May 13. 1846: The U.S. Congress declares war on Mexico. Following its victory the U.S. annexes Mexico's northern half, including much of what is now California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, to satisfy Southern political pressure to add new slave-owning states. 1977: Mohawk end three-year occupation of Ganienkeh "Land of Flint" in Adirondack Mountains, in exchange for 5,700 acres elsewhere in New York.

May 14. 1940: Death of feminist anarchist Emma Goldman while in Canada raising money for anti-Franco forces in Spain. 1954: In Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (Kansas), U.S. Supreme Court rules "separate but equal" public education unconstitutional. 1980: Some 600 Salvadoran refugees are killed attempting to cross the Sumpul River from El Salvador to Honduras by government troops from both countries. 1997: A chemical storage tank at Hanford Nuclear Reservation explodes, exposing workers to a radioactive plume; eight are hospitalized.

May 15. 1872: Julia Ward Howe declares the first Mother's Day as an anti-war holiday. 1935: National Labor Relations Act passed, recognizing workers' right to organize and bargain collectively. 1964: U.S. begins bombing Laos. 1982: 40,000 demonstrate against military electronics fair, Hanover, West Germany.

May 16. 1791: Denmark becomes first Western country to outlaw slave trade. 1934: Minneapolis general strike backs teamsters.

May 17. 1961: Fidel Castro offers to trade Bay of Pigs prisoners to U.S. for bulldozers. 1968: "Catonsville Nine," including Phil and Dan Berrigan, break into Catonsville, Maryland draft board center and burn over 600 draft files. 1974: Leader of the Symbionese Liberation Army (Cinque) and other SLA members assassinated by Los Angeles police.

May 18. 1781: Tupa Amaru II, leader of Inca Rebellion, executed in the same Peruvian square as his ancestor two centuries before. 1872: Birth of Bertrand Russell. 1895: Birth of Augusto Sandino, hero of Nicaraguan independence. 1896: U.S. Supreme Court, in Plessy v. Ferguson case, upholds the doctrine of "separate but equal." 1970: Black protesters occupy administration offices at Seattle Univ.