The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, also known as the Tiananmen Square massacre and
the June Fourth Incident, were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in
Beijing in the People's Republic of China (PRC) beginning on 15 April 1989. The movement
used mainly non-violent methods and can be considered a case of civil resistance. Led mainly by
students and intellectuals, the protests occurred in the year that was to see the collapse of a
number of communist governments in Eastern Europe.
The protests were sparked by the death of former CPC General Secretary Hu Yaobang, a Party
official known for tolerating dissent, and whom protesters had wanted to mourn. By the eve of
Hu's funeral, 100,000 people had gathered at Tiananmen Square. The protests lacked a unified
cause or leadership; participants included Communist Party of China members and Trotskyists as
well as liberal reformers, who were generally against the government's authoritarianism and
voiced calls for economic change and democratic reform[ within the structure of the government.
The demonstrations began in Tiananmen Square, but later expanded to the surrounding streets,
and large-scale protests also occurred in cities throughout China, including Shanghai.
The Vietnam War was a Cold War military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos,
and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed
the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist
allies, and the government of South Vietnam, supported by the U.S. and other anti-communist
nations.[23] The Viet Cong, a lightly armed South Vietnamese communist-controlled common
front, largely fought a guerrilla war against anti-communist forces in the region. The Vietnam
People's Army (North Vietnamese Army) engaged in a more conventional war, at times
committing large units into battle. U.S. and South Vietnamese forces relied on air superiority and
overwhelming firepower to conduct search and destroy operations, involving ground
forces, artillery and airstrikes.
The 2007 Burmese Anti-Government Protests were a series of anti-government protests that
started in Burma (also known as Union of Myanmar) on 15 August 2007. The immediate cause
of the protests was mainly the unannounced decision of the ruling junta, the State Peace and
Development Council, to remove fuel subsidies which caused the price of diesel and petrol to
suddenly rise as much as 66%, and the price of compressed natural gas for buses to increase
fivefold in less than a week.[2]
Led by students and opposition political activists, including women, the protest demonstrations
took the form of a campaign of nonviolent resistance, sometimes also called civil resistance.
They were at first dealt with quickly and harshly by the junta, with dozens of protesters arrested
and detained. Starting 18 September the protests had been led by thousands of Buddhist monks,
and those protests had been allowed to proceed until a renewed government crackdown on 26
September.[4] During the crack-down, there were rumors of disagreement within the Burmese
military, but none were confirmed. Some news reports referred to the protests as the Saffron
Revolution.
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (or "The Great March on
Washington,") was a large political rally in support of civil and economic rights for African
Americans that took place in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, August 28, 1963. Martin Luther
King, Jr. delivered his historic "I Have a Dream" speech advocating racial harmony at
the Lincoln Memorial during the march.
The march was organized by a group of civil rights, labor, and religious organizations, under the
theme "jobs, and freedom." Estimates of the number of participants varied from 200,000 (police)
to over 300,000 (leaders of the march). Observers estimated that 75–80% of the marchers were
black and the rest were white and other minorities.
The march is widely credited with helping to pass the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Voting
Rights Act (1965).
During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic
bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945
and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only active deployments of nuclear
weapons in war to date.
Within the first two to four months of the bombings, the acute effects killed 90,000–166,000
people in Hiroshima and 60,000–80,000 in Nagasaki, with roughly half of the deaths in each city
occurring on the first day. The Hiroshima prefectural health department estimates that, of the
people who died on the day of the explosion, 60% died from flash or flame burns, 30% from
falling debris and 10% from other causes. During the following months, large numbers died from
the effect of burns, radiation sickness, and other injuries, compounded by illness. In a US
estimate of the total immediate and short term cause of death, 15–20% died from radiation
sickness, 20–30% from flash burns, and 50–60% from other injuries, compounded by
illness.[5] In both cities, most of the dead were civilians.
Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that landed the first humans on Earth's Moon on July 20, 1969.
The mission, carried out by the United States, is considered a major accomplishment in the
history of exploration and represented a victory for the United States in the Cold War Space
Race with the Soviet Union.
Launched from Florida on July 16, the third lunar mission of NASA's Apollo program (and the
only G-type mission) was crewed by Commander Neil Alden Armstrong, Command Module
Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin Eugene "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr. On July 20,
Armstrong and Aldrin landed in the Sea of Tranquility and on July 21 became the first humans to
walk on the Moon. Their landing craft, Eagle, spent 21 hours and 31 minutes on the lunar surface
while Collins orbited above in the command ship, Columbia.[2] The three astronauts returned to
Earth with 47.5 pounds (21.5 kg) of lunar rocks and landed in the Pacific Ocean on July 24.
Apollo 11 fulfilled U.S. President John F. Kennedy's goal of reaching the moon before the Soviet
Union by the end of the 1960s, which he had expressed during a 1961 mission statement before
the United States Congress: "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal,
before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth."
The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East
Germany) starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding
East Germany and from East Berlin. The barrier included guard towers placed along large
concrete walls, which circumscribed a wide area (later known as the "death strip") that contained
anti-vehicle trenches, "fakir beds" and other defenses. The Soviet-dominated Eastern Bloc
officially claimed that the wall was erected to protect its population from fascist elements
conspiring to prevent the "will of the people" in building a Socialist State in East Germany.
However, in practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that
marked Germany and the communist Eastern Bloc during the post-World War II period.
In 1989, a radical series of Eastern Bloc political changes occurred, associated with
the liberalization of the Eastern Bloc's authoritarian systems and the erosion of political power in
the pro-Soviet governments in nearby Poland and Hungary. After several weeks of civil unrest,
the East German government announced on 9 November 1989 that all GDR citizens could visit
West Germany and West Berlin. Crowds of East Germans crossed and climbed onto the wall,
joined by West Germans on the other side in a celebratory atmosphere. Over the next few weeks,
a euphoric public and souvenir hunters chipped away parts of the wall; the governments later
used industrial equipment to remove most of the rest. The fall of the Berlin Wall paved the way
for German reunification, which was formally concluded on 3 October 1990.
The Declaration by United Nations was a World War II document agreed to on January 1, 1942
during the Arcadia Conference by 26 governments: the Allied "Big Four" (the USA, the UK, the
USSR, and China), nine American allies in Central America and the Caribbean, the four British
Dominions, British India, and eight Allied governments-in-exile, for a total of twenty-six
nations.
During December 1941, Roosevelt devised the name "United Nations" for the Allies of World
War II, and the Declaration by United Nations, on 1 January 1942, was the basis of the modern
UN. The term United Nations became synonymous during the war with the Allies and was
considered to be the formal name that they were fighting under. The text of the declaration
affirmed the signatories' perspective "that complete victory over their enemies is essential to
defend life, liberty, independence and religious freedom, and to preserve human rights and
justice in their own lands as well as in other lands, and that they are now engaged in a common
struggle against savage and brutal forces seeking to subjugate the world". The principle of
"complete victory" established an early precedent for the Allied policy of obtaining the Axis'
powers' "unconditional surrender". The defeat of "Hitlerism" constituted the overarching
objective, and represented a common Allied perspective that the totalitarian militarist regimes
ruling Germany, Italy, and Japan were indistinguishable.
The Virginia Tech massacre was a school shooting that took place on Monday, April 16, 2007,
on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia. In
two separate attacks, approximately two hours apart, the perpetrator, Seung-Hui Cho, killed 32
people and wounded many others before committing suicide. The massacre is one of the
deadliest shooting incidents by a single gunman in United States history, on or off a school
campus.
The attacks received international media coverage and drew widespread criticism of U.S. laws
and culture. It sparked intense debate about gun violence, gun laws, gaps in the U.S. system for
treating mental health issues, the perpetrator's state of mind, the responsibility of college
administrations, privacy laws, journalism ethics, and other issues. Television news organizations
that aired portions of the killer's multimedia manifesto were criticized by victims' families,
Virginia law enforcement officials, and the American Psychiatric Association.
The United States Declaration of Independence is a statement adopted by the Continental
Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war
with Great Britain were now independent states, and thus no longer a part of the British Empire.
Written primarily by Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration is a formal explanation of why Congress
had voted on July 2 to declare independence from Great Britain, more than a year after the
outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. The birthday of the United States of America—
Independence Day—is celebrated on July 4, the day the wording of the Declaration was
approved by Congress.
The Declaration justified the independence of the United States by listing colonial grievances
against King George III, and by asserting certain natural rights, including a right of revolution.
Having served its original purpose in announcing independence, the text of the Declaration was
initially ignored after the American Revolution. Its stature grew over the years, particularly the
second sentence, a sweeping statement of individual human rights:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit
of Happiness.
The anti-globalization movement, or counter-globalisation movement,[1] is critical of
the globalization of corporate capitalism. The movement is also commonly referred to as
the global justice movement, alter-globalization movement, anti-corporate globalization
movement, or movement against neoliberal globalization.
Participants base their criticisms on a number of related ideas.What is shared is that participants
stand in opposition to large, multi-national corporations having unregulated political power and
to the powers exercised through trade agreements and deregulated financial markets.
Specifically, corporations are accused of seeking to maximize profit at the expense of sabotaging
work safety conditions and standards, labor hiring and compensation standards, environmental
conservation principles, and the integrity of national legislative authority, independence and
sovereignty.
The Tibetan independence movement is a movement for the independence of the lands
where Tibetan people live and the political separation of those lands from the People's Republic
of China. It is principally lead by the Tibetan diaspora in countries like India and the United
States, and by celebrities and Tibetan Buddhists in the United States and Europe. The movement
is not supported by the 14th Dalai Lama, who although having advocated it from 1961 to the late
1970s, proposed a sort of high-level autonomy in a speech in Strasbourg in 1988, and has since
restricted his proposals to the Tibetan Autonomous Region within China.[2]
To legitimize claims to independence, campaigners assert that Tibet has been historically
independent, although there is no clear answer to question because of differing ideas of "Tibet"
and "independence". Also, campaigners argue that Tibetans are currently mistreated and denied
certain human rights, although the government disputes this and cites progress in human rights.
Various organizations with overlapping campaigns for independence and human rights have
sought to pressure various governments to support Tibetan independence or to take punitive
action against China for opposing it.
Apartheid was a system of legal racial segregation enforced by the National Party government
of South Africa between 1948 and 1993, under which the rights of the majority 'non-white'
inhabitants of South Africa were curtailed and minority rule by white people was maintained.
The government of South Africa also practiced the same discriminatory policies while
occupying South West Africa, known after 1966 as Namibia.
Racial segregation in South Africa began in colonial times. However, apartheid as an official
policy was introduced following the general election of 1948. New legislation classified
inhabitants into racial groups ("black", "white", "coloured", and "Indian"), and residential areas
were segregated, sometimes by means of forced removals. From 1958, black people were
deprived of their citizenship, legally becoming citizens of one of ten tribally based selfgoverning homelands called bantustans, four of which became nominally independent states.
The government segregated education, medical care, and other public services, and provided
black people with services inferior to those of white people.[2]
Apartheid sparked significant internal resistance and violence as well as a long trade
embargo against South Africa.Since the 1980s, a series of popular uprisings and protests were
met with the banning of opposition and imprisoning of anti-apartheid leaders. As unrest spread
and became more violent, state organizations responded with increasing repression and statesponsored violence.
The 2011 Egyptian Revolution took place following a popular uprising that began on 25
January 2011. The uprising, in which the participants placed emphasis on the peaceful nature of
the struggle, took mainly the form of a campaign of civil resistance which featured a series
of demonstrations, marches, acts of civil disobedience, and labor strikes. The campaign
continued to be predominantly peaceful even after certain attacks on it. However, there were also
some clashes characterized by uses of force on both sides - by security services and supporters of
the regime of Hosni Mubarak on the one hand, and protestors on the other. The campaign took
place in Cairo, Alexandria, and other cities in Egypt, following the Tunisian Revolution that saw
the overthrow of the long time Tunisian president. Millions of protesters from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds and religions demanded the overthrow of the regime of Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak. On 11 February, Mubarak resigned from office following weeks of
determined popular protest and pressure.
On June of 1987, a small group of strangers gathered in a San Francisco storefront to document
the lives they feared history would neglect. Their goal was to create a memorial for those who
had died of AIDS, and to thereby help people understand the devastating impact of the disease.
This meeting of devoted friends and lovers served as the foundation of the NAMES Project
AIDS Memorial Quilt. Today the Quilt is a powerful visual reminder of the AIDS pandemic.
More than 44,000 individual 3-by-6-foot memorial panels -- most commemorating the life of
someone who has died of AIDS -- have been sewn together by friends, lovers and family
members. On October 11, 1987, the Quilt was displayed for the first time on the National Mall in
Washington, D.C., during the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. It
covered a space larger than a football field and included 1,920 panels. Half a million people
visited the Quilt that weekend. The overwhelming response to the Quilt's inaugural display led to
a four-month, 20-city, national tour for the Quilt in the spring of 1988. The tour raised nearly
$500,000 for hundreds of AIDS service organizations. More than 9,000 volunteers across the
country helped the seven-person traveling crew move and display the Quilt. Local panels were
added in each city, tripling the Quilt's size to more than 6,000 panels by the end of the tour
Victory over Japan Day (also known as Victory in the Pacific Day, V-J Day, or V-P Day) is a
name chosen for the day on which the Surrender of Japan occurred, effectively ending World
War II, and subsequent anniversaries of that event. The term has been applied to both the day on
which the initial announcement of Japan's surrender was made in the afternoon of August 15,
1945, in Japan, and because of time zone differences, to August 14, 1945, (when it was
announced in the United States, Western Europe, the Americas, the Pacific Islands, and
Australia/New Zealand), as well as to September 2, 1945, when the signing of the surrender
document occurred.
V-J Day in Times Square is a photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt that portrays an American sailor
kissing a young nurse in a white dress on V-J Day in Times Square on August 14, 1945. The
photograph was originally published a week later in Life magazine among many photographs of
celebrations around the country that were presented in a twelve-page section called Victory. A
two-page spread faces three other kissing poses among celebrators in Washington, D.C., Kansas
City, and Miami, Florida opposite Eisenstaedt's, which is given a full page display. Kissing was a
favorite pose encouraged by media photographers of service personnel during the war, but
Eisenstaedt was photographing a spontaneous event that occurred in Times Square as the
announcement of the end of the war on Japan was made by President Truman at seven o'clock.
Similar jubilation spread quickly with the news.
The military use of children takes three distinct forms: children can take direct part in hostilities
(child soldiers), or they can be used in support roles such as porters, spies, messengers, look outs,
and sexual slaves; or they can be used for political advantage either as human shields or
in propaganda.
Throughout history and in many cultures, children have been extensively involved in military
campaigns even when such practices were supposedly against cultural morals. Since the 1970s a
number of international conventions have come into effect that try to limit the participation of
children in armed conflicts, nevertheless the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers reports
that the use of children in military forces, and the active participation of children in armed
conflicts is widespread.
James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens (September 12, 1913 – March 31, 1980) was
an American track and field athlete who specialized in the sprints and the long jump. Owens was
cheered enthusiastically by 110,000 people in Berlin's Olympic Stadium; on the street, Germans
sought his autograph. Owens was allowed to travel with and stay in the same hotels as whites,
while at the time blacks in many parts of the United States were denied equal rights. After a New
York City ticker-tape parade of Fifth Avenue in his honor, Owens had to ride the freight elevator
at the Waldorf-Astoria to reach the reception honoring him.[4]
Owens said, "Hitler didn't snub me—it was FDR who snubbed me. The president didn't even
send me a telegram." Jesse Owens was never invited to the White House nor bestowed honors by
presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) or his successor Harry S. Truman during their terms. In
1955, President Dwight D. Eisenhower honored Owens by naming him an "Ambassador of
Sports."
The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo is an association of Argentine mothers whose children
"disappeared" during the Dirty War of the military dictatorship, between 1976 and 1983. On
April 30, 1977, takes place in Buenos Aires, the first march of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo,
demanding live appearance of their children who were victims of repression of the military
dictatorship that ruled Argentina in that time.The idea came as the initial group of mothers was
hoping that by responding to the secretary of the Military Vicar. That day, 14 mothers initiating a
journey which, over time, would approach other mothers affected. Since then, every Thursday
repeated a walk (caused when security forces demanded them "circular" because sitio9 state,
around the central pyramid of the square or Plaza de Mayo. Over time, the Madres de Plaza de
Mayo began to be seen as a symbol of resistance against repression and human right abuses one
of the most vicious dictatorships on the continent. Achieved in 1978 during the World Cup they
were interviewing for a part of the foreign press, to which the military government demanded
answers about the whereabouts of their relatives. Over time, his struggle, and in the democratic
era, focused not only continue to seek the remains of missing persons, but also to locate the
children of social activists killed by the dictatorship and taken from their parents before or after
birth, and likewise, seek justice and to sit on the dock to the torturers and those responsible for
years of military repression.
In 1930, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi led the Salt March as part of the Indian
independence movement against colonizing British rule. In addition to displaying the unity
amongst the Indian people, the Salt March was an important statement about tax resistance and
nonviolent opposition. The British held a monopoly on salt in India, supported by official laws
banning the production of salt without paying an associated tax. At the end of his 240-mile trek
to Dandi, on the Indian coast, Gandhi and his countrymen produced salt without paying the tax.
This act of civil disobedience spurred a movement that eventually included millions of Indians.
Initially, the British leadership was not concerned about the salt march, believing the
statement to be fairly mundane. As attention grew, however, the importance of salt to the
national psyche in India became apparent. Because every person in the country used salt, it was
relatable to Indians of all classes. Additionally, the tax represented over 8% of British revenue in
India, and disproportionately affected the poorest Indians. The Salt March remains one of the
most significant symbols of nonviolent resistance, and is firmly associated with the end of the
British colonial rule in India.