Dec. 17. 1760: Birth of Deborah Sampson, US Revolutionary War soldier who fought dressed as a man. 1998: British/US airstrikes renewed against Iraq.

Dec. 18. 1830: Trial of Swing Rioters, peasants and workers who fought for minimum wage. 1972: Bach Mai hospital, Vietnam, bombed by the US. US launches heaviest air barrage of the entire Indochina war against North Vietnam, the so-called "Christmas bombing."

Dec. 19. 1946: Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh launches war against French occupiers. 1994: Zapatista rebels in Southeastern Mexico slip through army siege and briefly occupy 38 towns in Chiapas state, crippling Wall Street investments in Mexican bond market.

Dec. 20. 1990: Reservist Dr. Yolanda Huet-Vaughn refuses orders for Gulf War, Kansas. She is later sentenced to prison, and the Kansas medical board strips Huet-Vaughn of her license to practice because of her conscientious objection.

Dec. 21. 1861: Schooner Potter arrives at Neah Bay, WA, bringing annuity goods for the Makah--hoes, sickles, pitchforks, and Mexican spurs--much to the amazement of the fishing and whaling Makah, who converted them to fish hooks, knives, and arrowheads.

Dec. 22. 1972: US again bombs the Bach Mai Hospital in the center of Hanoi, destroying it and killing 25 doctors, pharmacists, and nurses. 1993: Native Title Act restores some land and rights lost by aborigines, Australia.

Dec. 23. 1975: The Passamaquoddy and Penobscot tribes of Maine win a court decision upholding principle that the US has an obligation to protect the land rights of all tribes, whether recognized by the federal government or not.

Dec. 24. 1834: Elizabeth Chandler, slavery abolitionist, born. 1990: Gulf Peace Team sets up camp, Judayyidat Ar'ar, Iraq.

Dec. 25. 1887: Overwhelmed by poverty, ideological confusion, grief at his grandmother's death, and ineligibility as a peasant to enter the Imperial Kazan University, Maxim Gorky attempts suicide at age 18. 1990: Mass demonstration in India to protest dam building and flooding of thousands of farms. Project is eventually significantly reduced, proving that the IMF and World Bank don't always succeed in keeping the rabble in line.

Dec. 26. 1971: Two dozen Vietnam Veterans Against the War "liberate" the Statue of Liberty with a sit-in to protest resumed bombings in Vietnam, and fly an inverted US flag from the crown as a signal of distress.

Dec. 27. 1913: Mass rebellion by IWW workers in Edmonton, Alberta forces city to house 400 unemployed during the winter. 1914: Founding of International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR), multi-faith peace group, Cambridge, Great Britain.

Dec. 28. 1831: Thirty thousand slaves in Jamaica begin armed insurrection. 1936: Sit-down strike against General Motors begins at Fisher Body plant in Cleveland.

Dec. 29. 1893: Birth of Vera Brittain. British pacifist and feminist. 1994: A state court rejects property rights advocates and reaffirms the fishing harvest rights of fifteen Indian tribes in Washington state.

Dec. 30. 1936: General Motors sit-down strike spreads to Flint, Michigan. The strike began two days earlier in Cleveland. 1996: Chilean guerrillas whisk four comrades from jail with rope lowered from a helicopter.