by Susan | Dec 20, 2016 | this day in peace and justice history
December 20, 1971 Ten French physicians created a team that later became known as “Doctors Without Borders” (Medecins Sans Frontieres) to help the people in the Nigerian region of Biafra. They formed in frustration with the neutrality of the Int’l....
by Susan | Dec 19, 2016 | this day in peace and justice history
December 19, 1940 Civilian Public Service (CPS) camps were established for conscientious objectors following the institution of the first peacetime draft. Followers of the Quakers, Mennonites and Church of the Brethren worked nine-hour days except Sundays, had to pay...
by Susan | Dec 18, 2016 | this day in peace and justice history
December 18, 1971 President Nixon signed into law the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). It gave large portions of prime bear habitat to the Alutiiq people, who had hunted and fished on the island for 7,000 years. Ten percent of the state — 44 million acres...
by Susan | Dec 17, 2016 | this day in peace and justice history
December 17, 1843 British author Charles Dickens published “A Christmas Carol” at his own expense. It was one of many public and private efforts by Dickens to bring about social reform: prison visits, charity drives, promotion of the so-called “Ragged...
by Susan | Dec 16, 2016 | this day in peace and justice history
December 16, 1965 High school students in Des Moines, Iowa, were suspended for wearing black armbands to “mourn the deaths on both sides” and in support of Robert Kennedy’s call for a Christmas truce. The students sued the Des Moines School District,...
by Susan | Dec 15, 2016 | this day in peace and justice history
December 15, 1989 A popular uprising that resulted in the downfall of Romania’s Nicolae Ceausescu began as demonstrators gathered in Timisoara to prevent the arrest of the Reverend Laszlo Tokes, a dissident...
