历史上的6/4日
今天是6/4日，2023年的第155天，今年还剩210天。
人类历史上的今天,发生了如下值得我关注的事件：
——1919
美国国会通过了第19修正案，赋予百人妇女投票权
该修正案规定“美国或任何州不得以性别为由剥夺或剥夺美国公民的投票权”，该修正案在国会两院获得通过，并送交各州批准。八天后，第19修正案生效。
尽管修正案通过了，黑人妇女也为实现选举权做出了长达几十年的贡献，但人头税、当地法律和其他限制继续阻止有色人种妇女投票。50年以后，美国才能实现所有妇女平等的投票权利。
Congress passes the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote
The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, granting women the right to vote, is passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification.
The women’s suffrage movement was founded in the mid-19th century by women who had become politically active through their work in the abolitionist and temperance movements. In July 1848, 240 woman suffragists, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, met in Seneca Falls, New York, to assert the right of women to vote. Female enfranchisement was still largely opposed by most Americans, and the distraction of the North-South conflict and subsequent Civil War precluded further discussion. During the Reconstruction Era, the 15th Amendment was adopted, granting African American men the right to vote, but the Republican-dominated Congress failed to expand its progressive radicalism into the sphere of gender.
By the beginning of the 20th century, the role of women in American society was changing drastically; women were working more, receiving a better education, bearing fewer children, and several states had authorized female suffrage. In 1913, the National Woman’s party organized the voting power of these enfranchised women to elect congressional representatives who supported woman suffrage, and by 1916 both the Democratic and Republican parties openly endorsed female enfranchisement. In 1919, the 19th Amendment, which stated that “the rights of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex,” passed both houses of Congress and was sent to the states for ratification. Eight days later, the 19th Amendment took effect.
Despite the passage of the amendment and the decades-long contributions of Black women to achieve suffrage, poll taxes, local laws and other restrictions continued to block women of color from voting. It would take another 50 years for all women to achieve voting equality.
——1989
中共残暴镇压天安门广场抗议学生
1989年6月4日，中共军队和武装警察冲进天安门广场，不分青红皂白地向抗议人群开火。骚乱随之而来，数以万计的年轻学生试图逃离现场；其他抗议者进行了反击，用石头反击进攻的部队，推翻并点燃了军用车辆。现场的记者和西方外交官估计，至少有300人，也许数千人被杀，多达1万人被捕。
中国政府袭击手无寸铁学生的野蛮性震惊了其盟友和冷战敌人。苏联领导人米哈伊尔·戈尔巴乔夫宣布，他对中国的事件感到悲伤。他说，他希望政府通过自己的国内改革计划，并开始使中国政治制度民主化。
在美国，舆论评论员和国会议员谴责了天安门广场大屠杀，并敦促乔治·布什总统惩罚中国政府。三个多星期后，美国国会投票决定对中华人民共和国实施经济制裁，以应对其残酷侵犯人权的行为。
Chinese crackdown on protests leads to Tiananmen Square Massacre
Chinese troops storm through Tiananmen Square in the center of Beijing, killing and arresting thousands of pro-democracy protesters. The brutal Chinese government assault on the protesters shocked the West and brought denunciations and sanctions from the United States.
In May 1989, nearly a million Chinese, mostly young students, crowded into central Beijing to protest for greater democracy and call for the resignations of Chinese Communist Party leaders deemed too repressive. For nearly three weeks, the protesters kept up daily vigils, and marched and chanted. Western reporters captured much of the drama for television and newspaper audiences in the United States and Europe.
On June 4, 1989, however, Chinese troops and security police stormed through Tiananmen Square, firing indiscriminately into the crowds of protesters. Turmoil ensued, as tens of thousands of the young students tried to escape the rampaging Chinese forces. Other protesters fought back, stoning the attacking troops and overturning and setting fire to military vehicles. Reporters and Western diplomats on the scene estimated that at least 300, and perhaps thousands, of the protesters had been killed and as many as 10,000 were arrested.
The savagery of the Chinese government’s attack shocked both its allies and Cold War enemies. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev declared that he was saddened by the events in China. He said he hoped that the government would adopt his own domestic reform program and begin to democratize the Chinese political system.
In the United States, editorialists and members of Congress denounced the Tiananmen Square massacre and pressed for President George Bush to punish the Chinese government. A little more than three weeks later, the U.S. Congress voted to impose economic sanctions against the People’s Republic of China in response to the brutal violation of human rights.
