Oct. 11, 1925: US troops sent to Panama to crush rent riots and "protect interests". 1987:Over 750,000 gays, lesbians, and bisexuals descend upon Washington, DC for a march to demand civil rights. Now celebrated each year as National Coming Out Day. 2002:Former US president Jimmy Carter receives the Nobel Peace Prize for his work during, and especially after, his presidency.

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, 1925: Birth of radical comedian and social rebel Lenny Bruce. "If you can't say FUCK you can't say FUCK THE GOVERNMENT." Oct. 14, 1953: Pres. Eisenhower promises to fire and brand as a "Red" any federal worker taking the Fifth Amendment. 1967: Folk singer Joan Baez arrested in blockade of military induction center, Oakland, California. 1991: Burmese opposition figure Aung San Suu Kyi wins Nobel Peace Prize. Deposed by a brutal, genocidal military regime after winning the presidency in a democratic election, she was, and remains, under house arrest.

Oct. 15, 1966:Huey Newton and Bobby Seale form the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, Oakland, California. 1978: US Congress deregulates airlines. Things have been SO GREAT ever since.

Oct. 16, 1859:Abolitionist leader John Brown leads an anti- slavery raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia, hoping to set off a mass slave revolt throughout the south. He is later hanged by the state of Virginia for his efforts. 1962:Cuban missile crisis began.

Oct. 17, 1877: John D. Rockefeller makes a contract with the Pennsylvania Railroad, giving his Standard Oil Company a rebate on all freight carried by the line. The arrangement provided him with the key to monopolizing virtually all production and transportation of oil in the US.

Oct. 18, 1860:In the closing weeks of the Second Opium War--an effort by a British-led international coalition to crush Chinese resistance to European colonization--British troops in Beijing burn to the ground the Yuanmingyuan, an imperial summer palace built by the Manchu emperors.

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, 1926:Death of Eugene Debs, US socialist anti- militarist. His "radical" reforms included an eight-hour workday, pensions, workman's compensation, sick leave, social security-- commonplace today.

Oct. 21, 1789:Martial Law imposed in France. Think it can't happen here? 1950:Communist Chinese forces occupy Tibet.

Oct. 22, 1918: Flu epidemic strikes one fourth of all Americans, killing half a million.

Oct. 23, 1962: 124 arrested in demonstrations at US and USSR embassies in London against Cuban Missile Crisis.

Oct. 24, 1929: Wall Street Stock Market Crash, harbinger of worldwide Great Depression of the '30s.