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December 7
December 7 is the 7th day in December.
Events
43 BCE — Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman writer, gets his head and right hand chopped off by Mark Antonyʼs soldiers.
1598 — Sculptor Gianlorenzo Bernini spouts off (1598 — 1680), something about the Fountains of Rome. [1] [2]
1682 — United States of America: “Great Law†abolishes war in colony of Pennsylvania. Except, of course, against Indians.
1792 — The Mississauga tribe cedes a portion of South Ontario, bordering Lake Erie, for 1,180 British pounds.
1817 — England: William Bligh, British naval officer of “Bounty†fame, dies in London.
1822 — Emile Digeon lives (1822 — 1894).
1861 — Algeria: Han Ryner lives (1861 — 1938). French teacher, anticlerical, pacifist, anarchist, philosopher (called a “contemporary Socratesâ€). Lecturer and speaker of talent, Ryner collaborated on many reviews as well. Writer of a rich and varied work. Married to poet/author Georgette Ryner.
1862 — French author Paul Adam lives (1862 — 1920). Wrote Lʼenfant dʼAusterlitz.
1872 — Ludentologist Johan Huinzinga lives, Gronengen, Holland.
1873 — American writer Willa Cather lives, Cack Creek Valley, Virginia. Pulitzer Prizeâ€winning author of My Antonia. [3] [4] [5]
1874 — 70 African Americans killed after protesting the ejection of a carpetbag sheriff, Vicksburg, Mississippi.
1888 — British novelist Joyce Cary lives.
1893 — Spain: A Special Unit of the Guardia Civil is created for the repression of the anarchists.
1894 — Stuart Davis lives, not “For Internal Use Only,†(1894 — 1964). Vocal accompaniment by Betty Roche, doing “Take the A Train†… His father was the art editor at the Philadelphia Press where he met the artists John Sloan, George Luks, William Glackens and Everett Shinn — all members of “The Eight.†After studying art with Robert Henri, worked as an illustrator and cartoonist for “The Masses†and “Harperʼs Weekly.†In 1913 he was one of the Americans in the Armory Show… [6] [7] [8]
1896 — Cuba: Antonio Maceo (1848 — 1896) dies from wounds after 27 fights in 92 days.
1902 — American political cartoonist Thomas Nast dies, Guayaquil, Ecuador.
1905 — Russia: General uprising begins (fails 23 days later, leaving over 1,000 dead.) Over 150,000 workers in a General Strike. By the 9th, workers erect barricades throughout the Moscow and fight against the soldiers.
1905 — Poland: The revolutionary upheavals in Russia spill over. [Source: Piero]
1907 — Eugene Corri becomes first referee in a boxing ring.
1907 — The “Great Chestertonâ€Belloc-Wells-Shaw Controversy†is begun when Hilaire Belloc publishes “Thoughts About Modern Thought†in the New Age. [9]
1909 — Bakelite is patented by Leo Baekeland.
1912 — United States of America: Gala celebration of Peter Kropotkinʼs 70th birthday in New York City, coâ€sponsored by the “Freie Arbeiter Stimme†and “Mother Earthâ€; Emma Goldman is a featured speaker.
1915 — Leigh Brackett lives. American writer of crime novels and short stories, best known for her science fiction and fantasy (over 200 titles). Also wrote screenplays and television scripts for “Checkmate†and “Suspense†series. [10]
1917 — United States of America: Thirteenth country to declare war on Austria during World War I, gets flagged by refs for piling on.
1918 — England: 100,000 textile workers strike in Lancashire.
1928 — Noam Chomsky lives, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Linguist, anarchist, social critic, activist. Critic in the manner of the great I.F. Stone — and just as ignored and vilified by establishment.
1929 — Poet Hart Crane gives a party for his publishers Harry and Caresse Crosby (Black Sun Press); William Carlos Williams, Malcolm Cowley, e. e. cummings, and a group of drunken sailors attend. [11] [12]
1931 — United States of America: Rumor has it there is good eating at a joint called the White House, which turns away hundreds of unemployed workers with employmentâ€seeking petition. 1,000 national hunger marchers have arrived in Washington, D.C. as breadlines begin forming throughout the nation.
1934 — United States of America: Pilot Wiley Post discovers a jet stream of air current exists over the United States.
1935 — England: Emma Goldman speaks in Plymouth to the Tamaritans on “The Soviet Theatre.â€
1941 — United States of America: Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, with advance knowledge of US military, prompting American entry in WWII. Japanese bombers struck Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, catching U.S. commanders completely by surprise despite an official warning, on 27 November, that an attack might be imminent. Nineteen U.S. ships were sunk or severely damaged, 150 U.S. planes were destroyed, and 2,335 servicemen were killed. Local authorities and the F.B.I. begin to round up the Issei leadership of the Japanese American communities in Hawaii and on the mainland. By 6:30 a.m. the following morning 736 Issei are in custody; within 48 hours, the number is 1,291. Caught by surprise for the most part, these men are held under no formal charges and family members are forbidden from seeing them. Most would spend the war years in enemy alien internment camps run by the Justice Department.
1943 — Egypt: Roosevelt departs Cairo traveling back to the US. Seaman Jesse Walker departs US traveling to the front lines of the Pacific.
1946 — United States of America: Fire guts the supposedly “fireproof†15-story Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, taking 119 lives.
1949 — England: International Confederation of Free Trade Unions founded, London.
1949 — Tom Waits lives. [13]
1952 — France: Founding Conference of the Lettrist International [14]
1961 — United States of America: Military police hold civilians at Peterson Field, Colorado at gunpoint as Tibetan commandos, whoʼd been secretly trained by the CIA, are smuggled aboard a C-124 Globemaster.
1964 — United States of America: Mario Savio, leader of Berkeley Free Speech Movement, arrested. U.C. Berkeley administration presentation at the Greek Theatre to 18,000 students; followed by strike by 9,000 of the 27,000 students and faculty resolution (824 to 115) supporting FSM.
1965 — Pope Paul VI and Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras I simultaneously lift mutual excommunications that led to split of the two churches in 1054.
1968 — United States of America: Richard Dodd returns a library book his great grandfather took out in 1823, to the University of Cincinatti. The $22,646 fine went unpaid. The librarian whispered, “Dodd damn!â€
1970 — United States of America: Surrealist machineâ€maker Rube Goldberg dies, New York City.
1972 — United States of America: The National Organization of Women issues 78-page booklet, “Dick and Jane as Victims.†Written to criticize sexism in elementary school textbooks.
1975 — United States of America: In his campaign to free boxer Rubin “Hurricane†Carter from prison, Bob Dylanʼs Rolling Thunder Revue does a show at the Correctional Institution For Women at Clinton, NJ, where Carter was temporarily imprisoned.
1975 — East Timor: With US and British assistance, Indonesia invades and annexes East Timor, overthrowing the popularly elected government. The genocide (an estimated oneâ€third of the East Timorese population salughtered) rivals Cambodiaʼs “killing fields,†but little attention is paid in US media, which makes big to-do about “human rights†in Cambodia while ignoring East Timor, for political reasons. (Cambodia is the “enemy,†Indonesia is a resource-rich US client state.) Long-time East Timor activists Bishop Carlos Belo and Jose Ramos-Horta later receive the Nobel Peace prize. [15] [16] [17]
1977 — United States of America: Federal Bureau of Investigations finally releases JFK assassination files due to requests under Freedom of Information Act.
1980 — Purple Mountain Observatory discovers asteroid #3494 and #4730. [18]
1985 — Robert Graves, English poet, novelist, mythographer, critic, historian, dies in Deya, Majorca, Spain. Author of I, Claudius and Claudius the God. [19]
1986 — Frank Brand (aka Enrico Arrigoni) dies, aged 92.
1987 — United States of America: 43 die in Pacific Southwest Airline crash in California, after a disgruntled former employee shoots the pilots.
1990 — Ted Turner and Jane Fonda announce their engagement. As part of their prenups agreement Hanoi Jane canʼt pose with any godless commie antiâ€aircraft cannons unless CNN gets to break the story.
1993 — Guns Nʼ Roses announce they will keep the Charles Manson penned tune, “Look At Your Game, Girl†on their album, “The Spaghetti Incident?†They decided to keep it on after they learned that the royalties from the song will go to the son of one of Mansonʼs victims.
1993 — Four Plowshares activists arrested for disarming an F-15E Strike Eagle nuclear war jet at Seymour Johnson AFB, North Carolina.
1993 — United States of America: Department of Energy discloses U.S. has conducted over 200 secret nuclear weapons tests.
1995 — Outer Space: Galileo arrives on Jupiter. [20]
1995 — France: Up to 1.75 million striking French workers demonstrate in marches, shutting down the country as part of an escalating series of General Strikes protesting government cutbacks and global exploitation of workers.
1995 — Indonesia: The Dutch and Russian embassies in Jakarta are occupied by 113 Timorese and nonâ€Timorese to protest the Indonesian governmentʼs occupation of East Timor. [21] [22]
1996 — England: In the first attack (the second on the 9th) on the Labour Partyʼs electioneering internet site, an American hacker subverts it into the ‘Please Buy Our Junk’ and ʼsame Old Lies, New Packaging’ web pages. Internet links are changed to transfer browsers to a porn site, ʼthe Labour Party Sex Shop’. Source: ‘Calendar Riots’ [23]
1996 — Italy: A handful of squatters dare to climb up on to the roof of Palazzo Reale (Royal Palace) in the center of Turin. They hoist flags, place a puppet, hang a transparency and throw leaflets entitled “Anarchists have Wings.†In this way they draw attention to the preliminary hearing of the strange investigation by public prosecutors Marini (the infamous “Marini Trialsâ€) and Ionta, during this period of state repression against anarchists. [24]
1997 — Australia: Eighteen Australian activists and one East Timorese refugee arrested inside Canungra Land Warfare Centre, south of Brisbane, in a protest on the anniversary of the Indonesian invasion of East Timor. Canungra serves as a training center for Indonesian and other Southeast Asian militaries. [25]
2007 — Israel: Two Anarchists Against the Wall actions. The first in the morning at the E1 area, and the second in Telâ€Aviv. [Source: A-Infos]
