September 12

1853 -- US: Reverend Antoinette Brown Blackwell is ordained at the Congressional Church in South Butler, New York, becoming the first female minister in the United States.

1945 -- Canada: Ford workers in Windsor, Ontario begin strike. After a series of actions both nonviolent and violent, Canada grants unions greater stability and security of financing.

1962 -- US: President John F. Kennedy speaks at Rice University's Rice Stadium to 35,000 Houstonians, saying of the lunar landing program, "...we do this not because she is easy, but because it is hard..."

1977 -- South Africa: Student anti-apartheid leader Steve Biko, 30, murdered while in police custody, Port Elizabeth. His efforts are carried on by his successors, and 17 years later, the government is overthrown by a successful nonviolent movement to establish free elections.



Armenians and people around the globe are holding peace and remembrance vigils today to remember the beginning of the Armenian genocide in 1912, where millions of Armenian civilians were killed by the Turkish army.

Nazi leader Adolph Hitler is reported to have said that he feared no consequences for killing millions of Jews, because history would soon forget it. “Who remembers the Armenian massacres today?” he said.

To this day, the Turkish government denies the existence of the massacres, and enforces legal penalties on anyone who them.