On August 12th in history: In 33 BC Cleopatra, the last Ptolomaic ruler of Egypt, committed suicide. In 1774 Robert Southey, English Romantic poet, was born. In 1827 William Blake, radical English poet and engraver, died. In 1833 the city of Chicago, Illinois, was officially founded. In 1842 the Preston Strike and the Lune Street Riot took place in Lancashire, England, against wage cuts and in support of the Chartists demands. In 1848 George Stephenson, English engineer and railway pioneer, died. In 1851 Isaac Singer was granted patent for his sewing machine. In 1887 Erwin Schrödinger, Austrian physicist, was born. In 1894 Leo Schlageter, reactionary German Freikorps member executed by French during occupation of the Ruhr, was born – his death was subject of Karl Radeks controversial “Schlageter Speech” to the Executive Committee of the Comintern (ECCI). In 1898 an armistice ended the Spanish-American War. In 1898 the Hawaiian flag was lowered at the ʻIolani Palace and replaced by the US flag representing transfer of sovereignty from an independent Hawaiian state to United States. In 1907 police killed two strikers on Falls Road in Belfast during the Belfast dock strike, which united Protestant and Catholic workers. In 1914 Britain declared war on Austria-Hungary. In 1921 International Workers Aid was founded in Berlin after an appeal by Lenin for aid for Soviet Russia. In 1922 Arthur Griffith, Irish nationalist politician, died. In 1933 the Cuban dictator Gerardo Machado was toppled by a general strike and fled country. In 1936 the first International Brigades arrived in Spain to join the Spanish Civil War against fascism. In 1944 the Waffen-SS massacred 560 people, mainly women and 115 children, in the village of SantAnna di Stazzema, Italy. In 1952 about 30 Russian Yiddish authors, artists and intellectuals were executed in the Lubyanka Prison in Moscow (“Night of the Murdered Poets”). In 1955 Thomas Mann, German author, died. In 1959 Little Rock, Arkansas, began to integrate 2 public schools - the admission of 6 African American students was met with violence by mobs of racist whites. In 1964 South Africa was banned from Olympic Games due to its racist policies. In 1964 Ian Fleming, English spy and author, died. In 1969 violence erupted during the Protestant-supremacist Apprentice Boys of Derry march in Derry, Northern Ireland, after RUC (paramilitary police) intervened to disperse Catholic counter-demonstrators resulting in the 3-day Battle of the Bogside. In 1976 between 1,000 and 3,500 Palestinians were killed by Lebanese Christian Phalangist forces in the Tel al-Zataar massacre. In 1977 communalist riots broke out in Sri Lanka targeting the Sri Lankan Tamil minority one month after the victory of the Sinhalese nationalist United National Party – 300 Tamils were killed. In 1982 Henry Fonda, American actor, died. In 1992 Canada, Mexico and the United States announced the completion of negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) amid protests from labour, environmental and human rights groups. In 1992 John Cage, American composer, died. In 1994 Major League Baseball players went on strike, forcing the cancellation of the 1994 World Series. In 1995 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and other US cities thousands demonstrated in support of Mumia Abu-Jamal in the largest anti-death-penalty protest to date.
Posted on: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 14:03:34 +0000
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