20 décembre

1669 -- US: First jury trial in Delaware: Marcus Jacobson condemned for insurrection & sentenced to flogging, branding & slavery.

1792 -- France: Primarily in order to de-Christianise the country, revolutionary France's National Convention authorises the Committee of Public Instruction to investigate reform of the existing 7 day, 52 week, 12 month calendar — see 22 September.

1835 -- US: Cherokee Indians forced to cede their Georgia lands & cross the Mississippi River when gold was discovered on their territory. The evacuation was carried out, during the winter of 1838-9, by federal troops commanded by General Winfield Scott. Along the way, 10% of the tribe was wiped out by disease, fatigue, & exposure. The march hence known as the "Trail of Tears."

1902 -- Miura Seiichi lives. Japanese Christian socialist who gave up religion in 1930, & became an anarcho-syndicalist after meeting Sanshiro Ishikawa. Miura Seiichi participated in the newspaper "Kokusen". Exiled to China in 1939 with Tsing-Tao when Japan became fascist. Returned December 1945 & in the following year helped found the Tokyo-based Japanese Federation of Anarchists, & assumed responsibility for the international section. After the dissolution of Federation in 1969, he published the Japanese monthly magazine, "The Libertarian".

1905 -- Russia: Start of 11-day General Strike against Tsarist regime.

1914 -- US: Emma Goldman delivers lecture on the war to an audience of 1,800 people at an event organized by her niece Miriam Cominsky in Rochester, NY.

1925 -- Emma Goldman, AnarchistAfter finishing up a lecture series, Emma Goldman leaves for France where she spends the holidays in Nice at the home of author Frank & Nellie Harris.

1943 -- Death of German feminist & pacifist Anita Augsburg.

1958 -- England: 36 arrested for re-entering Thor rocket base to prevent construction, North Pickenham, Norfolk.

1968 -- American social activist writer John Steinbeck dies, New York City. Wrote Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, script writer for the film, "Zapata!"

1968 -- Franz Kafka's friend, Jewish author Max Brod, dies in Tel Aviv (Jaffa). Having ignored Kafka's last will ("burn all the manuscripts"), he handed down the writings of one of the most important German-speaking writers of the 20th century to posterity. Brod also wrote the first biography of Kafka, which ignored Franz Kafka's involvement in anarchist groups & activities, which he apparently disapproved of.

1989 -- US invades Panama, "to protect US interests" (the drug trade, right?). Thousands of Panamanians die but Beloved & Respected Comrade Leader & former CIA asset Manuel Noriega is jailed in the US. Drug running & corruption continue, now under a US investor-friendly government. US corporate media bleats.

1990 -- US: Kansas reservist Dr. Yolanda Huet-Vaughn refuses orders for the Gulf War. She is later sentenced to prison, & the Kansas medical board strips Huet-Vaughn of her license to practice, because of her conscientious objection.

1994 -- Chechnya: Hundreds of thousands link hands in a human chain to protest Russian invasion.