On April 12, 1914, American economist Armen Alchian was born. His contributions to economic theory and teaching were many, but is perhaps best known for his work on property rights.
Alchian died in 2014, in late February, at age 99.
A ceremonial bust of Ed Snowden was erected in Brooklyn, New York, by dissident artists. The reason? To honor the whistleblower who revealed an expansive, expensive data accumulation system carried on by the NSA against the American people — one that seemed not allowed by law, and previously denied by the government.
The sculpture, described in the press as illegal (mirroring how the artists have been designated as “guerrilla”) was expertly made as a mock-bronze bust. It was taken down later in the day by city workers. Hours later, a hologram of Snowden appeared on the same war memorial.
Click here to get two 11″x17″ high-resolution printable Edward Snowden posters.
On April 11, 1945, the American Third Army liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp, near Weimar, Germany, a camp that would later be judged second only to Auschwitz in the horrors it imposed on its prisoners. Among those in the camp saved by the American soldiers was Elie Wiesel, who would go on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.
Shown in photograph: German citizens ushered to the camp by American soldiers, post-conquest.
The real division is not between conservatives and revolutionaries but between authoritarians and libertarians.
George Orwell, letter to Malcolm Muggeridge, December 4, 1948.
On the hundredth day of 1998, the Northern Ireland peace talks ended with an historic agreement, dubbed the Good Friday Agreement. The accord was reached after nearly two years of talks and 30 years of conflict.
Facts we would always place before our readers, whether they are palatable or not, and it is by placing them constantly before the public in their nakedness that the misunderstanding between the two communities in South Africa can be removed.
Mohandas K. Gandhi, Indian Opinion, October 1, 1903.
“Civilization is that mode of conduct which points out to man the path of duty. Performance of duty and observance of morality are convertible terms. To observe morality is to attain mastery over our mind and our passions. So doing, we know ourselves. The Gujarati equivalent for civilization means ‘good conduct.’”
Mohandas K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj, 1908
Despite being outnumbered 16 to 1, forces of the Old Swiss Confederacy proved victorious over the Archduchy of Austria in the Battle of Näfels, April 9, 1388.
On this date in 1991, Georgia declared its independence from the Soviet Union.
On April 8, 1913, the 17th amendment to the Constitution, providing for the popular election of U.S. senators, was ratified.
“That State is the best governed which is governed the least.”
Mohandas K. Gandhi, August 15, 1940