Dec. 4. 1867: Grange is organized to protect farmers' interests. 1952: Killer fogs begin in London England. "Smog" becomes a (dirty) word.

Dec. 5. 1967: Dr. Benjamin Spock and poet Allen Ginsberg among those arrested at New York City army induction center. Over 500 arrested. Demonstrations also occurred in Madison, Manchester (NH), Cincinnati, and New Haven.

Dec. 6. 1904: "Roosevelt Corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine asserts the US right to serve as international policemen anywhere in the Western Hemisphere. 1918: US Dept. of War abolishes the practice of manacling defiant prisoners to the walls of their cells in solitary confinement, used to torture conscientious objectors in US prisons during World War I.

Dec. 7. 1929: Birth of linguist and radical political analyst Noam Chomsky. 1970: Rube Goldberg dies, New York City. Not entirely clear how his coffin was lowered into the ground.

Dec. 8. 1987: Protestor Hatem Abu Sisseh, 16, killed by Israeli soldiers, ignited the Intifadah for self-rule. In the seven years to follow, 1,306 Palestinians slain by Israelis, 192 Israelis killed by Palestinians.

Dec. 9. 1640: Settler Hugh Bewitt is banished from colony of Massachusetts when he declares himself to be free of original sin. 1966: 700 Tuskegee (Alabama) Institute students riot after acquittal of a white for killing a black student.

Dec. 10. 1851: Settlers begin 21-day cut to fill the brig Leonesa with 30-foot-long logs, beginning of the clearcut industry in Seattle. 1931: Jane Addams, founder of Hull House and leader of Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, wins Nobel Peace Prize.

Dec. 11. 1911: Mexico: Yaquis in Sonora, influenced by the anarchist Ricardo Flores Magon ("Tierra y Libertad"), reclaim stolen communal lands. Their war with government lasts, officially, until 1929.

Dec. 12. 1776: Continental Congress, fearing a British attack on Philadelphia is imminent, votes dictatorial powers to George Washington and flees to Baltimore. 1982: 30,000 women encircle US cruise missile base, Greenham Common, Britain.

Dec. 13. 1971: Namibian workers strike against contract labor system imposed by South African colonial government. Marks beginning of popular support for liberation struggles.

Dec. 14. 1917: US peace activist and suffragist Kate Richards O'Hare jailed 5 years for speech denouncing World War I, occupied a neighboring jail cell with Emma Goldman. O'Hare was one of a number of prisoners Eugene Debs cited in his "Canton Speech" for which he in turn would be imprisoned. 1985: Mobilization for Animals declares "World Week for Companion Animals" to highlight the plight of homeless animals.

Dec. 15. 1930: Albert Einstein urges militant pacifism and an international war resistance fund. 1986: CIA director William Casey suffers a cerebral seizure, at work, before he can answer questions about Iran-Contra Affair.

Dec. 16. 1991: Activists in Brussels, Belgium, protesting Vatican funding for an observatory desecrating sacred Apache site at Mount Graham, Arizona, pull a bulldozer up to a prominent local cathedral.

Dec. 17. 1963: US Congress passes first Clean Air Act. 1966: Against US wishes, UN General Assembly approves an international treaty banning nuclear weapons in space.