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We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.

Ursla Le Guin (1929-2018)

National Book Foundation speech, 2014

This Week in History:

September 14th - 20th

Test yourself:

Press the buttons to reveal the answers.
1
What happened in 1985?
Mexico City was devastated by an earthquake.
2
What stopped being used and why in 1981?
France stopped using the guillotine after abolishing the death penalty.
3
Who became what in 1975?
Elizabeth Seton became America's first saint.
4
Who died at what age in 1952?
Princess Grace of Monaco died aged 52.
5
Who went where after what in 1999?
UN troops went to East Timor after a vote for independence from Indonesia.

What the BBC ignored:

September 14 - 1960: The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is founded.

September 14 - 2007: During the 2007-2008 financial crisis Northern Rock bank collapses after the first bank run in England for 150 years.

September 15 - 1947: Typhoon Kathleen hits the Kanto Region in Japan killing 1,077.

September 15 - 2008: Lehman Brothers files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history.

September 16 - 1976: The Tabas earthquake strikes in Iran with a Mercalli intensity of IX (violent) killing at least 15000.

September 16 - 1976: World Champion Armenian swimmer Shavarsh Karapetyan rescues 20 people from a crashed trolleybus at the bottom of Yerevan lake but ends his career.

September 17 - 1991: The first version of the Linux kernel (0.01) is released to the Internet.

September 17 - 2011: The Occupy Wall Street movement begins in Zuccotti Park, New York City.

September 18 - 1997: The Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention is adopted.

September 18 - 2014: Scotland votes against independence from the United Kingdom, by 55% to 44%.

September 19 - 2007: The first Glastonbury Festival is held, at a farm belonging to Michael Eavis.

September 20 - 1973: Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes tennis match at the Houston Astrodome.

September 20 - 2017: Hurricane Maria makes landfall in Puerto Rico as a powerful Category 4 hurricane, resulting in 2,975 deaths, US$90 billion in damage, and a major humanitarian crisis.

Would you have swapped any of the events above for any of the events chosen by the BBC?

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