May 10. 105: Tsai Lun invents paper, China. 1969: As many as 3,000 youth stage a "Zap-In" in Zap, North Dakota; local police are not amused, and call out the National Guard.

May 11. 1968: The three biggest French labor federations call a General Strike to support students. 1989: Puget Sound Grocery Workers strike and lockout.

May 12. 1898: Louisiana adopts new constitution with "grandfather clause" designed to eliminate black voters.

May 13. 1992: Ecuador's government grants 148 native communities legal title to more than 3 million acres (slightly less than the size of the state of Washington) in the Amazon Basin.

May 14. 1856: U.S. President Franklin Pierce unofficially "recognizes" the government of American adventurer William Walker, who set himself up as the pro-slavery dictator of Nicaragua. Walker is later deposed after interfering with Cornelius Vanderbilt's transportation network.

May 15. 1966: Buddhist altars are placed in streets to stop troops from arresting dissidents, South Vietnam. 1970: In response to invasion of Cambodia and killings at Kent State and Jackson State, several million U.S. students hold campus strikes.

May 16. 1527: The Medici government in Florence is overthrown and the Republic is re-established. 1791: Denmark becomes first Western country to outlaw slave trade.

May 17. 1961: Fidel Castro offers to trade Bay of Pigs prisoners to U.S. for bulldozers. 1974: Field Marshall Cinque, Leader of the Symbionese Liberation Army, and 5 other SLA members assassinated by Los Angeles police. "Death to the fascist insect that preys upon the working masses."

May 18. 1781: Tupa Amaru II, leader of Inca Rebellion, executed in the same Peruvian square as his ancestor two centuries before. 1855: Anarchist agitator George Speed born; active in Haymarket defense, Coxey's Army, Pullman Strike, and as an IWW organizer.

May 19. 1920: The Battle of Matewan. Despite efforts by Matewan, WV, police chief (and former miner) Sid Hatfield & Mayor Testerman to protect coal miners, Baldwin-Felts detectives hired by the mining company and 13 company managers arrive to evict miners and their families from the Stone Mountain Mine camp. A gun battle ensues, leaving 7 detectives, the mayor, and 2 miners dead. Baldwin-Felts detectives assassinate Sid Hatfield 15 months later, sparking off an armed rebellion of 10,000 coal miners at "The Battle of Blair Mountain."

May 20. 1776: Mohawks, under Joseph Brandt, defeat Americans at the Battle of the Cedars.

May 21. 1971: Members of American Indian Movement occupy Naval Air Station near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 1993: Kyrgystan announces plans to dismantle its army.

May 22. 1998: After 33 years of terror, U.S.-backed Gen. Suharto is "eased" out of power in Indonesia by weeks of student protests.

May 23. 1832: Jamaican national hero Samuel Sharpe hung. Instigator of the 1831 Slave Rebellion, he was largely instrumental in bringing about the abolition of Jamaican slavery.