Oct. 12 1492: Christopher Columbus, lost and confused, runs aground, discovered by Arawaks. Tragedy ensues. By the time he is sent back to Spain in chains eight years later, accused of mistreating the natives (by the standards of the regime that perfected the Spanish Inquisition!), nearly the entire Arawak tribe that originally discovered him will have been enslaved or exterminated, setting the tone for the next 500 years.

Oct. 13 1943: Poet Robert Lowell, Jr., is sentenced to a prison term of a year and a day for draft evasion. 1999: Republican-controlled Senate rejects Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

Oct. 14 1953: Pres. Eisenhower promises to fire and brand as a "Red" any federal worker taking the 5th amendment. 1964: Khruschev deposed in U.S.S.R.

Oct. 15 1965: David Miller becomes first resister to publicly burn his draft card after Congress outlaws it. New York City. 1994: Deposed Haitian Pres. Aristide is allowed to return to Haiti only after promising the US he would not implement any of the human needs proposals that won his election and triggered a US-backed military coup in 1991.

Oct. 16 1916: Margaret Sanger opens first birth control clinic, New York City. 1925: Texas School Board prohibits teaching of evolution. 1973: War criminal Henry Kissinger is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, less than a month after he had secretly overseen the bloody military coup in Chile.

Oct. 17 1871: Pres. Ulysses S. Grant suspends writ of habeas corpus. Which, I guess, isn't as good as abolishing it entirely. Right, Dubya? 1979: Mother Teresa awarded Nobel Peace Prize.

Oct. 18 1648: First labor organization in American colonies authorized in Massachusetts Bay Colony. 1978: Pres. Carter orders production of neutron bomb components.

Oct. 19 1960: US imposes a "temporary" trade embargo on Cuba following nationalization of US enterprises. 1987: "Black Monday" stock market crash, world-wide.

Oct. 20 1818: Much to the ever-lasting chagrin of Point Roberts, 49th parallel set as the border between the US and Canada. 1984: Pres. Reagan vetoes bill to improve federal health care for American Indian reservations.

Oct. 21 1933: Scottsboro Trial date set for November 27 in Decatur, Alabama by Judge W.W. Callahan, a Ku Klux Klan member. Since April, Decatur had been scene of Negro terrorization: one lynched, two murdered, one railroaded to death sentence on faked rape charge.

Oct. 22 1918: Flu epidemic strikes one fourth of all Americans, killing half a million. 1972: US Navy charges 22 black seamen, but no whites, in conjunction with interracial fighting aboard the USS Kitty Hawk on Oct. 12.

Oct. 23 1921: Massive demonstrations all over Europe in support of condemned US anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti. In Paris 10,000 police and 18,000 soldiers attempt to control the crowds.

Oct. 24 1997: Bolivia invaded by its first multinational restaurant: McDonald's.

Oct. 25 1973: John Lennon sues the US government, maintaining that wiretaps and surveillance were employed against him and his lawyer, Leon Wildes, and claiming that, as a result, his appeal applications in his fight against deportation were prejudiced by US officials. See the movie.