Democracy Now! Archives

Aug. 19, 1953: U.S. and Britain Topple Democratically Elected Government of Iran

Democratically elected Iranian Premier Mohammad Mossadegh was removed from power in a coup.

Sept. 15, 1963: 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing

The 16th Street Baptist Church was bombed in an act of terrorism in Birmingham, Alabama.

June 9, 1954: Joseph Welch Confronts Sen. Joseph McCarthy

Joseph N. Welch confronted Sen. Joseph McCarthy about allegations of communists in the U.S. Army.

Claudette Colvin (photo) | Zinn Education Project

March 2, 1955: Claudette Colvin Refuses to Give Up Her Bus Seat

At age 15, Claudette Colvin refused to give up her bus seat to a white woman in Montgomery, Alabama.

Lumumba at the 1960 Round Table conference | Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History

Jan. 17, 1961: Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba was Executed

Prime minister of the Republic of the Congo, Patrice Lumumba, was executed with the assistance of the governments of Belgium and the United States.

Clarence Earl Gideon's handwritten petition for a writ of cert to the Supreme Court.

March 18, 1963: Gideon v. Wainwright

The ruling of Gideon v. Wainwright required states to provide counsel in criminal cases to represent defendants who are unable to afford to pay their own attorneys.

Missing persons poster created by the FBI in 1964, shows the photographs of Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner.

June 21, 1964: Three Civil Rights Workers Murdered in Mississippi

James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman were tortured and murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in Neshoba County, Mississippi.

Che Guevara. Art by Ricardo Levins Morales.

Oct. 9, 1967: Che Guevara Executed

Che Guevara was killed by U.S. military backed-Bolivian forces, working with the CIA.

photos of the three missing men during Mississippi Freedom Summer.

Aug. 4, 1964: Civil Rights Workers Bodies Found

The bodies of three lynched civil rights workers (James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman) were found in Neshoba County, Mississippi.

Feb. 21, 1965: Malcolm X Assassinated

El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) was assassinated, just weeks after speaking in Selma.

Feb. 8, 1968: Orangeburg Massacre

Two years before the Kent State murders, 28 students were injured and three were killed in Orangeburg, South Carolina — most shot in the back by the state police while involved in a peaceful protest.

March 16, 1968: Mỹ Lai Massacre and Hugh Thompson

Hugh Thompson tried to defend Vietnamese villagers during Mỹ Lai Massacre.

April 23, 1968: Columbia Student Occupation

Students for a Democratic Society, Student Afro-American Society and others began a nonviolent occupation of campus buildings at Columbia University.

May 12, 1968: The Poor People’s Campaign Began

The Poor People’s Campaign was a multiracial effort to gain economic justice for poor people.

Dec. 4, 1969: Black Panther Party Members Assassinated

Black Panther Party members Fred Hampton and Mark Clark were assassinated by police and FBI agents in Chicago, Illinois.

May 15, 1970: Jackson State Killings

College student Phillip Lafayette Gibbs (21) and high school student James Earl Green (17) were killed by the police during an anti-war protest at Jackson State College.

Sept. 11, 1973: U.S.-Backed Coup in Chile

Chile’s democratically elected president, Salvador Allende was killed in a U.S.-backed coup.

July 14, 1970: Young Lords Occupy Lincoln Hospital

The Young Lords occupied Lincoln Hospital’s major administrative building in response to deplorable treatment of people of color.

Salvador Allende | Zinn Education Project

Nov. 3, 1970: Salvador Allende Became President of Chile

Salvador Allende became president of Chile and adopted policies for the social good, such as raising minimum wage and increasing access to health care and education.

March 8, 1971: FBI’s COINTELPRO Exposed

A cab driver, a day care provider, and two professors broke into an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, and stole more than 1,000 classified documents.

Sept. 21, 1976: Sheridan Circle Car Bomb

Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt were killed in Washington, D.C. by a U.S.-backed Augusto Pinochet regime car bomb.

Mothers of the Disappeared "Memorial Wall"

March 24, 1980: Archbishop Romero Assassinated

Archbishop Óscar Romero of El Salvador was assassinated by U.S.-backed death squads.

July 10, 1985: Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior

Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior was bombed by two French agents and Dutch photographer Fernando Pereira was killed.

Nov. 7, 1985: Court Ruling in Wrongful Case Against Rubin “Hurricane” Carter

U.S. District Court Judge handed down his decision to free Rubin “Hurricane” Carter who had been wrongfully accused of murder.

April 19, 1989: “Central Park Five” Arrested

The New York Police Department falsely accused four African American teenagers and one Latino teenager who became known as the “Central Park Five.”