Nov. 23. 1903: US Army troops, commanded by General Sherman Bell, dispatched to Cripple Creek, Colorado, to control a rebellion by striking coal miners. Paid by mine owners and the state, Bell arrives and throws 600 union workers into a military bullpen, holding them for weeks without charges. When a lawyer appears with a writ of habeas corpus, the general says, "Habeas corpus, hell! We'll give 'em post mortems!"

Nov. 24. 1859: Evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin's "The Origin of Species" published. 1963: Millions of TV watchers see Jack Ruby, the operator of a local striptease club, stick a revolver into Lee Harvey Oswald's side, and shoot him dead. First live TV killing.

Nov. 25. 1715: First English patent granted to an American woman, Sybilla Masters, for a corn processing mill. 1997: During a traditional town "reenactment" of the Thanksgiving myth, Plymouth, Mass. police attack Native American demonstrators, beating and pepper-spraying several and arresting 25.

Nov. 26. 1868: Ignoring orders to kill only warriors, a US Army contingent led by Gen. Custer massacres 103 sleeping Cheyenne--including Black Kettle, survivor of the Sand Creek Massacre--in the so-called "Battle of the Washita," Oklahoma Territory. 1970: American Indian Movement (AIM) activists celebrate Thanksgiving by occupying Plymouth Rock, Mass.

Nov. 27. 1900: US troops coax information from Filipino town president by forcing salt water down his throat from a 100-gallon tank. Then they burned the town. 1941: US officials warn that a Japanese attack upon Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, might be imminent.

Nov. 28. 1911: Emiliano Zapata enacts Plan de Ayala for land rights in Mexico. 1960: Richard Wright dies in exile, in Paris. Postal worker, novelist and short-story writer, among the first American black writers to protest white treatment of blacks, notably in his novel "Native Son" (1940).

Nov. 29. 1990: UN Security Council votes 12-2 in favor of war in Persian Gulf.

Nov. 30. 1907: Pike Place Market dedicated in Seattle. 1969: US Army Lieutenant William Calley charged with covering up the massacre of 567 civilians by his troops at My Lai, Vietnam in March 1968.

Dec. 1. 1937: Marijuana is made illegal in the United States. 2001: In the largest such protest since the fall of Hitler, 4,000 neo-Nazis rally in Berlin, while police battle with anti-racist counter-protesters.

Dec. 2. 1823: United States announces Monroe Doctrine: essentially, that the US is entitled to do whatever it wants in the Western Hemisphere. 1978: Chanting "Allah is great," anti-Shah protesters pour through Tehran.

Dec. 3. 1969: Protesters destroy files at eight New York draft boards.

Dec. 4. 1952: Killer fogs begin in London, England. "Smog" becomes a (dirty) word. 1991: In a gesture that renders the phrase "Too Little, Too Late" pitifully inadequate, Congress declares 1992 to be the "Year of the Indian."

Dec. 5. 1349: Jews are massacred at Nuremberg in Black Death riots. 1786: Shay's Rebellion in Massachusetts.

Dec. 6. 1949: Blues legend Leadbelly (Huddie Ledbetter) dies, New York City. Founding father of socially-conscious American blues. Influenced Woody Guthrie, The Weavers, Bob Dylan, Martin Mull, myriad others.