Category: mādhyayak

1903

James Connolly founds the Socialist Labour Party with comrades in Edinburgh; he is later executed for his role in the Easter Uprising. "Before a shot has been fired by the British army on land, before a battle has been fought at sea, ruin and misery are entering the homes of the working people."

1967

The Six-Day War between Israel and Syria, Jordan and Egypt ends in Arab defeat. “My grieved country,
In a flash
You changed me from a poet who wrote love poems
To a poet who writes with a knife.”

1968

French students protest the closure of the Sorbonne, setting off the May ’68 wave of demonstrations
and strikes by millions of students and workers. “Be realistic, demand the impossible.”

1450

Jack Cade, the nom de guerre of a peasant leader in an uprising against King Henry VI of England , issues a manifesto of grievances. Cade led a group of 5,000 peasants through London, capturing and beheading the king’s associates.

1927

B.R. Ambedkar, an architect of the Indian constitution who was born into the Dalit caste of “untouchables,” leads followers to burn the Manusmriti, an ancient text justifying the hierarchy. The “untouchables” were relegated to occupations considered impure, like butchering and waste removal.

1885

Louis Riel, Métis leader who headed two rebellions against a Canadian incursion into their territory, is hanged for treason.
"I will perhaps be one day acknowledged as more than a leader of the half-breeds, 
and if I am I will have an opportunity of being acknowledged as a leader of good in this great country."

1997

Fela Kuti, Nigerian father of Afrobeat pioneer and frequent presidential candidate, dies from AIDS-related complications.

1983

Revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara assumes power in Burkina Faso, nationalizing mineral wealth and redistributing land.

“It took the madmen of yesterday for us to be able to act with extreme clarity today. I want to be one of those madmen. We must dare to invent the future.”

1926

Antonio Gramsci, leader of the Italian Communist Party, is arrested by Mussolini and sentenced to twenty years in prison, during which time he would write his famous “Prison Notebooks.”
“‘Vanguards’ without armies to back them up, ‘commandos’ without infantry or artillery, these too are transpositions from the language of rhetorical heroism.”

2009

Millions of Iranians take to the streets in the pro-democracy Green Movement in Iran.

“My hands and yours,
must tear down this curtain.”

 

1649

A mutiny in the New Model Army of England by the Levellers, who called for the expansion of suffrage, religious toleration, and sweeping political reforms, is crushed when its leaders are executed.
“We do now hold ourselves bound in mutual duty to each other to take the best care we can for the future to avoid both the danger of returning into a slavish condition and chargeable remedy of another war.”

1967

Heavyweight champion boxer Muhammad Ali refuses induction into the US Armed Forces, leading to a charge for draft evasion and being stripped of his titles.

“I ain’t got no quarrel with them Vietcong. No Vietcong ever called me nigger.”