Liam O'Mara IV, PhD

On #ThisDayInHistory in 1961, #Black farmer #HerbertLee was shot in the head, in public, before dozens of witnesses, by #Mississippi state legislator #EHHurst just for registering Black voters. Hurst claimed 'self-defence' against the unarmed Lee, and was acquitted the same day.

Think countries like #Canada give a damn about #FreeSpeech? No nation-state has a good record on it. In 1918 on #ThisDayInHistory the #IWW was outlawed in Canada. Their crime? Opposition to the #FirstWorldWar and the killing fields to which the #WorkingClass were shipped to die.

The #BattleOfHolbeckMoor was #ThisDayInHistory in 1936, when #antifascists & #communists challenged #OswaldMosley & his #Blackshirts in Leeds. Hearing the #fascist demagogue & 1000 of his terrorist thugs would rally, 30,000 #antifa showed up to shout them down and throw punches.

Never forget #PrideMonth comes from what happened on #ThisDayInHistory in 1969. The #StonewallUprising, where #queer & #trans people threw bricks at cops, gave birth to the #GayLiberationFront and a #CivilRight struggle #fascists still oppose. Legality is not morality. #FightBack

The #RichardNixon presidency collapsed on #ThisDayInHistory in 1974, when #SCOTUS ruled unanimously that presidents are not above the law & that the subpoena of White House tapes was valid. The #WatergateScandal may, until recently, have been our sharpest test of executive power.

#SlaveUprisings are more common in American history than you have been taught, and their suppression is one reason this country is so #police-heavy. The #CharlestonWorkhouseSlaveRebellion began in #SouthCarolina on 1849 on #ThisDayInHistory; it freed 37, though most were caught.

#DirectAction is a historically effective way to protect #WorkingClass interests. China's #TonghuaSteel was set to be privatized, with 5/6 of its workers laid off to increase profitability. On #ThisDayInHistory in 2009, workers beat an executive to death. The sale was cancelled.

The British government may not have opposed #fascism or #OswaldMosley, but a lot of ordinary workers sure as hell did. On #ThisDayInHistory in 1936, Mosley & his #Blackshirt thugs were attacked by #antifascists outside Hulme Town Hall, then again on Tomlinson Street. #PunchNazis

On #ThisDayInHistory in 1934, in what #longshoremen remember as #BloodyThursday, police opened fire on striking dockworkers in #SanFrancisco. The 83-day #strike and state violence helped #HarryBridges to unionize every west coast port, leading in 1937 to the formation of #ILWU.

As #SouthCarolina lawmakers debated removing their #DixieSwastika following a #WhiteSupremacist mass murder in their state, activist #BrewNewsome chose #DirectAction on #ThisDayInHistory in 2015, climbing the flagpole at the statehouse to tear that #racist flag of #treason down.

The #YazidiGenocide began #ThisDayInHistory in 2014, when #Daesh/#ISIS, the #Sunni nationalist terrorists, turned on them, killing thousands of men and enslaving/#trafficking thousands of women. #Yazidis are a #Kurdish-speaking ethnoreligious group with deep roots in the region.

@WastelandWandrr@freeradical.zone @CaptMorgan@freeradical.zone uh, Nixon hand-picked Ford because they had those traits in common...

The #PortChicagoDisaster was #ThisDayInHistory in 1944, when a munitions explosion at #PortChicago, #California, killed 320 men, most of them #Black. White survivors got a month off; Black survivors had to clean up & go back to work loading munitions with no process improvements.

#Israeli NGO #BTselem, which extensively reports on #Zionist #apartheid, released a detailed case that its government is committing #genocide in #Palestine on #ThisDayInHistory in 2025. The #ICJ case will be bolstered by their fine collaborative analysis. https://zurl.co/N31XN

The #AmericansWithDisabilitiesAct was signed by #GeorgeHWBush on #ThisDayInHistory in 1990, making things just a little bit better for millions of Americans. There is much yet to do, and the US leaves behind far too many with serious conditions. #DisabilityRightsAreHumanRights

The #NicaraguanRevolution, which ran from 1961 to 1990, reached a milestone on #ThisDayInHistory in 1979 when dictator #SomozaDebayle fled the capital for #Miami, leaving the #Sandinista rebels in power. The US refused to accept this and spent the '80s in vicious #StateTerrorism.

On #ThisDayInHistory in 2014, #EricGarner was murdered by #NYPD because they thought he was selling cigarettes. The excessive force used against suspects by US #police forces would shame any tinpot dictatorship. That we can't fix it is outrageous. #ICantBreathe #BlackLivesMatter

#RalphWaldoEmerson, the #transcendentalist #philosopher, delivered an address to the graduating class of #HarvardDivinitySchool on #ThisDayInHistory in 1838. He scandalized many #Harvard faculty and students by rejecting #Biblical miracles and saying #Jesus was only a great man.

In the #AnguillaPrisonMassacre, on #ThisDayInHistory in 1947, a drunken warden in #Georgia used a submachine gun to kill eight #Black prisoners. Their "crime"? Refusing to dig ditches barefoot in snake-infested swamp land. The state covered it up but #NAACP revealed the facts.

The #BeirutPortExplosion was #ThisDayInHistory in 2020. A cargo of #AmmoniumNitrate, 2,750 tonnes of it, was confiscated in 2014, then left in unsafe storage conditions. Fire in a nearby warehouse set off a massive explosion, killing at least 218 people & causing ~7000 injuries.

Here again is #BabyMetal from #Japan. https://youtu.be/cK3NMZAUKGwhttps://youtu.be/UxRldWoKlnQhttps://youtu.be/GvD3CHA48pAhttps://youtu.be/WIKqgE4BwAY#FlashbackFriday #LunchtimeListens

#Egypt was one of the first modern, industrial states, only later held back by European imperialism. The #BattleOfBelenPass, on #ThisDayInHistory in 1832 during the #FirstEgyptianOttomanWar, saw a larger #Ottoman army crushed, effectively passing the #Levant to Egyptian control.

On #ThisDayInHistory in 1575, the English proved the more ruthless of Ireland's colonizers. #FrancisDrake provided naval cover for the #RathlinIslandMassacre, as English troops overran a Scottish castle off #Antrim, killing ~600 people, many refugees from other English attacks.

On #ThisDayInHistory in 1934, revolutionary #anarchist #NestorMakhno died. He led forces during the #RussianRevolution and #CivilWar, executing #antisemites and distributing land & autonomy to the peasants & workers. Their betrayal by the #SovietUnion hurt the #socialist cause.

A #FarRight military coup against the left-wing #PopularFront gov. of the #SecondSpanishRepublic began in #SpanishMorocco on #ThisDayInHistory in 1936. Failing to take power quickly, it sparked the #SpanishCivilWar, with outside powers decisively backing the #parafascist side.

The #ApolloSoyuz mission launched #ThisDayInHistory in 1975. A leftover #Apollo module from the cancelled programme docked with a #Soyuz capsule in the first international space flight, providing experience for later #Mir & #ISS missions, #Astronauts study #Russian to this day.

The #BisbeeDeportation was on #ThisDayInHistory in 1917. A private army of vigilantes, cops, & scabs rounded up 1186 #IndustrialWorkersOfTheWorld union miners in #Bisbee, #Arizona, and forcibly & illegally moved them by train in cattle cars to New Mexico to break an #IWW #strike.

#OperationProtectiveEdge, a 2014 #GazaWar, was launched on #ThisDayInHistory following some #Hamas rocket attacks, in turn retaliation for an assassination. By its end late in August, 2189 #Palestinians had been killed, mostly civilians, in over 1700 Israeli air & ground attacks.

On #ThisDayInHistory in 1972, #Mossad murdered #Palestinian novelist and journalist #GhassanKanafani and his young niece in Beirut. A refugee from the #Nakba, #Kanafani later joined the #PFLP, a Marxist resistance movement, but worked as a writer and was killed for what he wrote.

(1 of 2) On #ThisDayInHistory in 1988, near the end of the #IranIraqWar, the #USSVincennes intentionally and maliciously shot down an Iranian passenger jet, killing all 290 people aboard, including 66 children. The US has never apologized to #Iran for this unprovoked #WarCrime...

In #HamdanVRumsfeld, decided on #ThisDayInHistory in 2006, #SCOTUS ruled against the #GeorgeWBush admin.'s plan to use military tribunals for the people in its #GuantánamoBay #ConcentrationCamp, noting this violated both the #UniformCodeOfMilitaryJustice & the #GenevaConventions.

The #FederalAidHighwayAct was signed by Dwight #Eisenhower on #ThisDayInHistory in 1956. Once upon a time, even #conservatives understood investing in #infrastructure paid dividends for all Americans. The #HighwaySystem made holiday travel easier but helped break the #railroads.

On #ThisDayInHistory in 1871, the #UK legalized #TradeUnions for the first time, a process that took many decades of hard fights between bosses and the #WorkingClass. The stronger organized labour gets, the better off we all live. Stop putting up with peanuts – be #UnionStrong.

The Danish #OceanLiner #SSNorge, originally launched in 1881, ran aground on #ThisDayInHistory in 1904 near the islet Rockall west of Scotland. She was backed off but was holed and sank in twelve minutes, killing at least 635, mostly northern European emigrants bound for America.

Don't fool yourself — the #USSR under #Stalin was #conservative & #reactionary, not revolutionary or #socialist/#feminist. On #ThisDayInHistory in 1936, #abortion was outlawed there, reversing #Lenin's 1920 decree, and it stayed illegal until 1955, two years after Stalin's death.

#FrantzFanon, the great #Martiniquais revolutionary socialist, was born on #ThisDayInHistory in 1925. A physician and philosopher, #Fanon made major contributions to #antiracist and #postcolonial thought. Rebellion is an act of love, for only in liberation can we be fully human.

Thousands of workers in #Baltimore with the #GreatUpheaval/#GreatRailroadStrike clashed with #NationalGuard on #ThisDayInHistory in 1877. Federal troops reinforced them and opened fire, killing up to 22 #WorkingClass Americans and injuring 150+. This is the price of #capitalism.

A Second #GulfOfTonkinIncident was alleged for #ThisDayInHistory in 1964, as destroyers #USSMaddox & #USSTurnerJoy patrolled the coast of #NorthVietnam. Both ships opened fire on empty ocean due to faulty equipment readings. The military then lied, inventing a Vietnamese attack.

The first presidential candidate to include a proposal for #UniversalHealthcare was #TheodoreRoosevelt in 1912, but the first tentative, partial step toward it was taken by #LyndonBJohnson on #ThisDayInHistory in 1965 with the addition of #Medicare & #Medicaid to #SocialSecurity.

#Scab gained the meaning of a contemptible person in English in the late 16th century, and by the late 18th it was being applied to #workers who refused to join a #union, and later to those who refused to support a #strike. It first appeared in print on #ThisDayInHistory in 1777.

Having already shown himself a genocidal prick, #NathanielBacon put out his #populist 'Declaration of the People of Virginia' and launched #BaconsRebellion on #ThisDayInHistory in 1676. It united the Black & white #WorkingClass against colonial landowners (and #NativeAmericans).

The first day of the #BattleOfTheSomme was in 1916 on #ThisDayInHistory. A hugely bloody affair even by #WorldWarI standards, Britain alone lost 19k killed & 40k wounded that first day. By the end of the campaign, 300k+ soldiers had been killed among one million total casualties.

#Teamsters in #SalinasValley, CA, won a #strike on #ThisDayInHistory in 1970, after just one week that cost producers thousands of acres of lettuce. In addition to a pay rise, the #union gained exclusive rights to organize farm workers, setting up a fight with #UnitedFarmWorkers.

An important step on the road to #NaziGermany, #AltonaBloodySunday was #ThisDayInHistory in 1932. A provocative #Nazi #Brownshirt march turned into a street brawl with #communists in #Altona, leaving 18 dead. #FranzVonPapen & #PaulVonHindenburg used it to stage a coup in Prussia.

The #WatergateScandal took another big step forward on #ThisDayInHistory in 1974 when the House Judiciary Committee voted 27 to 11 to recommend a first article of #impeachment, on #ObstructionOfJustice, for doomed President #RichardMNixon. He resigned less than two weeks later.

British soldiers killed five unarmed people in West #Belfast on #ThisDayInHistory in 1972 in the #SpringhillMassacre. Three children were killed, then a resident & a priest waving a white flag as they tried to help a dying teenager. The lying army claimed it was #IRA, of course.

The #AttackOnMersElKébir in #FrenchAlgeria, in which the Royal Navy attacked the French Navy in 1940 on #ThisDayInHistory, may have shown the world that Britain would fight on past the French surrender, but at awful price: two battleships damaged, one sunk, 1297 seamen killed.

#NSSavannah, the passenger-cargo liner and second civilian #nuclear vessel, launched on #ThisDayInHistory in 1959, on a US gov. #ColdWar initiative. Germany & Japan also experimented, but all three failed from the same high costs. The only active nuclear merchant ship is Russian.

The first edition of #LeavesOfGrass, the evolving book of #poetry by the great #WaltWhitman, was published on #ThisDayInHistory in 1855. Initially just 12 poems, the final edition the #queer icon left to us contains 383 often achingly beautiful works on nature, freedom, and love.

After three days of murder, on #ThisDayInHistory in 1934 #NaziGermany finished its #NightOfTheLongKnives. In this purge, the #Nazi movement eliminated much of its #populist right & gutted the SA (Sturmabteilung), killing #Strasser & #Röhm, using agents mostly from #SS & #Gestapo.