TIK TOK! TIK TOK! TIK TOK!
TIK TOK? TIK TOK? TIK TOK?
TikTok's Chinese version, Douyin, was launched by ByteDance on September 20, 2016, with the international app, TikTok, launching in 2017 and merging with Musical.ly in 2018, but the specific September 20 date marks the initial release of its predecessor in China, becoming a global phenomenon later.
NO MORE QUEENZ
Billie Jean King (née Moffitt; born November 22, 1943), also known as BJK, is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. King won 39 Grand Slam titles: 12 in singles, 16 in women's doubles, and 11 in mixed doubles. She was a member of the victorious United States team in seven Federation Cups and nine Wightman Cups.
King is an advocate of gender equality and has long been a pioneer for equality and social justice. In 1973, at the age of 29, she famously won the "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match against the 55-year-old Bobby Riggs. King was also the founder of the Women's Tennis Association and the Women's Sports Foundation. She was instrumental in persuading cigarette brand Virginia Slims to sponsor women's tennis in the 1970s and went on to serve on the board of their parent company Philip Morris in the 2000s.
No Kings is the second official studio album by Minneapolis hip hop collective Doomtree. It was released by Doomtree Records on November 22, 2011. "Bangarang" was released as a single from the album.
"Mark Ruffalo has a message for Americans: Billionaires are the problem, not immigrants. The Hulk actor and Oscar nominee, who recently participated in one of the No Kings protests against Donald Trump‘s policies, has been using social media to speak out against ICE raids and Trump-mandated deportations."
"Ruffalo said in a social media video that “immigrants aren’t criminals” and “add to our economy by the billions.” It’s the “billionaires who are the true villains” and “who are really making our lives unbearable and making us so desperate,” he argued. “It’s time to take our country back from extreme wealth that has its hands all over the power of the nation.”
Mark Alan Ruffalo (/ˈrʌfəloʊ/; born November 22, 1967) is an American actor. He began acting in the late 1980s and first gained recognition for his work in Kenneth Lonergan's play This Is Our Youth (1996) and drama film You Can Count on Me (2000). He went on to star in the romantic comedies 13 Going on 30 (2004) and Just like Heaven (2005), and the thrillers In the Cut (2003), Zodiac (2007), and Shutter Island (2010). He received a Tony Award nomination for his supporting role in the Broadway revival of Awake and Sing! in 2006. Ruffalo has gained international recognition for playing Bruce Banner / Hulk in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, beginning with the film The Avengers (2012).
NO KINGS(CAMELOT)?
John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. Kennedy was in the vehicle with his wife Jacqueline, Texas governor John Connally, and Connally's wife Nellie, when he was fatally shot from the nearby Texas School Book Depository by Lee Harvey Oswald, a former U.S. Marine. The motorcade rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where Kennedy was pronounced dead about 30 minutes after the shooting; Connally was also wounded in the attack but recovered. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was hastily sworn in as president two hours and eight minutes later aboard Air Force One at Dallas Love Field.
Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis (née Bouvier /ˈbuːvieɪ/; July 28, 1929 – May 19, 1994), also known as Jackie O, was the first lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963, as the wife of President John F. Kennedy. During her lifetime, she was regarded as an international icon for her unique fashion choices, and her work as a cultural ambassador of the United States made her popular globally.
On May 19, 1972, Ho Chi Minh's birthday, the Weather Underground placed a bomb in the women's bathroom in the Air Force wing of the Pentagon. The damage caused flooding that destroyed computer tapes holding classified information. Other radical groups worldwide applauded the bombing, illustrated by German youths protesting against American military systems in Frankfurt. This was "in retaliation for the U.S. bombing raid in Hanoi."
The May 19th Communist Organization (also variously referred to as the May 19 Coalition, May 19 Communist Coalition or M19CO) was a US-based far-left group formed by members of the Weather Underground Organization. The group was originally known as the New York chapter of the Prairie Fire Organizing Committee (PFOC), an organization devoted to promoting the causes of the Weather Underground legally, as part of the Prairie Fire Manifesto's change in Weather Underground Organization strategy, which demanded both aboveground mass movements and clandestine organizations. The role of the clandestine organization would be to build the "consciousness of action" and prepare the way for the development of a people's militia. Concurrently, the role of the mass movement, the above-ground Prairie Fire Collective, would include the support for and the encouragement of armed action. Such an alliance would, according to Weather, "help create the 'sea' for the guerrillas to swim in." The M19CO name was derived from the birthdays of Ho Chi Minh and Malcolm X. The May 19 Communist Organization was active from 1978 to 1985. M19CO was a combination of the Black Liberation Army and the Weather Underground. It also included members of the Black Panthers, White Panthers, and the Republic of New Afrika (RNA).
Jenny Anne Durkan (born May 19, 1958) is an American attorney, former federal prosecutor, and politician who served as the 56th mayor of Seattle, Washington. She is the daughter of Martin Durkan. Durkan is a member of the Democratic Party. After earning her Juris Doctor from University of Washington School of Law in 1985, Durkan began practicing law as a criminal defense lawyer and civil litigator. In October 2009, President Barack Obama appointed her United States Attorney for the Western District of Washington. She held that position until September 2014.
Durkan was elected the 56th mayor of Seattle in 2017, becoming the city's first female mayor since the 1920s, its second openly LGBT elected mayor, and first elected mayor born in Seattle. She took first place in the nonpartisan August primary and defeated urban planner and political activist Cary Moon in the November general election. She and her partner, Dana Garvey, have two sons.
Durkan was criticized for her response to the George Floyd protests in Seattle and her handling of protesters and law enforcement in the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone. In December 2020, she announced that she would not seek reelection after the end of her mayoral term.
Samuel Frederick Smith (born May 19 1992) is an English singer and songwriter. In 2012, they[a] rose to prominence when they featured on Disclosure's breakthrough single "Latch", which peaked at number eleven on the UK Singles Chart. The following year, they featured on Naughty Boy's single "La La La", which became a number one single in the UK.
Joelle Joanie "JoJo" Siwa (/ˈsiːwɑː/ SEE-wah; born May 19, 2003) is an American singer, dancer, actress, and media personality. From 2015 to 2016, she[a] appeared as a dancer on two seasons of the reality television show Dance Moms alongside her mother, Jessalynn Siwa. She was included on Time's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2020.
Abigail Daniella Phillip (born November 25, 1988) is an American CNN news anchor who anchors CNN NewsNight and CNN Saturday Morning Table for Five. She previously worked for Politico covering the Obama White House, The Washington Post as a national political reporter, and ABC News as a digital reporter for politics.
The United Nations General Assembly has designated November 25 as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (Resolution 54/134). The premise of the day is to raise awareness around the world that women are subjected to rape, domestic violence and other forms of violence; furthermore, one of the aims of the day is to highlight that the scale and true nature of the issue is often hidden.
THE JUNE 14TH REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT?
The Mirabal sisters (Spanish: hermanas Mirabal [eɾˈmanas miɾaˈβal]) were four sisters from the Dominican Republic, three of whom (Patria, Minerva and María Teresa) opposed the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo (el Jefe) and were involved in activities against his regime. The three sisters were assassinated on 25 November 1960. The last sister, Adela (known as Dedé), who was not involved in political activities at the time, died of natural causes on 1 February 2014.
Of the sisters, Minerva was the one who had the most active role in politics. She and her husband Manolo Tavárez Justo [es] founded the 14 June Revolutionary Movement. Maria Teresa also became involved in the Movement. The oldest sister, Patria, did not have the same level of political activity as her other sisters, but she supported them. She lent her house to store weapons and tools from the insurgents.
The sisters are considered national heroines of the Dominican Republic. Their remains rest in a mausoleum that was declared an extension of the National Pantheon, located in the Hermanas Mirabal House-Museum, the last residence of the sisters. The assassinations turned the Mirabal sisters into "symbols of both popular and feminist resistance". In 1999, in their honor, the United Nations General Assembly designated 25 November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
Stacey Elizabeth Plaskett (/ˈplæskɪt/ PLASS-kit; born May 13, 1966) is an American politician and attorney serving since 2015 as the delegate to the United States House of Representatives from the United States Virgin Islands' at-large congressional district. Plaskett has practiced law in New York City, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Before 2008, Plaskett was a member of the Republican Party, and was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve in the Civil Division of the United States Department of Justice. She switched to the Democratic Party in late 2008 because she believed it was a better place to have new ideas heard.She served as a House manager (prosecutor) during the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump, the first non-voting House member to do so.
Lia Catherine Thomas (born May 13, 1999) is an American swimmer and the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I national championship, having won the women's 500-yard freestyle event in 2022, before being barred from competing in women's events by World Aquatics. Thomas's career has been a part of the public debate about transgender women in women's sports.
In July 2025, after the second Trump administration had previously cut the University of Pennsylvania's federal funding in March 2025, UPenn agreed to issue a public statement and update University swimming records based on the Trump administration's changed interpretation of Title IX, while still crediting Thomas with having set certain records in the 2021–2022 season in accordance with the eligibility guidelines at the time.
Stevland Hardaway Morris (/ˈstiːvlənd/ STEEV-lənd; né Judkins; born May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. Wonder is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include R&B, pop, soul, gospel, funk, and jazz. A virtual one-man band, Wonder's use of synthesizers and other electronic musical instruments during the 1970s reshaped the conventions of contemporary R&B. He also helped drive such genres into the album era, crafting his LPs as cohesive and consistent, in addition to socially conscious statements with complex compositions. Blind since shortly after his birth, Wonder was a child prodigy who signed with Motown's Tamla label at the age of 11, where he was given the professional name Little Stevie Wonder.
James Warren Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978) was an American cult leader, preacher, and mass murderer who founded and led the Peoples Temple between 1955 and 1978. Jones and the members of his inner circle planned and orchestrated a mass murder–suicide that resulted in the deaths of over 900 people which he described as "revolutionary suicide", a term coined by Huey P. Newton, in his remote jungle commune at Jonestown, Guyana on November 18, 1978, including the assassination of U.S. congressman Leo Ryan. Jones and the events that occurred at Jonestown have had a defining influence on society's perception of cults.
Eugene Victor Debs (November 5, 1855 – October 20, 1926) was an American socialist activist and trade unionist. He was one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and a five-time candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States; through his presidential candidacies as well as his work with labor movements, Debs eventually became one of the best-known socialists living in the United States.
Early in his political career, Debs was a member of the Democratic Party. He was elected as a Democrat to the Indiana General Assembly in 1884. After working with several smaller unions, including the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, Debs led his union in a major ten-month strike against the CB&Q Railroad in 1888. Debs was instrumental in the founding of the American Railway Union (ARU), one of the nation's first industrial unions. After workers at the Pullman Palace Car Company organized a wildcat strike over pay cuts in the summer of 1894, Debs signed many into the ARU. He led a boycott by the ARU against handling trains with Pullman cars in what became the nationwide Pullman Strike, affecting most lines west of Detroit and more than 250,000 workers in 27 states. Purportedly to keep the mail running, President Grover Cleveland used the United States Army to break the strike. As a leader of the ARU, Debs was convicted of federal charges for defying a court injunction against the strike and served six months in prison.
In prison, Debs read various works of socialist theory and emerged six months later as a committed adherent of the international socialist movement. Debs was a founding member of the Social Democracy of America (1897), the Social Democratic Party of America (1898) and the Socialist Party of America (1901). Debs ran as a Socialist candidate for President of the United States five times: 1900 (earning 0.6 percent of the popular vote), 1904 (3.0 percent), 1908 (2.8 percent), 1912 (6.0 percent), and 1920 (3.4 percent), the last time from a prison cell. He was also a candidate for United States Congress from his native state Indiana in 1916.
Kamala Devi Harris (/ˈkɑːmələ ˈdeɪvi/ ⓘ KAH-mə-lə DAY-vee; born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 49th vice president of the United States from 2021 to 2025 under President Joe Biden. She is the first female, first African American, and first Asian American U.S. vice president, and the highest-ranking female and Asian American official in U.S. history. Harris represented California in the U.S. Senate from 2017 to 2021 and was the attorney general of California from 2011 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the party's nominee in the 2024 presidential election.
Asunción "Sunny" Cummings Hostin (/ˈhɒstɪn/; née Cummings; born October 20, 1968) is an American lawyer, author, and television host. She is a co-host on ABC's morning talk show The View, for which she received nominations for Daytime Emmy Awards, as well as the Senior Legal Correspondent and Analyst for ABC News. She was also the host and executive producer of Investigation Discovery's true crime series Truth About Murder with Sunny Hostin.
THE SHOOTER
Thomas Matthew Crooks (September 20, 2003 – July 13, 2024) was an American man who attempted to assassinate then-former U.S. president Donald Trump, who at the time was the presumptive Republican Party nominee for the 2024 presidential election.
On July 13, 2024, at a rally near Butler, Pennsylvania, Crooks shot at Trump with an AR-15–style rifle from a nearby rooftop while Trump was giving a speech. Crooks wounded Trump's ear and killed one attendee while critically injuring two others before being killed by a Secret Service counter sniper team. His motive remains unknown as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is investigating the case.
DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL
"Don't ask, don't tell" (DADT) was the official United States policy on military service of homosexual people. Instituted during the Clinton administration, the policy was issued under Department of Defense Directive 1304.26 on December 21, 1993, and was in effect from February 28, 1994, until September 20, 2011. The policy prohibited military personnel from discriminating against or harassing closeted homosexual or bisexual service members or applicants, while barring openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual persons from military service. This relaxation of legal restrictions on service by gays and lesbians in the armed forces was mandated by Public Law 103–160 (Title 10 of the United States Code §654), which was signed November 30, 1993. The policy prohibited people who "demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts" from serving in the armed forces of the United States, because their presence "would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability."
On July 13, 2024, Donald Trump, then a former president of the United States and presumptive nominee of the Republican Party in the 2024 presidential election, survived an assassination attempt while speaking at an open-air campaign rally near Butler, Pennsylvania. Trump was shot and wounded in his upper right ear by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who fired eight rounds from an AR-15–style rifle from the roof of a nearby building. Crooks also killed one audience member, firefighter Corey Comperatore, and critically injured two others. Four seconds after Crooks began firing, Aaron Zaliponi, a member of the Butler County Emergency Service Unit, shot at him and hit his rifle, preventing him from firing more shots. Twelve seconds later, Crooks was shot and killed by the Counter Sniper Team of the United States Secret Service.
Patrisse Marie Khan-Cullors Brignac (née Cullors-Brignac; born June 20, 1983) is an American activist, artist, and writer who co-founded the Black Lives Matter movement. Cullors created the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag in 2013 and has written and spoken widely about the movement.
Other topics on which Cullors advocates include prison abolition in Los Angeles and LGBTQ rights. Cullors integrates ideas from critical theory in her activism. She has been the subject of criticism for her personal spending and handling of Black Lives Matter funding.
Payton S. Gendron (born June 20, 2003) is a white male college student and was 18-years-old at the time of the shooting. He had traveled three and a half hours to the supermarket from his hometown of Conklin, New York, about 200 miles (320 km) away. Gendron graduated from Susquehanna Valley High School[64] and was previously enrolled at SUNY Broome Community College in Binghamton for an engineering science program. His parents are civil engineers and, according to his neighbors, Gendron had previously stated an intention to become one as well. Former classmates of Gendron who were interviewed by The New York Times claimed that Gendron was quiet, had rarely attended in-person classes, and exhibited a range of idiosyncratic behaviors, including wearing a hazmat suit to class.
Mark Alexander Milley (born 20 June 1958) is a retired United States Army general who served as the 20th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2019 to 2023. He had previously served as the 39th chief of staff of the Army from 2015 to 2019 and held multiple command and staff positions in eight divisions and special forces.
A Reserve Officers' Training Corps graduate from Princeton University, Milley earned his commission as an armor officer in 1980. He later received a master's degree from Columbia University. During his first term, President Donald Trump appointed Milley chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, making him the tenth U.S. Army officer to be chairman. As chairman, Milley was the highest-ranking officer in the United States Armed Forces and the principal military advisor to the president of the United States, the secretary of defense, the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council.
On May 14, 2022, a mass shooting occurred in Buffalo, New York, United States, at a Tops Friendly Markets supermarket in the East Side neighborhood. Ten people, all of whom were black, were murdered and three injured. The shooter, identified as 18-year-old Payton S. Gendron, livestreamed part of the on Twitch until the livestream was shut down by the service in under two minutes. Gendron was taken into custody and charged with first-degree murder.
STATE OF ISRAEL
Israel declared independence at the end of the British Mandate on 14 May 1948, and neighbouring Arab states invaded the next day. A 1949 armistice left Israel with territory beyond the UN plan; no Arab state was created, as the Gaza Strip and the West Bank came under Egyptian and Jordanian control.
Ryan Wesley Routh (born February 18, 1966) is an American roofer and activist who attempted to assassinate then-former U.S. president Donald Trump at his golf course during his 2024 presidential campaign. The incident occurred two months after Trump survived a previous assassination attempt while speaking at a campaign rally near Butler, Pennsylvania.
Sophie Scholl and the White Rose
On 18 February 1943, Sophie and Hans Scholl went to Ludwig Maximilian University to leave flyers out for the students to read. The Scholls brought a suitcase full of leaflets to the university main building, and hurriedly dropped stacks of copies in the empty corridors for students to find when they left the lecture rooms. Leaving before the lectures had ended, the Scholls had some copies left in the suitcase and decided to distribute them. Sophie flung the last remaining leaflets from the top floor down into the atrium. This spontaneous action was observed by the university maintenance man, Jakob Schmid, a self-avowed Nazi, who had joined the Nazi Party in 1937.
Hans and Sophie Scholl were taken into custody by the Gestapo. A draft of a seventh pamphlet, written by Christoph Probst, was found in the possession of Hans Scholl at the time of his arrest. While Sophie Scholl was able to hide incriminating evidence in an empty classroom just before being captured, Hans tried to destroy the draft of the last leaflet by tearing it apart and swallowing it. The Gestapo recovered enough of it to read what it said and, when pressed, Hans gave the name of the author, Christoph Probst. In the record of his second interrogation, he stated, "The piece of paper that I tore up following my arrest this morning originated with Christoph Probst. ... All other persons with the exception of Probst are in my opinion not guilty." Christoph Probst was captured on 20 February 1943.
The main Gestapo interrogator was Robert Mohr, who initially thought Sophie was innocent. However, after Hans had confessed, Sophie assumed full responsibility in an attempt to protect other members of the White Rose.
In court before Judge Roland Freisler on 22 February 1943, Scholl was recorded as saying these words:
Somebody, after all, had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just don't dare express themselves as we did.
This was their only defense; they were not allowed to call witnesses.
On 22 February 1943, Scholl, her brother Hans, and their friend Christoph Probst were found guilty of treason and sentenced to death. They were all beheaded by guillotine by the executioner Johann Reichhart in Munich's Stadelheim Prison. Sophie was executed at 5:00 p.m., Hans at 5:02 p.m. and Christoph at 5:05 p.m. The execution was supervised by Walter Roemer, the head of enforcement of the Munich district court. Prison officials were impressed by the condemned prisoners' bravery, and let them smoke cigarettes together before they were executed.
On September 15, 2024 at 1:59 a.m. EDT, Routh hid in shrubbery holding an SKS-style rifle just outside the fence of the golf course. At 1:31 p.m., after hiding there for nearly twelve hours, Routh pointed his weapon through the fence line, approximately 400 yards away from Trump. A Secret Service agent noticed this and fired four rounds towards Routh, who then fled the scene and was later captured in Martin County. No injuries were reported.
THE NUREMBERG RACE LAWS
The Nuremberg Laws (Nürnberger Gesetze, pronounced [ˈnʏʁnbɛʁɡɐ ɡəˈzɛtsə] were antisemitic and racist laws introduced in Nazi Germany on 15 September 1935 at a special session of the Reichstag during the annual Nuremberg Rally of the Nazi Party. The legislation comprised two measures. The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour prohibited marriages and sexual relations between Jews and Germans and barred Jewish households from employing German women under the age of 45. The Reich Citizenship Law restricted citizenship to people of "German or related blood", reducing others to state subjects without full rights.
BERNIE SANDERS
Bernard Sanders (born September 8, 1941) is an American politician and activist serving as the senior United States senator from Vermont, a seat he has held since 2007. He is the longest-serving independent in U.S. congressional history, but maintains a close relationship with the Democratic Party, having caucused with House and Senate Democrats for most of his congressional career and sought the party's presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020. Sanders has been viewed as one of the main leaders of the modern American progressive movement.
ASSASSIN OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD
Charles Julius Guiteau (/ɡɪˈtoʊ/ ghih-TOH; September 8, 1841 – June 30, 1882) was an American man who assassinated United States President James A. Garfield in 1881. A mentally ill failed lawyer, Guiteau delusionally believed that he had played a major role in Garfield's election victory, for which he should have been rewarded with a consulship. Guiteau felt frustrated and offended by the Garfield administration's rejections of his applications to serve in Vienna or Paris to such a degree that he shot Garfield in Washington, D.C. on July 2, 1881. Garfield died on September 19 from infections related to the wounds. Caught in the act, Guiteau was tried, convicted, and executed by hanging on June 30, 1882.
Nidal Malik Hasan (born September 8, 1970) is an American former United States Army major, physician, and mass murderer convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 others in the Fort Hood mass shooting on November 5, 2009. Hasan, an Army Medical Corps psychiatrist, admitted to the shootings at his court-martial in August 2013.
Eugene Victor Debs (November 5, 1855 – October 20, 1926) was an American socialist activist and trade unionist. He was one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and a five-time candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States; through his presidential candidacies as well as his work with labor movements, Debs eventually became one of the best-known socialists living in the United States.
NO MORE KINGS!
Robert John Downey Jr. (born April 4, 1965) is an American actor. Known for portraying charismatic and intelligent characters over a versatile range of films, he was named one of the greatest actors of the 21st century by The Independent. He was the highest-paid actor in Hollywood annually from 2013 to 2015, and is one of the highest-grossing actors of all time; his films as a leading actor have grossed over $14.3 billion worldwide.
DEATH OF A PRESIDENT
On April 4, 1968, at 6:01 p.m. CST, Martin Luther King Jr., an American civil rights activist, was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m at age 39.
The alleged assassin, James Earl Ray, an escaped convict from the Missouri State Penitentiary, was arrested on June 8, 1968, at London's Heathrow Airport, extradited to the United States and charged with the crime. On March 10, 1969, Ray pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 99 years in the Tennessee State Penitentiary. He later made many attempts to withdraw his guilty plea and to be tried by a jury, but was unsuccessful, before he died in 1998.
