Dec. 2. 1954: U.S. Senate censures Sen. Joseph McCarthy and ends his probes into alleged Communist infiltration. The House of Representatives and many states continue investigations. Later, several southern states convert the same committees into apparati for harassing and jailing civil rights supporters. 1970: Fred Hampton and fellow Black Panther activist Mark Clarke are murdered by Chicago police. 1980: U.S.-backed Salvadoran death squads rape and murder three U.S. Maryknoll nuns and a lay missioner. 1990: U.S.-backed Guatemalan army kills 14 civilians at Santiago Atitlan.

Dec. 3. 1805: William Clark reaches Pacific Ocean after floating down the Snake and Columbia Rivers. Clark's journal entries noted an annoyingly large quantity of fish and an appalling lack of enormous hydroelectric dams. 1866: Textile workers win 10-hour work day, Fall River, Mass. 1946: Beginning of three-day general strike of over 130,000 workers in Alameda County, Calif., opposing police brutality and in support of striking Oakland department store workers. 1964: Police arrest 773 to end Free Speech Movement occupation of Sproul Hall at Univ. of California-Berkeley. A student strike the next day closes the school. 1984: Industrial accident at Union Carbide fertilizer plant in Bhopal, India, causes up to 10,000 deaths. U.S. blocks extradition of U.C. execs facing criminal prosecution in India.

Dec. 4. 1991: In a gesture that renders the phrase "too little, too late" pitifully inadequate, Congress declares 1992 to be "The Year of the Indian."

Dec. 6. 1907: 361 coal miners killed at Monongah, W. Va. 1989: 14 female students are assassinated at L'ecole Polytechnique in Montreal, Canada, by a man vowing to kill feminists.

Dec. 7. 1682: "Great Law" abolishes war in colony of Pennsylvania. Except, of course, against Indians. 1918: 100,000 textile workers strike in Lancashire, England. 1929: Birth of linguist and political analyst Noam Chomsky. 1941: Japan bombs Pearl Harbor, near Honolulu in the U.S. territory of Hawai'i, with advance knowledge of U.S. military. 1975: With U.S. and British assistance, Indonesia invades and annexes East Timor. The resulting two decades of occupation have resulted in the genocide of an estimated 1/3 of the East Timorese population.

Dec. 8. 1995: Accidental leakage at a fast breeder nuclear reactor in Monju, Japan, calls into question the future of Japan's extensive high-tech nuclear energy program.