September 9th

1883 -- US: Sitting Bull, main chief of the Sioux tribes, fools a whole crowd of American listeners when he delivers a speech insulting the US authorities and their policy of using force to evict Native Americans from their lands. At the celebration of the driving of the last spike in the Northern Pacific railroad joining with the transcontinental system, he delivered the speech in his Sioux language, departing from a speech originally prepared with an army translator. Denouncing the US government, settlers and army, the listeners thought he was delivering a speech of welcome and praise. The American audience thus clapped and applauded all while unknowingly being insulted.

1886 – UK: Siegfried Sassoon, poet, is born in London. His anti-war poems after serving in World War I speak of the horror and meaninglessness of war, and particularly of the abuse of working class soldiers by upper class officers.

1909 -- US: Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), on strike at the Pressed Steel Car Plant in McKees Rock, Pennsylvania, force management to improve shop conditions, hike wages by 15% and drop harmful policies. Despite police attacks that killed eleven strikers, their strike won out.

1916 -- England: Death of Walter Roberts, first of 73 British WWI conscientious objectors (COs, people who refuse to serve in war) to die as a result of their prison treatment.

1941 -- Norway: Workers strike against diversion of milk to military use by the Nazis.

1965 -- US: Strike of Filipino & Mexican farmworkers against grape growers in Delano, California marks the beginning of a successful five-year strike by United Farm Workers throughout California.

1966 -- US: Star Trek appears on TV for the first time, as the first episode, The Man Trap, airs on NBC. Star Trek used science fiction as allegory to criticize war, racism and other forms of social injustice. It was the first television show to ever display an interracial kiss.

1971 -- US: Attica Prison Revolt, which began nonviolently but ended in violence. Prisoners (both Whites and Blacks cooperating) took over the facility to demand improvements in health and living conditions.

1978 – Iran: Thousands of demonstrators march to protest the rule of the Shah. The Shah’s police open fire and kill 3,000 unarmed protesters. The Shah had been brought to power by a US and British sponsored coup, and was kept in power by money and weapons from the US.

1994 -- Germany: After decades of protests from the local populace, US and NATO soldiers withdraw from Berlin. There are celebrations in the streets.