Apr. 23. 1968: An anti-war sit-in begins at Columbia University, NY. Police storm the campus 8 days later, resulting in numerous casualties.

Apr. 24. 1871: Communards burn Paris City Hall (Hotel de Ville) and many other buildings in their retreat, in revenge before their defeat. 1971: Largest ever demonstration (over 1 million) opposing US war in Southeast Asia, Washington DC. 150,000 march at a simultaneous rally in San Francisco.

Apr. 25. 1993: Over 1 million join march in Washington, DC for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender rights.

Apr. 26. 1937: Guernica Massacre, Spanish Civil War. Guernica, Spain is destroyed by German Nazi dive bombing. 66 years later, the UN will cover a tapestry of Picasso's anti-war masterpiece "Guernica" which hangs outside the Security Council chambers--in order to provide "a strong visual clue to cameras filming diplomats in the corridor"--while they respond to Colin Powell's flimsy evidence for a war against Iraq.

Apr. 27. 2001: Former senator and presidential candidate Bob Kerrey admits he gave orders to execute 13 civilians at Thanh Phong, Vietnam, in 1968, and covered up the war crime for 33 years. Liberals applaud his honesty and courage in coming forward, just ahead of a considerably less flattering news account of the incident.

Apr. 28. 1987: Benjamin Linder, a volunteer engineer from Seattle, is murdered by US-sponsored Contras while working on a hydroelectric project in rural Nicaragua.

Apr. 29. 1858: Publication in France of P.J. Proudhon's "Justice," with the memorable line, "Property is theft!"

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. 1886: International Workers' Day (May Day) begins in Chicago. 340,000 US workers in Chicago, Milwaukee, and other cities strike for the 8-hour workday. Four demonstrators are killed and over 200 wounded when police attack the Chicago rally.

May 2. 1911: First worker compensation law in US enacted in Wisconsin. 1955: Parliament forbids discrimination by caste, India.

May 3. 1917: French 21st Div. soldiers refuse orders to attack after repeated suicide charges.

May 4. 1886: During a demonstration protesting the May Day murders in Chicago, a bomb explodes in Haymarket Square. Between the bomb and the indiscriminate police shooting that followed, 8 police are killed and 60 wounded. The "Haymarket Massacre" results in the arrest of 8 leading anarchists for conspiracy to commit murder; 4 are later executed, 1 dies in prison, and 3 are pardoned.

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

May 6. 1935: Works Projects Administration (WPA) established. 1937: Airship Hindenburg explodes over Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 35 of the 97 passengers on board. It was a hydrogen-powered vehicle (are you listening, George W.?).