel's) birth in 1904, and was started in 1997 by the National Education Association.
Bernie Saunders' first 2020 presidential campaign rally was March 2nd at Brooklyn College.
Bernie Saunders' first 2020 presidential campaign rally was March 2nd at Brooklyn College.
March 2, 2004 the European Space Agency launched the Rosetta probe, with lander Philae, on a mission to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
The traditional celebration Hinamatsuri, Doll Festival, or Girls' Day (apparently once known as the Peach Festival) is March 3rd in Japan.
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, signed March 3, 1918 in what is now Belarus, ended hostilities between Soviet Russia and the Central Powers during WWI, leading to several countries being created by the occupiers or declaring independence and other territorial concessions by Russia.
The traditional celebration Hinamatsuri, Doll Festival, or Girls' Day (apparently once known as the Peach Festival) is March 3rd in Japan.
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, signed March 3, 1918 in what is now Belarus, ended hostilities between Soviet Russia and the Central Powers during WWI, leading to several countries being created by the occupiers or declaring independence and other territorial concessions by Russia.
Norman Bethune (Henry Norman Bethune) was born March 4, 1890 in Gravehurst, Ontario in Canada. In the 30's he joined the Communist Party of Canada. He served as a surgeon on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War and with the Communist Party of China during the Sino-Japanese War. He contracted blood poisoning and died November 12, 1939. He has long been well-known in China (for example, Mao wrote In Memory of Norman Bethune and China's highest medical honor is the Norman Bethune Medal) and more recently in his native Canada and Spain. There is a revolutionary song in French, probably Canadian, "Chanson de Norman Bethune."
In Memory of Norman Bethune is online at:
marx2mao.com/Mao/NB39.html
www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-2/mswv2_25.htm
In Memory of Norman Bethune is online at:
marx2mao.com/Mao/NB39.html
www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-2/mswv2_25.htm
Following Khrushchev's so-called Secret Speech condemning Stalin, on February 25, 1956, there were pro-Stalin demonstrations in Tbilisi, capital of Stalin's native Georgia SSR March 4 -10th, ending with possibly dozens to hundreds of protesters killed or wounded by Soviet soldiers.
Polish revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg was born March 5, 1871 in Zamość, in what is now southeastern Poland. Luxemberg and Karl Liebknecht founded the Communist Party of Germany January 1, 1919. They were tortured and killed by the rightist Freikorps later that January, with the involvement of the Social Democratic Party. Many of Luxemburg's writings are available online at:
www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/index.htm and a book by Clara Zetkin on Luxemburg's relationship to Russian Revolution is available at redstarpublishers.org/
Some of Liebknecht's writings are online at: www.marxists.org/archive/liebknecht-k/index.htm
Georgian revolutionary and CPSU leader Joseph Stalin passed away March 5, 1953, though it is possible the official date isn't accurate. After Stalin's death, or possibly assassination, revisionists gained control of the USSR, leading to the complete destruction of the USSR in 1991. His works can be found at: marx2mao.com/Stalin/Index.html , www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/index.htm , michaelharrison.org.uk/the-great-marxist-leninist-theoreticians/ , and can often be found at library book sales in Durham and probably elsewhere (as can other classic Marxist works), sometimes cheaper than the when originally printed by International Publishers, etc. Inexpensive new copies in English and Spanish are available from: redstarpublishers.org/
March 5th is Learn from Lei Feng Day in China, and is marked by doing volunteer work. Lei Feng was a young People's Liberation Army soldier killed in a traffic accident August 15, 1962.
www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/index.htm and a book by Clara Zetkin on Luxemburg's relationship to Russian Revolution is available at redstarpublishers.org/
Some of Liebknecht's writings are online at: www.marxists.org/archive/liebknecht-k/index.htm
Georgian revolutionary and CPSU leader Joseph Stalin passed away March 5, 1953, though it is possible the official date isn't accurate. After Stalin's death, or possibly assassination, revisionists gained control of the USSR, leading to the complete destruction of the USSR in 1991. His works can be found at: marx2mao.com/Stalin/Index.html , www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/index.htm , michaelharrison.org.uk/the-great-marxist-leninist-theoreticians/ , and can often be found at library book sales in Durham and probably elsewhere (as can other classic Marxist works), sometimes cheaper than the when originally printed by International Publishers, etc. Inexpensive new copies in English and Spanish are available from: redstarpublishers.org/
March 5th is Learn from Lei Feng Day in China, and is marked by doing volunteer work. Lei Feng was a young People's Liberation Army soldier killed in a traffic accident August 15, 1962.
The first woman in space, cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, was born March 6, 1937, and went into space June 16, 1963. Later she held office in government and CPSU posts.
British astronomer Sir John Frederick William Herschel was born March 7, 1792.
Michael Lucas was born March 7, 1926 in Slovakia, but his family moved to Canada during his childhood. He was a leader of the Society of Carpatho-Russian Canadians, the Canadian Friends of the Soviet People (and the USSR-Canada Friendship Association from 1972 to 1991), and the former editor of Northstar Compass, a magazine published by the International Council for Friendship and Solidarity with the Soviet People until several years ago. Lucas was also a long-time member of the Communist Party of Canada. In his working life he was an artist and designer and directed the Southam Newspapers' art department. He frequently visited the former Czechoslovakia and USSR. He passed away peacefully early on May 4, 2020 at 94 and was survived by his wife Helen, who served as financial secretary of the CFSP and helped produce Northstar Compass, and two children.
northstarcompass.org/history.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Lucas_(political_activist)
Fightback! News obituary: www.fightbacknews.org/2020/5/9/passing-michael-lucas-immigrant-organizer-and-friend-soviet-people
Funeral information: turnerporter.permavita.com/site/MichaelLukac.html
Related article at: www.pressreader.com/canada/toronto-star/20190106/281496457419898 or www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/01/05/the-golden-girls-of-prospect-cemetery.html
International Women's Day was Tuesday, March 8th.
The naval Battle of Hampton Roads was March 8 - 9, 1862 where the James River flows into Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. It was the first battle between ironclad warships, the CSS Virginia and the USS Monitor. Neither ship could sink the other and this was their only battle. The Virginia was built using the hull and engines of the USS Merrimack, still under construction at what is now the Norfolk Naval Shipyard when the Civil War began. The Monitor had a revolutionary, though flawed, design, leading to a new class of warships (monitors) around the world and, with further developments, to the battleships of the early 20th century, which were then eclipsed by aircraft carriers.
Russian revolutionary and Soviet statesman Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov was born March 9, 1890. There are some documents at: www.marxists.org/archive/molotov/index.htm , neodemocracy.blogspot.com/search/label/Molotov , and michaelharrison.org.uk/2022/03/writings-of-the-soviet-leadership/
The week of March 8th is Women Of Aviation Worldwide Week, commemorating the first pilot license given to a woman, Raymonde de Laroche, on March 8, 1910.
The first human in space, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, was born March 9, 1934 and went into space April 12, 1961.
The US firebombing of Tokyo the night of March 9 - 10, 1945 is thought to have killed 100,000 people, injured a million more, and left one million homeless. It levelled 16 square miles of the densely inhabited city. There were other bombing raids on Tokyo, but this was the most destructive and resulted in more immediate deaths than any other attack during World War II, including the atomic bombings: www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0310-08.htm and Wikipedia.
March 10th is Harriet Tubman Day: www.harriettubman.com/day.html
March 11th (or September 26th) is Johnny Appleseed Day.
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.
The Soviet/Russian newspaper Izvestia was founded March 13, 1917, representing the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' Deputies.
In the decisive Battle of Dien Bien Phu, March 13 to May 7, 1954, the Viet Minh, under General Võ Nguyên Giáp, defeated the US-backed French military. The First Indochina War ended soon after, as did the government of French prime minister Joseph Laniel. France agreed to withdraw from Indochina, which became Cambodia, Laos, and divided Vietnam, with an election on re-unification that was to have been held in July 1956.
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.
Around 3am March 13, 2020 Julius Giron, an elderly leader of the Communist Party of the Philippines; his wife Lourdes Tan Torres; and their aide were killed in Baguio City by military and police forces supposedly carrying out an arrest warrant. The government of the Philippines says it wants to negotiate, but killed the "principle peace consultant to the National Democratic Front of the Philippines:" www.fightbacknews.org/2020/3/19/frso-condemns-murder-communist-party-philippines-leader-julius-giron ; cpp.ph/red-salute-to-ka-nars/
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
Karl Marx passed away March 14, 1883 and is buried in London's Highgate Cemetery.
March 14th is White Day in Japan, a commercially inspired holiday related to Valentine's Day. Apparently White Day is also celebrated in other East Asian countries.
The Revolutionary War Battle of Guilford Courthouse was March 15, 1781 in what is now Greensboro, NC.
The United Communist Party of Russia was founded March 15, 2014 at a founding congress in Moscow: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Communist_Party
UNC's Davie Poplar Jr was planted in McCorkle Place (the northern quad) March 16, 1918, by the Class of 1918. This tree is a clone of the massive Davie Poplar (a tulip-poplar/yellow-poplar or tuliptree, actually in the magnolia family, and named for Governor William Richardson Davie) which grows nearby; there is a legend that the decision to build the University at this site was made under the Davie Poplar and that the University will die with the tree (fortunately tuliptrees grow fast but can live for hundreds of years). A few clones and descendants of the Davie Poplar have been planted around UNC and there are a number of large tuliptrees, probably blooming later in April or early May (possibly earlier than tuliptrees in Durham) with large yellowish-green and blaze orange flowers attractive to honey bees.
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 well known for her nature journal, The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady, published in 1977 and the subject of a TV documentary.
The International Day Against Police Brutality is March 15th.
Buzzards Day is supposed to be March 15th.
The Civil War Battle of Averasboro was March 16, 1865 in eastern North Carolina.
The My Lai Massacre happened March 16, 1968, in which US soldiers killed up to about 500 Vietnamese civilians and also committed rape, mutilated bodies, and burned houses.
Panda Day is March 16th.
Chemical weapons were dropped on the city of Halabja in Iraqi Kurdistan March 16, 1988 during the Iran-Iraq War.
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.
St Patrick's Day was Thursday, March 17th.
The Paris Commune was March 18 to May 28, 1871. Communes were formed or attempts were made in several other French cities.
The Peace of Riga agreement March 18, 1921 established the Soviet-Polish border that held during the interwar period.
Cosmonaut Alexey Leonov stepped outside of his spacecraft, the first ever extravehicular activity (EVA) in space, March 18, 1965. The Soviet space program was also the first to transfer people between orbiting spacecraft, carried out the first EVA by a woman, female and male cosmonauts carried out the first metalworking in the vacuum of space, and Soviet cosmonauts hold records for number of EVAs and duration. The first EVA by someone other than a Soviet or an American was in 1988 by a French astronaut based on the Soviet space station Mir. The first American EVA was June 3rd of that year and the US holds some records as well.
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
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 Battle of Bentonville was March 19 - 21, 1865 in Johnston County. There is usually a reenactment, but nothing has been announced so far: historicsites.nc.gov/all-sites/bentonville-battlefield There will be "Bentonville in Bloom" April 23rd 10am-4pm (see the link).
Chinese revolutionary and wife of Mao Tse-tung, Jiang Qing/Chiang Ching, also known as Madame Mao, was born March 19, 1914. She was targeted by the post-Mao Chinese leadership.
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 US, Canada, and European countries attacked Libya March 19, 2011. Russia and others abstained in the enabling UN Security Council vote, but it seems like Russia could have vetoed if it were really opposed and it seems obvious what was going to happen once the UN approved a no-fly zone and 'protection' of civilians (the same plan Hillary Clinton advocated for Syria in 2016). Libya became another "failed state" with warring factions, created by US and European imperialism, and the EU countries complained about migration through Libya. Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, but launched a new war during his first term in addition to the War on Terror and coups, while Trump accomplished little in that regard.
Tulsi Gabbard ended her presidential campaign March 19, 2020 and endorsed Joe Biden.
The Northern Hemisphere's spring equinox was March 20th in 2022. This is also Nowruz.
There was an important battle of the Tuscarora War March 20 - 23, 1713 at Fort Neoheroka near Snow Hill in Greene County ( blog.ecu.edu/sites/nooherooka/ ).
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.
The mainstream media is busy castigating Russia and Vladimir Putin personally for breaking international law and committing war crimes in Ukraine, so it can't bring up recent US wars of aggression; torture; killings of journalists; questionable weapons; involvement in Saudi and Israeli war crimes; US bombings of hospitals, civilian bomb shelters, civilian infrastructure, a Chinese embassy, etc. and the media is asking US senior officials who presided over these acts to opine about Russia's criminality. US actions are by definition not crimes and there is no question of US leaders ever facing something like the ICC. It is doubtful that Putin is in much danger of extradition either.
As I recall condemning US wars and proxy wars was "above the pay grade" of Durham officials, even when Republicans were in the White House, but they have made a show of yellow and blue solidarity with Ukraine: twitter.com/CityofDurhamNC/status/1499903958621597703
World Frog Day is supposed to be March 20th, and is separate from Save the Frogs Day, April 30th, 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. I get the impresssion that house sparrows are much less common around here, possibly replaced by house finches, also non-native. House sparrows are also in decline in places where they are native, such as in India. American sparrow species aren't closely related to house sparrows.
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. I get the impresssion that house sparrows are much less common around here, possibly replaced by house finches, also non-native. House sparrows are also in decline in places where they are native, such as in India. American sparrow species aren't closely related to house sparrows.
March 20th is also the UN French Language Day / OIF International Francophonie Day, the UN's International Day of Happiness, World Storytelling Day, and the Great American Meatout, originally a protest against National Meat Week.
Mexican president Benito Pablo Juárez Garcia was born March 21, 1806, honored with a national holiday.
The Hungarian Soviet Republic was declared March 21, 1919, but was overthrown by outside military intervention in August 1919. It was led by Béla Kun, born February 20, 1886.
The Hungarian Soviet Republic was declared March 21, 1919, but was overthrown by outside military intervention in August 1919. It was led by Béla Kun, born February 20, 1886.
March 21st is the UN's International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination: www.un.org/en/events/racialdiscriminationday/ and the Week of Solidarity with the Peoples Struggling Against Racism and Racial Discrimination is March 21 - 27: www.un.org/en/sections/observances/international-weeks/index.html
March 21 is also the International Day of Forests ( www.fao.org/international-day-of-forests/en/ ), World Poetry Day, International Colour Day, and World Down Syndrome Day, among others.
March 21 is also the International Day of Forests ( www.fao.org/international-day-of-forests/en/ ), World Poetry Day, International Colour Day, and World Down Syndrome Day, among others.
Braxton Bragg, the namesake of Fort Bragg, was born March 22, 1817 in Warrenton, North Carolina. He served in the US army during the Second Seminole War and the Mexican-American War. Apparently Ft. Bragg honors him, for his artillery command in Mexico. He was a general in the Confederate army but is often blamed for defeats such as the loss of Wilmington, so naming a Ft. Bragg in NC seemed to be meant as an ironic insult.
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.
Through the USSR's Interkosmos program, the Soyuz 39 mission to the Salyut 6 space station, launched March 22, 1981 included Jügderdemidiin Gürragchaa, Mongolia's first cosmonaut.
Through the USSR's Interkosmos program, the Soyuz 39 mission to the Salyut 6 space station, launched March 22, 1981 included Jügderdemidiin Gürragchaa, Mongolia's first cosmonaut.
World Water Day is March 22nd, begun in 1993 ( www.un.org/en/observances/international-days-and-weeks )
International Seal Day is supposed to be March 22nd.
Ukraine's only submarine, the Zaporizhzhia, was captured by Russia March 22, 2014 and half the crew joined the Russian navy. Russia was apparently going to return the ship to Ukraine but Ukraine did not renew a ceasefire that summer.
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.
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. This brick and stone fort 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 since, while Macon is completely intact. Fort Macon has been used by the US military as recently as WWII, but is now a small state park.
March 23rd is the Day of the Sea in Bolivia, commemorating the loss of Bolivia's access to the Pacific Ocean in the late 19th century War of the Pacific, involving Bolivia, Chile, and Peru. The USA's education system teaches very little about the history of countries bordering the US, let alone in relatively nearby South America, though the US government still believes in the Monroe Doctrine of controlling the Western Hemisphere.
Historian and political leader Walter Anthony Rodney was born March 23, 1942 in Georgetown in what was then British Guiana, and was assassinated June 13, 1980 in independent Guyana: mronline.org/2022/04/13/the-mecca-of-african-liberation/
Reagan announced his Strategic Defense Initiative (nicknamed Star Wars) in a televised speech March 23, 1983. A successful Star Wars program would allow the USA to use nuclear weapons and avoid mutually assured destruction. SDI was also criticized as being technologically unfeasible, very costly, and in violation of treaties.
Historic Soviet/Russian space station Mir (meaning peace) was sent into the South Pacific March 23, 2001 due to lack of funding. Construction began February 19, 1986. People from many countries worked there and there was extensive US-Russian cooperation during the 90's. Until October 2010 Mir held the record for the longest continuous human presence in space. Cosmonaut Valeri Vladimirovich Polyakov lived there for 437 days during the mid-90's.
According to Wikipedia, the anti-war organization Not In Our Name (NION) was founded March 23, 2002, and dissolved March 31, 2008.
According to Wikipedia, the anti-war organization Not In Our Name (NION) was founded March 23, 2002, and dissolved March 31, 2008.
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.
March 24th is World Tuberculosis Day. March 24th is also the International Day for the Right to the Truth Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims, commemorated March 24th because Monsignor Óscar Arnulfo Romero was assassinated in El Salvador on that day in 1980.
Argentina's Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice is March 24th, the date of a military coup in 1976, and commemorates the victims of the US-supported Dirty War and Operation Condor.
Argentina's Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice is March 24th, the date of a military coup in 1976, and commemorates the victims of the US-supported Dirty War and Operation Condor.
Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 was discovered March 24, 1993 by astronomer Carolyn Shoemaker (June 24, 1929 -August 13, 2021 , geologist Eugene M Shoemaker (April 2, 1928 - July 18, 1997) and amateur astronomer David H Levy (born May 22, 1948). The comet broke apart as it passed close to Jupiter, someone might have called it a a string of pearls, and crashed into the planet July 16 - 22, 1994. In July 19, 2009 another impact site was observed and something might have been observed to crash into Jupiter March 17, 2016.
NATO bombed Yugoslavia from March 24 - June 10, 1999 over Kosova, hitting China's embassy in Belgrade, hospitals, health centers, schools, houses, medieval monuments, the Avala Tower, bridges, and transportation infrastructure. This is similar to what Russia is being accused of doing in Ukraine now, and people have drawn comparisons between the USA and NATO using force to redraw borders in the former Yugoslavia and what Russia is doing in Ukraine now, though the majority in Kosova might have wanted to secede at various points.
The quarter day Lady Day / Feast of the Annunciation is March 25th and this was once the beginning of the year in places.
March 25th is the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
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 of water, and therefore could potentially harbor extraterrestrial life or even descendents of earthly or other microbes that arrived on meteorities.
The infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire was March 25,1911 in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York.
Journalist Ida B Wells (Ida Bell Wells-Barnett) passed away March 25, 1931 in Chicago. She was born July 16, 1862 in Holly Springs, Mississippi
Birdie Sanders
Remarkably, a songbird, reportedly a female house finch, landed on the podium as Bernie Sanders spoke to a crowd of about 11,500 at an outdoor rally in Portland, Oregon March 25, 2016 (Good Friday): www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/03/26/watch-small-bird-lands-bernie-sanders-podium/82289730/ ; www.huffpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-bird-podium-one-year_n_58d67c55e4b03692bea661ee ; www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/25/bernie-sanders-rally-bird-portland-oregon-portlandia The Guardian quotes Sanders: “I think there may be some symbolism here. I know it doesn’t look like it, but that bird is really a dove asking us [for] world peace.” "Birdie Sanders" is probably the origin of Our Revolution's logo (www.ourrevolution.com/ ). Reportedly Trump and bald eagles didn't get along.
Remarkably, a songbird, reportedly a female house finch, landed on the podium as Bernie Sanders spoke to a crowd of about 11,500 at an outdoor rally in Portland, Oregon March 25, 2016 (Good Friday): www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/03/26/watch-small-bird-lands-bernie-sanders-podium/82289730/ ; www.huffpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-bird-podium-one-year_n_58d67c55e4b03692bea661ee ; www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/25/bernie-sanders-rally-bird-portland-oregon-portlandia The Guardian quotes Sanders: “I think there may be some symbolism here. I know it doesn’t look like it, but that bird is really a dove asking us [for] world peace.” "Birdie Sanders" is probably the origin of Our Revolution's logo (www.ourrevolution.com/ ). Reportedly Trump and bald eagles didn't get along.
39 members of the Heaven's Gate cult were found dead March 26, 1997 in Rancho Santa Fe, San Diego, having committed mass suicide so that their souls could board an alien spacecraft they believed to be folllowing Comet Hale-Bopp, a very bright comet at the time. Comet Hyakutake was bright the March before, though I think my memory wants to say that Hale-Bopp was first and that I saw both, without optical aids.
The "Saudi Coalition," materially supported by the US, intervened in the Yemeni Civil War March 26, 2015, fighting the Houthi coalition (termed Operation Decisive Storm).
Earth Hour 2020 was Saturday 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 (April 1st in 2022), and highlights light pollution and stargazing.
Russian revolutionary Sergei Kirov was born March 27, 1886 in what is now Kirov Oblast. He was assassinated December 1, 1934.
Two Boeing 747s collided on a runway in Tenerife in the Canary Islands March 27, 1977, the deadliest airliner crash.
Soviet writer Maxim Gorky (Alexei Maximovich Peshkov) was born March 28, 1868. Some of his works are online at: www.marxists.org/archive/gorky-maxim/index.htm and in print from redstarpublishers.org/
The second known asteroid, 2 Pallas, was discovered March 28, 1802 by German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthaus Olbers.
Silo Plowshares On March 28, 1986 (Good Friday that year) five peace activists damaged two Minuteman II ballistic missile silos controlled from Whiteman Air Force Base, near Holden, Missouri. The activists displayed banners including ""Disarmament - An Act of Healing." Working in two groups, they used sledgehammers to damage the tracks used to open the 120-ton silo covers, used masonry hammers to damage sensors, and cut wires. They drew crosses in blood on the silo covers and wrote "Disarm and Live" and "For the Children" with spraypaint on the silo pads. They also indicted the government for violating religious and secular law and indicted churches that abet the arms race. About 40 minutes later they were arrested by military police. They were found guilty of destroying government property and conspiracy. Three were jailed for contempt because they refused to answer questions, such as who alerted CBS' "60 Minutes." The remaining two were again jailed for lack of cooperation in protest of the three jailed for contempt. Four were sentenced to eight years imprisonment and five years probation and one to seven years imprisonment and the same five years probation. All were fined $100 dollars, two had to pay $1680 in restitution and two $424. These summaries come from Swords Into Plowshares: Nonviolent Direct Action for Disarmament, edited by Arthur J Laffin and Anne Montgomery, and published in 1987.
Lavrenti Pavlovich Beria was born March 29, 1899 in what is now Abkhazia, a Soviet autonomous republic that seceded from the Republic of Georgia after Georgia seceded from the disintegraing USSR. Beria and people associated with him were tried and executed December 23, 1953, paving the way for Khrushchev's rise, though it has been alleged that Beria poisoned Stalin and was involved in other crimes. Some of Beria's works are online at: www.marxists.org/archive/beria/index.htm , neodemocracy.blogspot.com/search/label/Beria , michaelharrison.org.uk/2022/03/writings-of-the-soviet-leadership/ , and in print from redstarpublishers.org ; there is some discussion of Beria in articles at ml-review.ca/aml/index/subject.html#b
The Maoist New People's Army, armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (English-language website: cpp.ph/ ), was established March 29, 1969 and has been waging armed struggle ever since. The US government classified it as a "terrorist" group in 2002. I think this Smithsonian Folkways CD has music from the NPA: folkways.si.edu/philippines-bangon-arise/historical-song-struggle-protest-world/music/album/Smithsonian
March 29th is the unofficial Day of the Young Combatant / Día del joven combatiente in Chile, commemorating the killing of Rafael and Eduardo Vergara Toledo, brothers who allegedly belonged to MIR (Revolutionary Left Movement) during the US and China supported Pinochet dictatorship.
March 30th is Land Day in Palestine.
The Maoist New People's Army, armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (English-language website: cpp.ph/ ), was established March 29, 1969 and has been waging armed struggle ever since. The US government classified it as a "terrorist" group in 2002. I think this Smithsonian Folkways CD has music from the NPA: folkways.si.edu/philippines-bangon-arise/historical-song-struggle-protest-world/music/album/Smithsonian
March 29th is the unofficial Day of the Young Combatant / Día del joven combatiente in Chile, commemorating the killing of Rafael and Eduardo Vergara Toledo, brothers who allegedly belonged to MIR (Revolutionary Left Movement) during the US and China supported Pinochet dictatorship.
March 30th is Land Day in Palestine.
Manatee Appreciation Day is supposed to be the last Wednesday in March, the 30th this year.
Russian revolutionary Alexandra Kollontai was born March 31, 1872. See also: www.marxists.org/archive/kollonta/index.htm , neodemocracy.blogspot.com/search/label/Kolontai , michaelharrison.org.uk/2022/03/writings-of-the-soviet-leadership/ , and redstarpublishers.org/
A US-backed military coup in Brazil beginning March 31, 1964 installed a brutal military government that lasted until 1985, praised by current rightist president Jair Bolsonaro.
According to Wikipedia, the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist), known as the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada for electoral purposes, to separate it from the unrelated Communist Party of Canada, was founded March 31, 1970. Some music from the CPCML is online at: www.youtube.com/channel/UCGM05kHPxsmToUjm-sSZefg
According to Wikipedia, Equal Pay Day, highlighting unequal pay between the sexes, is March 31st.
Russian revolutionary Alexandra Kollontai was born March 31, 1872. See also: www.marxists.org/archive/kollonta/index.htm , neodemocracy.blogspot.com/search/label/Kolontai , michaelharrison.org.uk/2022/03/writings-of-the-soviet-leadership/ , and redstarpublishers.org/
A US-backed military coup in Brazil beginning March 31, 1964 installed a brutal military government that lasted until 1985, praised by current rightist president Jair Bolsonaro.
According to Wikipedia, the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist), known as the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada for electoral purposes, to separate it from the unrelated Communist Party of Canada, was founded March 31, 1970. Some music from the CPCML is online at: www.youtube.com/channel/UCGM05kHPxsmToUjm-sSZefg
According to Wikipedia, Equal Pay Day, highlighting unequal pay between the sexes, is March 31st.
Among other 'months,' April is Arab American Heritage Month, National Volunteer Month, Mathematics and Statistics Awareness Month, Community College Awareness Month, National Volunteer Month, National Poetry/Poetry Writing Month, Financial Literacy Month, Donate Life Month, and Sexual Assault Awareness Month, among other annual commemorations.
[The US Senate unanimously declared April National Native Plant Month in Resolution 109.]
Wikipedia dates the First Red Scare as being Janua.ry 21, 1919 to April 1, 1920, and the Palmer Raids took place November 1919 and January 1920, under President Woodrow Wilson.
The great Gastonia textile strike of 1929, near Charlotte, North Carolina, was April 1 - September 14th at the Loray Mill. The chief of police and a striker were killed during the violence, several people on the union side were imprisoned, and two leaders fled to the USSR.
The Spanish Civil War ended April 1, 1939, with the Nationalists, aided by Germany, Italy, Portugal, and others, overthrowing the Second Republic, aided by the USSR, Mexico, secretly by France, and others. Many volunteers from other countries fought on both sides.
The Spanish Civil War ended April 1, 1939, with the Nationalists, aided by Germany, Italy, Portugal, and others, overthrowing the Second Republic, aided by the USSR, Mexico, secretly by France, and others. Many volunteers from other countries fought on both sides.
The WWII Battle of Okinawa began April 1, 1945.
Terry Lynn Nichols, convicted of assisting in the April 19, 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing, was born April 1, 1955 in Lapeer, Michigan and is currently held in the Federal supermax prison in Florence, Colorado.
The world's largest nuclear power station is reportedly in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, and the first of six pressurized light water nuclear reactor units was built starting April 1, 1980. This is a different type of reactor than those used in Chernobyl and is used in many countries. Thanks to nuclear and hydroelectric powerplants Ukraine probably has a lower carbon footprint than similar countries and rich Germany, supposedly concerned about climate change, is going to have to go back to coal because of anti-nuclear sentiments and economic warfare with Russia on behalf of the USA cutting off natural gas pipelines. Japan is also going from nuclear energy back to fossil fuels, when there is a climate crisis.
April 1st is Fossil Fools Day noting the foolishness of burning more fossil fuels and polluting the atmosphere, started in 2004. April Fool's Day has been marked for at least hundreds of years. April 1st is also Edible Book Day.
The Sacred Stone Camp, a center of resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline, was established April 1, 2016. There was recently a court ruling in favor of the protesters.
German naturalist and artist Maria Sibylla Merian was born April 2, 1647. She is especially known for studying insects and spent a few years studying the plants and animals of what is today Suriname. Several species have been named for her and she was honored on a West German postage stamp, the 500 Deutsche Mark note, and in 2013 on Google's homepage.
The Civil War Siege of Petersburg, Virginia ended April 2, 1865.
The Civil War Siege of Petersburg, Virginia ended April 2, 1865.
The Falklands War, between the military government of Argentina and the UK, was April 2 - June 14, 1982.
April 2 is International Children's Book Day.
Ramadan begins at sunset April 2nd in 2022.
Soviet WW2 sniper Roza Georgiyevna Shanina was born April 3, 1924 in the village of Yedma in Arkhangelsk Oblast (in northwest Russia). She is supposed to have been named after Polish communist Rosa Luxemburg. At 14 she walked about 120 miles to go to college in Arkhangelsk , after having had to walk about 8 miles to get to middle school in another village. Shanina joined the Komsomol youth organization in 1938. Germany bombed Arkhangelsk and after one of her brothers was killed fighting in the Siege of Leningrad she asked to enlist. She was the first woman fighting on the 3rd Belorussian Front to be decorated with the Order of Glory. Once she is supposed to have been in a trench with eleven other female snipers when they were charged by about 50 Germans, who the Soviet soldiers captured or killed. Shanina died while fighting in what was then East Prussia January 28, 1945. She had surreptitiously kept a war diary, which was published in 1965, leading to streets being name for her and other commemorations, including in recent years.
The Jeju Uprising on Jeju Island off the south end of what is now the Republic of Korea officially began April 3, 1948 and ended in 1949, after tens of thousands had been killed. The ROK police and military apologized for the brutal suppression of the uprising April 3 last year. The US military directly controlled the southern part of Korea during most of this time and later the US had indirect control through the undemocratic ROK government it established.
The Jeju Uprising on Jeju Island off the south end of what is now the Republic of Korea officially began April 3, 1948 and ended in 1949, after tens of thousands had been killed. The ROK police and military apologized for the brutal suppression of the uprising April 3 last year. The US military directly controlled the southern part of Korea during most of this time and later the US had indirect control through the undemocratic ROK government it established.
Through the USSR's Interkosmos program, the Soyuz T-11 mission to the Salyut 7 space station, launched April 3, 1984, included Rakesh Sharma, India's first cosmonaut.
Geologists Day is April 3rd (the first Sunday in April) and began in the USSR to commemorate an oil discovery.
World Aquatic Animal Day is supposed to be April 3rd.
The NC Botanical Garden's annual Evelyn McNeill Sims Native Plant Lecture, in-person abd online, will be Sunday, April 3rd: ncbg.unc.edu/learn/adult-programs/
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was formed April 4, 1949, while the Warsaw Pact was formed May 14, 1955. NATO was formed to keep capitalist Europe under US hegemony and threaten the socialist bloc in Europe. After the Cold War ended, NATO expanded further east (and now even wants to add world war tinderboxes like Ukraine and Georgia), breaking pledges that were made to Russia, and it now carries out aggression in Africa and Asia and might add South America. The media has made a slight effort in the information war with Russia, claiming that there was an offer to not expand NATO east, but that this offer was superseded by a subsequent agreement. I heard this claim on NPR's Fresh Air around March.
Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated April 4, 1968 while organizing in support of black public workers in Memphis.
Turkish revolutionary Garbis Altinoglu was born April 4, 1946.
[Originally posted here in October 2019 [ durhamspark.blogspot.com/2019/10/some-early-fall-events-and-anniversaries.html , durhamspark.blogspot.com/2020/03/some-events-and-anniversaries-this.html ]:
Garbis Altinoglu (pen name Gumus Velli) passed away in mid October and his funeral was October 21st in Belgium. At one time he was a leader in the underground Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Turkey and was active in the International Struggle Marxist-Leninist project more recently. He was born April 4, 1946 in Armenia but lived in Turkey from a young age. After the military coup in 1980 he was arrested and held for 11 years, with torture and harsh conditions, after which he was exiled and became a refugee in Belgium. He wrote or translated a number of essays and books; for some of his English-language works posted online see: ml-review.ca/aml/AllianceIssues/ALL37-GARBISPRISONS2000.HTM , on repression, political prisoners, torture, and assassinations in Turkey up to 2000 (but still relevant today, as can be seen in Turkey's continuing suppression of leftists and activism and its fight against Kurdish self-determination both inside Turkey and in Syria and Iraq); ml-review.ca/aml/AllianceIssues/HIZBULLAHGA2000.HTM ; and ml-review.ca/aml/AllianceIssues/ALL35MLCP%28TURKEY%29GA2000.HTM , outlining some of the history of the communist movement in Turkey. A biographical article is planned for ml-today.com/ and there is a short biography at: theredphoenixapl.org/2019/10/27/in-memory-of-comrade-garbis-altinoglu-1946-2019/ ]
Some of his works are online at: neodemocracy.blogspot.com/search/label/Garbis%20Alt%C4%B1noglu ]
[Originally posted here in October 2019 [ durhamspark.blogspot.com/2019/10/some-early-fall-events-and-anniversaries.html , durhamspark.blogspot.com/2020/03/some-events-and-anniversaries-this.html ]:
Garbis Altinoglu (pen name Gumus Velli) passed away in mid October and his funeral was October 21st in Belgium. At one time he was a leader in the underground Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Turkey and was active in the International Struggle Marxist-Leninist project more recently. He was born April 4, 1946 in Armenia but lived in Turkey from a young age. After the military coup in 1980 he was arrested and held for 11 years, with torture and harsh conditions, after which he was exiled and became a refugee in Belgium. He wrote or translated a number of essays and books; for some of his English-language works posted online see: ml-review.ca/aml/AllianceIssues/ALL37-GARBISPRISONS2000.HTM , on repression, political prisoners, torture, and assassinations in Turkey up to 2000 (but still relevant today, as can be seen in Turkey's continuing suppression of leftists and activism and its fight against Kurdish self-determination both inside Turkey and in Syria and Iraq); ml-review.ca/aml/AllianceIssues/HIZBULLAHGA2000.HTM ; and ml-review.ca/aml/AllianceIssues/ALL35MLCP%28TURKEY%29GA2000.HTM , outlining some of the history of the communist movement in Turkey. A biographical article is planned for ml-today.com/ and there is a short biography at: theredphoenixapl.org/2019/10/27/in-memory-of-comrade-garbis-altinoglu-1946-2019/ ]
Some of his works are online at: neodemocracy.blogspot.com/search/label/Garbis%20Alt%C4%B1noglu ]
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| One of his books, Portrait of a Terrorist State, published in 2001 ©. |
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| Table of contents © |
April 4, 2022 the Supreme Court reinstated a Trump Administration regulatory change limiting the power of the states regarding Clean Water Act enforcement, according to a recent HRA email.
The second Japanese destroyer named Hibiki (Echo), in the Fubuki or Akatsuki-class of destroyers but similar to a light cruiser, was given to the USSR as a war reparation April 5, 1947 and renamed Verniy (Faithful) and later Dekabrist (Decembrist). The ship had been launched June 16, 1932 and was state of the art at the time. She was sunk at an apparently unrecorded date in the mid-70's.
Brian Avery, an International Solidarity Movement volunteer, was shot in the face by Israeli soldiers in an unprovoked attack April 5, 2003 in the West Bank, Palestine town of Jenin, leaving him with disfiguring injuries and other health problems. According to Wikipedia Israel denied any soldiers were in the area at the time, but Israel paid Avery $150,000 dollars to drop a lawsuit in 2008. Avery is from Connecticut but spent part of his childhood in Chapel Hill and was an student at UNC-Greensboro and last I heard lives in the state.
The Civil War Battle of Shiloh was April 6-7, 1862 in Tennessee, very close to Mississippi.
Tartan Day is April 6th.
The USA officially entered WWI April 6, 1917, declaring war against Germany. The US had been indirectly supporting the Allies before entering the war against the Central powers in the inter-imperialist war.
Following a coup that toppled an Axis-allied government, Germany bombed Belgrade, April 6 - 8, 1941, killing thousands, and then invaded with Italy, which was already occupying Albania. The UK bombed targets in Axis ally Bulgaria, though it was not formally at war with Bulgaria at the time. Yugoslavia surrendered April 17th and was later liberated by Yugoslav and Albanian partisans.
The USA officially entered WWI April 6, 1917, declaring war against Germany. The US had been indirectly supporting the Allies before entering the war against the Central powers in the inter-imperialist war.
Following a coup that toppled an Axis-allied government, Germany bombed Belgrade, April 6 - 8, 1941, killing thousands, and then invaded with Italy, which was already occupying Albania. The UK bombed targets in Axis ally Bulgaria, though it was not formally at war with Bulgaria at the time. Yugoslavia surrendered April 17th and was later liberated by Yugoslav and Albanian partisans.
The Save the Frogs! World Summit will be held online April 6-7th: savethefrogs.com/world-summit-online-2022/
Writer Marjory Stoneman Douglas was born April 7, 1890 in Minneapolis. She wrote The Everglades: River of Grass, published in 1947, and is known for her work to preserve Florida;s Everglades as well as activism for women's suffrage, civil rights, civil liberties, the Equal Rights Amendment, and other causes.
Lê Duẩn, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam during the struggle against American imperialism, was born April 7, 1907 and died July 10, 1986. Some of his writings are online at: www.marxists.org/reference/archive/le-duan/index.htm
Fascist Italy invaded Albania April 7 - 12, 1939. Albanian partisans fought the Italians and then the Germans, becoming (with Yugoslavia) one of only two European countries to liberate themselves without an outside army crossing their border.
Lê Duẩn, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam during the struggle against American imperialism, was born April 7, 1907 and died July 10, 1986. Some of his writings are online at: www.marxists.org/reference/archive/le-duan/index.htm
Fascist Italy invaded Albania April 7 - 12, 1939. Albanian partisans fought the Italians and then the Germans, becoming (with Yugoslavia) one of only two European countries to liberate themselves without an outside army crossing their border.
In Operation Ten-Go or the Battle of the East China Sea, the Japanese battleship Yamato, the largest battleship in the world, and a few other ships were sent on a futile mission to engage a much larger US fleet during the Battle of Okinawa, but aircraft sank the Yamato, light cruiser Yahagi, and four destroyers (the Asahimo, Isokaze, Kasumi, and Hamakaze) April 7, 1945. The loss of the Yamato alone is thought to have resulted in more than 3000 deaths and a magazine explosion, audible in Kagoshima 120 miles away, generated a mushroom cloud visible from Kyushu 99 miles away. There were no survivors from the Asahimo. There are reports that US aircraft fired on survivors from the battle, though there are also reports that Japanese destroyers were allowed to rescue survivors unmolested.
The Rwandan Genocide began April 7th and ended July 15, 1994.
Indian revolutionary Moni Guha died April 7, 2009: www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv16n1/moniguha.htm , moniguha.blogspot.com/ , otheraspect.org/category/moni-guha/ , and neodemocracy.blogspot.com/search/label/Moni%20Guha Some of his writings are available at redstarpublishers.org and there should be polemics at ml-review.ca/aml/index/subject.html
International Beaver Day is supposed to be April 7th.
The birth of Buddha is celebrated as Hanamatsuri (Flower Festival) April 8th in Japan. Elsewhere it is often based on the movement of the Moon and will be May 16, 2022 in most countries where it is a major holiday. As Chopali it is sometimes a holiday in the DPRK. The UN's Vesak, the Day of the Full Moon is May 16: www.un.org/en/observances/vesak-day
April 8th is International Romani Day.
A total solar eclipse visible in parts of Canada, the USA, and Mexico will be April 8, 2024.
Singer, actor, and activist Paul Robeson was born April 9, 1898. There are links to his English versions of the WWII era Soviet and Chinese anthems in a previous post: durhamspark.blogspot.com/2017/04/communist-fight-songs-and-musical.html and he has a Marxist Internet Archive page at: www.marxists.org/archive/robeson/index.htm
April 9, 1948 a neutral Palestinian village near Jerusalem, Deir Yassin, was attacked by Zionist terror groups, which were later integrated into 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.
Singer, actor, and activist Paul Robeson was born April 9, 1898. There are links to his English versions of the WWII era Soviet and Chinese anthems in a previous post: durhamspark.blogspot.com/2017/04/communist-fight-songs-and-musical.html and he has a Marxist Internet Archive page at: www.marxists.org/archive/robeson/index.htm
April 9, 1948 a neutral Palestinian village near Jerusalem, Deir Yassin, was attacked by Zionist terror groups, which were later integrated into 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.
Santiago Rafael Cruz, an employee of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee working at their office in Monterrey, Mexico was assassinated April 9, 2007. The crime might remain unsolved.
Rachel Corrie, an American volunteer in the International Solidarity Movement, was killed, intentionally or unintentionally, by an Israeli military Caterpillar D9 bulldozer on March 16, 2003, during a campaign to resist the demolition of Palestinian homes in Rafah in the Gaza Strip. Corrie was born April 10, 1979. There is a boycott against Caterpillar because it does business with Israel and other countries, knowing their machines will be used in criminal acts ( www.ethicalconsumer.org/ethicalcampaigns/boycotts/israel-boycott ). See also: www.counterpunch.org/2022/03/16/please-remember-rachel-corrie-april-10-1979-march-16-2003/
Siblings Day is April 10th every year.
German social-democrat Ferdinand Lassalle was born April 11, 1825 in what is now Wrocław, Poland.
Protests overthrew ROK president Syngman Rhee April 11 - 26, 1960, known as the April Revolution.
Enver Hoxha, Albanian partisan during WWII and later first secretary of the Party of Labor of Albania, passed away April 11, 1985. For more information see: www.enver-hoxha.net/ ; (in Russian): www.enverhoxha.ru/ , www.oneparty.co.uk/compass/compass/com13601.html , www.oneparty.co.uk/compass/compass/com13604.html (by Ilir Hoxha), www.mltranslations.org/Albania/index.htm , marx2mao.com/Other/Index.html#EH , www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/index.htm , ml-review.ca/aml/index/subject.html , neodemocracy.blogspot.com/search/label/Enver%20Hodja , michaelharrison.org.uk/everything-you-want-or-need-to-know-about-albania/ , michaelharrison.org.uk/the-great-marxist-leninist-theoreticians/ , and some of his works are available in print from redstarpublishers.org/
Protests overthrew ROK president Syngman Rhee April 11 - 26, 1960, known as the April Revolution.
Enver Hoxha, Albanian partisan during WWII and later first secretary of the Party of Labor of Albania, passed away April 11, 1985. For more information see: www.enver-hoxha.net/ ; (in Russian): www.enverhoxha.ru/ , www.oneparty.co.uk/compass/compass/com13601.html , www.oneparty.co.uk/compass/compass/com13604.html (by Ilir Hoxha), www.mltranslations.org/Albania/index.htm , marx2mao.com/Other/Index.html#EH , www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/index.htm , ml-review.ca/aml/index/subject.html , neodemocracy.blogspot.com/search/label/Enver%20Hodja , michaelharrison.org.uk/everything-you-want-or-need-to-know-about-albania/ , michaelharrison.org.uk/the-great-marxist-leninist-theoreticians/ , and some of his works are available in print from redstarpublishers.org/
There was a coup against elected Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez April 11, 2002 (whom Bernie Sanders called something like "a dead communist dictator"), something the Trump administration and leading Democrats wanted to repeat against the elected government of Nicolas Maduro.
British student and International Solidarity Movement volunteer Tom Hurndall was shot in the head by an Israeli soldier April 11, 2003 in Rafah, Gaza. Hurndall was left comatose and died January 13, 2004. The shooter, Taysir Hayb, was sentenced to 8 years in prison and released after 6 and a half. Earlier Hurndall went to Iraq as part of a campaign to provide volunteer human shields to protect civilian infrastructure from Coalition bombing. The US government and Human Rights Watch condemned the shields, and the US considered prosecuting American volunteers as war criminals.
April 12 is Halifax Day, commemorating the Halifax Resolves in 1776, beginning the process of separation from Britain, a date also emblazoned on North Carolina's flag.
The US Civil War began and ended in April. The bombardment of Fort Sumter in Charlestown Harbor began April 12, 1861. The Civil War ended with several separate surrenders. Robert E Lee surrendered his forces at Appomattox, Virginia April 9, 1865. The largest Confederate surrender occurred at Bennett Place, now in Durham, when Joseph E Johnston surrendered his forces in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida April 26th. Lee had surrendered April 9th. Bennett Place State Historic Site pusually holds an Annual Surrender Commemoration in late April, but nothing had been announced so far: www.bennettplacehistoricsite.com/special-events/ Besides its historical value, Bennett Place is significant ecologically, since the land has been mostly left alone. According to Wikipedia, the last Confederate general to surrender was Cherokee leader Stand Watie, June 23rd, but the last surrender was Confederate commerce raider CSS Shenandoah, November 6, 1865 in Liverpool, UK. It could be argued that the Civil War continued into the Reconstruction period, which ended in 1877.
V.I. Lenin's older brother Aleksandr Ilyich Ulyanov was born April 12, 1866 in Nizhny Novgorod. He was involved with Narodnaya Volya and was executed May 20, 1887. He studied zoology and Lenin is supposed to have said something like a revolutionary can't devote so much time to the study of the annelids (earthworms, etc.). He is the namesake of asteroid 2112 Ulyanov, discovered by Soviet astronomr Tamara Mikhailovna Smirnova July 13,1972 while on the Cimean Peninsula.
Proletarian novelist and critic Mike Gold was born (as Itzok Isaac Granich) in New York City's Lower East Side April 12, 1894 and passed away May 14, 1967 in Terra Linda, California.
Impeached North Carolina governor William Holden was pardoned by the State Senate April 12, 2011.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt died April 12, 1945, placing Vice President Harry Truman in power.
April 12th is the UN International Human Space Flight Day/Cosmonautics Day/Yuri's Night in honor of the first human space flight and orbit of the Earth, by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in the Vostok 1 spacecraft, in 1961. Apparently the first orbital flight by a space shuttle happened to be on this day in 1981. US Astronauts Day is supposed to be every year on the last Friday in January.
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.
2020 Democratic presidential primary candidate Tulsi Gabbard was born April 12, 1981 in the US Pacific Ocean colony of American Samoa. Her father, apparently socially conservative, was born in American Samoa and was of Samoan and European ethnicity (see Wikipedia and www.tulsi2020.com/about/tulsi-gabbard-childhood-early-years ).
American bourgeois-democratic revolutionary and later US president, Thomas Jefferson, was born April 13, 1743 in Albemarle County, Virginia.
The Battle of Morrisville was April 13 - 15, 1865 in western Wake County and was apparently the last official battle between Johnston and Sherman's armies in North Carolina. I read that at some point there was a skirmish somewhere along New Hope Creek in southern Durham.
Georg Lukács, a Marxist philosopher and literary critic and Minister of Culture in the Hungarian Soviet Republic, was born April 13, 1885 in Budapest. Many of his works are online, in English, at: www.marxists.org/archive/lukacs/index.htm
Tanzanian socialist Julius Kambarage Nyerere was born April 13, 1922 in what was then Tanganyika (Tanganyika and Zanzibar united April 26, 1964 to create Tanzania). A biography and two of his works are online at: www.marxists.org/subject/africa/nyerere/index.htm
American bourgeois-democratic revolutionary and later US president, Thomas Jefferson, was born April 13, 1743 in Albemarle County, Virginia.
The Battle of Morrisville was April 13 - 15, 1865 in western Wake County and was apparently the last official battle between Johnston and Sherman's armies in North Carolina. I read that at some point there was a skirmish somewhere along New Hope Creek in southern Durham.
Georg Lukács, a Marxist philosopher and literary critic and Minister of Culture in the Hungarian Soviet Republic, was born April 13, 1885 in Budapest. Many of his works are online, in English, at: www.marxists.org/archive/lukacs/index.htm
Tanzanian socialist Julius Kambarage Nyerere was born April 13, 1922 in what was then Tanganyika (Tanganyika and Zanzibar united April 26, 1964 to create Tanzania). A biography and two of his works are online at: www.marxists.org/subject/africa/nyerere/index.htm
The town of Friesoythe in northwest Germany was burned and demolished by the Canadian Army April 13-14, 1945 in retaliation for the killing of a Canadian officer and other soldiers. It was a regular engagement with the German military, but a rumor claimed that the officer had been shot in the back by a civilian. At first the burning was spontaneous, but the destruction was then ordered by Major-General Christopher Vokes. Earlier in April he had ordered a similar reprisal in Sögel. There were apparently many attacks on civilians and other violations by the Allies in Europe, but this is rarely brought up, apart from opportunities to tar the Soviets, and there is even less talk of alleged crimes committed by the US military in Korea, Vietnam, Latin America, the Middle East, Yugoslavia, etc.
The US, UK, and France attacked Syria April 13, 2018, claiming it was retaliation for the alleged use of chemical weapons, though the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia use white phosphorus and tear gas as chemical weapons, overlooked chemical weapons use during the Iran-Iraq War, and the US and European imperialists have long wanted to regain control of Syria, part of the Ottoman Empire and then a French colony, and one of the last countries offering resistance to Israeli aggression.
The last known female Yangtze giant softshell turtle and one of the last individuals in captivity died around April 13, 2019. These large, very aquatic Southeast Asian turtles are being harmed by hunting, habitat loss due to dams, etc., and pollution, though there is a chance the species could survive. There are species of softshell turtle, though much smaller, in the southern US, including one in North Carolina.
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 a year earlier, 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. The novel might have featured a crewed mission to Titan, or maybe it was Pluto. 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, in the early 1500's.
Christiaan Huygens was born April 14, 1629 in The Hague, in what was then known as the Dutch Republic.
Many of the tribes that had fought with the colonists in North Carolina's Tuscarora War decided soon afterward to ally against the colonists themselves and launched the Yamasee War, centered in South Carolina, the night of April 14, 1715. The war lasted into 1717 or longer and is supposed to have been one of the bloodiest in US history.
Abraham Lincoln was assassinated April 14, 1865.
The Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist) ( www.cpbml.org.uk ) was founded April 14, 1968 according to michaelharrison.org.uk/2022/02/communist-party-of-britain-marxist-leninist/
April 14, 1994 two USAF F-15 fighters shot down two US Army Black Hawk helicopters in northern Iraq, killing all 26 American, British, French, Kurdish, and Turkish military and civilian passenngers on board.
START II (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) went into effect April 14, 2000.
START II (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) went into effect April 14, 2000.
Black Day, April 14th, is a day for single people in the ROK.
The guided missile cruiser Moskva (Moscow), flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet and name ship of the Slava/Project 1164 Atlant (Atlas) class, was lost April 14, 2022. The mainstream media parrots the claim that it was sunk by two Ukrainian anti-ship missiles and plays this up as the largest warship sunk in combat since WWII, but the similar-sized Argentine ship General Belgrano was sunk May 2, 1982 during the undeclared Falklands War (see further below).
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.
World Art Day is April 15th, coinciding with Leonardo da Vinci's birth.
Korean national liberation fighter, revolutionary, and statesman Kim Il-Sung was born April 15, 1912 [110 years ago]. Some of his works are online at: www.marxists.org/archive/kim-il-sung/index.htm www.naenara.com.kp/main/index/en/politics?arg_val=leader3 , and michaelharrison.org.uk/the-democratic-peoples-republic-of-korea/ (this link also has works by Kim Jong-Il, Kim Jong-Un, and many other publications from DPR Korea. I think UNC's Davis Library has Kim Il-Sun's collected works in English and other books, and they might be available at other university libraries in the Triangle.
Revisionist Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was also born April 15, 1894 in southwest Russia (now in Kursk Oblast). Among other things he expanded the territory of the Ukrainian SSR. He has a Marxist Internet Archive page at: www.marxists.org/archive/khrushchev/index.htm
Ronald Reagan bombed Libya April 15, 1986, killing many military personnel and civilians, reportedly including an infant child of Qaddafi. Libya shot down an F-111, killing the two person crew. In 2011 Obama and Hillary Clinton used so-called humanitarian interventionism as a pretext to achieve the long-term US and European imperialist goal of neutralizing Libya. A few years earlier Libya had given up its weapons of mass destruction programs, a lesson to the DPRK about trusting pledges made by the American imperialist government, and John Bolton makes a point of highlighting this, undermining US-DPRK negotiations, one of the few beneficial foreign policy initiatives by the Trump administration, though leading Congressional Democrats seemed to prefer when Trump talked about starting a major war, and now the US has a proxy war with Russia raging in Ukraine.
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.
Tsarist soldiers killed or wounded hundreds of striking workers at the Lena River goldfields April 17, 1912.
Ernst Thälmann, leader of the Communist Party of Germany during the Weimar period, was born April 16, 1886, and shot in Buchenwald August 18, 1944 after years of solitary confinement. The Nazis claimed he was killed by Allied bombing. Many groups were named for him, such as the Thälmann Brigade of German volunteers fighting in the Spanish Civil War on the side of the Republic, and there are songs such as "The Thaelmann-Column" and "Marsch der Thaelmann-Pioniere" and "Thalmannlied." There are possibly questionable translations of some of his works at: aredinohio.wordpress.com/ernst-thalmann-library/
Margot Feist Honecker was born April 17, 1927 in the Halle, Germany. During her political career she was a leader of the Free German Youth, chair of the Ernst Thälmann Pioneer Organization, was elected to the German Democratic Republic's legislature, and served as Minister of National Education. In 2008 she received an honor from Nicaragua for aiding the Sandinista literacy campaign during the 80's. She was married to Erich Honecker, a general secretary of the Socialist Unity Party.
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
A barely disguised US proxy army created by the CIA invaded Cuba at the Bay of Pigs beginning April 17, 1961 (though acts of war had been committed days earlier), but was routed within a few days. In Cuba the battle is named after Playa Girón (Girón Beach). It has been speculated that the defeat was a motive for forces within the US government to assassinate President Kennedy in November 1963.
The Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, 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.
British political economist David Ricardo was born in London April 18, 1772.
UNESCO's International Day for Monuments and Sites / World Heritage Day is April 18th.
Trident II Pruning Hooks
Trident II Pruning Hooks
April 18, 1985 six anti-nuclear weapons activists damaged three Trident II missile tubes at General Dynamics Electric Boat's Quonset Point facility in North Kingston, Rhode Island. Six tubes had been damaged October 1, 1984. They hammered the tubes, put blood on them, wrote Dachau with spraypaint, and left a "Call to Conscience" accusing the company of supporting war crimes. They also performed a Jewish and Christian religious ceremony. They were arrested soon after and charged with the possession of tools for burglary, malicious damage to property, and criminal trespassing, with an $18,000 dollar bond. Three were released after weeks in jail with a promise to appear, while three others chose to stay in jail on conscientious grounds, but were released just before the trail. There was a two-week trial before a jury, with a justification defense being barred. They were found guilty and sentenced to three years imprisonment, changed to a one year suspended sentence with credit for their previous time in jail and two years of probation. Three appealed.
The Revolutionary War or War for Independence began with battles in Massachusetts April 19, 1775.
April 19th is apparently National Garlic Day and National Rice Ball Day in the USA.
In the Oklahoma City Bombing April 19, 1995 at 9:02am, a truck bomb weighing a few thousand pounds heavily damaged the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building, killing at least 168 and injuring hundreds of people. Many nearby buildings and vehicles were damaged or destroyed and ultimately the Federal Building was demolished. Rightist Timothy McVeigh is supposed to have compared his actions to Truman's professed justifications for the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 and the US bombing of Iraq in 1998. He fought in the first US-Iraq war and was supposed to have been ordered to kill surrendering Iraqis.
Freddie Gray died April 19, 2015 after having been arrested April 12th and injured while in a Baltimore Police van.
April 20, 1914 in Ludlow, Colorado the Colorado National Guard and agents of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company supported by machine guns attacked a tent camp housing about 1200 striking workers and their families. The attack lasted all day and is called the Ludlow Massacre, and was carried out months into the Colorado Coalfield War, which lasted for more than a year.
The UN's Chinese Language Day is April 20th: www.un.org/en/observances/international-days-and-weeks
An explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico April 20, 2010 killed 11 workers (a total of 126 were onboard that day) and led to history's largest oil spill. The rig sank April 22nd and an oil slick was visible on the surface. The leaking well, about 5000 feet underwater, was not considered sealed until September 19, 2010.
The UN's Chinese Language Day is April 20th: www.un.org/en/observances/international-days-and-weeks
An explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico April 20, 2010 killed 11 workers (a total of 126 were onboard that day) and led to history's largest oil spill. The rig sank April 22nd and an oil slick was visible on the surface. The leaking well, about 5000 feet underwater, was not considered sealed until September 19, 2010.
The USA occupied Veracruz, Mexico from April 21 to November 23, 1914 over the Tampico Affair, April 9th.
In the Ypiranga Incident April 21, 1914 the US attempted to prevent the Mexican Federal government from receiving a shipment of German weapons during the Mexican Revolution and before Wrld War I.
A rightist military junta (the Regime of the Colonels) took power in Greece April 21, 1967 and lasted until July 1974.
Russian Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet statesman Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov Lenin was born April 22, 1870 in what is now Ulyanovsk, on the Volga River east of Moscow (also the birthplace of Alexander Kerensky, head of the government overthrown in the October Revolution). Many of Lenin's works are online at: marx2mao.com/Lenin/Index.html , www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/index.htm , michaelharrison.org.uk/the-great-marxist-leninist-theoreticians/ and can often be found at library book sales in Durham, if not elsewhere (as can other classic Marxist works), and sometimes even lress expensive than when originally they were printed by International Publishers, etc. Inexpensive new copies in English and Spanish are available from: redstarpublishers.org/
Italian-American anarchist Nicola Sacco was born April 22, 1891. Together with another Italian-American anarchist, Bartolomeo Vanzetti (born June 11, 1888), Sacco was executed August 23, 1927 for two murders committed during a robbery April 15, 1920 in Braintree, Massachusetts. Sacco and Vanzetti were famous worldwide as political prisoners and there was a lot of organizing around the case and many places and groups have been named after them. In 1977 Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis signed a proclamation that Sacco and Vanzetti had been unfairly convicted and executed and should not bear any "disgrace" for the alleged crime, though he did not say that they were actually innocent or officially pardon them.
Earth Day is April 22nd, and began in 1970.
Wikipedia claims rthat some modern neo-pagans celebrate a Yggdrasil Day April 22nd: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel_of_the_Year Yggdrasil was the Norse world-tree, often thought of as an ash.
Pershing Plowshares
April 22, 1984 (Easter Morning) seven Americans (including Patrick O'Neill, then a student and "peace worker" from Greenville) and a Swedish student and peace worker went into an Orlando, Florida Martin Marietta, where they hammered and put their blood on Pershing II ballistic missile parts and a Patriot missile launcher at a Martin Marietta facility. They indicted the company on religious grounds and international and US law for manufacturing nuclear weapons and unfurled a banner saying "Violence Ends Where Love Begins." Hours later they were arrested. They were given a Federal jury trial, without being able to make a justification defense. They were found guilty of depredation of government property and conspiracy, and sentenced to three years imprisonment, five-year suspended sentences with probation, and restitution of $2900 dollars each. Their appeals and motions for sentence reduction were denied. The Swedish activist spent more than a year in prison before being deported.
Pershing Plowshares
April 22, 1984 (Easter Morning) seven Americans (including Patrick O'Neill, then a student and "peace worker" from Greenville) and a Swedish student and peace worker went into an Orlando, Florida Martin Marietta, where they hammered and put their blood on Pershing II ballistic missile parts and a Patriot missile launcher at a Martin Marietta facility. They indicted the company on religious grounds and international and US law for manufacturing nuclear weapons and unfurled a banner saying "Violence Ends Where Love Begins." Hours later they were arrested. They were given a Federal jury trial, without being able to make a justification defense. They were found guilty of depredation of government property and conspiracy, and sentenced to three years imprisonment, five-year suspended sentences with probation, and restitution of $2900 dollars each. Their appeals and motions for sentence reduction were denied. The Swedish activist spent more than a year in prison before being deported.
Timothy James McVeigh was born April 23, 1968 in Lockport, New York and was executed June 11, 2001 at the Federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana for having carried out the Oklahoma City Bombing April 19, 1995. See also: www.wsws.org/en/articles/2001/04/mcve-a19.html
NATO bombed the headquarters of Radio Television Serbia April 23, 1999, killing 16 civilian employees. Apparently the general manager was jailed for not ordering an evacuation, but no one has been punished for the bombing, though Amnesty International called it a war crime, Human Rights Watch condemned it, and apparently even the French government was opposed to it. According to the BBC the station was only silenced for 4 hours. NATO bombed Yugoslavia from March 24th to June 10th. From the way NPR, etc. discuss war they don't seem to realize that US policies and those of other countries have normalized targeting and prosecuting the media, professional journalists, citizen journalists, and whistleblowers. War might not always stay far away across the oceans, especially a war with a "peer" such as Russia or China (and NPR has staff in Western Ukraine while BBC staff have been reporting from the capital), and Julian Assange is being held by the UK for extradiion to the USA right now.
Easter Rising for Irish independence began April 24, 1916.
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. The PDPA government fell after March 18, 1992, but outlasted the Soviet withdrawal in 1989 and the overthrow of the revisionist Soviet government in late 1991. This was followed by a civil war among the Islamists and later the formation of the Taliban. The US-backed Afghan government marked Mujahideen Victory Day annually April 28th. Afghanistan wasn't always as "medieval" as it became after the civil wars and terrorism, fueled by the US, Pakistan, China, and other countries.
Workers' Memorial Day is April 28th, and there is usually an NC AFL-CIO commemoration in Raleigh.
The Battle of Chancellorsville was April 30 - May 6, 1863 in Spotsylvania County, Virginia.
May is also American Wetlands Month (see above), Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, Jewish American Heritage Month, Haitian Heritage Month, Oder Americans Month, Mental Health Awareness Month, Hepatitis Awareness Month, National Electrical Safety Month, National Water Safety Month, National Foster Care Month, and National Burger Month, among other commemorations in the USA, according to Wikipedia.
NATO bombed the headquarters of Radio Television Serbia April 23, 1999, killing 16 civilian employees. Apparently the general manager was jailed for not ordering an evacuation, but no one has been punished for the bombing, though Amnesty International called it a war crime, Human Rights Watch condemned it, and apparently even the French government was opposed to it. According to the BBC the station was only silenced for 4 hours. NATO bombed Yugoslavia from March 24th to June 10th. From the way NPR, etc. discuss war they don't seem to realize that US policies and those of other countries have normalized targeting and prosecuting the media, professional journalists, citizen journalists, and whistleblowers. War might not always stay far away across the oceans, especially a war with a "peer" such as Russia or China (and NPR has staff in Western Ukraine while BBC staff have been reporting from the capital), and Julian Assange is being held by the UK for extradiion to the USA right now.
Easter Rising for Irish independence began April 24, 1916.
April 24, 1932 hundreds to thousands of hikers converged on the height of Kinder Scout in the Peak District of Derbyshire, England in a mass trespass to challenge private closure of areas traditionally open to walkers (?). Apparently the public was barred from open moors, though the well off only hunted there 12 days out of the year. There were some fights with gamekeepers that day. The action was organized by the British Workers' Sports Federation, alleged to have been very connected to the Communist Party of Great Britain, and led to the establishment of Peak District National Park, the first in the UK, April 17, 1951. The Pennine Way, inspired by the Appalachian Trail is also in the area.
There happens to be a lot of public land and increasingly public trails in the central Triangle, but there is also a lot of former farmland that is now 'wild,' but is held by land speculators seemingly without any concern for the public good, as well as vacant land in more urban areas and large areas of woods held by neighborhood associations and community landlords. Large streams also end up in backyards and private interests try to take control of areas that are publicly owned. If people don't stand up for access, they might lose it and faceless entities far away own much of Durham's land and housing, land probably taken by force as capitalism was instituted. There also cases of land with no known owner, though presumably taxes are going unpaid. Duke Energy will cut old trees if no one is around to challenge them, etc.
The Dominican Civil War began April 24, 1965; the US military's evacuation mission 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.
Space Shuttle Discovery lifted off on April 24, 1990 carrying the Hubble Space Telescope. The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster led to the HST being kept in storage for years. Once in orbit space shuttles visited Hubble five times for servicing, the first time to install a workaround for a faulty mirror. The last servicing mission, in May 2009, extended the HST's lifespan, but without the shuttles the Hubble will probably be destroyed after it goes out of service, instead of being repaired or retrieved.
The World Day for Laboratory Animals is April 24th. World Day for Laboratory Animals / World Lab Animals Day is April 24th, started by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in 1980.
The two-part French presidential election of 2022 was April 10th and April 24th, soon to be followed by legislative elections. "Centrist" rightist incumbent Emmanuel Macron won a second 5-year term over "far-right" Marine Le Pen.
At one time meteorites were thought to be scientifically impossible, but the fall of more than 3000 around L'Aigle in Normandy, France on April 26, 1803 was a key event. The Angers meteorite fell in the Pays de la Loire region of France June 3, 1822 arond 8:15pm and is stored with a meteorite from L'Aigle at a museum of natural history in Angers.
The largest Confederate surrender occurred at Bennett Place, now in Durham, when Joseph E Johnston commanding armies in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida, surrendered to William Tecumseh Sherman April 26, 1865 (see above).
April 26th is National Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day.
April 26th is World Intellectual Property Day
April 26th is World Intellectual Property Day
The Chernobyl nuclear disaster began April 26, 1986, near Pripyat in what was then the Ukrainian SSR, near the border with Belarus. The powerplant used RBMK type reactors, unlike those used in the USA and most other countries, with flaws leading to positive feedbacks and the destruction of the No. 4 reactor. The building containing reactor 4 also did not provide enough containment and caught on fire and there was human error, etc. Apparently much smaller accidents occurred at the plant before and after April 1986, but an experiment with a safety system led to the major disaster. Something like 31 or 60 deaths can be directly attributed to the nuclear accident, though there are estmates that the disaster has and will cause many thousands of deaths. A forest of pines near the powerplant was killed by radiation (apparently birch are more tolerant of radiation). A large exclusion zone around the plant is now inhabited by rare species such as lynx, brown bears, wolves, European bison, and introduced Przewalski's horses, though mutations have been documented, such as trunkless birch trees and swallows with asymmetric wings. Reportedly melanin-rich radiotrophic fungi in the ruined powerplant harvest energy from the radiation: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiotrophic_fungus There is tourism in the exclusion zone and some of the evacuated residents have returned illegally. The evacuation itself and the destruction of the USSR might have led to medical problems and increased mortality among survivors. The disaster was terrible and probably contributed to the fall of the USSR, but it is predicted that climate change will render major cities and entire countries uninhabitable, spread tropical diseases, harm agriculture, cause massive amounts of migration, and that it is already causing species to disappear. There are also health problems caused by air pollution from burning fossil fuels and the release of the toxic heavy metal mercury, which bioaccumulates up aquatic food chains, leading to advisories against eating certain species of fish. This might also contribute to the high levels of toxic substances that accumulate in marine mammals. The Fukushima Dai-ichi powerplant in Japan used boiling water reactors, apparently the second most popular type, and no deaths were caused by the immediate disaster, though one person has died of radation-induced cancer since 2011. [On the other hand there is the issue of the peaceful nuclear energy industry being connected to military use and many countries apparently have the capacity to quickly develop nuclear weapons.]
Nikos Zachariadis, general secretary of the Communist Party of Greece during the Greek Civil War, was born April 27, 1903. He lived in exile in the USSR after 1949, becoming a thorn in the side of Khrushchev's revisionist USSR and either committed suicide or was assassinated August 1, 1973. For more information, see: anasintaxi-en.blogspot.com/2007/09/three-versions-of-nikos-zachariadiss.html , www.marxists.org/archive/zachariadis/index.htm , and Red Star Publishers.
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. The PDPA government fell after March 18, 1992, but outlasted the Soviet withdrawal in 1989 and the overthrow of the revisionist Soviet government in late 1991. This was followed by a civil war among the Islamists and later the formation of the Taliban. The US-backed Afghan government marked Mujahideen Victory Day annually April 28th. Afghanistan wasn't always as "medieval" as it became after the civil wars and terrorism, fueled by the US, Pakistan, China, and other countries.
International Noise Awareness Day is Wednesday, April 27th (the last Wednesday in April) and raises awareness about noise pollution and the health and environmental problems excessive noise causes.
World Tapir Day and International Hyena Day are both supposed to be on April 27th.
Bill Bland was born April 28, 1916 in Ashton-under-Lyne, UK. He was a founder of the Albanian Society, the Communist League of Great Britain, and the Stalin Society, was involved in Alliance Marxist-Leninist and International Struggle Marxist-Leninist, and produced many works as well as translating documents from Albania. He died March 13, 2001. For more information see: www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv7n2/blandobit.htm (obituary) , www.oneparty.co.uk/compass/intercom/blandmem.html , ml-review.ca/aml/index/subject.html#b , www.mltranslations.org/Britain/StalinBB.htm , www.marxists.org/archive/bland/ , ml-review.ca/aml/index/subject.html#b , neodemocracy.blogspot.com/search/label/Bill%20Bland , and available in print from redstarpublishers.org/
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.
April 28th is or was Restoration of Sovereignty Day in Japan, marking the end of the US occupation in 1952. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe proposed the commemoration in 2012, but it is controversial, for example there were demonstrations in Okinawa in 2013, because much of the continuing US military presence in Japan is based in Okinawa. It is questionable how much sovereignty Japan has, if former prime minister Yukio Hatoyama asked the USA to move one or more bases, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton could refuse, but maybe that is not exactly what happened.
The last French soldiers withdrew from Vietnam April 28, 1956, but US intervention increased and became the Vietnam War.
Workers' Memorial Day is April 28th, and there is usually an NC AFL-CIO commemoration in Raleigh.
The battleship USS North Carolina (BB-55) was apparently commissioned April 9, 1941 and was formally opened to the public April 29, 1962 in Wilmington, NC, where she remains today
German mathematician and physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss was born April 30, 1777.
The Battle of Chancellorsville was April 30 - May 6, 1863 in Spotsylvania County, Virginia.
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/
Saigon was liberated and Vietnam's long war to end colonial domination and reunite the country ended April 30, 1975, though the US military had withdrawn in 1973.
International Workers' Day / May Day is May 1st. There will probably be events around the 1st locally.
May 1st is also a cross-quarter day and before that Gaelic Beltane, etc. There might also be a relation to Whitsunday, June 5th this year.
May is National Bicycle Month, sometimes celebrated by the Durham County libraries. See also: www.facebook.com/bikedurham/ [ bikedurham.org/bike-month-2022 , www.bikewalknc.org/north-carolina-bicycle-safety-quiz/ , transportation.ucla.edu/blog/how-riding-bike-benefits-environment ]
May is also American Wetlands Month (see above), Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, Jewish American Heritage Month, Haitian Heritage Month, Oder Americans Month, Mental Health Awareness Month, Hepatitis Awareness Month, National Electrical Safety Month, National Water Safety Month, National Foster Care Month, and National Burger Month, among other commemorations in the USA, according to Wikipedia.
According to the NC Wildlife Resources Commission bats have pups around May 1st.
World Tuna Day is May 2nd: www.un.org/en/observances/international-days-and-weeks
The Argentine light cruiser General Belgrano was sunk by the British nuclear-powered submarine Conqueror May 2, 1982 during the Falklands War, with 323 killed. This was apparently a first for a nuclear-powered submarine and only the second time since WWII that a submarine sank a ship during wartime, though many countries have submarines. The General Belgrano was formerly the USS Phoenix, and fought in WWII.
The Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant in New Hill, Wake County was commissioned May 2, 1987. On warm days in September the column of water vapor rising high above the cooling tower can be seen throughout the Triangle where it is possible to see close to the horizon. For whatever reason, I have heard that the Lake is clear and waterlilies, etc. are common there.
Welsh Journalist James Miller was killed by the Israeli military May 2, 2003 in Rafah, Gaza.
The House of Trade Unions in Odessa, Ukraine was attacked by rightists May 2, 2014, killing 42. [In 2019 the United National AntiWar Coalition sent a delegation to Odessa on the anniverary: unac.notowar.net/2019/05/04/odessa-report-2-mayday-and-the-may-2nd-remembrance-in-odessa/ and they recommend a 3-minute video on the massacre: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWZCu0fhVbw
The House of Trade Unions in Odessa, Ukraine was attacked by rightists May 2, 2014, killing 42. [In 2019 the United National AntiWar Coalition sent a delegation to Odessa on the anniverary: unac.notowar.net/2019/05/04/odessa-report-2-mayday-and-the-may-2nd-remembrance-in-odessa/ and they recommend a 3-minute video on the massacre: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWZCu0fhVbw
The International Action Center will host a webinar Monday, May 2 at 2pm Eastern Time, "Reckoning with the Ukraine Government's armed Nazi militias."]
Children's Book Week is scheduled for May 2 - 8 and November 7 - 13: everychildareader.net/cbw/
World Press Freedom Day is May 3rd ( www.un.org/en/events/pressfreedomday/ ), but many "free" journalists don't condemn US attempts to punish Julian Assange for his journalistic work and retaliate against whistleblowers who supply the media with information, and much of the "free" press serves the government and imperialist capitalism in heavily backing US plots to regain domination over Venezuela and other Latin American countries, the bipartisan plan to use Russiagate to silence dissent, and other elite foreign and domestic policy decisions.
International Leopard Day and Wild Koala Day are supposed to May 3rd.
The Virginia-class nuclear-powered attack submarine USS North Carolina was commissioned May 3, 2008 in Wilmington, NC, and had been launched May 5, 2007. Her keel was laid May 22, 2004 at what wass then Northrup Grumman Newport News in Virginia and the ship was christened April 21, 2007. Submarines have launched missiles at targets on land but sunk few ships since the world wars, though in exercises European non-nuclear submarines have been judged to have sunk US aircraft carriers.
The "Bay of Piglets" attack on Venezuela was May 3, 2020.
There was a bombing at a labor rally in Chicago's Haymarket Square May 4, 1886. Seven policeand at least four workers were killed and more wounded that day. The left, labor movement, and immigrant communities in Chicago were subjected to arrests and searches apparently without warrants in a local red scare. Eight anarchists were found guilty of conspiracy, four were hung, one committed suicide, and the survivors were pardoned in 1893. There are still questions about who threw the dynamite, etc. The events helped created modern International Workers' Day (May 1st).
May 4, 1937 thousands of people flocked to what is now the Triangle Land Conservancy's Flower Hill Nature Preserve in Johnston County near the border with Nash County as the Catawba Rhododendrons were blooming. The site is unusual in having Rhododendrons, Galax, and other plants more typical of the Appalachians, left behind as the climate warmed after the ice ages.
A military coup in Paraguay May 4, 1954 installed Alfredo Stroessner, who ruled until 1989. Under Stroessner Paraguay joined other rightist governments of South America, with the involvement of the USA and European countries, in Operation Condor, torturing and killing tens of thousands and imprisoning many more.
A military coup in Paraguay May 4, 1954 installed Alfredo Stroessner, who ruled until 1989. Under Stroessner Paraguay joined other rightist governments of South America, with the involvement of the USA and European countries, in Operation Condor, torturing and killing tens of thousands and imprisoning many more.
The Kent State Massacre was May 4, 1970 in Kent, Ohio. The Ohio National Guard shot students who were protesting Nixon's bombing of Cambodia during the Vietnam War, killing four, wounding 9, and leaving one student paralyzed. Anti-war protesters were shot, bayoneted, or assaulted elsewhere that May (see below). These protests might have been the first national student strike in the USA, with 4 million participants and hundreds of schools closed.
Karl Marx was born May 5, 1818, in Trier, Germany. Some of his works are available at: marx2mao.com/M&E/Index.html , www.marxists.org/archive/marx/index.htm , michaelharrison.org.uk/the-great-marxist-leninist-theoreticians/ , and can often be found at library book sales in Durham and probably elsewhere (as can other classic Marxist works), sometimes cheaper than the when originally printed by International Publishers, etc. Inexpensive new copies in English and Spanish are available from: redstarpublishers.org/
Cinco de Mayo (May 5th) commemorates the Mexican victory over invading French forces at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. It has become an important Mexican-American holiday and is celebrated in several countries. Mexico's independence day holiday is September 16th, marking events in 1810.
May 4th is Greenery Day / Midori no Hi in Japan, related to the appreciation of nature, but it began as a holiday on April 29th marking the 1926 birth of Emperor Hirohito, held responsible for Japanese militarism and imperialism.
In Japan May 5th is Children's Day / Kodomo no Hi, part of the Golden Week of holidays, starting April 29th. Before 1948 the holiday was called Boys' Day or the Feast of Banners (traditional Hinamatsuri or Girls' Day was March 3rd). One tradition on the 5th was to raise koinobori, windsocks decorated as carp, because carp, called the warrior's fish, signify strength, fortune, and prosperity. Large Asian common carp are now abundant in many waterways and lakes in the Triangle, and boisterously gather in shallow, weedy or flooded areas in the spring to breed.
Karl Marx was born May 5, 1818, in Trier, Germany. Some of his works are available at: marx2mao.com/M&E/Index.html , www.marxists.org/archive/marx/index.htm , michaelharrison.org.uk/the-great-marxist-leninist-theoreticians/ , and can often be found at library book sales in Durham and probably elsewhere (as can other classic Marxist works), sometimes cheaper than the when originally printed by International Publishers, etc. Inexpensive new copies in English and Spanish are available from: redstarpublishers.org/
Cinco de Mayo (May 5th) commemorates the Mexican victory over invading French forces at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. It has become an important Mexican-American holiday and is celebrated in several countries. Mexico's independence day holiday is September 16th, marking events in 1810.
The newspaper Pravda (Truth) was first published legally, representing the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party (Bolshevik), May 5, 1912. According to Wikipedia the paper first began in 1903 as an illegal paper independent of the RSDLP. After 1912 there was repeated repression by the Tsarist government. It continued to represent the Communist Party after the October Revolution and was honored in place names, such as the town of Pravdinsk, and May 5th was Workers' Press Day. In 1996 Yeltsin sold the paper to Greek capitalists, and later it was acquired by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, one of several Russian communist parties. The separate online Pravda was created by Pravda journalists from the Soviet-era. Several newspapers were published by the CPSU before and after the Revolution, including Zvezda, which predated Pravda, but was not meant as a mass newspaper, unlike Pravda.
Famous Chinese photojournalist Sha Fei (Situ Chuan) was born May 5, 1912 in Guangzhou, China.
The USA invaded the Dominican Republic May 5, 1916.
The USA invaded the Dominican Republic May 5, 1916.
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.
North American Occupational Health and Safety Week is usually in early May.
National Public Gardens Day is the Friday before Mother's Day (May 6th).
National Public Gardens Week is May 6th - 15th: publicgardens.org/programs/national-public-gardens-week/about-national-public-gardens-week
The Viet Minh (League for the Independence of Vietnam) under General Võ Nguyên Giáp defeated the French military at Dien Bien Phu in northwest Vietnam May 7, 1954. Under the 1954 Geneva Accords France withdrew from its colonies in Indochina, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was established in northern Vietnam with Ho Chi Minh as prime minister, the State of Vietnam was created in the south, and there would be a national election in July 1956. The election was never held, leading to the Vietnam War. For some of Giáp's writings see: www.marxists.org/archive/giap/index.htm
The US bombed China's embassy in Belgrade on the night of May 7 - 8th, 1999, killing three civilians and wounding 20 inside. It has been speculated that the objective was to destroy parts from a F-117A stealth fighter shot down by Yugoslavia March 27th, but the US government claims it was just a mistake. If the US hits a civilian target, it is a "mistake" or some low-ranking person's fault, while if Russia does the same it is proof of fundamental criminality, according to the mainstream English-language media. People might relegate it to the past, but there are reports of shunning and vandalism against American resturants and other concerns perceived to be Russian and before that there were the attacks on ethnic East Asians due to bipartisan US government villification of China, though the media wanted to blame it all on Trump.
The 14th annual World Labyrinth Day Walk for Peacewill be May 7th at 1pm local time (Walk as One at 1; annually on the first Saturday of May): labyrinthsociety.org/world-labyrinth-day
Free Comic Book Day will be May 7th (the first Saturday every May, since 2002): www.freecomicbookday.com/
Inessa Fyodorovna Armand (Elisabeth-Inès Stéphane d'Herbenville) was born in Paris May 8, 1874. Her alleged romantic relationship with Lenin is well-known but her Marxist political career is overlooked. She joined the underground Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party, forerunner of the CPSU, in 1903, and was imprisoned for her revolutionary activities. She represented the Bolsheviks at a conference of the International Socialist Bureau in Belgium as WWI was beginning and organized the International Conference of Socialist Women in Switzerland during the War. Later she was a leader of the Moscow Soviet and led the Moscow Economic Council. In 1920 she was the chair of the First International Conference of Communist Women. She pushed for sexual equality and apparently had important political disagreements with Lenin, despite their personal relationship. She died September 24, 1920 due to a cholera epidemic and her grave is in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.
The Hard Hat Riot, in which pro-Nixon rightists, mostly construction workers, attacked an anti-war rally, a nearby church, and Pace University facilities, was May 8, 1970 in New York City. The New York police were accused of doing little to prevent the violence. Union leader Peter J Brennan went on to become US secretary of labor under Nixon and Ford.
The Hard Hat Riot, in which pro-Nixon rightists, mostly construction workers, attacked an anti-war rally, a nearby church, and Pace University facilities, was May 8, 1970 in New York City. The New York police were accused of doing little to prevent the violence. Union leader Peter J Brennan went on to become US secretary of labor under Nixon and Ford.
The New Mexico National Guard bayonetted but did not kill 11 students and journalists at the University of New Mexico May 8, 1970. The University had the first Signature School Program, training students for future CIA jobs, in 2016. Legend has it that students chased CIA recruiters from the UNC-Chapel Hill campus and out of town sometime in the 80's. The CIA is often listed at college career fairs now.
World Donkey Day is supposed to be May 8th.
Victory Day is May 9th and marks the end of WWII in Europe in 1945.
Victory Day is May 9th and marks the end of WWII in Europe in 1945.
The UN marks a Time of Remembrance and Reconciliation for Those Who Lost Their Lives During the Second World War May 8-9th: www.un.org/en/observances/second-world-war-remembrance-days
Mother's Day in the US is Sunday, May 8th 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 (see www.ncparks.gov/occoneechee-mountain-state-natural-area and enoriver.org for organized hikes). The end of the ice ages left behind species such as the brown elfin butterflies stranded on Occoneechee, white pines at the White Pines Nature Preserve south of Pittsboro, and Eastern hemlocks at Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve in Cary. In many cases species that live on mountains are very at risk from climate change, because they can only retreat up, and at some point there may be nowhere left to go (see the extinction of the golden toad May 15, 1989). In these examples the species are also found elsewhere, so local extinction wouldn't be complete extinction. Hemlocks also face a threat from a non-native insect, but it has been gotten rid of locally, while remaining a catastrophe in the mountains.
The Augusta (Georgia) Riot was May 11 - 13, 1970. Charles Oatman, a mentally disabled black teenager, was held in an adult jail and allegedly died after a fall, but appeared to have been tortured and beaten to death. Hundreds protested at the Augusta Municipal Building and six unarmed protesters were shot in the back and killed ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970_Augusta_riot ).
Mother's Day in the US is Sunday, May 8th 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 (see www.ncparks.gov/occoneechee-mountain-state-natural-area and enoriver.org for organized hikes). The end of the ice ages left behind species such as the brown elfin butterflies stranded on Occoneechee, white pines at the White Pines Nature Preserve south of Pittsboro, and Eastern hemlocks at Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve in Cary. In many cases species that live on mountains are very at risk from climate change, because they can only retreat up, and at some point there may be nowhere left to go (see the extinction of the golden toad May 15, 1989). In these examples the species are also found elsewhere, so local extinction wouldn't be complete extinction. Hemlocks also face a threat from a non-native insect, but it has been gotten rid of locally, while remaining a catastrophe in the mountains.
The Augusta (Georgia) Riot was May 11 - 13, 1970. Charles Oatman, a mentally disabled black teenager, was held in an adult jail and allegedly died after a fall, but appeared to have been tortured and beaten to death. Hundreds protested at the Augusta Municipal Building and six unarmed protesters were shot in the back and killed ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970_Augusta_riot ).
Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, working for Al Jazeera, was killed May 11, 2022 in Jenin, in occupied West Bank, Palestine. Abu Akleh was wearing a protective vest identifying her as a member of the press and was apparently shot in the head despite wearing a helmet, suggesting that she was targeted by a sniper. The Israeli government claims that a gun battle was going on at the time and Abu Akleh might have been shot by the Palestinian side. Other Palestinian journalists at the site were injured but survived and say there was little shooting going on at the time. Reportedy Abu Akleh's home was raided by Israel after the killing. There has been international condemnation of the killing, with some calling it an assassination and/or blaming Israel. This wouldn't be the first time the Israeli military has purposefully killed an American, if that is what happened. The killing has been seen as acceptable to report in depth on the BBC, etc., though there has been little mention of the Middle East or violence in Palestine for what seems like weeks this spring. Juilan Assange has also been out of the news, and the media avoids mentioning or just doesn't mention him.
Julius Rosenberg was born May 13, 1918 in Manhattan and executed in 1953
Former Senator (D-Alaska) and 2020 Democratic presidential primary candidate Mike Gravel was born May 13, 1930 in Springfield, Massachusetts and passed away June 26, 2021 in Seaside, California. He endorsed Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary.
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.
Green Office Week is or was in mid-May: Wikipedia and www.avery.co.uk/gow
Former Senator (D-Alaska) and 2020 Democratic presidential primary candidate Mike Gravel was born May 13, 1930 in Springfield, Massachusetts and passed away June 26, 2021 in Seaside, California. He endorsed Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary.
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.
Green Office Week is or was in mid-May: Wikipedia and www.avery.co.uk/gow
Writer Hal Borland was born May 14, 1900.
The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia was founded at a congress of the Czechoslovak Social-Democratic Party (Left) held in Prague May 14-16, 1921.
The Warsaw Pact was formed May 14, 1955 to deter aggression by the already formed NATO alliance of the USA and its weaker European imperialist partners.
The Warsaw Pact was formed May 14, 1955 to deter aggression by the already formed NATO alliance of the USA and its weaker European imperialist partners.
Through the USSR's Interkosmos program, the Soyuz 40 mission to the Salyut 6 space station, launched May 14, 1981, included Romanian research cosmonaut Dumitru Prunariu and Soviet commander Leonid Popov. It isn't clear from Wikipedia if Prunariu was the first Romanian in space. This was also the last crewed mission to Salyut 6 and the last launch of a Soyuz 7K-T spacecraft.
International Migratory Bird Day is May 14th in the USA and Canada (the second Saturday in May). It is celebrated the second Saturday in October elsewhere in the Americas.
The annual Longleaf Festival will be May 14th at Wake County's Harris Lake County Park: www.wakegov.com/parks/harrislake/Pages/Longleaf-Festival.aspx
Nakba Day is May 15th, marking the dispossession of the native Palestinians in 1948 through violence, such as at Deir Yassin (see above).
Two students were killed and 12 injured May 15, 1970 at Jackson State University in Jackson, Mississippi after state highway patrol and Jackson police fired into a crowd.
The last known sighting of a Costa Rican golden toad was May 15, 1989 and they are thought to be extinct. The species was first described scientifically in 1966. There is still debate about the cause, but this might be an early example of anthropogenic climate change killing a species. Possibly the cause was a chytrid fungus epidemic, possibly assisted by climate change and pesticide pollution, a major threat to frog species in many countries. Apparently there are additional still unidentified diseases killing endangered amphibians.
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 pesticide pollution, a major threat to frog species in many countries. Apparently there are additional still unidentified diseases killing endangered amphibians.
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.
The UN's Vesak, the Day of the Full Moon is May 16 as the birth anniversary of Buddha: www.un.org/en/observances/vesak-day The 16th is also the International Day of Living Together in Peace and the International Day of Light: www.un.org/en/observances/international-days-and-weeks
After withdrawing from Afghanistan, Biden announced May 16, 2022 that soldiers would be sent back into Somalia to do much the same thing: newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/persistent-presence?pc=1447 Apparently the Geledi Sultanate, a predecessor of modern Somalia, was the first independent African state to recognize the new American state, in 1776
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.
There was a massive eruption, far more powerful than the WWII atomic bombs, at Washington state's Mount St Helens May 18, 1980, killing a number of people and remaking the landscape. Traces to inches of volcanic ash fell over several states.
Through the USSR's Interkosmos program, the Soyuz TM-12 mission to the Mir space station, launched May 18, 1991, included Helen Sharman, the first Briton to go to space, later joined by Franz Viehböck, the first Austrian in space, dubbed an Austronaut. The crew spent 144 days in orbit, landing October 10th, just before the final wrecking of the Soviet state.
Through the USSR's Interkosmos program, the Soyuz TM-12 mission to the Mir space station, launched May 18, 1991, included Helen Sharman, the first Briton to go to space, later joined by Franz Viehböck, the first Austrian in space, dubbed an Austronaut. The crew spent 144 days in orbit, landing October 10th, just before the final wrecking of the Soviet state.
The Viet Minh, a Vietnamese abbreviation of the League for the Independence of Vietnam was founded at Pác Bó May 19, 1941.
Vietnamese revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh was born on or around May 19, 1890. Some of his works are online at: www.marxists.org/reference/archive/ho-chi-minh/index.htm
May 19, 1920 in Matewan, West Virginia seven agents of the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency (employed by the Stone Mountain Coal Corporation), two miners (one just fired for belonging to the United Mine Workers of America and one unarmed), and Mayor Cabell Testerman were killed anda few people wounded in the Battle of Matewan, seen as a victory for the miners and dramatized in the 1987 movie Matewan.
The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence is supposed to have been signed by a citizens' committee in Charlotte May 20, 1775, and would be the first call for independence from the UK following the beginning of hostilities in Massachusetts in April, but there are doubts about its authenticity. The original document is supposed to have been lost in a fire in 1800. Historical or not, the date is emblazoned on North Carolina's flag.
Possibly related to the above date, North Carolina seceded from the USA on May 20, 1861, after the start of the Civil War at Fort Sumter near Charleston, South Carolina April 12th.
The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence is supposed to have been signed by a citizens' committee in Charlotte May 20, 1775, and would be the first call for independence from the UK following the beginning of hostilities in Massachusetts in April, but there are doubts about its authenticity. The original document is supposed to have been lost in a fire in 1800. Historical or not, the date is emblazoned on North Carolina's flag.
Possibly related to the above date, North Carolina seceded from the USA on May 20, 1861, after the start of the Civil War at Fort Sumter near Charleston, South Carolina April 12th.
The UN's 4th annual World Bee Day is May 20th: www.un.org/en/observances/bee-day
May 20th (the third Friday in May) is supposed to be Endangered Species Day ( www.endangered.org/campaigns/endangered-species-day/ ) and Bike-to-Work Day.
Culture Freedom Day is May 21st (the third Saturday in May), as is International Museum Day ( imd.icom.museum/ ).
Ukraine's decommunization law came into force May 21, 2015, banning not only Soviet symbols but also red stars and images of Che Guevara, Mao, and Trotsky: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decommunization_in_Ukraine More recently the Ukrainian government has repressed leftist elected leaders and people accused of being pro-Russian.
The UN's International Day for Biological Diversity is May 22nd: www.un.org/en/observances/biological-diversity-day
May 21-22 it was reported that a colonel in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force, Hassan Sayyad Khodayari, was killed in Tehran by gunmen on two motorcycles, similar to the assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists and General Qassem Soleimani, also of the Quds Force.
The European Day of Parks is supposed to be May 24th.
May 25 - 31 is the International Week of Solidarity with the Peoples of Non-Self-Governing Territories, including Western Sahara, the US and British Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, Bermuda, and New Caledonia: www.un.org/en/observances/international-days-and-weeks
George Floyd was killed May 25, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was born October 14, 1973 in Fayetteville, NC, but lived in Houston, Texas for most of his childhood.
The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty was signed May 26, 1972 and the USA withdrew June 13, 2002 under George W Bush.
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 first of several military coups in Turkey was May 27, 1960.
Plowshares disarmament in Michigan
Peace activist and radio technician Tom Hastings sawed off an extremely low frequency radio antenna mast on Michigan's Upper Peninsula May 28, 1985. The ELF antennas were used to communicate with submarines, such as those carrying nuclear missiles. These are supposed to be sensitive facilities handling nuclear weapons systems, but plowshare activists often enter and are not arrested for minutes to hours or are only arrested after leaving or turning themselves in. Hastings stayed at the site for 45 minutes and prayed, sang, and planted a corn circle. He was only arrested after taking part of the pole to the office of Congressman Bob Davis in the morning and surrendering to a sheriff. He was sentenced to 15 days in prison and two years probation for malicious destruction of property.
Fusako Shigenobu of the Japanese Red Army will be released from prison May 28th: thefunambulist.net/magazine/decentering-the-us/fusako-shigenobu-an-open-ended-revolution See also a now rarely updated blog covering "Japanese radicalism and counterculture:" throwoutyourbooks.wordpress.com/tag/japanese-red-army/ [There is a June 17thpost on Shigenobu.]
May 29th (the last Sunday in May) is Arbor Day in Venezuela.
Colombia's presidential election will be May 29th, seemingly with foreign and military interference: www.counterpunch.org/2022/05/20/why-are-colombian-election-candidates-auditioning-in-washington/
May 31, 1775 the Mecklenburg County Committee of Safety adopted the Mecklenburg Resolves, declaring that laws based on the power of the British king and parliament were nullified and that legislative and executive power was in the Continental Congress, the first such proclamation. It is thought that this might be the true basis of the alleged Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, but the Resolves did not go as far as declaring independence. The original document was lost in a house fire in 1800, but a copy was found in a South Carolina newspaper.
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. For background about the massacre in Tulsa and the murder of Osage Indians for their rights to oil and other resources in Oklahoma see: www.counterpunch.org/2020/06/26/trumps-tulsa-travesty-the-missing-connection/
World Parrot Day is supposed to be May 31st.
Hurricane season in the North Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico is officially June 1st to November 30th.
The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (informally, the INF Treaty) between the USA and the USSR/Russia was ratified June 1, 1988. Trump Administration suspended the Treaty February 1, 2019, followed the next day by Russia, and the US formally withdrew August 2, 2019, possibly as an act against China rather than Russia.
June is NC LGBT Pride Month ( governor.nc.gov/news/governor-roy-cooper-proclaims-june-lgbt-pride-month ).
National Trails Day is June 1st.
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.
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.
Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov was born June 3, 1885 in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia and died March 16, 1919 of the Spanish flu or typhus, and is buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.
Prior to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, the largest oil spill was at the Ixtoc I well, 164 feet deep in the Gulf of Mexico near the Yucatan Peninsula, on June 3, 1979. The well was operated by Pemex, Mexico's state-owned oil company.
The UN's World Bicycle Day is June 3rd: www.un.org/en/observances/international-days-and-weeks and www.un.org/en/events/bicycleday/
The International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression is June 4, and was created in 1982 following the deaths of many Palestinian and Lebanese children due to Israeli aggression.
The pivotal Battle of Midway was June 4 - 7, 1942.
Naksa Day is June 5th. According to Wikipedia it marks Palestinian losses after the 1967 war.
World Environment Day is June 5th ( www.un.org/en/events/environmentday/ ) and the International Day for the Fight against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing, for example the plundering of fisheries around war-torn or weak countries that can't adequately patrol their coastlines. ( www.un.org/en/events/illegalfishingday/ ).
The UN's Russian Language Day is June 6th.
Durham Spark went public June 6, 2005.
Nuclear-armed Israel bombed Iraq's unfinished Osirak nuclear reactor June 7, 1981, killing 10 Iraqi soldiers and a young French engineer. Earlier in 1980, at the beginning of the Iran-Iraq War, Iran had bombed the facility.
Nuclear-armed Israel bombed Iraq's unfinished Osirak nuclear reactor June 7, 1981, killing 10 Iraqi soldiers and a young French engineer. Earlier in 1980, at the beginning of the Iran-Iraq War, Iran had bombed the facility.
World Food Safety Day is June 7th: www.un.org/en/events/foodsafetyday/
The Israeli military tried to sink the USS Liberty in international waters bordering Egypt June 8, 1967, killing 34 and wounding 174. [For example see: www.counterpunch.org/2022/06/08/the-attack-on-the-uss-liberty-55-years-later/ ]
The League for the Defense of the Rights of the Albanian Nation, or the League of Prizren, was formed June 10, 1878.
Italian-American anarchist Bartolomeo Vanzetti was born June 11, 1888.
International Lynx Day is supposed to be June 11th.
The World Day against Child Labor is June 12th: www.un.org/en/events/childlabourday/index.shtml
National Cougar Day is supposed to be June 12th.
National Cougar Day is supposed to be June 12th.
President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un met at a summit June 12, 2018 in Singapore, a first between the USA and DPR Korea, technically still at war.
Ernesto (Che) Guevara was born June 14, 1928 in Rosario, Argentina, but became famous for his role in the ongoing Cuban Revolution, and also fought in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Bolivia, and traveled to many other countries. See also: www.marxists.org/archive/guevara/index.htm
July 14th is Día del Árbol (Day of the Tree), Mexico's version of Arbor Day (the second Thursday in July); see Wikipedia and: www.arborday.org/celebrate/world-dates.cfm
There was a major Battle of Kosovo June 15, 1389.
World Elder Abuse Awareness Day is June 15th: www.un.org/en/events/elderabuse/
Global or World Wind Day is June 15th.
Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman to go into space, on June 16, 1963, piloting Vostok 6 and spending about three days in orbit. According to Wikipedia, with this mission, Tereshkova logged more time in space than the entire US astronaut corps at the time.
The International Day of Family Remittances is June 16th: www.un.org/en/events/family-remittances-day/
The International Day of Family Remittances is June 16th: www.un.org/en/events/family-remittances-day/
World Sea Turtle Day is supposed to be June 16th.
The World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought is June 17th: www.un.org/en/events/desertificationday/
World Croc Day is supposed to be June 17th.
French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated for the final time at the Battle of Waterloo, June 18, 1815 in what is now Belgium, facing armies from the UK, the Netherlands, Prussia, and three other German states.
Bulgarian communist Georgi Dimitrov was born June 18, 1882 and was a general secretary of the Comintern and prime minister of Bulgaria. Among other things, he is well-known for his definition of fascism and advocating popular fronts against the fascists. Some of his works are online at: marx2mao.com/Other/Index.html#GD , www.marxists.org/reference/archive/dimitrov/index.htm , neodemocracy.blogspot.com/search/label/Dimitrov , and in print from redstarpublishers.org/
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed by electric chair June 19, 1953 for giving the USSR information on US military technology, though whatever they provided might not have been very useful and the charges mainly apply to Julius Rosenberg. There are charges that Ethel Rosenberg was prosecuted to threaten her husband and there was misconduct during the trial. Reportedly Elizabeth Warren to her credit in January 2017 petitioned President Obama to posthumously pardon Mrs Rosenberg. The Rosenbergs were apparently the only American civilians executed for spying during the Cold War, and were tried during the Korean War. They were both from Jewish families and born in Manhattan, New York, and left behind two young children.
As early as 1945 the UK and USA considered plans to attack their Soviet ally, which lay devastated by the heavy fighting against Germany on the Eastern Front, though the Soviets were still very strong militarily and even with a re-activated German military the "West" had too few conventional forces and the US didn't have enough nuclear bombs to risk starting WWIII so soon.
The International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict is June 19th: www.un.org/en/events/elimination-of-sexual-violence-in-conflict/index.shtml June 19th is also Juneteenth.
The WW2 naval Battle of the Philippine Sea was June 19 - 20, 1944.
World Refugee Day is June 20th: www.un.org/en/events/refugeeday/
The summer solstice is Saturday, June 20th this year [actually this should be Tuesday, June 21st].
The Northern Hemisphere's summer solstice will be Tuesday, June 21st in 2022.
Germany and several of its allies attacked the USSR Sunday, June 22, 1941 in Operation Barbarossa.
World Rainforest Day and World Camel Day are both supposed to be June 22nd.
Irie no Hi / Okinawa Memorial Day is marked every June 23rd to commemorate those killed in the bloody Battle of Okinawa, April 1 - June 22, 1945.
The quarter day Midsummer Day / Saint John's Day is June 24th
World UFO Day is marked June 24th or July 2.
The Korean War officially began June 25, 1950, but fighting was already going on between revolutionary and counterrevolutionary forces, for example the Jeju Uprising officially began April 3, 1948 (see above). See also: koryogroup.com/blog/pre-korean-war-buildings-in-pyongyang-north-korea
The Stonewall Riots began June 28, 1969.
The International Day of the Tropics is June 29th: www.un.org/en/events/tropicsday/
The International Day of the Tropics is June 29th: www.un.org/en/events/tropicsday/
At the end of June / beginning of July 1520 a large Spanish and indigenous force under Hernan Cortes was driven out of the Aztec capital and faced total defeat, an event the conquistadores called La Noche Triste (The Sad Night). A pursuing Aztec force was defeated at the Battle of Otumba July 7th (under the Julian calendar).
International Asteroid Day is June 30th, and something from space exploded over Siberia that day in 1908 with far more force than the WWII atomic bombs, leveling a large area of forest with a sparse human population. More recently an asteroid exploded high above the city of Chelyabinsk in the Ural Mountains of Russia February 15, 2013 with the force of 440 kilotons of TNT, far more powerful than the atomic bomb used on Hiroshima, and injured many people and damaged buildings ( www.un.org/en/events/asteroidday/ ).
In another first for a sitting president, Trump briefly crossed the Korean DMZ June 30, 2019, and for the second time since 1953 a leader of the DPRK crossed into the ROK. Trump, Kim, and ROK president Moon Jae-in also held a brief private meeting.
The Battle of Gettysburg was July 1 - 3, 1863 in Pennsylvania, and was the Civil War battle with the most casualties, missing, wounded, or killed. Together with the Federal victory at Vicksburg, Mississippi on July 4th early July 1863 is seen as a major turning point in the war.
World UFO Day or Flying Saucer Day is marked June 24th or July 2, the second date commemorating July 2, 1947 when something - alien aircraft, USAF weather balloon, Stalin's Nazi flying saucer, etc - is supposed to have crashed in Roswell, New Mexico.
The first French nuclear test, called Aldebaran, was July 2, 1966 in Moruroa in French Polynesia. Nuclear testing left lasting envronmental damage on the atoll. There was a mention in a recent article on Counterpunch, but I haven't been able to find it again.
July 3, 1988 the USS Vincennes shot down Iran Air Flight 655 in Iranian airspace and while the ship was in Iranian territorial waters in the Persian Gulf, killing 290 civilians (66 children) from several countries. The US government paid restitution, but refused to apologize and the captain and crew of the Vincennes received various awards.
German revolutionary Clara Zetkin was born July 5, 1857. Some of her works are online at: www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/index.htm and available in print from redstarpublishers.org/
Tanabata and related traditional festivals in East Asia (Tanabata is the Japanese festival) are Thursday, July 7th; a new way of celebrating is to turn off the lights and go outside to look at the stars.
The Battle of Otumba during the Conquest of Mexico was July 7, 1520 (under the Julian calendar).
After having been destroyed in WWII rebuilding began at the USSR's massive Dneiper hydroelectric dam, now in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, July 7, 1944 and it again produced electricity by March 3, 1947. The world's largest nuclear power station is also in that city, with the first unit haviing been built starting April 1, 1980.
Former 2020 Democratic presidential primary candidate Marianne Williamson was born July 8, 1952 in Houston and apparently endorsed Sanders after suspending her campaign in January.
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.
The UN gave the USA control of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (but under this "trusteeship" only the Security Council could change its status, not the General Assembly) July 18, 1947, and the Pacific Proving Grounds for nuclear weapon tests was established five days later, though testing had started there in the summer of 1946.
The Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) triumphed in Nicaragua July 19, 1979, and had been founded July 19, 1961. The Sandinistas were defeated in a 1990 election agreed to in a peace deal, after years of US-backed Contra terrorism, economic warfare, and US meddling in the election, interference far beyond what the US claims Russia has done in our elections.
The Communist Party of China was founded in July 1921.
Comet Hale-Bopp was independently discovered by astronomer Alan Hale and amateur astronomer Thomas Bopp July 23, 1995. According to the Wikipedia entry there might be a record in ancient Egypt of Hale-Bopp's previous entry into the inner solar system in July 2215 BCE; the comet won't appear again for thousands of years.
The Downing Street Minutes came from a British government meeting July 23, 2002 discussing the Bush administration's plans to engineer a war with Iraq. The memo was revealed by a British newspaper May 1, 2005, but seems to have been poorly covered in the USA.
The 11th annual National Moth Week will be July 23 – 31, 2022 [with a focus on caterpillars this year]: www.nationalmothweek.org/
The Downing Street Minutes came from a British government meeting July 23, 2002 discussing the Bush administration's plans to engineer a war with Iraq. The memo was revealed by a British newspaper May 1, 2005, but seems to have been poorly covered in the USA.
The 11th annual National Moth Week will be July 23 – 31, 2022 [with a focus on caterpillars this year]: www.nationalmothweek.org/
The Korean War armstice began July 27, 1953 and has continued ever since. ROK president Syngman Rhee did not sign the document. In DPR Korea July 27th is commemorated as the Day of Victory in the Great Fatherland Liberation War.
There was a Revolutionary War battle at the House in the Horseshoe in a bend of the Deep River at the northeast corner of Moore County July 29 or August 5, 1781.
The Japanese destroyer Hatsushimo survived Operation Ten-Go, but was sunk July 30, 1945 near Maizuru by a mine dropped from the air, becoming the 129th and last destroyer lost by Japan during WWII.
The cross-quarter day Lammas / Loaf Mass Day Gaelic Lughnasadh / Lughnasa is August 1st.
The USA occupied Haiti July 28, 1915 to August 1, 1934.
The Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador, the PCMLE, was founded in August (Wikipedia says the date was August 1, 1964, but this might be inaccurate).
The Civil War sea and land Battle of Mobile Bay was August 5, 1864.
The beginning date of the Long Count calendar used by the Maya is usually thought to be August 11, 3114 BCE in the Gregorian calendar, though this could be inaccurate. Another date in the Long Count was the origin of the December 21, 2012 end of the world claims.
Gennadiy Borisov, an amateur astronomer using a home-made telescope in Crimea, discovered 2I/Borisov August 30, 2019, the first known interstellar comet and the second known interstellar object observed travelling through our solar system. Comet Borisov isn't expected to return. The first interstellar object, 'Oumuamua, thought to be natural, though some have suggested that it could be artificial, was discovered October 19, 2017, and there has been discussion of sending a probe after it.
The CPUSA was founded September 1, 1919.
Japan Dolphin Day, presumably protesting the killing of dolphins, is supposed to be September 1st.
Fusako Shigenobu was born September 28, 1945 in Setagaya, Tokyo: thefunambulist.net/magazine/decentering-the-us/fusako-shigenobu-an-open-ended-revolution [See also throwoutyourbooks.wordpress.com/2022/06/17/reflecting-legacy-fusako-shigenobu/
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