July 20. 1951: Mattachine Society, early gay rights organization, formally organized in California. 1956: Relationships between U.S. government and Siletz tribe are terminated, leaving no recognized Indian tribes in western Oregon.

July 21. 1954: Geneva Accords signed, freeing Vietnam ("French Indochina") from French colonial rule. 1992: 15,000 hold a memorial vigil in Milan after the murder of an anti-Mafia leader.

July 22. 1992: Month-long hunger strike of women against the Mafia begins, Palermo, Sicily.

July 23. 1917: Birth of feminist, lesbian, pacifist, and civil rights activist Barbara Deming. 1973: International Court grants injunction against French nuclear testing after petition by Australia and New Zealand.

July 24. 1983: Women tag U.S. warplane with graffiti at Greenham Common, England.

July 25. 1648: York county court upholds authority of colonists to kill on sight any free Indian they see in settled area. 1963: Police arrest 23 young blacks in a sit-in at Seattle City Council chambers protesting appointment of only two blacks to the city's new Human Rights Commission.

July 26. 1947: U.S. armed forces are consolidated into new Dept. of Defense, replacing the U.S. War Dept. The same legislation, the National Security Act, also establishes the CIA, the National Security Agency, and other secret government agencies outside public review. 1990: Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) becomes law.

July 27. 1979: U.S. Supreme Court upholds Boldt Decision, affirming the right of Washington tribes to half the salmon catch. State legislators have been seeking ways to circumvent the decision ever since. 1995: President Clinton signs into law the salvage logging rider, which mandates clearcutting of federal forests regardless of any environmental laws. He later claims he "didn't know what he was doing," but takes no action to slow the resulting devastation (and profits).

July 28. 1869: Women shoemakers in Lynn, Mass. demand equal pay.

July 29. 1968: Riots rock Seattle's Central Area after police raid the local Black Panther Party headquarters. Seattle BPP leader Aaron Dixon is arrested for possession of a stolen typewriter. (He is later acquitted.) 69 are arrested in riots over the following three days. 1970: After a five-year strike, United Farm Workers sign contract with grape growers, California.

July 30. 1991: Quebec natives announce they will determine their own course if Quebec secedes from Canada.

July 31. 1991: START I nuclear arms reduction treaty signed.

Aug. 1. 1917: IWW organizer Frank Little lynched in Butte, Montana. 1938: Hilo Massacre: union supporters in Hilo, Hawaii are gassed, hosed, bayoneted and shot. 1970: Puyallup Indians set up camp on Puyallup River and begin fishing to re-establish tribal fishing rights.

Aug. 2. 1924: Birth of radical black gay author and playwright James Baldwin. 1931: Albert Einstein urges all scientists to refuse military work.