Lebanon Crisis (1958)

Tue Jul 15, 1958

Image: Lebanese people greeting a USMC LVTP-5 entering Beirut

On this day in 1958, the U.S. invaded Lebanon with 54,000 troops in the name of anti-communism, occupying the Port of Beirut and Beirut International Airport, its first overt military action in the Middle East.

The pro-Western president of Lebanon, Camille Chamoun, had asked for U.S. assistance after armed groups in Lebanon began rebelling against his administration. While not overtly communist in character, the rebels had burned down a U.S. propaganda outlet and were generally aligned with Gamal Nasser and the United Arab Republic (UAR).

Using the anti-communist "Eisenhower Doctrine" as justification, on July 15th, President Eisenhower authorized "Operation Blue Bat", a military occupation of Lebanon with more than 14,000 footsoldiers, supported by a fleet of 70 ships and 40,000 sailors, to keep Chamoun in power.

Occupying the Port of Beirut and Beirut International Airport, the forces remained in Lebanon until October 25th, when President Chamoun completed his term as president of Lebanon.

According to historian Maurice Labelle, "this was the first overt U.S. military intervention in the region", demonstrating the U.S.'s willingness to act as an imperialist power in the Middle East, willing to commit to overt military action to manage its interests in the region.

• Date: 1958-07-15
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.aljazeera.com.
• Tags: #Communism, #Imperialism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Jean-Bertrand Aristide (1953 - )

Wed Jul 15, 1953

Jean-Bertrand Aristide, born on this day in 1953, is a liberation theologian who became Haiti's first democratically elected president in 1990, serving off and on as the country's president until the 2004 coup d'état.

A proponent of liberation theology, Aristide was appointed to a Roman Catholic parish in Port-au-Prince in 1982 after completing his studies to become a priest of the Salesian order.

Before coming into political power, Aristide was a prominent political dissident who survived several assassination attempts, one of the most notable being the St. Jean Bosco Massacre, when pro-government forces stormed his church during mass and killed more than a dozen people.

After winning the 1990 Haitian elections, Aristide was president for eight months before being deposed in a military coup, committed by military and police figures who received military training in the U.S. and were associated with the CIA.

Aristide fled the country after the coup, but then became president again from 1994 to 1996 and from 2001 to 2004.

In 2003, Aristide requested that France pay Haiti over $21 billion in reparations for the 90 million gold francs Haiti was forced to pay France after winning its independence.

In 2004, Aristide was ousted in another coup after right-wing ex-army paramilitaries invaded the country from across the Dominican border, and fled to South Africa. Aristide was flown out of Haiti by U.S. forces under disputed circumstances - he claims he was kidnapped and did not resign, while the U.S. maintains he entered the plane and resigned willingly.

Aristide finally returned to Haiti in 2011, after seven years in exile.

"If we wish to maintain peace, then we cannot accept that impunity be provided to these international criminals and drug dealers."

- Jean-Bertrand Aristide

• Date: 1953-07-15
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.britannica.com.
• Tags: #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Storming of the Bastille (1789)

Tue Jul 14, 1789

Image: Illustration of the storming of the Bastille prison, 14th July 1789. [time.com]

On this day in 1789, a crowd of nearly one thousand protesters stormed the Bastille in Paris, France, a major event in the French Revolution, commemorated annually as "Bastille Day".

In the months running up to the uprising, the people of France were facing a dire economic crisis, food shortage, and increased militarization of Paris on orders of King Louis XVI. The Bastille was an armory and prison, perceived by many as a symbol of royal authority in the city.

On the morning of July 14th, a crowd of approximately one thousand people surrounded the Bastille, calling for the surrender of the prison, the removal of its cannon, and the release of the arms and gunpowder stored there.

After negotiations stalled, the crowd surged into the courtyard of the Bastille and were fired upon by troops in the garrison. In the carnage that followed, ninety-eight protesters and one defender of the Bastille were killed.

Governor Marquis de Launay, fearing his troops could not hold out, capitulated to the crowd and opened up the Bastille doors. He was captured and dragged towards the Hôtel de Ville in a storm of abuse. While the crowd debated his fate, the badly beaten Launay shouted "Enough! Let me die!", kicked a pastry cook in the groin, and was then promptly stabbed to death.

As news of the successful seizure of the Bastille spread throughout the country, revolutionaries established parallel structures of power for government and militias for civic protection, burned deeds of property, and in some cases attacked wealthy landlords.

King Louis XVI first learned of the storming the next morning through the Duke of La Rochefoucauld. "Is it a revolt?" asked the King. The duke replied: "No sire, it's not a revolt; it's a revolution."

• Date: 1789-07-14
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.socialist.net.
• Tags: #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Rohana Wijeweera (1943 - 1989)

Wed Jul 14, 1943

Image: A photo portrait of Rohana Wijeweera, unknown date and location. [Wikipedia]

Rohana Wijeweera, born on this day in 1943, was a Sri Lankan Marxist revolutionary and the founding leader of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP, English: "People's Liberation Front"). He was assassinated by the Sri Lankan government in 1989.

Born on Bastille Day to a father active in the Ceylon Communist Party, Wijeweera was raised in an environment of radical politics. In 1960, he began studying in the Soviet Union, learning Russian.

With the revolutionary party JVP, Wijeweera led two unsuccessful insurrections in Sri Lanka - the first in 1971 and the second from 1987 to 1989. Both insurrections featured revolutionary violence that was matched by brutal state repression; tens of thousands of JVP members were killed.

In 1989, during the second JVP insurrection, the Sri Lankan state launched "Operation Combine" to suppress the movement and assassinated Wijeweera on November 13th, 1989. In 2019, a biographical film of Wijeweera's life was released, titled "Ginnen Upan Seethala".

"I, a Bolshevik, am in no way a terrorist. As a proletarian revolutionary, however, I must emphatically state that I am committed to the overthrow of the prevailing capitalist system and its replacement by a socialist system."

- Rohana Wijeweera, speaking before the Ceylon Criminal Justice Commission in 1974

• Date: 1943-07-14
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.jvpsrilanka.com.
• Tags: #Marxism, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

NYC Draft Riots (1863)

Mon Jul 13, 1863

The NYC Draft Riots began on this day in 1863, the culmination of racist white anger and working-class discontent over new conscription laws, passed to bolster the ongoing Civil War. The riots were suppressed by the U.S. Army.

The rioters were overwhelmingly white working-class men, mostly Irish immigrants or of Irish descent, who feared free black people competing for work. They also resented that the wealthy, who could afford to pay a $300 (equivalent to $6,200 in 2019) commutation fee to hire a substitute and avoid the draft.

Although the event ostensibly began as anger against conscription, the disorder quickly devolved into a race riot. The exact death toll during the New York draft riots is unknown, but historian James M. McPherson has estimated that around 120 people were killed. Most of those killed were Irish, who were the majority of the rioters.

Eleven black people were lynched. The event lasted three days and was suppressed by the U.S. Army on orders from President Lincoln. The race riot remains one of the largest of its kind in U.S. history.

• Date: 1863-07-13
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.washingtonpost.com.
• Tags: #Riots.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Bombardment of Greytown (1854)

Thu Jul 13, 1854

The Bombardment of Greytown was a naval bombing and invasion by the U.S. warship USS Cyane on this day in 1854 against the town of Greytown in the Miskito Kingdom (modern day Nicaragua), razing the city to the ground.

The town was completely destroyed by massive fires set by marines who came ashore, rather than the bombardment itself. The attack was in response to attempts by the British government to charge taxes on ships that used the town as a port, among other grievances.

In response to international outrage, President Franklin Pierce issued a statement acknowledging that, while it would have been more satisfactory if the Cyane's mission could have been completed without the use of force, "the arrogant contumacy of the offenders rendered it impossible to avoid the alternative either to break up their establishment or to leave them impressed with the idea that they might persevere with impunity in a career of insolence and plunder."

• Date: 1854-07-13
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.lawfareblog.com.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

E.D. Nixon (1899 - 1987)

Wed Jul 12, 1899

Image: **

Edgar Daniel Nixon, born on this day in 1899, was a civil rights leader and union organizer who played a crucial role in organizing the landmark 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott in Alabama.

The boycott highlighted the issues of segregation in the South, was upheld for more than a year by black residents, and nearly brought the city-owned bus system to bankruptcy.

To organize and sustain the boycott, Nixon helped launch the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA). MLK Jr. was elected to lead the boycott as president, Nixon was elected treasurer. When some participants suggested forming a secret organization, Nixon stated "Am I to tell our people that you are cowards?"

In 1957, after the boycott's success, Nixon left the MIA to protest his own treatment as a newcomer, and what he perceived as the domination of the MIA by middle class leaders who refused to share power with low income black people, according to Joelle Jackson of BlackPast.org.

• Date: 1899-07-12
• Learn More: www.blackpast.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Civil Rights, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Malala Yousafzai (1997 - )

Sat Jul 12, 1997

Image: **

Malala Yousafzai, born on this day in 1997, is a Pakistani feminist and socialist activist who survived an attempted assassination by the Taliban at fifteen years old.

As a teen, Yousafzai began to achieve international prominence for her activism in favor of female education. She blogged for the BBC, appeared in a documentary by request of a New York Times reporter, made multiple media appearances, and was awarded Pakistan's first National Youth Peace Prize.

In a meeting held in the summer of 2012, Taliban leaders unanimously agreed to kill her. On October 9th that year, a Taliban gunman shot Yousafzai in the face, along with two other girls, as she rode home on a bus after taking an exam in Pakistan's Swat Valley. She survived.

In 2014, she was the co-recipient of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, along with Kailash Satyarthi of India. Aged 17 at the time, she was the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate. In 2020, Malala graduated from Oxford University.

"We realize the importance of our voices only when we are silenced."

- Malala Yousafzai

• Date: 1997-07-12
• Learn More: www.womenshistory.org, america.aljazeera.com, socialistworker.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Niagara Movement Founded (1905)

Tue Jul 11, 1905

Image: A founders photo taken at Niagara movement meeting in Fort Erie, Canada featuring, top row, left to right: H.A. Thompson, New York; Alonzo F. Herndon, Georgia; John Hope, Georgia, (possibly James R.L. Diggs). Second row, left to right: Fred McGhee, Minnesota; Norris B. Herndon; J. Max Barber, Illinois; W.E.B. Du Bois, Atlanta; Robert Bonner, Massachusetts, (bottom row: left to right) Henry L. Baily, Washington, D.C.; Clement G. Morgan, Massachusetts; W.H.H. Hart, Washington, D.C.; and B.S. Smith, Kansas.

The Niagara Movement, founded on this day in 1905, was a civil rights organization led by WEB Du Bois and William Trotter whose "Declaration of Principles" demanded universal suffrage, free education, and an end to prison labor.

The movement was named for the "mighty current" of change the group wanted to effect and Niagara Falls, near Fort Erie, Ontario, where the first meeting took place, on July 11th, 1905. It is considered a precursor to the NAACP, which was founded by many of the same activists.

The Niagara Movement was organized in opposition to racial segregation and disenfranchisement, as well as the perceived conciliatory policies promoted by activists like Booker T. Washington.

During the three day meeting, Monroe and Du Bois co-authored a "Declaration of Principles", which defined the group's philosophy and demands. These demands included an end to the "convict lease" system (prison labor), equal punishment for crimes regardless of race, and universal free education, stating "either the United States will destroy ignorance, or ignorance will destroy the United States".

• Date: 1905-07-11
• Learn More: glc.yale.edu, www.blackpast.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Civil Rights.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Erich Mühsam (1934)

Wed Jul 11, 1934

Image: **

Erich Mühsam, murdered by Nazis on this day in 1934, was a Jewish anarchist author who openly condemned Nazism and satirized Hitler before being arrested by the Nazi regime in 1933.

In 1911, Mühsam founded the newspaper, "Kain" as a forum for anarcho-communist politics, stating that it would "be a personal organ for whatever the editor, as a poet, as a citizen of the world, and as a fellow man had on his mind." The paper opposed capital punishment and government censorship of theater.

After World War I, Mühsam was sentenced to fifteen years in prison for playing a leading role in the Bavarian Revolution. He was freed as part of the same general amnesty for political prisoners under the Weimar Republic that released Adolf Hitler.

As a cabaret performer and writer during this time, he achieved international prominence, promoting works which condemned Nazism and personally satirized Adolf Hitler.

In 1933, Mühsam was arrested, with propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels labeling him as one of "those Jewish subversives."

While imprisoned, he was brutally tortured, however his spirit remained unbroken. When his captors tried to force him to sing the "Horst-Wessel-Lied" (the Nazi's anthem), Mühsam sung The Internationale, instead.

According to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Mühsam was murdered in the Oranienburg concentration camp on July 11th, 1934.

• Date: 1934-07-11
• Learn More: encyclopedia.ushmm.org, theanarchistlibrary.org, libcom.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Anarchism, #Fascism, #Assassinations.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Mary McLeod Bethune (1875 - 1955)

Sat Jul 10, 1875

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Mary Bethune, born on this day in 1875, was a U.S. educator and civil rights activist.

Born in South Carolina to parents who had been enslaved, Bethune started working in fields with her family at age five. She took an early interest in becoming educated, and later became a big exponent of education within the black community. She started a school for young black girls that later, after merging with a boys' school, became known as the "Bethune-Cookman School", with Bethune serving as its president on multiple occasions.

Bethune founded the National Council for Negro Women in 1935, established the organization's flagship journal "Aframerican Women's Journal", and resided as president or leader for a myriad of black women's organizations. She also was appointed as a national adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whom she worked with to create the Federal Council on Negro Affairs, also known as the "Black Cabinet."

According to Dr. Herb Ruffin of BlackPast.org, Bethune’s friendship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt led to Bethune becoming the Director of the National Youth Administration’s (NYA) Division of Negro Affairs, a post she held from 1936 to 1943. As director, she led an organization that trained tens of thousands of black youth for skilled positions that eventually became available in defense plants during World War II.

For her lifetime of activism, Bethune was deemed "First Lady of Negro America" by Ebony magazine in 1949 and was dubbed by the press as the "female Booker T. Washington". Journalist Louis E. Martin stated that "She gave out faith and hope as if they were pills and she some sort of doctor."

"The drums of Africa still beat in my heart. They will not let me rest while there is a single Negro boy or girl without a chance to prove his worth."

- Mary Bethune

• Date: 1875-07-10
• Learn More: www.blackpast.org, www.womenshistory.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior (1985)

Wed Jul 10, 1985

Image: The Rainbow Warrior in Marsden Wharf in Auckland Harbour after the bombing by French secret service agents. © Greenpeace / John Miller [greenpeace.org]

On this day in 1985, the French government, in an act of state-sponsored terror, bombed the Greenpeace-operated boat Rainbow Warrior, which was en route to protest a nuclear weapons test planned by the French state. The bombing, later found to be personally ordered by French President François Mitterrand, killed a freelance photographer on board named Fernando Pereira.

France had been testing nuclear weapons on the Mururoa Atoll in French Polynesia since 1966. In 1985 eight South Pacific countries, including New Zealand and Australia, signed a treaty declaring the region a nuclear-free zone.

Since being acquired by Greenpeace in 1977, Rainbow Warrior was active in supporting a number of anti-nuclear testing campaigns during the late 1970s and early 1980s, including relocating 300 Marshall Islanders from Rongelap Atoll, which had been polluted by radioactive fallout by past American nuclear tests.

For the 1985 tests, Greenpeace intended to monitor the impact of nuclear tests and place protesters on the island to observe the blasts. Three undercover French agents were on board, however, and they attached two limpet mines to Rainbow Warrior and detonated them ten minutes apart, sinking the ship.

France initially denied responsibility, but two of the French agents were captured by New Zealand Police and charged with arson, conspiracy to commit arson, willful damage, and murder.

The resulting scandal led to the resignation of the French Defence Minister Charles Hernu, while the two agents pleaded guilty to manslaughter and were sentenced to ten years in prison. They spent a little over two years confined to the French island of Hao before being freed by the French government.

In 1987, after international pressure, France paid $8.16m to Greenpeace in damages, which helped finance another ship. It also paid compensation to the Pereira family, making reparation payments of 650,000 francs to Pereira's wife, 1.5 million francs to his two children, and 75,000 francs to each of his parents.

• Date: 1985-07-10
• Learn More: www.greenpeace.org, en.wikipedia.org, www.zinnedproject.org.
• Tags: #Terrorism, #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org