May 10, 1933: Germany: Book Burning Day established. 1994: Nelson Mandela inaugurated as President of South Africa, ending 300 years of white colonial rule.

May 11, 1968: The three biggest French labor federations call a general strike to support students. 1975: Eighty thousand turn out in New York's Central Park to celebrate the end of the Vietnam War.

May 12, 1916: Execution of James Connolly, IWW organizer and Irish freedom fighter. 1922: Large meteor strikes Earth near Blackstone, Virginia.

May 13, 1960: San Francisco police attack students (including a young Abbie Hoffman) protesting a local hearing of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).

May 14, 1940: Death of radical feminist anarchist Emma Goldman, Toronto, Canada. Goldman had been barred from living in the US since 1931 due to her political beliefs; in her last months she focused on raising money for anti-Franco forces in Spain. 1997: A chemical storage tank at Hanford Nuclear Reservation explodes, exposing workers to a radioactive plume; eight are hospitalized.

May 15, 1964: US begins bombing Laos. 1966: Buddhist altars placed in streets to stop troops arresting dissidents, South Vietnam.

May 16, 1717: Voltaire (Francois Marie Arouet), suspected of writing subversive satire, is imprisoned for the first time in the Bastille. 1923: Famed author Upton Sinclair arrested in Los Angeles for holding political meeting.

May 17, 1910: Halley's Comet terrifies millions. 1954: In Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, US Supreme Court rules "separate but equal" public education to be unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment.

May 18, 1896: US Supreme Court, in Plessy v. Ferguson case, upholds the doctrine of "separate but equal." 1917: US enacts draft for World War I. Rally for rights of conscientious objection, New York City. 1980: Massive eruption of Mount St. Helens, in southwest Washington state, kills at least 70, destroying 160,000 acres of forest. Portland, Yakima, and Spokane are paralyzed by ashfall in subsequent days.

May 19, 1862: Homestead Act becomes law, provides cheap land for white settlement of West; 160 acres were to be sold to settlers for $200, or $1.25 an acre. 2002: Burmese nonviolent resister Daw Aung San Suu Kyi released from 19 months of house arrest.

May 20, 1867: John Stuart Mill's bill to permit women to vote was rejected by the British Parliament. 1968: University of Washington's Black Student Union occupies UW President's office to demand an increase in recruitment of students of color and creation of Black Studies program; action leads directly to creation of UW's Office of Minority Affairs and Ethnic Cultural Center and Theatre. 1989: Martial law ordered in Beijing in response to massive student pro-democracy demonstrations.

May 21, 1856: Lawrence, Kansas captured, sacked by pro-slavery forces. 1967: Followers of Malcolm X riot in Chicago.

May 22, 1895: Eugene V. Debs imprisoned for his role in the Pullman railway strike. 1967: Premiere of Public Broadcasting System's longest-running children's program, "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood".

May 23, 1939: Bonnie and Clyde killed by Texas Rangers. 1984: Right-wing Contra fascist Eden Pastora admits receiving illegal CIA aid during Reagan/Oliver North adminstration.