May 11. 1968: The three biggest French labor federations call a General Strike to support students. 1989: Puget Sound Grocery Workers strike and lockout.

May 12. 1898: Louisiana adopts new constitution with "grandfather clause" designed to eliminate black voters. 1976: The Urquiola runs aground at La Coruna, Spain, releasing 100,000 tons of oil.

May 13. 1846: The U.S. Congress declares war on Mexico. Following its victory the U.S. annexes Mexico's northern territories, including much of what are now California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, to satisfy Southern political pressure to add new slave-owning states. 1958: Vice Pres. Nixon's motorcade greeted with rocks & bottles, Caracas, Venezuela.

May 14. 1856: U.S. President Franklin Pierce unofficially "recognized" the government of American adventurer William Walker, who had set himself up as the pro-slavery dictator of Nicaragua. Walker was later deposed after he interfered with Cornelius Vanderbilt's transportation network. 1945: Plutonium is injected intravenously into a human subject in an experiment carried out by the Los Alamos scientific laboratory. In all, 18 people were similarly tested between 1945 and 1946. 1968: French workplace occupations start, a significant aspect of the May Upheaval. By the end of the month over 10 million workers and students are involved. 1984: U.S. returns Waadah and Tatoosh Islands, off the Olympic Peninsula, to the Makah Nation.

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. 1966: Buddhist altars are placed in streets to stop troops arresting dissidents, South Vietnam.

May 16. 1717: Voltaire (Francois Marie Arouet), suspected of writing subversive satire, is imprisoned for the first time in the Bastille. 1791: Denmark becomes first Western country to outlaw slave trade. 1918: U.S. Congress passes Sedition Act against radicals. 1969: The U.S.S. Guitarro, a $50 million nuclear submarine undergoing final fitting in San Francisco Bay, sinks to the bottom as water pours into a forward compartment. A House Armed Services subcommittee later finds the Navy guilty of "inexcusable carelessness" in connection with the event. 1988: U.S. Supreme Court rules trash may be searched without a warrant.

May 17. 1858: 1,200 Coeur d'Alene, Palouse, Spokane, and Skitswich Indians defeat strong force of Col. Steptoe near Colfax, WA, at village of To-ho-to-nim-me. 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. 1987: USS Stark hit by Iraqi missiles; 37 sailors die. U.S. only issues a mild protest over the "accident," as Iraq and its leader, Saddam Hussein, are considered a good ally and valuable arms customer by the Reagan administration.