Mar. 12. 295 AD: Maximilian beheaded for refusing military service, Thevesta, North Africa. 1978: 150,000 demonstrate against nuclear reactor. Lemoniz, Spain.

Mar. 13. 1962: Wing Luke becomes the first non-white to be elected to the Seattle City Council, and the highest Asian-American elected official in the continental US. 1980: Members of Iroquois and Lakota request European Parliament's support to gain international recognition for their rights.

Mar. 14. 1968: Commission report publishes evidence of large-scale extermination of tribes (poisoning and machine-gunning) by Brazil's Indian Protection Service. Over 30 years later, such attacks are still alarmingly common.

Mar. 15. 1917: US Supreme Court approves Eight-Hour Act under threat of railway strike. 1993: United Nations "Truth Commission" concludes that most of the human rights abuses in El Salvador during its civil war had been committed by the US-backed Salvadoran government.

Mar. 16. 1827: First Black newspaper in US, Freedom's Journal, published in New York City by John B. Russwurm. 1984: Jesse Jackson becomes first African American to win a US presidential preference contest, garnering 46% of votes in Mississippi caucuses.

Mar. 17. 1775: Richard Henderson, a North Carolina judge, buys a vast tract of Cherokee land for the Transylvania Land Co.; purchase is later declared invalid, but land cession is not reversed. 1996: 30,000 march in Villahermosa, Mexico, in support of a campaign to blockade state-owned oil wells that had displaced thousands of poor people.

Mar. 18. 1871: 1,000 women successfully blockade cannons in what becomes the "Paris Commune," Paris, France. 1995: John Salvi convicted of murdering Brookline, MA, clinic receptionists in 1994.

Mar. 19. 1965: 49 arrested in New York City for protesting Chase Manhattan Bank loans to South Africa. 1970: 3,000 people shut down military induction center. 116 arrested. Syracuse, NY.

Mar. 20. 1863: Pres. Lincoln makes proclamation offering lands of the Cowlitz (near Longview) for sale, even through the tribe had never signed a treaty relinquishing them. 1997: 300 family farmers protest factory-style hog farms at National Pork Producers Council. Urbandale, Iowa.

Mar. 21. 1960: South African police kill 89 protesters in Sharpeville and other towns during protests of apartheid pass laws. 1971: Following a high-speed chase, a Seattle police officer shoots and kills black suspect Leslie Allen Black. An inquest later finds the shooting "unjustified." 1995: On the anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre, newly democratic South Africa establishes March 21 as Human Rights Day.

Mar. 22. 1958: Women demonstrate against pass laws, South Africa. 1980: 30,000 march in Washington, DC against reintroduction of draft registration.

Mar. 23. 1997: Between two and seven Univ. of East Timor students are killed by Indonesian police while attempting to meet in a hotel with UN human rights envoy Jamsheed Marker.

Mar. 24. 1962: 1,172 arrested in sit-down against nuclear weapons, Parliament Square, Britain. 1965: First Vietnam teach-in, University of Michigan.

Mar. 25. 1894: Coxey's army of the unemployed begins march on Washington, DC, demanding economic reform. 1911: 146 immigrant sweatshop workers killed in the Triangle Shirt Waist fire, New York City. Incident leads to widespread reforms in working conditions.