Feb. 15. 1898: US battleship Maine explodes, sinks in Havana Harbor, killing 266. No evidence of sabotage was found, but the Hearst newspapers claim the ship was intentionally blown up by the Spanish. The accusation increased the newspapers' circulation and drew the US inevitably towards war with Spain. 2003: In the single largest day of protests in world history, millions on six continents demonstrate against US/UK plans to invade Iraq.

Feb. 16. 1916: Emma Goldman arrested in New York for lecturing on birth control.

Feb. 17. 1899: Anti-Imperialist League is founded. 1984: Workers at a Coca-Cola plant in Guatemala seize it for collective operation.

Feb. 18. 1688: Pennsylvania Quakers make first formal protest against slavery. 1972: California Supreme Court ends that state's death penalty, finding capital punishment "cruel and unusual." Notable criminals whose lives were spared by the ban on executions are Charles Manson and Sirhan Sirhan.

Feb. 19. 1858: Leschi, chief of the Nisqually and Yakama, is hanged for leading attack on Seattle. 1912: In the Bread and Roses textile strike in Lawrence, Mass., 200 police draw their clubs and go after 100 women picketers, knocking them to the ground and beating them.

Feb. 20. 1839: Congress prohibits dueling in District of Columbia. 1934: Utopian Society in Los Angeles starts chain-letter campaign informing US citizens that "Profit is the root of all evil."

Feb. 21. 1956: After suffering legal harassments and personal threats, Martin Luther King Jr. is indicted on conspiracy charges in Montgomery bus boycott. 1965: Malcolm X assassinated, Audubon Ballroom, New York City.

Feb. 22. 1928: Ku Klux Klan announces that, as of today, it would discard its masks and change its name to the "Knights of the Green Forest."

Feb. 23. 1903: Cuba leases Guantanamo Bay to the United States "in perpetuity." 1971: Lt. William Calley confesses he directed a mass execution of South Vietnamese civilians at My Lai, Viet Nam, and implicates his commanding officer, Capt. Ernest L. Medina, who he says issued the orders to murder. He got his wrists slapped and was sent home; Medina was never charged.

Feb. 24. 1868: House impeaches Pres. Andrew Johnson on 11 counts after he attempted to remove Edwin M. Stanton from his position as Secretary of War. 1991: US troops begin land invasion of Kuwait and Iraq.

Feb. 25. 1870: Hiram Revels becomes first black US senator. 1957: US Supreme Court voids Michigan law banning sale of books that might corrupt youth.

Feb. 26. 1848: The Communist Manifesto, written by Friedrich Engels and a 29-year-old Karl Marx, is published in Brussels. 1986: Former dictator Ferdinand Marcos, ousted by a popular revolution the previous day, flees the Philippines with US assistance.

Feb. 27. 1970: New York Times (falsely) reports US Army has ended its illegal domestic surveillance. 1991: Gulf War ends as Saudi army enters Kuwait City.

Feb. 28. 1919: Gandhi launches satyagraha campaign, India. 1993: Feds storm Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, starting seven-week siege that ends in an FBI-instigated bonfire.