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#thisdayinhistory

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Liam O'Mara IV, PhD<p>From the 1880s to the 1950s, Americans played a carnival game to throw balls at a black person. <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/ThisDayInHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ThisDayInHistory</span></a> in 1908 a man in Pennsylvania was struck rapidly, "pretty well used up", "with internal injuries which may prove fatal." Photo from a 1942 <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/YMCA" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>YMCA</span></a> summer camp brochure.</p>
Liam O'Mara IV, PhD<p>On <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/ThisDayInHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ThisDayInHistory</span></a> in 1976, Chile's <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Pinochet" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Pinochet</span></a> régime carried out a car-bomb <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/assassination" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>assassination</span></a> in the heart of Washington, DC. It killed refugee <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/socialist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>socialist</span></a> economist <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/OrlandoLetelier" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>OrlandoLetelier</span></a> and his American assistant <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/RonniMoffitt" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RonniMoffitt</span></a>. The US did not object because the victims were leftists.</p>
Wittgenstein's Monster<p>📅 This Day in History – Sept 21, 1981<br>Sandra Day O’Connor is confirmed as the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.<br>It only took, checks notes, 192 years for America to accept what I’ve always known:</p><p>The mom is always right.</p><p><a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/history" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>history</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/feminism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>feminism</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/supremecourt" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>supremecourt</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/thisdayinhistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>thisdayinhistory</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/sandrdayoconnor" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sandrdayoconnor</span></a></p>
Liam O'Mara IV, PhD<p>On <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/ThisDayInHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ThisDayInHistory</span></a> in 1973, US citizen <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/FrankTeruggi" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>FrankTeruggi</span></a> was killed by agents of the <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Pinochet" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Pinochet</span></a> régime in Santiago, Chile. Because he was a member of <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/IWW" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>IWW</span></a>, i.e. a leftist, the US government sought no justice. In fact, records later declassified showed the US gov. backed the killing.</p>
Liam O'Mara IV, PhD<p>On <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/ThisDayInHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ThisDayInHistory</span></a> in 1967, the <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/QueenElizabeth2" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>QueenElizabeth2</span></a> (<a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/QE2" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>QE2</span></a>) of the <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Cunard" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Cunard</span></a> line was launched in the UK. The last large ocean liner built on the Clyde in Scotland, she served for decades as the only transatlantic liner in service, until replaced by the French-built Cunarder <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/QM2" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>QM2</span></a>.</p>
Liam O'Mara IV, PhD<p>On <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/ThisDayInHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ThisDayInHistory</span></a> in 1920, UK war criminals the <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/BlackAndTans" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BlackAndTans</span></a> rampaged through <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Balbriggan" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Balbriggan</span></a>, <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Ireland" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Ireland</span></a>, burning 50 homes and businesses, looting and beating residents, and killing two locals. Violence of this sort is a common feature of <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/colonial" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>colonial</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/occupation" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>occupation</span></a> everywhere.</p>
Liam O'Mara IV, PhD<p>On <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/ThisDayInHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ThisDayInHistory</span></a> in 1918, <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/EugeneVDebs" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>EugeneVDebs</span></a> was sentenced under the 1917 Espionage Act. He gave one of this country's most moving speeches to the court. As I cannot record it, I found someone else who did, though regretfully they left out some parts.</p><p><a href="https://youtu.be/_nyw19DpKCs" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="">youtu.be/_nyw19DpKCs</span><span class="invisible"></span></a></p>
Liam O'Mara IV, PhD<p>On <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/ThisDayInHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ThisDayInHistory</span></a> in 1947, the <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/CIA" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>CIA</span></a> was founded when Truman signed the <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/NationalSecurityAct" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>NationalSecurityAct</span></a>. Created intentionally without much oversight or presidential control, the agency was empowered to attack countries deemed a threat to <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/capitalist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>capitalist</span></a> interests. This list is incomplete:</p>
Liam O'Mara IV, PhD<p>On <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/ThisDayInHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ThisDayInHistory</span></a> in 1970, we lost guitar great <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/JimiHendrix" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>JimiHendrix</span></a>. He died a couple of months before his 28th birthday from taking too many sleeping pills. Here is his searing protest track Machine Gun, calling out the senseless violence of the <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/VietnamWar" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>VietnamWar</span></a>.</p><p><a href="https://youtu.be/u0gnl8SYkdo" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="">youtu.be/u0gnl8SYkdo</span><span class="invisible"></span></a></p>
Wittgenstein's Monster<p>📅 This Day in History – Sept 18, 1931<br>Japan staged the Mukden Incident, blowing up their own railway and blaming China—launching the invasion of Manchuria.</p><p>False flags like Mukden aren’t rare.<br>They’re routine.</p><p>Ems Dispatch. Reichstag Fire. Gleiwitz. Winter War. Northwoods. Lavon Affair. Tonkin. Iraq. Again and again.</p><p>So I wrote a poem.</p><p><a href="https://wittgensteinsmonster.substack.com/p/the-spark-that-wasnt" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">wittgensteinsmonster.substack.</span><span class="invisible">com/p/the-spark-that-wasnt</span></a></p><p><a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/ThisDayInHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ThisDayInHistory</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/FalseFlag" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>FalseFlag</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/MukdenIncident" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>MukdenIncident</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Poetry" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Poetry</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Geopolitics" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Geopolitics</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Empire" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Empire</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Manchuria" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Manchuria</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Japan" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Japan</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/History" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>History</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Authoritarianism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Authoritarianism</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Substack" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Substack</span></a></p>
Liam O'Mara IV, PhD<p><a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Capitalism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Capitalism</span></a> makes fully moral behaviour impossible; the markets will lead us to extinction. On <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/ThisDayInHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ThisDayInHistory</span></a> in 2011, the <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/OccupyWallStreet" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>OccupyWallStreet</span></a> movement began. It should never have ended. Here is a clip of <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/DavidGraeber" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>DavidGraeber</span></a>, one of the early voices of <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Occupy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Occupy</span></a>. <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/WeAreThe99Percent" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>WeAreThe99Percent</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/IWW" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>IWW</span></a></p>
Liam O'Mara IV, PhD<p>On <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/ThisDayInHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ThisDayInHistory</span></a> in 1991, <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/LinusTorvalds" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>LinusTorvalds</span></a> released the first <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Linux" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Linux</span></a> kernel. This made the <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/GNU" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>GNU</span></a> project complete, offering a free (as in freedom) alternative to <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Unix" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Unix</span></a> systems. I've been using GNU/Linux since 1994, and I haven't had to touch a <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Windows" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Windows</span></a> machine since quitting IT.</p>
Liam O'Mara IV, PhD<p>(1/2) On <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/ThisDayInHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ThisDayInHistory</span></a> in 1982, the <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/SabraAndShatilaMassacre" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>SabraAndShatilaMassacre</span></a> took place in Lebanon, from the evening of 16th to morning of 18th September. Israel trained the <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/LebaneseForces" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>LebaneseForces</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/FarRight" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>FarRight</span></a> militia, showing them <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Holocaust" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Holocaust</span></a> films, and sent them into two <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Palestinian" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Palestinian</span></a> refugee camps...</p>
Liam O'Mara IV, PhD<p>A coördinated international effort during <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/WWI" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>WWI</span></a> saw <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/capitalist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>capitalist</span></a> 'democracies' targeting <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/leftist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>leftist</span></a> groups. On <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/ThisDayInHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ThisDayInHistory</span></a> in 1917, Eva Lynch was arrested in <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Australia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Australia</span></a> whilst training women speakers to keep <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/IWW" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>IWW</span></a> going (the male leadership of the <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/union" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>union</span></a> was already imprisoned).</p>
Liam O'Mara IV, PhD<p>On <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/ThisDayInHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ThisDayInHistory</span></a> in 1963, the <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/KKK" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>KKK</span></a> bombed a church in Alabama, killing four young girls and wounding 22. <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/FBI" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>FBI</span></a> knew the identity of all four shitbag <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/WhiteSupremacist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>WhiteSupremacist</span></a> terrorists involved by 1965, but the government never prosecuted them. It was too busy murdering black people.</p>
Liam O'Mara IV, PhD<p>On <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/ThisDayInHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ThisDayInHistory</span></a> in 1935, <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Nazis" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Nazis</span></a> passed <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/N%C3%BCrnbergerGesetze" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>NürnbergerGesetze</span></a> (the <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/NurembergLaws" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>NurembergLaws</span></a>), which stripped citizenship from Jews and banned intermarriage. The success of <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/AfD" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>AfD</span></a> shows that the <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/racist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>racist</span></a> ideals behind such laws have not been overcome 90 years later.</p><p><a href="https://www.dw.com/en/germany-nazis-anti-jewish-nuremberg-laws-90-years-later-v2/a-73964767" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">dw.com/en/germany-nazis-anti-j</span><span class="invisible">ewish-nuremberg-laws-90-years-later-v2/a-73964767</span></a></p>
Liam O'Mara IV, PhD<p>On <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/ThisDayInHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ThisDayInHistory</span></a> in 1960, <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/MobutuSeseSeko" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>MobutuSeseSeko</span></a> launched a coup with <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/CIA" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>CIA</span></a> help against the first president of <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/CongoKinshasa" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>CongoKinshasa</span></a>, <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/PatriceLumumba" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>PatriceLumumba</span></a>. MSS brutally held power until 1997, and for much of that time <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Congo" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Congo</span></a> was called <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Zaire" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Zaire</span></a>. Lumumba was later butchered &amp; dissolved in acid.</p>
Liam O'Mara IV, PhD<p>On <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/ThisDayInHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ThisDayInHistory</span></a> in 1867, <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/KarlMarx" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>KarlMarx</span></a> published the first volume of <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Kapital" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Kapital</span></a>. An instant classic, it defined and described the operation of <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/capitalism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>capitalism</span></a> in the 19th c. Despite massive changes in the world economy, its analysis is foundational to any study of political economy.</p>
Liam O'Mara IV, PhD<p>On <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/ThisDayInHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ThisDayInHistory</span></a> in 1911, inspired by workers' strikes that year, school children in Hull organized a <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/strike" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>strike</span></a> against corporal punishment. The strikes spread to other schools, with many hundreds involved. Alas, it stayed legal for teachers to beat &amp; cane students until 1985.</p>
Liam O'Mara IV, PhD<p>On <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/ThisDayInHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ThisDayInHistory</span></a> in 1973, the US CIA and <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/AugustoPinochet" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>AugustoPinochet</span></a> overthrew the <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/socialist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>socialist</span></a> government of <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Chile" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Chile</span></a>. Here is President <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/SalvadorAllende" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>SalvadorAllende</span></a> speaking at the UN, months before his murder, on the impact of multinational <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/corporations" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>corporations</span></a>, in whose interests the US acts as enforcer.</p>