Seeds of Fire: A People’s Chronology
Recalling events that happened on this day in history.
Memories of struggle, resistance and persistence.
Compiled by Ulli Diemer
|
May 19, 1842
|
|
|
Karl Marx writes the sixth of a series of articles on freedom of the press: among his earliest journalistic writings. Marx takes an uncompromising stand against censorship, and expresses his irritation with reformers who want freedom for the ‘responsible’ press but are willing to contenance censorship of ‘irresponsible’ writings: “Some want a full censorship, others a half censorship; some want three-eighths freedom of the press, others none at all. God save me from my friends!”
In Marx’s view, “the absence of freedom of the press makes all other freedoms illusory... Whenever a particular freedom is put in question, freedom in general is put in question.”
|
|
May 19, 1845
|
|
|
Two ships, the Erebus and the Terror, commanded by Sir John Franklin, set out from England in search of the Northwest Passage. None of the 129 men on the expedition will return home.
|
|
May 19, 1890
|
|
|
Birth of Ho Chi Minh, Vietnamese revolutionary.
|
|
May 19, 1895
|
|
|
The Cuban revolutionary poet Jose Marti is killed in an uprising against Spanish troops.
|
|
May 19, 1904
|
|
|
Birth of Daniel Guerin (1904-1988), French anarcho-communist.
|
|
May 19, 1906
|
|
|
Death of Gabriel Dumont (1837-1906), Metis leader, commander of the Metis forces in the Northwest Rebellion of 1885.
|
|
May 19 - September 4, 1910
|
|
|
U.S. forces occupy Nicaragua to ‘protect American interests.’
|
|
May 19, 1920
|
|
|
The Battle of Matewan, a shootout in the town of Matewan, West Virginia between striking miners and hired guns sent by the company to evict them from their homes. Ten men die.
The incident and the events surrounding it are the subject of a film by John Sayles.
|
|
May 19, 1925
|
|
|
Birth of Malcolm X (Malcom Little) (1925-1965), African-American activist and speaker.
|
|
May 19, 1952
|
|
|
Playwright Lillian Hellman refuses to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
Quote: I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year’s fashions.
|
