May 5. 1970: In response to Kent State killings, protests engulf campuses across United States. The first protest occupation of I-5 occurs in Seattle as 1,000 UW student marchers spontaneously seize the freeway. 1991: Last US cruise missile leaves Greenham Common Air Base, Britain, site of a decade of fierce women's anti-nuclear protests.

May 6. 1973: Demonstrations against Pacific nuclear tests in 14 cities across France. 1979: Six weeks after Three Mile Island, 125,000 rally in Washington, DC to oppose nuclear power.

May 7. 1954: Viet Minh forces defeat French at Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam. 1984: American veterans of the Vietnam War reach an out-of-court settlement with seven chemical companies in their class-action suit relating to use of toxic herbicide "Agent Orange."

May 8. 1876: Peter Maurin, co-founder of Catholic Worker movement, born. 1962: An estimated nine million people participate in a ten-minute work stoppage to protest nuclear weapons, Belgium.

May 9. 1969: New York Times newspaper reveals the United States has been secretly bombing Cambodia--officially a noncombatant, neutral country. 1974: Congress begins impeachment hearings of President Richard M. Nixon.

May 10. 1898: US and Canadian workers form Western Labor Union. 1967: Capt. Howard Levy jailed three years for refusing to train US soldiers for Vietnam.

May 11. 1891: National US building trades strike. 1975: 80,000 turn out in New York's Central Park to celebrate the end of the Vietnam War.

May 12. 1847: Freedom fighter Tiburcio Vasquez fights Anglo invaders in California. 1975: Gonzalo Arias chains himself to Spanish gate in protest of closure of Spain/Gilbraltor frontier.

May 13. 1888: Brazil, which imported more African slaves than any other Western Hemisphere country (including the US), abolishes slavery. 1968: Strike by French students, including occupation of The Sorbonne, leads to massive general strike in Paris and solidarity demonstrations and strikes all over the world.

May 14. 1968: French workplace occupations start, in support of student strikers. A significant aspect of the May Upheaval. By the end of this month over 10 million workers are involved in occupations. 1995: First Reclaim the Streets party, London.

May 15. 1935: National Labor Relations Act passed, recognizing workers' right to organize and bargain collectively. 1966: Buddhist altars placed in streets to stop troops arresting dissidents, South Vietnam.

May 16. 1717: Voltaire (Franois Marie Arouet), suspected of writing subversive satire, is imprisoned for the first time in the Bastille. 1987: "Bobro 400," a huge barge, sets sail with 3,200 tons of garbage that nobody wanted. The floating trash heap began an 8-week, 6,000 mile Odyssey in search of a willing dumping site.

May 17. 1987: USS Stark hit by Iraqi missiles; 37 sailors die. US only issues a mild protest over the "accident," as Iraq and its leader, Saddam Hussein, were considered a good ally and valuable arms customer by the Reagan administration. US ships were escorting Kuwaiti oil tankers to the Gulf, reflagging them for the US.

May 18. 1827: Josiah Warren opens Time Store in Cincinati--first commercial cooperative. 1979: Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee case establishes corporations are responsible for the people they irradiate.