American poet and educator (born June 7, 1917, Topeka, Kansas, U.S.—died December 3, 2000, Chicago, Illinois) American poet whose works deal with the everyday life of urban Blacks. She was the first African American poet to win the Pulitzer Prize (1950), and in 1968 she was named the poet laureate of Illinois.

Brooks graduated from Wilson Junior College in Chicago in 1936. Her early verses appeared in the Chicago Defender, a newspaper written primarily for that city’s African American community. Her first published collection, A Street in Bronzeville (1945), reveals her talent for making the ordinary life of her neighbours extraordinary. Annie Allen (1949), for which she won the Pulitzer Prize, is a loosely connected series of poems related to an African American girl’s growing up in Chicago. The same theme was used for Brooks’s novel Maud Martha (1953).

649-day tree sit-in at the University of California, Berkeley begins

On December 2, 2006, four students at the University of California, Berkeley, inhabit the treetops of an oak grove on campus to protest the university’s plans to demolish over an acre of the forest to build a new athletic center, kicking off an epic 21-month standoff. It was one of the longest tree sit-ins in history.

Tree sit-ins are a form of civil disobedience in which protestors physically occupy a tree to prevent it from being cut down, often for long periods of time. At its peak, the Berkeley protest saw over a dozen people living on the limbs of the grove’s oak and redwood trees; volunteers and others brought them food, water and supplies.

Source: history.com

In his December 2, 1823, address to Congress, President James Monroe articulated United States’ policy on the new political order developing in the rest of the Americas and the role of Europe in the Western Hemisphere.  

The statement, known as the Monroe Doctrine, was little noted by the Great Powers of Europe, but eventually became a longstanding tenet of U.S. foreign policy. Monroe and his Secretary of State John Quincy Adams drew upon a foundation of American diplomatic ideals such as disentanglement from European affairs and defense of neutral rights as expressed in Washington’s Farewell Address and Madison’s stated rationale for waging the War of 1812. The three main concepts of the doctrine—separate spheres of influence for the Americas and Europe, non-colonization, and non-intervention—were designed to signify a clear break between the New World and the autocratic realm of Europe. Monroe’s administration forewarned the imperial European powers against interfering in the affairs of the newly independent Latin American states or potential United States territories. While Americans generally objected to European colonies in the New World, they also desired to increase United States influence and trading ties throughout the region to their south. European mercantilism posed the greatest obstacle to economic expansion. In particular, Americans feared that Spain and France might reassert colonialism over the Latin American peoples who had just overthrown European rule. Signs that Russia was expanding its presence southward from Alaska toward the Oregon Territory were also disconcerting.
For their part, the British also had a strong interest in ensuring the demise of Spanish colonialism, with all the trade restrictions mercantilism imposed. Earlier in 1823 British Foreign Minister George Canning suggested to Americans that two nations issue a joint declaration to deter any other power from intervening in Central and South America. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, however, vigorously opposed cooperation with Great Britain, contending that a statement of bilateral nature could limit United States expansion in the future. He also argued that the British were not committed to recognizing the Latin American republics and must have had imperial motivations themselves. …

for the complete article history.state.gov

• 2001 Enron files for bankruptcy
• 1777 Philadelphia nurse overhears British plans to attack Washington
• 2002 Toyota’s first hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles arrive in California
• 1864 General Gracie killed at Petersburg
• 1961 Castro declares himself a Marxist-Leninist
• 1959 Dam collapses in France, killing 412
• 1804 Napoleon crowned emperor
• 1823 Monroe Doctrine declared
• 1859 John Brown hanged
• 1954 McCarthy condemned by Senate
• 1793 Coleridge joins the cavalry
• 1972 The Temptations earn their final #1 hit with “Papa Was A Rolling Stone”
• 1845 Polk affirms Monroe Doctrine
• 1823 Monroe introduces bold new foreign policy
• 1975 Archie Griffin wins second consecutive Heisman Trophy
• 1962 Senator Mansfield pronounces American aid to South Vietnam wasted
• 1963 South Vietnamese leaders order a temporary halt to the strategic hamlet program
• 1917 Russia reaches armistice with the Central Powers
• 1942 Fermi produces the first nuclear chain reaction

Each year, on 1 December, the world commemorates World AIDS Day. People around the world unite to show support for people living with HIV and to remember those who have died from AIDS-related illnesses.

Each World AIDS Day focuses on a specific theme, which this year will be Take the rights path. 

This year’s theme joins a growing list of challenges that World AIDS Day has alerted people to globally. Founded in 1988, World AIDS Day was the first ever international day for global health. Every year, United Nations agencies, governments and civil society join together to campaign around specific themes related to HIV.

Source: unaids.org