Apr. 24. 1971: Largest ever (over 1,000,000) demonstration opposing US war in Southeast Asia. Washington, DC. 150,000 march at a simultaneous rally in San Francisco.

Apr. 25. 1974: "Carnation Revolution" ends 48-year military dictatorship, Portugal. 1982: Women lay wreath for all women of all countries raped in war, Canberra, Australia.

Apr. 26. 1968: National student strike against the Vietnam War enlists as many as one million high school and college students across US. 2,000 boycott classes at University of Washington.

Apr. 27. 1813: The U.S. burns Toronto to the ground in an unsuccessful attempt to gain control of Lake Ontario. 1987: Central Intelligence Agency headquarters in Langley, Virginia blockaded by protesters of U.S. policies in Central America and Southern Africa. 700 arrested.

Apr. 28. 1987: Benjamin Linder, a volunteer engineer from Seattle, is murdered by U.S.-sponsored Contras (characterized by then-Pres. Reagan as "the moral equivalent of our founding fathers") while working on a hydroelectric project in rural Nicaragua. Many of Reagan's Contra-supporting staffpeople have returned to office under George W. Bush, Jr.

Apr. 29. 1992: An all-white jury acquits four Los Angeles policemen of charges resulting from the beating of Rodney King. Riots and civil disturbances break out in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, and numerous other US cities. In LA, 53 die, hundreds are injured over the following days.

Apr. 30. 1978: "Rock Against Racism" march and concert, headlined by The Clash, Hackney, England. The event, spurred by the explosion of politicized punk bands, was a direct response to 1976 on-stage comments by Eric Clapton--a man who made millions from blues-based rock and a cover of Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff"--that black immigrants in Britain should be "sent home."

May 1. 1971: Beginning of five days of anti-war May Day protests in Washington, DC, resulting in over 14,000 arrests--the largest mass civil disobedience in US history.

May 2. 1919: Beginning of General strike which eventually includes 50,000 of all trades in Sao Paulo, Brazil. 1968: Protest at University of Nanterre escalates into French student strike. By May 13, over ten million French are out on a sympathy strike.

May 3. 1917: WWI French 21st Division soldiers refuse orders to attack after repeated suicide charges. 1968: Students take over Northwestern University (Evanston, Illinois), demanding African-oriented curriculum.

May 4. 1938: Gestapo imprison (and later murder) Carl von Ossietzky, pacifist, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Ossietzky died in a Nazi concentration camp. 1983: Nuclear freeze resolution approved by U.S. House of Representatives.

May 5. 1991: Last U.S. cruise missile leaves Greenham Common Air Base, Britain, site of a decade of strident women's anti-nuclear protests.

May 6. 1862: Death of Henry David Thoreau, war tax resister and author of "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience." 1980: 170,000 workers in Togliatti, Russia, USSR, auto plant stay home in support of bus driver walkout.

May 7. 1518: Juan de Grijalva's expedition, sailing the Yucatan coast, reports the Mayan city of Tulum is larger and as grand as Seville.