May 22. 1856: Congressman Preston Brooks (SC) visited the floor of the US Senate and beat Charles Sumner (MA) unconscious with a gutta-percha cane, as two Georgia senators stood idly by. Sumner was incapacitated for 3-1/2 years, during which time the people of Massachusetts were ably served.

May 23. 2001: A binding arbitrator awards King County (WA) Sheriff's Deputy John Vanderwalker his job back, with full back pay. Vanderwalker was fired after ordering 2 women who were videotaping 1999's WTO demonstrations from a car to roll down their car window, and then, saying "Tape this, bitch!," spraying both in the face at close range with pepper spray. The arbitrator ruled that in that, and in another incident in which Vanderwalker, without provocation, kicked a woman lying in the street, the deputy used "appropriate force."

May 24. 1921: Beginning of trial of Sacco and Vanzetti, anarchist labor organizers. Their execution was the culmination of a five-year government campaign to crush political dissidents in the US.

May 25. 1981: With 3 suction cups and a Spiderman costume, Dan Goodwin scales the world's tallest building--the Sears Tower--in Chicago. Climbed 6 hours, with police trying to stop his perilous climb. At the 50th floor, he assured them of his safety, crested in another hour, and was arrested for trespassing.

May 26. 1991: 20,000 in Arab-Jewish peace rally, Tel Aviv, Israel.

May 27. 1978: About 20,000 rally in New York City to protest nuclear weapons, marking the beginning of a resurgence in anti-nuclear activism that would culminate in the Freeze campaign of the early '80s.

May 28. 1871: Paris Commune crushed by French soldiers; 25,000 massacred.

May 29. 1854: Lydia Flood Jackson, civil rights activist, starts first school for black children in Sacramento, CA.

May 30. 1741: 13 black men are burned at the stake, and 17 black men, 2 white men and 2 white women are hanged, for their roles in planning a slave revolt in New York City.

May 31. 1982: Vancouver Island, Canada: "ecoterrorists," including Gerry Hannah, bass player for the punk rock group Subhumans, blow up BC Hydro power substation. BC Hydro would later figure prominently in Enron's successful attempts to manipulate California energy prices.

June 1. 1997: 11 activists protesting the removal of trees for a development in downtown Eugene, OR, are assaulted by local police with pepper spray and tear gas, marking one of the first times pepper spray is used on non-resisting demonstrators in the US. It is controversial at the time; within 3 years, it will become standard practice for law enforcement across the country.

June 2. 1971: U.S. Brigadier General John Donaldson charged with murder and assault in connection with an incident involving 8 South Vietnamese civilians.

June 3. 1948: Korczak Ziolkowski begins sculpture of Crazy Horse near Mount Rushmore, SD.

June 4. 1864: Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's military tactics during his first month in command of the Union Armies result in the deaths of 60,000 Union soldiers--more Americans than killed in the entire Vietnam War. He is later rewarded with the Presidency.