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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December 24, 1838
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U.S. forces attack towns in Sumatra (now part of Indonesia) to inflict collective punishment on the inhabitants because there have been incidents of interference with American shipping in their waters.
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December 24, 1865
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The founding of the Ku Klux Klan, an American white supremacist, anti-immigrant, terrorist group.
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December 24, 1906
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Canadian inventor Reginald Fessenden (1866-1932) makes the first-ever audio radio broadcast of music and speech. Up to that point, only Morse code signals had been transmitted via radio waves. Fessenden alerts radio operators on ships near the New England coast to listen for a special transmission on December 24. When they tune in, they hear, instead of the normal dots and dashes of Morse code, music and spoken words. Fessenden begins his historic broadcast by playing a phonograph record of Handel’s Ombra mai fu (Largo), which thereby becomes the first piece of music ever broadcast.
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December 24, 1907
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Birth of I.F. Stone (1907-1989), radical investigative journalist, whose publication I.F. Stone’s Weekly (published 1953-1971) specializes in challenging the lies and distortions of government, the military, and the mainstream media.
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