Dec. 16. 1890: Oglala chief Sitting Bull assassinated by U.S. troops. Standing Rock Reservation, South Dakota. 1990: Populist priest Jean Aristide elected President of Haiti despite extensive U.S. assistance to his opposition. 1991: Activists in Brussels, Belgium, protesting Vatican funding for an observatory desecrating sacred Apache site at Mount Graham, Arizona, pull a bulldozer up to a prominent local cathedral.

Dec. 17. 1963: U.S. Congress passes first Clean Air Act. 1966: Against U.S. wishes, U.N. General Assembly approves an international treaty banning nuclear weapons in space. 1991: First Palestinian-Israeli peace talks begin in Madrid, Spain.

Dec. 18. 1865: Ratification of 13th Amendment to U.S. Constitution; legal slavery abolished in U.S. 1946: Birth of Steven Biko, South African/Azanian leader of the Black Consciousness Movement; murdered by South African police in 1977. 1970: Underground nuclear test in Nevada blows cloud of radioactive dust 8,000 feet in air into Wyoming. 1972: Bach Mai hospital, Vietnam, bombed by the U.S.

Dec. 19. 1842: U.S. recognizes Hawai'ian independence. 55 years later, the U.S. would unilaterally annex Hawai'i instead. 1940: Birth of folk music protester Phil Ochs. 1940: Civilian public service camps for conscientious objectors established. 1994: Zapatista rebels in Southeastern Mexico slip through army seige and briefly occupy 38 towns in Chiapas state, crippling Wall Street investments in Mexican bond market.

Dec. 20. 1905: Start of eleven-day general strike against Tsarist regime in Russia. 1989: U.S. invades Panama. Thousands of Panamanians die, leader Manuel Noriega jailed in U.S., drug running and corruption continue but with U.S. investor-friendly government. U.S. media bleats. 1990: Reservist Dr. Yolanda Huet-Vaughn refuses orders for Gulf War, Kansas. She is later sentenced to prison, and the Kansas medical board strips Huet-Vaughn of her license to practice, because of her conscientious objection.

Dec. 21. 1861: Schooner Potter arrives at Neah Bay, Wash., bringing annuity goods for the Makah--hoes, sickles, pitchforks, and Mexican spurs--much to the amazement of the fishing and whaling Makah, who converted them to fish hooks, knives, and arrowheads. 1865: Illegal Executive Order (we know, it's redundant) removes lands from the Oregon Coast Indian Reservation, cutting the territory in half. 1916: Industrial Workers of the World union outlawed in Australia. 1969: 700 supporters visit jailed war resisters, Allenwood Federal Penitentiary, Pennsylvania.

Dec. 22. 1830: State of Georgia makes it unlawful for Cherokee to meet in council, unless it is for the purpose of giving land to whites. 1919: U.S. deports 250 alien "radicals." 1943: Four month strike by 23 conscientious objectors ends dining hall segregation at Danbury Federal Penitentiary, Connecticut. 1988: Cease-fire announced by Angola, Cuba, and South Africa in preparation for Namibian independence. 1997: Paramilitaries associated with the ruling PRI party massacre 45 peasants in the village of Acteal. Chiapas, Mexico.