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Most Caribbean countries remained under colonial rule after the abolition of slavery. Between 1958 and 1962 most of the British-controlled Caribbean was integrated as the new West Indies Federation in an attempt to create a single unified future independent state. The West Indies Federation fell apart when the largest island Jamaica withdrew from the federation and declared itself independent in August 1962 followed by Trinidad and Tobago in August 1962.

 

Road to Independence

Most Caribbean countries remained under colonial rule after the abolition of slavery. Between 1958 and 1962 most of the British-controlled Caribbean was integrated as the new West Indies Federation in an attempt to create a single unified future independent state.

The West Indies Federation fell apart when the largest island Jamaica withdrew from the federation and declared itself independent in August 1962 followed by Trinidad and Tobago in August 1962. By the end of the 1960s, only few Caribbean islands remained dependent territories. Barbados gained its independence in 1966; the Bahamas in 1973; Grenada in 1974; Dominica in 1978; St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines in 1979; Antigua and Barbuda in 1981; and St. Kitts and Nevis in 1983.

Currently, Montserrat, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, and the Turks and Caicos Islands remained crown colonies with limited internal self-government. Anguilla, having broken away unilaterally from St. Kitts-Nevis in 1967, became an Associated State of Great Britain in 1976.

 

Jeanne Theoharis

(WOMENSENEWS)–Rosa Parks‘ most historic hour may have occurred on the bus in December 1955 but a moment that perhaps revealed more of her strength of character came 40 years later.

On Aug. 30, 1994, at the age of 81, Parks was mugged in her own home by a young black man, Joseph Skipper. Skipper broke down her back door and then claimed he had chased away an intruder. He asked for a tip. When Parks went upstairs to get her pocketbook, he followed her. She gave him the $3 he initially asked for, but he demanded more. When she refused, he proceeded to hit her.

“I tried to defend myself and grabbed his shirt,” she explained. “Even at 81 years of age, I felt it was my right to defend myself.”

He hit her again, punching her in the face and shaking her hard, and threatened to hurt her further. She relented and gave him all her money–$103. Hurt and badly shaken, she called Elaine Steele who lived across the street and had become a key source of support. Steele called the police who took 50 minutes to arrive. Meanwhile, the word went out that someone had mugged Parks.

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The next full moon will rise on Wednesday, Aug. 30, and it will be one of the brightest and largest moons of 2023. 

Get Ready! I am not sure who will see this spectacular event!

The term “Blue Moon” has nothing to do with color, but since the 1940s has commonly referred to the second of two full moons that fall in a calendar month; thus, Wednesday’s full moon is defined as a Blue Moon because it is the second full moon of August. Just like August’s first full moon, the Sturgeon Moon on Aug. 1, the Blue Moon will also be a supermoon, meaning it will occur during a period when the moon is closer to the Earth, making it appear almost imperceptibly larger in the sky.

According to In the Sky, the Super Blue Moon will rise just after sunset at 7:10 p.m. EDT (2310 GMT) on Wednesday from the eastern horizon. This will not be when it is at its biggest and brightest, however. The exact moment of full moon is defined as the point at which it is 180 degrees from the sun, completely opposite our star in the sky over Earth. 

For this year’s Blue Moon, the moon will be opposite the sun at 9:36 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, Aug. 30 (0336 on Aug. 31), according to NASA. At this time, it will be in the constellation of Aquarius. The Blue Moon will then set on Thursday just before the sun rises at around 6:46 a.m. EDT (1046 GMT). 

Related: August’s rare Super Blue Moon, the biggest full moon of 2023, rises this week

On August 30, 2006, the California State Senate passes Assembly Bill (AB) 32—otherwise known as the Global Warming Solutions Act. The law made California the first state in America to place caps on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, including those found in automobile emissions.

The Global Warming Solutions Act became law thanks to an alliance between the state’s Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and its Democratic-controlled legislature. The bill’s passage solidified California’s role as a leader in enacting legislation aimed at combating global warming, or the increase in the overall temperature of the earth’s atmosphere due to the “greenhouse effect” caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. California—which represents 10 percent of the nation’s automobile market and is known for its struggles with air pollution—took the lead early in setting stricter fuel emissions standards than the federal government’s.

Despite his professed enthusiasm for the Hummer, a sport utility vehicle (SUV) known for its prodigious size (and prodigious emission of greenhouse gases), Schwarzenegger sought to uphold his state’s pioneering legislation regarding automobile emissions, passed during the tenure of his predecessor, Gray Davis. That law, AB 1493, required the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to regulate greenhouse gases under the state’s motor vehicle program.

The Global Warming Solutions Act went even further, calling for an overall 25 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions (or to 1990 levels) by 2025, a timetable that would bring California close to full compliance with the Kyoto Protocol, an international climate-change treaty signed in that Japanese city in 1997. Even after Schwarzenegger signed AB 32 into law in September 2006, California faced an uphill battle to enact these new standards against the resistance of the automotive industry, backed by the administration of former President George W. Bush. 

California continues to be a national leader in climate a

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