"...kick at the darkness
until it bleeds daylight ..."

— Bruce Cockburn, Lovers In A Dangerous Time

APRIL 20

JOAN MIRO
Great Catalan painter, sculptor, prolific printmaker, bon-vivant.

---

Thailand: RICE PLANTING DAY

FIRST OF THE MONTH of Floréal (flowery) in the French revolutionary calendar.

FESTIVAL OF FABULOUS WILDWOMEN.

---

121 -- Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD) lives. Roman Emperor, Stoic, author of Meditations of Writings to Himself in twelve books. First printing appeared in English in 1634.
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/aurelius.htm


1494 -- Antinomian religious Protestant Johannes Agricola lives.


1534 -- England: Execution of Elizabeth Barton, the "Nun of Kent"


1777 -- US: Anti-American Ingrates? New York adopts new constitution as an independent state.


1795 -- Johan Kellgren dies in Stockholm. The last years of his life he was associated with the influential literary journal "Stockholmsposten."


1810 -- Richard Sheridan writes his wife: "there is no Person who has been near to me . . . that has not been confirmed or improved in principle & integrity in his views & transactions . . . it may be egotism but it is Fact."



1812 -- US: George Clinton, fourth US Vice President, dies at 73. The first VP to die in office.




1812 -- England: Luddite problem. Colliers from Hollinwood & local mob attacked Mr Burton's manufactory in Middleton & again 22nd April, 10 rioters killed. Food riots in Manchester, Bolton, Ashton & Oldham, & all through Cheshire north-east of Stockport.
Source: [Luddite Chronology]


1841 -- First detective story, Poe's "Murders in the Rue Morgue"), is published.


1857 -- Herman Bang lives, the island of Als. Novelist/playwright/short story writer/memoirist. Denmark's most important literary Impressionist. His first novel, naturalistic Haablose Slaegter (Hopeless Generations, 1880) was confiscated for "immoral contents." He died during a lecture tour of the US.


1859 -- First volume of Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities appears.


1887 -- Oscar Wilde today writes:

"Every great man nowadays has his disciples, & it is usually Judas who writes the biography."

http://struggle.ws/ws98/ws53_wilde.html

1889 -- Austria: Adolph Hitler Braunau, dictator of Nazi Germany, lives?

At 6:30 p.m. he was born in the small Austrian village of Braunau Am Inn just across the border from German Bavaria.

His father, Alois, was the illegitimate son of Maria Anna Schicklgruber & her unknown mate, who may have been from the neighborhood or a poor millworker, Johann Georg Hiedler. It is also remotely possible Adolf Hitler's grandfather was Jewish.

Maria Schicklgruber was said to have been employed as a cook in the household of a wealthy Jewish family named Frankenberger.

There is speculation their 19 year old son got her pregnant & regularly sent her money after the birth of Alois.

Adolf Hitler would never know for sure just who his grandfather was.

1893 -- Catalan artist Joan Miró lives, born in the family apartment at 4 Passatge del Crèdit, Barcelona, Spain.

'Miró: A single line, a definition inspired by the Catalan landscape.'

— Abridged Dictionary of Surrealism (1938).

See Daily Bleed Saint's Gallery page, http://recollectionbooks.com/bleed/Encyclopedia/saints/StMiro.htm


1912 -- Gothic novelist Bram Stoker dies. None achieves the popularity of his Dracula.


1912 -- Oscar Parland (1912 - 1997) lives, Kiev, Ukraine. Finnish-Swedish writer/psychiatrist.
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/oparland.htm


1914 -- US: Ludlow Massacre of striking miners & their families by the National Guard & Company police, burning a striking miners' camp & killing at least 12 children & 7 adults.

In an attempt to persuade strikers at Colorado's Ludlow Mine Field to return to work, company "guards" (goons), engaged by Beloved & Respected comrade John D. Rockefeller, Jr. & other mine operators — sworn into the State Militia just for the occasion — attack a union tent camp with machine guns, then set it afire.

Five men, two women & 12 children die as a result.

The "Cleveland Leader", echoing the sentiments of much of the US press, writes,

"The charred bodies of two dozen women & children show that Rockefeller knows how to win!"

http://recollectionbooks.com/siml/library/LudlowPoemPeterLaska.htm

[Details / context]

1916 -- US: Emma Goldman, on trial for presenting a lecture on birth control at the New Star Casino on April 8th, defends herself & is convicted. Refusing to paying a $100 fine, she serves 15 days in the Workhouse at Queens County Penitentiary. She is released May 4.

According to the NY Times (April 21, 1916) Emma was applauded by several hundred sympathizers as she was led from the courtroom where a squad of officer friendlies was posted.

"Hundreds came as to [a] play with Emma Goldman in the leading role. Among the spectators were Mrs. J. Sergeant Cram, George Bellows, Mr. & Mrs. Robert Henri, Rose Pastor Stokes, Leonard Abbott, Mrs. John Sloan & Ben Reitman."

[Details / context]

1917 -- Russia: The April Days (20 - 21).

Opposition to the Foreign Minister Milyukov boils over due to his refusal to renounce annexations. Milyukov will resign in May. Members of the Mensheviks & the Socialist Revolutionaries join the government.
http://www.barnsdle.demon.co.uk/russ/datesr.html

Kronstadt Uprising, 1921 by Ida Mett,
http://struggle.ws/russia/mett.html
The Bolsheviks & Workers' Control by Maurice Brinton, see
http://www.spunk.org/texts/places/russia/sp001861/bolintro.html

1920 -- US: Man Ray, surrealist, anarchist & photographer, signs the constitution of "Société Anonyme Inc," with Marcel Duchamp & Katherine Dreier, to promote the work of the international avant-garde.
http://www.manray-photo.com/
http://www.artnet.com/products/products.asp




1926 -- Declaring Bankruptcy? First check sent by radio facsimile transmission across the Atlantic.



1927 -- France: International anarchist conference at Hay-les-Roses, near Paris, in the Cinema Les Roses.

Called by a provisional Commission, set up by the Dielo Trouda group, composed of Nestor Makhno, Chen & Ranko.
Among the delegates was Bifolchi, an Italian delegation from the magazine "Pensiero e Volonta," Luigi Fabbri, Camillo Berneri, & Ugo Fedeli. The French had two delegations.

[Details / context]

1929 -- Italy: Aprendo la nuova legislatura il re esalta "il nuovo ordine costituzionale dello stato fascista : ordine schiettamente e originalmente italiano." Scempiaggini reali.
Source: [Crimini e Misfatti]


1932 -- Sweden: Emma Goldman lectures on the Mooney-Billings case, in Stockholm.



1944 --

¶ During this Spring, Lucien Carr introduces Beatster Jack Kerouac to Allen Ginsberg. Unfortunately little of Ginsberg's anarchism, social commitment or literary insights rub off off on Kerouac, who becomes more & more conservative, Catholic, jaded & lost in a wallow of alcohol & self-pity in the 1960s.

1946 -- Korean Anarchist Congress meets (April 20-23), in Anwui.

Establishes the considerable influence of Peter Kropotkin's ideas in post-war Asia. Shin Chae-H0 (1880-1936), a Korean historian, was one of the precursors of anarchism in this country. Then, later, the brothers Li Jung-Kyu (1897-1983) & Li Eul Kyu (1894-1972) — called the "Korean Kropotkin" — are the architects of this congress, along with another active figure in modern Korean anarchism: Ha Ki Rak, who later takes part, in 1987, in the congress of the Korean Anarchist Federation.

Sources:
http://www.ephemanar.net/avril23.html#hakirak
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchism_in_Korea
Of current interest, see the Korean Anarchist Network, http://anarclan.net/

1948 -- US: Labor leader Walter Reuther is shot & seriously wounded by would-be assassins.

Reuther was previously victim of an attempted abduction in April 1938. His brother Victor was shot & nearly at his home by police in 1949. In 1949 the UAW’s headquarters in Detroit was bombed. He later died in a plane crash in 1970 (of the media reports apparently only one paper addressed the possibility that he may have been murdered; In October 1968, both Walter & his brother Victor were almost killed in a small private plane near Dulles Airport).

http://www.is.wayne.edu/mnissani/media/reuther.htm

1949 -- France: World council of Peace convened in Paris by Frederic Joliot-Curie.


1951 --

The cinema, too, must be destroyed.... France: April 20, 1951 Guy-Ernest Debord meets the lettrists at the Cannes Film Festival, following the screening of Isou's Traité de bave et d'éternité (Treatise on Slime & Eternity). http://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/chronology/chronology.html | [Situationist Resources]

1953 -- US: Members of Communist Party USA forced to register as "foreign agents."



1953 -- US: House of Representatives repeals ban on selling guns & ammunition to Indians.



1959 -- Cary Grant's LSD interview.


1960 -- Elvis Presley's return to Hollywood to film "G.I. Blues" is greeted by tremendous fanfare. Of course, it's the top story on the nightly news & even makes page one of the local newspapers.



1961 -- US: First free-flight of Bell Aerosystems rocket belt.

1962 -- US: New Orleans Citizens Co gives free 1-way ride to blacks to move North.


1962 -- Brasil: Anarchist gathering in São Paulo (April 20-22nd). 100 militants, along with some foreign guests, conduct five sessions at Nossa Chácara.
Source: [Arquivo de História Social] anarchismo, anarchici, anarquista, sindicalistas, Brasil Brazil list of anarchist congresses
http://portalsaofrancisco.com.br/alfa/anarquismo/movimento-anarquista-no-brasil.php Encontro Anarquista - São Paulo de 20 a 22 de abril de 1962. Reuniram-se em Nossa Chácara 100 militantes anarquistas de todo o Brasil, incluindo alguns companheiros estrangeiros. Foram realizadas cinco sessões muito proveitosas.


1966 -- Vietnam: Six US pacifists, including Barbara Deming & 82-year-old A.J. Muste, deported for anti-war protests, Saigon, South Vietnam.


1967 -- Vietnam: US planes bomb Haiphong for first time during the Vietnam War.



1967 -- US: Aldino Felicani (1891-1967) dies. Italian-American anarchist, typographer, editor, & publisher of many papers. Friend & supporter of Sacco & Vanzetti, founding their Defense Committee. Published, until his death, the Italian-American paper "Controcorrente / Countercurrent".
http://recollectionbooks.com/bleed/Encyclopedia/SaccoVanzetti/databaseEntries.htm



1969 -- US: The LA Free Festival in Venice, California ends in violence before it begins with lots hurt & 117 arrested. Trouble starts when police chase a youth through the crowd on the beach. When they cuff him, the crowd starts chanting "Pig, pig, pig!" A riot ensues & none of the bands scheduled to play appear.



1969 -- US: People's Park planted, Berkeley, California — a resistance to the encroachment of the authorities into "peoples' space".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Park%2C_Berkeley
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2004/04/25/16784821.php
http://www.peoplespark.org/history.html



1970 -- US: The NY Times reports Catholic & Protestant youth groups have adopted the
Yellow Submarine as a religious symbol.




1971 -- US: Students march downtown from Seattle's Garfield High School to protest shooting of blacks by Seattle police.


1971 -- US: Supreme Court rules school busing is a constitutionally acceptable method of integrating public schools. (Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education.)



1972 -- US: A rally of 2,000 University of Washington students against renewed bombing of Hanoi votes to strike & to support a Vietnamese student, Nguyen Thai Binh, resisting possible deportation for anti-war activity.
Nguyen is killed on July 2 while attempting to hijack an airliner to Hanoi.


1976 -- William Sansom, British novelist of London life, dies there. Wrote The Body; A Bed of Roses; The Loving Eye.


1977 -- US: DOA? Supreme Court rules "Live Free or Die" may be covered up on New Hampshire license plates.



1979 -- US: Beloved & Respected Comrade Leader President Jimmy "Peanuts" Carter attacked by a rabbit on a canoe trip, in Plains, Georgia; this sell-kept secret finally makes the headlines on August 30th.
http://www.grendel.org/hunter/db/
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/950/what-was-the-deal-with-jimmy-carter-and-the-killer-rabbit


1982 -- Poet/playwright Archibald MacLeish dies in Boston.


1983 -- Russia: Korean Airlines flight 007 shot down by Soviets in Russian airspace. They claim it is a spy plane. It is loaded with civilians, & many say spy gear. Everyone aboard dies.


1984 -- Italy: Il presidente del tribunale di Varese fa sequestrare quattro libri che trattano le vicende della loggia massonica P2 e del banchiere Roberto Calvi.
Source: [Crimini e Misfatti]


1985 -- US: Some 250,000 march in Washington to protest US policy in Central America.


1986 -- Spain: As part of mass social upheaval in Spain, riots erupt in Guernica.
Source: [Calendar Riots]


1992 -- Austria: Women in Black demonstrate in solidarity with their Serbian sisters, Vienna.
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/62/062.html


1995 -- US: Two women with knives rob a priest of $1,500, New York.
Source: [Calendar Riots]



1996 -- The model for the human in the Winnie-the-Pooh books, Christopher Robin Milne, dies.
http://www.poohcorner.com/


1998 -- Octavio Paz dies in México City. Mexico's greatest poet, writer, critic, & winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature. Paz, a prolific writer, best known for the book-length essay The Labyrinth of Solitude & the poem "Sun Stone."


1999 -- US: Second Columbine Massacre. Most likely you never heard of the first one (a 1927 labor massacre, involving the IWW). & while the media claims today's to be the worst American school massacre ever, it is not (the worst also occurred in 1927).

One parent wrote,

"I may be the only parent of a Columbine High School student who isn't howling for more gun control laws.

I may also be the only Columbine parent who hasn't attended church to thank "god" that my daughter is still alive.

& with respect to the police, the events this past spring have convinced me more than ever that the cops, being inept & useless parasites ..."

[Letter continues + further details]

2001 -- Canada: Quebec City has the dubious honor of hosting the Summit of the Americas.

The Anti-Capitalist Convergence (La Convergence des luttes anti-capitalistes, or CLAC, in French) participate in a large-scale grassroots mobilization against the FTAA.

The CLAC, based in Montreal, organizes a Carnival Against Capitalism (includes teach-ins, conferences, workshops, concerts, cabarets, street theatre, direct actions, protests & more) & helps to convene a North American anarchist conference in conjunction with Peoples' Global Action against "Free" Trade (PGA).

3000 --

---

At some point we must draw a line across the ground of our home & our being, drive a spear into the land, & say to the bulldozers, earthmovers, government & corporations, "thus far & no farther."
    — Edward Abbey