July 2. 1776: By constitutional statute, New Jersey gave "all inhabitants" of adult age, with a net worth of $50 and residing in the state for one year, the right to vote in the general election. In 1790, someone realized it meant both men and women. The law was legal until 1807, when the General Assembly passed new laws limiting the vote to "free white males."

July 3. 1835: Children strike at Paterson, New Jersey for eleven hour day and six day week. With the help of adults, they win a compromise settlement of a 69 hour work week.

July 4. 1976: Coalition brings together 60,000 marchers to demand women's rights, jobs for all, independence for Puerto Rico, and gay right under the slogan "A Bicentennial Without Colonies." Philadelphia.

July 5. 1948: War-ravaged Britain adopts National Health Service Act, which includes medical, unemployment, motherhood, widow, orphan, old age, and death benefits.

July 6. 1976: Ninety-six arrested for trespassing at Trojan Nuclear Power Plant near Rainier, Oregon.

July 7. 1919: Birth of radical lawyer William Kuntsler, New York City.

July 9. 2001: In Columbia, South Carolina, 5,000 rally at the state capitol in support of the "Charleston Five," labor activists (four of them African-American) facing felony rioting charges from a police attack on a January 2000 longshoremen's picket of a non-union crew unloading a port ship.

July 11. 1995: Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel peace laureate, released from six years' house arrest, Burma. After living for several more years under house arrest, she was finally released again in 2002, only to be re-arrested in May 2003 and thrown into Burma's most notorious prison. (Meanwhile, the Bush administration remains preoccupied with Iran and North Korea.)

July 13. 1863: Three days of massive anti-draft protests in New York City. Modern history's bloodiest riot began when 50,000 Civil War draft protesters burned buildings and draft offices, attacked police, and some clubbed, lynched, and shot large numbers of blacks, who they blamed for the government's position. When troops returning from Gettysburg finally restored order, 1,200 were dead.

July 14. AD 160: Founding of the kingdom of Copan (Mayan Indians), which would last for over 1,000 years. 1979: Anti-Somocista popular revolution in Nicaragua successful; no apologies to US government, CIA, and other avid supporters of the dictator.

July 16. 1934: A longshoreman's strike spreads to become a four-day general strike paralyzing the San Francisco area and leading to a successful settlement.

July 18. 1918: Birth of Nelson Mandela, father of South Africa. 1997: In Bombay, at least 8,000 low-caste Indians riot after a funeral for 10 children killed by police.

July 20. 1998: Five thousand Korean workers and families take over Hyundai plant; 15,000 police summoned. 2001: 23-year-old Carlo Giuliani is shot and killed by paramilitary police, and hundreds of others are seriously wounded, during demonstrations at the G8 Summit in Genoa, Italy.

July 23. 1846: Protesting slavery and U.S. involvement in the Mexican War, Henry David Thoreau refuses to pay his $1 poll tax and is put in jail--an experience that moves him to write "On Civil Disobedience."

July 25. 1898: United States invades and colonizes Puerto Rico, overthrowing the autonomous government and recolonizing the island as one of the spoils of the Spanish-American War. 1983: Due to enormous costs of an extensive proposed nuclear plant system, State of Washington Public Power Supply System defaulted on $2.25 billion in loans.

July 26. 1877: Police kill 20 striking workers, Chicago.

July 29. 1970: After a five-year strike, United Farm Workers sign contract with grape growers, California.