Rwandan mayor takes brunt of international tribunal’s first genocide conviction. Although the United Nations Genocide Convention was established in 1948, not until 1998 did an international tribunal identify a criminal genocide. That finding stemmed from an April 1994 massacre of 800,000 mostly Tutsi Rwandans. Seven months after that atrocity, the UN Security Council responded by establishing the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, whose purpose was to prosecute people responsible. The f...
Sep 03, 2017•2 min
Pioneer Canadian suffragist Nellie McClung dies. One of Canada’s most famous champions of women’s rights, Nellie McClung died in Victoria, B.C. on September 1, 1951. McClung was born Nellie Letitia Mooney in 1873 near Owen Sound, Ontario, before her family moved to rural Manitoba. After a career that spanned teaching and writing (she was a well-respected novelist and essayist), McClung got involved in the women’s movement. Her efforts on behalf of the Manitoba Liberal Party in 1914 and 1915 led ...
Sep 01, 2017•2 min
Pledge to end white rule wins Rhodesia Prime Minister Ian Smith a landslide victory. White rule of Rhodesia started in 1889 with British colonization by businessman Cecil John Rhodes. Eventually, internal struggles and international pressure caught up with the country’s racist system. White citizens finally became open to change, and when Prime Minister Ian Smith pledged to end white rule in what is now called Zimbabwe, he won a landslide victory on August 31, 1977. The 85,000 white voters elect...
Aug 31, 2017•2 min
Thurgood Marshall becomes first African American Supreme Court justice. Thurgood Marshall wanted to be a dentist but ended up a U.S. Supreme Court judge. Born in Baltimore, Maryland on July 2, 1908, Thurgood attended public schools before studying law. After a short time in private practice, he joined the legal team of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), soon winning some of the most important anti-discrimination decisions at the high court. Appointed to the U...
Aug 30, 2017•2 min
Aboriginals need separate justice system, says Manitoba inquiry. Questionable circumstances surrounding the 1971 murder of Betty Osborne, a First Nations woman in The Pas, Manitoba, prompted concern among Manitobans about whether racism lurked within the justice system where it was applied to aboriginals. When aboriginal leader J.J. Harper died while in police custody in 1988, that concern grew. In response, the Manitoba government created an inquiry into aboriginal justice in 1988. On August 29...
Aug 29, 2017•2 min
Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his “I have a dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. When U.S. President John F. Kennedy proposed the Civil Rights Bill to Congress, Southern representatives blocked it. To build political pressure for the bill, civil rights leaders staged a march on Washington on August 28, 1963 that drew over 250,000 people. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the key speakers on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Although it is hard to discern from the film, one acco...
Aug 28, 2017•2 min
When Indian women marry non-Indians, they lose band rights, Supreme Court rules. Jeannette Lavell and Yvonne Bedard were both deprived of their Indian status when they married non-Indian men. The Indian Act of Canada allowed their bands to remove them from band registries and block their rights to land or property on their own reserves where they lived. Both women took separate legal action, but on August 27, 1973, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld the decision, five to four. The Canadian Bill ...
Aug 27, 2017•2 min
The 19th amendment gives American women the vote. In July 1848, approximately 260 women and 40 men met in Seneca Falls, New York “to discuss the social, civil and religious condition and rights of woman.” Prior to this convention, a few women had been drafting declarations and resolutions. When Elizabeth Cady Stanton proposed the right to vote, fellow rights supporter Lucretia Mott said, “Why Lizzie, thee will make us ridiculous.” Stanton later explained, “I persisted, for I saw clearly that the...
Aug 26, 2017•2 min
Allies liberate Paris from Nazis. On June 6, 1944 – later known as D-Day – British, American and Canadian soldiers stormed five beaches along Normandy, France. Initially, Canadian soldiers encountered little resistance at Juno Beach, but their losses rapidly escalated to 18,444 Canadian casualties including 5,021 deaths before the offensive ended in August. The Nazis, on the other hand, lost over 300,000 soldiers during this French invasion. Meanwhile, Allied troops worked with the French resist...
Aug 25, 2017•2 min
McCarthyism era. The United States’ short-lived alliance with the Soviet Union to defeat the Nazis chilled once World War II ended. And that chill turned into fears of communism throughout the world as the “Cold War” began and the Soviets asserted their control over Eastern European countries. Many Americans were concerned not only about communism abroad, but also about communism within their own borders. This post-war period, starting in the 1940s and continuing until the late 1950s, was also c...
Aug 24, 2017•3 min
Soviets and Nazis sign a non-aggression pact that leads to World War II. World War I came to a close with Germany signing the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919. Many a historian has written about the severity of the treaty and the negative impact it had on Germany’s ability to grow into a strong country. Germany was to repay the Allies for their costs of the war, lose significant parts of its territory, and all branches of the military were to be severely limited in personnel and armaments. In a...
Aug 23, 2017•3 min
David Reimer, raised as “Brenda,” is born. Twins Bruce and Brian were born to Ron and Janet Reimer on August 22, 1965 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Six months later, when a failed circumcision severely damaged Bruce’s penis, a psychologist persuaded his parents to raise him as a girl. So, after much angst, they allowed doctors to physically alter their infant, and renamed him Brenda. They did so on the advice of renowned psychologist and sex researcher Dr. John Money of John Hopkins Hospital in the U.S...
Aug 22, 2017•3 min
United Church of Canada reaffirms the ordination of gay & lesbian ministers. In 1972, the United church’s general council commissioned a study on human sexuality that went toward helping its members accept gays and lesbians more than other mainstream religious groups in Canada. Eight years later, the church established a task force to determine what role gays and lesbians might play in the church. By 1988, defying substantial opposition from across the country, church leaders passed a motion...
Aug 21, 2017•2 min
Katherine Ryan, “the real Klondike Kate,” is born in New Brunswick. When people think of Klondike Kate, they conjure up images of a dance-hall entertainer or gold mine prostitute. The real Klondike Kate was Katherine Ryan, born August 20, 1869 in Johnville, New Brunswick. Ryan became a nurse in Seattle, Washington before journeying in 1898 to the Klondike, where she staked three gold claims. When she reached Whitehorse, she used her nursing skills to tend to the sick, but had many other occupati...
Aug 20, 2017•2 min
Trials find 17 former Auschwitz SS officials and guards guilty. During World War II, Nazi Germany had dozens of prisons, often referred to as “camps” in various countries. They were used to hold prisoners of war, and any undesirable people. They were also used for exterminations, supplying forced labour and to transfer prisoners. The most infamous of these facilities were the extermination camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belżec, Kulmhof, Jasenovac, Lwów, Majdenek, Maly Trostenets, Sobibór, Treblink...
Aug 19, 2017•3 min
James Meredith becomes first African American student to graduate from the University of Mississippi. After many years in the military and two years at the all-black Jackson State College, James Meredith applied to the University of Mississippi in 1961, only to be denied admission on the basis of his race. He took the university to court and won his case at the U.S. Supreme Court, but it wasn’t enough. Mississippi’s governor, Ross Barnett, still refused him admission, and the State Congress pass...
Aug 18, 2017•2 min
Berlin Wall casualty rate reaches 50 as another German tries to jump it. In 1961, the Soviet Union-controlled government of East Germany built the Berlin Wall as a “barrier to Western imperialism.” Many people tried crossing the well-guarded wall that stood between the communist-controlled eastern portion of the city and the “free” west. Some were successful, but 246 died on the wall during its 28 years. On August 17, 1962, Peter Fechter was shot as he tried to jump the barbed-wire section near ...
Aug 17, 2017•2 min
The United Church of Canada appoints its first woman moderator, Lois Wilson. Born April 8, 1927, Lois Wilson attained her bachelor of arts and bachelor of divinity degrees from United College in Winnipeg. Wilson was ordained as a United church minister in 1965 and engaged in team ministry with her husband, Dr. Roy Wilson, for 17 years. During this time she became first woman president of the Canadian Council of Churches.from 1976 until 1979. Years later, she became the first Canadian president o...
Aug 16, 2017•2 min
India gains independence. India came under direct British rule in 1858, following a failed uprising. From that point forward, citizens’ resentment grew towards the rulers; the Indian people wanted to control their own destiny. The next few decades were marked by protests, arrests, killings and internal fighting. But the creation of the Indian National Congress in 1885 and the civil disobedience of leader Mohandas Ghandi starting in 1920, were two factors that led to a turn of events. At the stro...
Aug 15, 2017•2 min
Polish workers stage a massive strike for rights. In the 1970s, Poland was part of the Soviet Bloc, but its citizens had a knack for flexing their political muscle in a way that distressed Russians. In 1980, things came to a head when Polish workers stepped up union activities in hopes of improving their working conditions and political freedoms. Shipyard workers in Gdansk, Poland staged a strike to protest the dismissal of trade union activist Anna Walentinowicz. Some 16,000 workers joined in t...
Aug 14, 2017•2 min
Children can’t be forced to pray in school, Manitoba court rules. In 1986, Chris Tait was given a week’s suspension at Macgregor High School in Manitoba for refusing to stand during the Lord’s Prayer. That prompted a court case that eventually led to an August 13, 1992 ruling by the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench that it is unconstitutional to make prayers mandatory in public schools. At the time, only Manitoba and British Columbia still required prayers in public schools, and an Ontario Court ...
Aug 13, 2017•2 min
Canada’s first woman aboriginal chief, Gwen O’Soup Crane, was born. Gwendolyn Lucy O’Soup was born on August 12, 1930 in the Key First Nation, Saskatchewan, a small community 220 kms northeast of Regina by the Manitoba border. Due to a government-mandated restriction on the education of First Nations people, Gwen was allowed to complete no more than grade eight. To combat this, she took a job babysitting the teacher’s children to have more access to education. At the same time, she worked dilige...
Aug 12, 2017•3 min
Canadian Communist Party leader Tim Buck arrested for left-wing beliefs. Not many politicians hold a post for 35 years, but Timothy Buck did exactly that. Born on January 6, 1891 in England, the machinist and labour leader immigrated to Canada in 1910. There he rose to the rank of general secretary of the Communist Party of Canada in 1929, a post he held until 1964. He ran for Parliament several times, gaining 25 per cent of the votes at least twice, but never made it to MP. Of course, the exist...
Aug 11, 2017•2 min
Queen approves Canadian Bill of Rights. The Canadian Bill of Rights became law under Progressive Conservative Prime Minister John Diefenbaker on August 10, 1960. It protected human rights based on freedom of religion, speech, assembly, association and the press. It also set out protections in criminal matters, such as the right to seek legal counsel and against arbitrary detention. While these kinds of freedoms had never before been put into Canadian law, the new bill was criticized for being a ...
Aug 10, 2017•2 min
UN urges world to recognize issues of indigenous people. Every August 9th, the United Nations celebrates indigenous people’s rights. The designation grew from the formation of a UN working committee on August 9, 1982, assigned to study human rights issues pertaining to indigenous people. Twelve years later in 1994, the UN decided to draw more attention to these issues by establishing the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People. The UN’s goal is to strengthen international cooperation ...
Aug 09, 2017•3 min
More than 1,000 protesting students in Rangoon killed by Burma’s military. Burma, today called Myanmar, is a country with a long history of political turmoil. The last outsiders to rule the country were the British, who began their conquest in 1824 and stayed until 1948. With their departure came significant internal turmoil that left the government weak. In 1962, General Ne Win abolished Burma’s constitution and created a military dictatorship. Decades later, after years of unrest from a deteri...
Aug 08, 2017•3 min
Commemorative coin honours black activist Booker T. Washington. Booker T. Washington was born into slavery on April 5, 1856 in Hales Ford, Virginia. When his family was freed in April 1865 by the Emancipation Proclamation, they moved to Malden, West Virginia. There, Washington worked early morning mine shifts before attending school. He eventually enrolled at the Hampton Institute of Virginia, a new school for blacks that he later served as an instructor. Washington went on to create the Tuskege...
Aug 07, 2017•2 min
Americans drop atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Although the war in Europe ended in May 1945, it continued to rage in Asia. The Allies expected to win, but knew it would take a long time and involve many casualties. For years, under the code name “Manhattan Project,” Americans had been working secretly on a nuclear bomb; now they were ready to use it. On the morning of August 6, 1945, U.S. Colonel Paul Tibbets dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan from his plane, the “Enola Gay.” An estimat...
Aug 06, 2017•2 min
Montreal Mayor Camilien Houde arrested for sedition. While most Canadians take pride in the role their country played during both world wars, many Quebecers saw the wars as unnecessary British colonial battles. That made World War II conscription contentious to men like Montreal Mayor Camilien Houde. He had a political career at the provincial, federal and municipal levels. From 1929 until 1932, Houde was leader of the Quebec Conservative Party. In 1949 he became an independent Member of Parliam...
Aug 05, 2017•2 min
Michaëlle Jean becomes Canada’s first black governor general. Michaëlle Jean was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti in 1957. When Jean was 10 years old, her father was arrested and tortured for his opposition to dictator François “Papa Doc” Duvalier. In 1968, shortly after his release, the family moved to Thetford Mines, Quebec, where Michaëlle was amazed to find snow. She was a brilliant student with an ability for languages. Her education at the University of Montreal, University of Perouse, Univer...
Aug 04, 2017•3 min
