[Airline Strikers Win (in 1958), Greenhouse Gas Census (2013),
Secret Combat Deaths (1918), Gun Control, Anyone? (1993), OSHA Doesnt
Crack the Whip (1983), Sojourner Truth, Farewell (1883), Battle or
Massacre? (1868)]
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THIS WEEK IN PEOPLE’S HISTORY, NOV 21–27  
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_ Airline Strikers Win (in 1958), Greenhouse Gas Census (2013),
Secret Combat Deaths (1918), Gun Control, Anyone? (1993), OSHA Doesn't
Crack the Whip (1983), Sojourner Truth, Farewell (1883), Battle or
Massacre? (1868) _

Machinists walking out in 1958,

 

_A 16-DAY STRIKE PAYS OFF IN 1958 _

65 YEARS AGO, on November 21, 1958, some seven thousand members of the
International Association of Machinists struck Trans World Airlines in
support of their demand for a substantial pay increase. When TWA
planes in the air at  time had reached their destinations, the
airline shut down until December 6, the day it agreed to raise the
machinists' pay by 18 percent over the life of a 3-year contract.

_WHO'S BEEN RELEASING GREENHOUSE GASES?_

TEN YEARS AGO, on November 22, 2013, the biweekly scientific journal
Climate Change published Richard Heede's long, detailed, peer-reviewed
study, "Tracing carbon and methane emissions to fossil fuel and cement
producers, 1854-2010." The study found that just 90 production
entities -- the top five wee Chevron (headquartered in the U.S.),
ExxonMobil (U.S.), Saudi Aramco (Saudi Arabia), BP (UK) and Gazprom
(Russian Federation) -- had been responsible for 63 percent of global
greenhouse gas production during the 156 years ending in 2010. It also
found that half of the emissions had occurred since 1986. Heede, the
Director of the Climate Accountability Institute, concluded the
article with this: "Energy companies have strong financial incentives
to produce and market their booked reserves and oppose efforts to
leave their valuable assets in the ground, but social and legal
pressures may shift these incentives. Identifying who the major carbon
producers are, and have been historically, may provide a useful basis
for future social and legal pressure."
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_KEEPING COMBAT DEATHS SECRET UNTIL WAR'S OVER_

105 YEARS AGO, on November 23, 1918, two weeks after the end of the
World War, the U.S. Army revealed that for two years it had
systematically lied in its official daily casualty lists, which
newspapers had widely published on a regular basis. Whereas the daily
casualty lists had reported a total of 84,348 U.S. casualties, the
true number was now reported to be 236,117. The number reported killed
in the daily lists was only three-fifths of the true number. Then on
November 30, the Army Chief of Staff disclosed the actual number of
casualties was even greater, 262,728. Of course, the Army did not
admit to having ever lied; it simply released the true numbers and
hoped that no one would take note of the discrepancies.

_GUN CONTROL, ANYONE?_

30 YEARS AGO, on November 24, 1993, the Brady Handgun Violence
Prevention Act was approved by the Senate. The law was signed by
President Clinton on November 30. The Brady Act established the
requirement that most (but not all) gun purchasers pass a background
check before being allowed to purchase a weapon. In the years since
background checks were required, they have blocked at least 1.2
million attempted firearms purchases. Sadly, the only substantial
gun-control legislation that has been enacted since the Brady Act was
the Federal Assault Weapons Ban of 1994, which included a 10-year
sunset provision, with the result the law was repealed, in effect, in
2004. During the 19 years since the expiration of the assault weapons
ban, the annual number of firearms deaths in the U.S. has nearly
doubled.
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_A WATERED-DOWN RIGHT-TO-KNOW IN 1983_

40 YEARS AGO, on November 25, 1983, the federal Occupational Safety
and Health Administration (OSHA) published a new and unusual
regulation. Officially, the regulation's name was Hazard Communication
Standard, but it was better known as the Right-to-Know Law. For the
first time in its 13-year existence, OSHA was mandating that employers
tell workers the names of hazardous chemicals present in the workplace
and make it possible for the workers to obtain detailed information
about the risk of exposure. It was a step in the right direction, but
it did not go nearly far enough. The new regulation was a heavily
watered-down version of a draft rule that had been written during
Jimmy Carter's tenure as President, but which had not been finalized
before Ronald Reagan took office in 1981. The Reagan administration
scrapped the Carter draft, but it was under considerable pressure to
issue some version of a Right-to-Know rule, no matter how feeble,
which is exactly what happened.
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_SOJOURNER TRUTH, FREEDOM'S FIERCE ADVOCATE, LAYS DOWN HER SWORD_

140 YEARS AGO, on November 26, 1883, Sojourner Truth, who had devoted
much of her life to the movement to abolish slavery and to the
movement to fully enfranchise women, died in Battle Creek, Michigan,
where she had been living for 15 years. She was about 86 when she died
(like the vast majority of enslaved and formerly enslaved people in
the U.S., she did not know when she had been born, except that it was
around 1797). No short summary of Sister Truth's long and eventful
life can do her justice, so I'm not going to make the attempt.
 Suffice to say, she was a hero to many participants in the movements
for social reform that she championed.  When she died, Frederick
Douglas published this about her: "Venerable for age, distinguished
for insight into human nature, remarkable for independence and
courageous self-assertion, devoted to the welfare of her race, she has
been for the last forty years an object of respect and admiration to
social reformers everywhere." For anyone whose curiosity is piqued, I
recommend Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol, by Nell Irvin Painter,
published by W.W. Norton. [link removed]

_INSTANT PHOTOGRAPHY'S AN INSTANT HIT_

75 YEARS AGO, on November 26, 1948, the first Polaroid Land camera
went on sale for $89.75, the equivalent of $1,135 of today's dollars.
It was the first instant camera using self-developing film to create a
print shortly after taking the picture. Despite its high price, it
sold out in minutes.
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_BATTLE OR MASSACRE?_

155 YEARS AGO, at dawn on November 27, 1868, more than 550 mounted
U.S. Army troops under the command of Lieut. Col. George Custer made a
surprise attack on a village of some 250 members of the Southern
Cheyenne Nation (100 of them women and children), which was on the
bank of the Washita River, 140 miles west of Oklahoma City. Virtually
all the Cheyenne were killed or taken prisoner (a handful managed to
escape). Among the dead were the leaders of the group, Black Kettle
and his wife, Medicine Woman. Custer called the engagement the Battle
of Washita; many others called it the Washita Massacre.
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* U.S. history
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* International Association of Machinists
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* Global warming
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* World War I
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* Gun Control
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* OSHA
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* Sojourner Truth
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* Plains Indians
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