May 6, 1916 Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman started the No Conscription League in the U.S. to discourage young men from registering for the draft which had passed Congress the previous month. This was prior to American troops’ being sent to Europe in what is known as World War I. Read the No-Conscription League Manifesto |
| May 6, 1944 Mohandas Gandhi, due to declining health, was released from his last imprisonment in India, having spent 2,338 days in jail during his lifetime. |
| May 6, 1954 Two American pilots and most of their crew died flying ammunition supply missions to French colonial troops under siege by Vietnamese insurgent troops under General Vo Nguyen Giap. James “Earthquake McGoon” McGovern and Wallace Buford became the first U.S. aviators to die in Vietnam. Pres. Dwight Eisenhower had not wanted to commit the U.S. military to Vietnam so shortly after the end of the war in Korea, so McGovern and Buford were working for an organization contracted by the CIA. |
| May 6, 1970 U.S. Senate hearings began on ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the U.S. Constitution: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” Similar amendments had been introduced in every Congress since 1923. Writer and editor Gloria Steinem testified: “During twelve years of working for a living, I’ve experienced much of the legal and social discrimination reserved for women in this country. I have been refused service in public restaurants, ordered out of public gathering places, and turned away from apartment rentals, all for the clearly stated, sole reason that I am a woman.”  Gloria Steinem in 1970 Steinem’s full testimony more ERA history |
| May 6, 1973 14 cities across France saw demonstrations against their country’s nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific Ocean. |
| May 6, 1979 125,000 rallied in Washington, D.C. to oppose nuclear power. |
https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorymay.htm#may6
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