This Day in History - Zinn Education Project

May 4, 1886: Haymarket Tragedy

A peaceful demonstration in Chicago for the eight-hour day ended in tragedy when the police barge in, and a bomb is thrown and explodes.

Themes: Labor, Social Class

May 3, 1919: Pete Seeger Born

Activist folksinger Pete Seeger was born in 1919 in New York.

Themes: Art & Music, Civil Rights Movements

May 3, 1898: Septima Clark Born

Educator and civil rights organizer Septima Clark was born in South Carolina.

Themes: African American, Civil Rights Movements, Education, Women's History

May 3, 1866: Memphis Massacre

White civilians and police killed 46 African-Americans and injured many more while burning houses, schools, and churches in Memphis, Tennessee.

Themes: African American, Reconstruction, Economics

May 2, 1963: Children of Birmingham Fill the Jails

In disciplined groups and singing freedom songs, students “ditch” class to march for justice and fill the jails.

Themes: Civil Rights Movements, Democracy & Citizenship, Education, Laws & Citizen Rights

May 1: International Workers Day

International Workers' Day began as a commemoration of the 1886 Haymarket massacre in Chicago.

Themes: Labor, Organizing, Social Class

Bristol Bus Boycott | Zinn Education Project

April 30, 1963: Bristol Bus Boycott

The Bristol Bus Boycott began in England, inspired by the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Themes: Civil Rights Movements, Democracy & Citizenship, Laws & Citizen Rights

April 30, 1967: “Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam” Speech

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made a speech criticizing the Vietnam War and praising Muhammad Ali.

Themes: African American, Civil Rights Movements, Democracy & Citizenship, Imperialism

April 29, 1962: Paulings Protest Nuclear Testing

Nobel Prize-winner Linus Pauling and Ava Helen Pauling joined a march in front of the White House to protest the resumption of U.S. atmospheric nuclear testing.

Themes: Environment, Science

April 28, 1987: Benjamin Linder Murdered in Nicaragua

Ben Linder, a volunteer U.S. engineer, was killed by the U.S. CIA funded Contras.

Themes: US Foreign Policy, Wars & Related Anti-War Movements, World History/Global Studies

April 28, 1977: Disability Rights Sit-Ins Force Federal Government to Enact Section 504

Between April 5 and April 28, 1977, hundreds of disabled and handicapped activists organized, protested, and occupied government buildings around the country to pressure the U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, Joseph Califano, to enact Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and publish regulations to guide its enforcement.

Themes: Civil Rights Movements, Disability, Organizing

April 27, 1860: Harriet Tubman Helped Rescue Charles Nalle

Harriet Tubman helped to rescue Charles Nalle, a fugitive from slavery in Virginia, in Troy, New York.

Themes: African American, Art & Music, Racism & Racial Identity, Slavery and Resistance

Kiyoshi Kuromiya | Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History

Apr. 26, 1968: Kiyoshi Kuromiya Led Protest of Vietnam War Napalm

Lifelong gay rights and anti-war activist Kiyoshi Kuromiya held a demonstration while in college against the use of napalm in Vietnam by announcing that a dog would be burned alive with napalm in front of the university library.

Themes: Asian American, LGBTQ, Wars & Related Anti-War Movements

Bombing of Guernica | Zinn Education Project

April 26, 1937: The Bombing of Guernica

During the Spanish Civil War, the Nazis tested their new air force on the Basque town of Guernica in northern Spain.

Themes: Art & Music, Wars & Related Anti-War Movements, World History/Global Studies

April 25, 1846: U.S. Mexico War Begins

Today’s border with Mexico is the product of invasion and war. Grasping some of the motives for that war and some of its immediate effects begins to provide students the kind of historical context that is crucial for thinking about the line that separates the United States and Mexico.

Themes: Latinx, US Foreign Policy, Wars & Related Anti-War Movements