Apr. 21. 1519: Cortez lands at Veracruz, Mexico. Through sheer bloodthirstiness (and the aid of European diseases), a few hundred Spaniards manage to conquer, loot, and enslave millions of people in the Aztec empire.

Apr. 22. 1526: First American slave revolt. 1970: First observance of Earth Day. Corporate sponsorships were notably absent. 1996: Nonviolent activists (and ETS! readers!) Tom and Donna Howard-Hastings cut down three of the poles supporting the U.S. Navy's nuclear submarine radio "trigger" at Clam Lake, Wisconsin. The antenna collapses and leaves the Navy unable to launch a first strike for several days.

Apr. 23. 1959: Mack Parker lynched. 1980: Death of Ida Mae Stull, first woman coal miner in the U.S. 1993: Death of Cesar Chavez, nonviolent civil rights activist and founder of United Farm Workers.

Apr. 24. 1954: Birth of political prisoner and death row activist Mumia Abu-Jamal. 1971: Largest ever (over 1,000,000) demonstration opposing U.S. war in Southeast Asia.

Apr. 25. 1968: 80 Olympic Community College students are arrested in a protest on their Bremerton campus. 1993: Over one million march in Washington, D.C., for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender rights.

Apr. 26. 1937: Guernica massacre, Spanish Civil War. Guernica, Spain, is destroyed by German Nazi bombing. 1986: Worst known nuclear disaster in history, Chernobyl, Ukraine (USSR). Eventual death toll from radiation exposure is now estimated in the hundreds of thousands.

Apr. 27. 1521: Natives of The Philippines ambush and kill European explorer Ferdinand Magellan. 1825: First strike for the 10-hour day by Boston carpenters. 1987: CIA HQ in Langley, Virginia is blockaded and shut down by protesters of U.S. policies in Central America and southern Africa. 700 are arrested.