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December 14
December 14 is the 14th day in December.
Events[edit]
1136 — Harald IV "Gylle Krist", king of Norway, murdered. His younger brother prince of Hark of Forth "Kringle Kist" claimed innocence.
1287 — Zuider Zee seawall collapses with loss of 50,000 lives. Some claim this was a taste of Godʼs wrath, for having too many fingers, in too many dykes.
1503 — Nostradamus, lives, France. Predicts Franco will cause civil war in Spain and the Austrian "Hister" will lead Germany in a great war against many nations. [1]
1640 — Aphra Behn, the first Englishwoman to earn her living as a writer, is baptized at St. Michaelʼs Church in Harbledown, near Canterbury, Kent. When she becomes a spy for Charles IIʼs government, payment is so slow that she is put in debtorʼs prison, where she writes many of her earthy social comedies. [2]
1656 — Artificial pearls first manufactured by M. Jacquin in Paris, made of gypsum pellets covered with fish scales.
1685 — William Wycherleyʼs "The Plain Dealer" is produced at court.
1763 — New World: 57 whites enter Conestoga Indian settlement, and in violation of a treaty made between the tribe and William Penn — to last "as long as the sun should shine, or the waters run in the rivers" — shot, stabbed, and hatcheted the three men, two women and one young boy they found there (more on 27 December). Analytical-minded precursors of Natural Scientists, Economists and Anthropologists, Christ-bearer and his accomplices find things, objects, which they automatically categorize as obstacles or as potential instruments. — Fredy Perlman, Against His-story, Against Leviathan! [3]
1791 — Playwright, poet, literary historian, and critic who brought the Danish Romantic movement to an end, Johan Heiberg lives, Copenhagen. His work establishes a new era of topical, sophisticated, and satirical literature.
1799 — United States of America: George Washington wigs out at 67, of acute laryngitis at his estate, Mount Vernon, Virginia.
1825 — Decembrist conspiracy in Russia.
1837 — Canada: British forces crush rebellion.
1837 — Canada: Gabriel Dumont (1837 — 1906) lives, Red River (during this month; exact day unknown). Métis leader, guerrilla fighter, marksman, prominent figure in Saskatchewan during the 1885 Northwest rebellion. [4] [5]
1845 — André Bastelica lives (1845 — 1884). French printer and anarchist adherent of Mihail Bakunin, castigated by Karl Marx for "preaching total abstention from politics."
1851 — France: Victor Hugo leaves Paris surreptitiously, following Louis Napoleonʼs coup d'etat.
1852 — Daniel DeLeon lives, Curacao, West Indies. One of the American founders of the Industrial Workers of the World, socialist scholar and labor organizer. [6] [7]
1853 — Italy: Theorist/militant/writer Errico Malatesta lives, Santa Maria Capua Vetere, Kingdom of Naples. Important militant figure of Italian and international anarchism.
1864 — England: Thomas Cantwell lives, London. Militant anarchist expositor. Published, with David J. Nicoll, the "The Commonweal" and also managed "Freedom". [8]
1895 — Italy: Francesco Barbieri lives, Briattica.
1895 — Paul Éluard lives Saint Denis. French writer/surrealist/poet ("Capital of Pain"). Paul Eluard I have seen stomped by cops and mechanics on a piano and among broken bulbs, thirty to one against this somersault of the stars. — A WAVE OF DREAMS, Louis Aragon A founder of Surrealism with Louis Aragon, André Breton among others, one of the important lyrical poets of the 20th century. Éluard rejected later Surrealism and joined the Communist Party in 1942. Many of his works reflect the major events of the century, such as the World Wars, the Resistance, and the political and social ideals of the 20th-century. His later work, after the Spanish Civil War, focused on the rejection of tyranny, suffering, brotherhood, and a search for happiness. [9] [10]
1898 — United States of America: The December 14, 1898 edition of "Discontent" (edited by Olivar A. Verity) notes "there were 51 colonists living at Home City [ Home Colony, Wa. ] and there were 15 homes. A 14x16 house made of rough board stood up and down could be purchased for the price of $20. The association 27 and a half acres deeded and 64 acres under contract to be deeded when paid for by incoming members, and 120 acres tax titles, but not yet deeded." "Discontent: Mother of Progress" was the second in a sequence of publications edited by members of the anarchist colony at Home, Washington, near Tacoma. In the May 22, 1901 issue of Discontent: Mother of Progress " there were 80 people living at Home City; 23 men, 22 women and 36 children-girls over 15 year 4, and boys 3." In the March 23, 1902 "there were 94 colonists living at Home City; 28 men, 25 women, and 41 children-girls over 15 years 4, and boys 5." [11] [12]
1900 — German physicist Max Planck publishes his groundbreaking study of the effect of radiation on a "blackbody" substance, and the quantum theory of modern physics lives.
1901 — United States of America: Giuseppe Ciancabillaʼs L'Aurora published at West Hoboken and Yohoghany, Pa., discontinues publication today; local persecution drove him to San Francisco, where he publishes "La Protesta Umana" (beginning 1902 February) until his death in 1904.
1908 — United States of America: After being booted from the city of Seattle yesterday, Emma Goldman protests actions of the police authorities in Everett, Washington, who prevent her from speaking on the claim that vigilantes will harm her. The attempted exercise in free speech remains a farce until she reaches Canada. Emma and Dr. Ben Reitman are arrested in Bellingham, Washington in anticipation of her scheduled lecture. On the 15th Emma is released from jail and placed on board a train bound for Canada. Following lectures in Vancouver, she lectures in Portland and conducts two debates — one with Democrat John Barnhill, the other with socialist Walter Thomas Mills.
1911 — Musical Dadaist Spike Jones lives, Long Beach, California.
1911 — Norwegian party led by Polish/Norwegian Roald Amundsen is first to reach the South Pole. [13]
1913 — United States of America: During this month AFL convention passes a one-cent per capita assessment to aid the organization of women workers. [14]
1916 — Author Shirley Jackson lives…. presumably in a creepy mansion up a hill.
1917 — United States of America: Peace activist/suffragist/socialist Kate Richards O'Hare jailed five years for a speech denouncing World War I, and occupies a neighboring jail cell with Emma Goldman. O'Hare was one of a number of prisoners Eugene Debs cited in his "Canton Speech" — for which he in turn would be imprisoned. [15] [16]
1917 — United States of America: Police authorities prevent Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman from speaking at a meeting at the Harlem River Casino in New York organized by labor for the San Francisco defense.
1918 — Ireland: Constance Markievicz becomes the first woman MP when she is elected as Sinn Fein member for St Patrick's, Dublin. However, she is unable to take her seat because she is banged up in Holloway Prison. [Source: Calendar Riots]
1923 — Alexandre Steinlen dies. French artist and contributor to the anarchist magazine "Temps Nouveaux," along with Aristide Delannoy, Maximilien Luce, Theo van Rysselberghe, Camille Pissarro, Paul Signac, Van Dongen, George Willaume, etc.
1928 — Spain: Emma Goldman, accompanied by Henry Alsberg and Otto Kleinberg, travels the country; in Barcelona, she meets anarchist intellectuals Federico Urales (Joan Montseny) and Soledad Gustavo, and their daughter Federica Montseny.
1937 — Spain: Republican offensive begins at Teruel.
1948 — Bang Bang Rock critic, proto-punk writer Lester Bangs lives.
1953 — In the American state of Florida, where she had become enchanted by the flat landscape and finally found her voice, author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings dies in St. Augustine.
1957 — United States of America: Dave Beck, General President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, convicted of embezzling from his own union.
1963 — Dinah Washington, 39, dies of an overdose of sleeping pills in Detroit. She started as a church pianist before singing jazz with Lionel Hamptonʼs band. From the late 1940s and into the 1960s, she sung a wide variety of stuff from blues to country to pop, in a rich elegant voice.
1965 — England: Albert Belden dies, pacifist pastor.
1970 — Poland: Strikes begin in Gdansk, spread to Gdynia, Szczecin, other industrial centers. Widespread factory occupations/resistance. Riots topple the Communistgovernment, but a new military regime takes power in its place. This movement lasts until February 1971 when it is recuperated by the reformed government. Gdansk remains a center of protest against the government and in the 1980s strikes here and in other cities lead to the formation of Solidarnoœæ, an organization of unions that toppled the Communist government in the 1980s, and Lech Walesa emerges as workerʼs leader. Other regimes in the Communist Bloc are also soon overthrown as a result. [17]
1971 — United States of America: Friscoʼs Golden Gate Bridge lights are out all night from power failure. [18]
1971 — United States of America: Detective Frank Serpico tells Knapp Commission of widespread police corruption in NY.
1972 — United States of America: In the holiday spirit, President Nixon authorizes the Christmas bombing of Hanoi.
1973 — United Nations affirms status of Puerto Rico as a U.S. colony and recognizes its right to independence.
1980 — At Yoko Onoʼs request, at 2 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, John Lennon fans around the world mourn him with 10 minutes of silent prayer. In NY over 100,000 people converge in Central Park in tribute and in Liverpool, a crowd of 30,000 gathers outside of St. George's Hall on Lime Street. "I always was a rebel…but on the other hand, I wanted to be loved and accepted… and not just be a loudmouth, lunatic, poet, musician. But I cannot be what I am not." [19]
1984 — Italy: Viene arrestato il presidente dell'Italstat, Ettore Bernabei, per aver corrotto uomini politici (i cosiddetti fondi neri dell'IRI). Nulla di nuovo sotto il sole. [Source: Crimini e Misfatti]
1985 — United States of America: The wonderfully surnamed Wilma Mankiller is sworn in as Chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, becoming the first woman (and one of the most outspoken leaders) to head a major U.S. tribe in recent history.
1985 — Mobilization for Animals declares "World Week for Companion Animals" to highlight the plight of homeless animals.
1986 — Italy: 33° Assemblée de A Rivista anarchica, Milan.
1988 — US agrees to talk to Palestinian Liberation Organization.
1989 — Andrej Sacharov, Soviet dissident, physicist, dies.
1990 — United States of America: Right to Die lawsuit permits Nancy Cruzan to have her feeding tube removed, she dies 12 days later
1990 — Cuba: Black Panther supporter Paris becomes the first western rap artist to perform in a socialist country. Before playing to the packed house at the Karl Marx auditorium in Havana, he and exiled Black Liberation Army activist Assata Shakuur speak of the need to contain capitalism and develop Third World unity. [Source: Calendar Riots]
1992 — Poland: 300,000 coal workers strike against "Solidarity" government.
1994 — 30 years after shocking Newport Folk Festival by plugging his guitar in, Bob Dylan, religion-hopper, appears on MTV unplugged. [20]
1994 — After eight years, United States of America finally agrees to honor New Zealandʼs ban on nuclear weapons in its territory.
1995 — Turkey: Local Human Rights Watch suppressed. [21]
1995 — AIDS patient Jeff Getty receives baboon bone marrow transplant. [22]
2002 — Norway: Two-day celebration begins for 25th Anniversary of the Anarchist Federation of Norway / Anarkistføderasjonen i Norge AFIN (1977 — 2002). The International Anarchist Congress The 7th Anarchist Biennial - Medio-Seminar on Anarchismin Oslo.
2003 — Italy: Cesare Fuochi (1917 — 2003) dies, in Imola. Mort de l’ancien partisan anarchiste et syndicaliste cheminot à 86 ans.
2007 — United States of America: Three male prisoners escape from a van in Melbourne at about 10.45 (AEDT).
2007 — United States of America: Rodney Adam Coronado (Earth Liberation Front) pleads guilty to lecturing people how to make tools to comit arson. [23]
2007 — United States of America: Black community leader of Benton Harbor, Rev. Edward Pinkney, Michigan jailed for criticizing a judge.
