Aug. 8, 1990: Karen and Bill Bell join the Feminist Majority's national campaign against parental consent requirements for abortion. Their daughter, Becky, died Sept. 16, 1988, from a massive infection due to a botched, illegal abortion--the first known US teenage victim of parental-consent laws.

Aug. 9. 1945: US drops atomic bomb on civilian population of Nagasaki, Japan. An estimated 70,000 die from the immediate effects of the bombing.

Aug. 10. 1970: US House of Representatives passes the Equal Rights Amendment by a vote of 350 to 15.

Aug. 11. 1894: Federal troops drive some 1,200 jobless workers away from Washington DC across the Potomac River. The jobless group included a young journalist named Jack London and also William Haywood, a young miner-cowboy called "Big Bill."

Aug. 12. 1676: Wampanoag tribe leader Metacom is shot to death by white settlers, and his wife and child sold to West Indian slave traders. The previous year, his brother's wife, Squaw Sachem of Pocasset was cornered and shot by the English while she was trying to escape. After the English arrested and poisoned Sachem's husband (Wamsutta, the chief of the Wampanoag) she had helped raise a guerrilla army of 20,000 to fight the white intruders.

Aug. 13. 1818: Birth of Lucy Stone, feminist theorist, suffragist who supported African-American women's rights. 1971: US Attorney General John Mitchell announces there will be no federal grand jury investigation of the May 4, 1970 Kent State shootings.

Aug. 14. 1967: Former SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) leader H. Rap Brown is indicted in Cambridge, Massachusetts for inciting to riot.

Aug. 15. 1947: After two decades of nonviolent activism, India becomes the first major Third World country in the 20th century to win independence from colonial rule. Dozens more countries would follow in the next twenty years.

Aug. 16. 1955: Fiat Motors orders first private atomic reactor. 1987: Charles Wesley dies in Washington, DC. Noted historian, wrote over a dozen books on African-American life.

Aug. 17. 1910: When a New York garment factory opens in defiance of a strike, women strikers break through police lines and demolish the factory. They throw sewing machines out the windows and smash tables and chairs. In September, the strike leads to an agreement that finally improves working conditions and wages.

Aug. 18. 1812: Lady Ludd "leads" Corn Market riot of women and boys, Leeds, England. 1977: Steve Biko, leading student apartheid resister, arrested. He is later murdered while in custody. Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

Aug. 19. 1936: Federico Garcia Lorca, Andalusian poet, dramatist, and artist, murdered by Franco's fascists. Accused of subversive activity; however, evidence today suggests that it was a hate crime in response to his homosexuality. Lorca has become one of the most widely read writers in the world.

Aug. 20. 1565: Black artisans and farmers aid explorer Menendez in building of city of St. Augustine, Florida. 1904: Miners seize town of Cripple Creek, Colorado, and deport officials.

Aug. 21. 1976: Beginning of two days of occupation of Seabrook nuclear power plant construction site, Seabrook, New Hampshire.