September 10th

1797 -- England: Feminist activist Mary Wollstonecraft (Godwin) dies. Author of first great modern feminist tract in English, Vindication of the Rights of Women. She dies at age 36 in childbirth, giving birth to a daughter who will become Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein.

1897 -- US: Pennsylvania striking coal miners refuse to obey an order from Luzerne County sheriff to disperse. The sheriff’s posse opens fire, killing 19 and wounding 36. Ironically, the strikers had originally been brought in as strike breakers, but later organized and joined the union.

1915 --US: Activist William Sanger is convicted for defying the law by distributing birth control literature; her serves 30-day jail sentence in lieu of paying $150 fine.

1941 -- Norway: Several trade union leaders are shot by German firing squads. Nevertheless, protest strikes against Nazi occupation continue.

1945 -- England: Save Europe Now (famine relief campaign) is launched.

1962 -- US: The Supreme Court rules that African American student James Meredith can be admitted to University of Mississippi, in defiance of local segregation laws.

1963 -- US: Protests throughout Birmingham as 20 African American children are integrated into Birmingham schools.

1976 – US: Author and screenwriter Dalton Trumbo dies. His book, Johnny Got His Gun, tells the story of a World War One veteran who, having lost his arms, legs, and face in combat, questions concepts like “honor” and “valor” and decides that war is a con-job made up by leaders, and that for the average soldier war is not worth fighting. The book won an American Booksellers Award in 1939. Trumbo later defied the House UnAmerican Activities Committee during the Red Scare, and for refusing to testify before them was sentenced to 11 months in prison.

1980 -- Philippines: 10,000 people defy government order and hold a "Freedom March" in protest against the Marcos Dictatorship (which the US supports). Government troops kill 8 protesters. Nevertheless, a nonviolent revolution eventually overthrows Marcos a few years later.

2003 -- Mexico: Korean farmer Lee Kyung-Hae dies, in a ritualized suicide during WTO (World Trade Organization) protests, in Cancun. A former President of the Federation of Farmers & Fishermen of Korea, Lee was attempting to “send message that WTO policies kill farmers". (Arguably not nonviolence, but self-inflicted violence for political ends)