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
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February 1, 1960
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Four black students sit down at a Woolworth’s whites-only lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, claiming their right to be served, and refuse to leave. It is not the first sit-in in the American civil rights movement (there have been sit-ins in at least 16 cities since 1957) but this one lights a spark and gathers increasing support. The sit-ins continue, and in July Woolworth’s finally agrees to desegregate its lunch counter after losing 20% of its business. The sit-ins also succeed in gaining widespread publicity and support for the civil rights struggle in the American South.
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February 1, 1968
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Saigon police chief Nguyen Ngoc Loan summarily executes a handcuffed prisoner, Nguyen Van Lem (a suspected member of the National Liberation Front), on a Saigon street, with a pistol shot to the head. A photo of the killing by photojournalist Eddie Adams becomes one of the most famous images of the Vietnam War, affecting international and American public opinion regarding the war by illustrating the brutality of the U.S.’s Vietnamese collaborators.
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