November 19 – December 2, 2009

WTO: 10 Years After

In this special fortnight edition of This Week Then, HistoryLink.org takes a look back at the 1999 WTO protests, as well as our own unexpected role in the historic event that many know as the "Battle in Seattle." To begin, we start with a new, detailed history of the WTO meetings and protests -- Part 1 and Part 2 -- written by Staff Historian Kit Oldham.

When Seattle began preparing for the World Trade Organization meetings to be held from November 30 to December 3, 1999, HistoryLink.org had been online for less than a year. As the first online encyclopedia of community history written expressly for the Internet, we felt it was our responsibility to contact news organizations around the world, letting them know that HistoryLink would be a valuable resource for reporters looking for background information about the WTO host city. And since our office overlooked Westlake Center – a traditional forum for public demonstration -- we set up a webcam (then a somewhat new phenomenon) to take pictures of the parades, marches, and gatherings that might occur below.

Things began peacefully enough on November 28, with a few small rallies. More people gathered in the streets on November 29 in mostly non-confrontational protests. But on November 30, all hell broke loose.

Thousands of direct-action protestors achieved their well-publicized goal to "shut down the WTO" through nonviolent civil disobedience, forcing cancellation of the opening ceremonies of the WTO's Third Ministerial Conference. Unprepared for the numbers of protestors, Seattle police used tear gas and pepper spray to clear some intersections. Undaunted, the crowd of protestors continued to grow, and a handful of "anarchists" broke windows and sprayed graffiti.

By mid-afternoon, Seattle Mayor Paul Schell declared a state of emergency and police began using massive amounts of tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, and other "less lethal munitions" to move protestors, and anyone else -- including news reporters and film crews -- out of downtown. Newsfeeds from the heart of the protest disappeared. Meanwhile, high up above Westlake Center, HistoryLink's "WTO-Cam" silently grabbed a single snapshot of the chaos once a minute and sent it out over the web.

A new video produced by Joshua McNichols and Jerome Montalto -- a first for HistoryLink.org, that can be viewed here -- describes what happened next. Many major news organizations remembered the press release sent out by this fledgling history encyclopedia in Seattle, and began transmitting our images around the world. The phone began ringing off the hook in the HistoryLink office, and founding director Walt Crowley fielded questions from media outlets far and wide. HistoryLink.org was reporting history as it happened in the streets below. The New York Times called HistoryLink the "digital diary of the disturbances."

The following day, police enforced a "No Protest Zone" around the WTO meeting, but major confrontations occurred as protestors were driven up Capitol Hill. The crackdown eased on December 2, as peaceful protests proceeded. The WTO conference ended on December 3, in failure, due to disagreements among the delegates added to protests on the streets.

The WTO protests sent shockwaves throughout Seattle, most notably in the ouster of Police Chief Norm Stamper, and eventually of Paul Schell. But HistoryLink.org abides and perseveres. "We registered more hits in a week than we had in the previous year," Walt Crowley noted at the time, "We would have preferred to achieve this milestone by other means, but WTO let us demonstrate that the Web can make history exciting, relevant, and broadly accessible."

News Then, History Now

On a Mission: In 1836, Dr. Marcus Whitman established a mission at Waiilatpu on the Walla Walla River, and it became an important rest stop for immigrants on the Oregon Trail. Whitman tried converting local Cayuse Indians to Christianity, unsuccessfully. He also failed at curing an outbreak of measles among the Cayuse -- they lacked immunity -- and the Indians wrongly assumed that he was infecting them. On November 29, 1847, a group of Cayuse retaliated, killing 14 white settlers and missionaries in what became known as the Whitman Massacre.

Recognition: On November 28, 1853, Governor Isaac Stevens established Olympia as the territorial capital. Some Washington counties also celebrate anniversaries this time of year. Whitman County was established on November 29, 1871, and Garfield County was established on November 29, 1881. Kittitas County was created on November 24, 1883, and Douglas County and Adams County were created four days later on November 28.

Execution: On November 21, 1856, Gustave Englebrecht became the first member of the U.S. Navy to be killed in the Pacific (broadly speaking) when he was shot during a raid of northern Indians at Port Gamble. A chief was also killed in the melee, and the Indians (likely members of the Kake tribe of Tlingits) retaliated a year later by chopping off Isaac Ebey's head on Whidbey Island.

Evolution: One hundred and fifty years ago this week, on November 22, 1859, Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species became available for sale. Today there are two known copies of the first edition in Washington libraries. One is at the Spokane Public Library and the other is at Whitman College.

Assassination: When Abraham Lincoln was elected president on November 6, 1860, news of the event didn't reach the Northwest until November 22. When John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas on November 22, 1963, local television viewers witnessed the tragedy virtually instantly.

Incorporation: On December 2, 1869, Seattle finally became a city after an earlier misstep. Other Washington communities that got their start this time of year include Yakima City on December 1, 1883, Pasco on November 28, 1884, and Mountlake Terrace on November 29, 1954.

Presentation: Curtains rose at Squire's Opera House in Seattle on November 24, 1879, the Seeley Theatre in Pomeroy on November 24, 1913, and Port Angeles's Mack Theatre on November 24, 1922. Crowds flocked to see Geraldine Farrar perform Carmen at Seattle's Metropolitan Theatre on November 23, 1924, but after November 25, 1948, theaters had to compete with a new form of in-home entertainment -- television.

Violation: On November 24, 1892, in South King County, armed bandits held up a Northern Pacific train in Washington's first train robbery. And more than a century later, the nefarious career of William Skurlock, a.k.a. the Hollywood Bandit, came to an end after his 15th bank robbery in the Seattle area, when he committed suicide after being cornered by the police.

Inundation: On November 19, 1911, a flood in the Cedar River Valley created a disaster in Renton, but Seattle got hit even harder. On November 24, 1959, a major Green River flood inundated Kent and most of the valley. On December 1, 1975, a disastrous flood struck Snohomish County, and on November 25, 1990, heavy rains contributed to the sinking of the Lake Washington Floating Bridge.

Aviation: On November 23, 1916, test pilot Herb Munter took the controls of the first completely original Boeing airplane and lifted off from Lake Union. William Boeing had built and flown the derivative B&W a few months earlier, but this Model C floatplane was designed from the ground up for his new Pacific Aero-Products (later reincorporated as the Boeing Airplane Co.).

Devastation: On November 24, 1944, Seattle morticians John F. Hennessy and Earl J. Cassedy disappeared on their way home from a colleague's house. Police suspected foul play, but the mystery was solved four years later when their bodies were found in Hennessy's car, which had fallen into the Lake Washington Ship Canal. On November 26, 1945, 15 children lost their lives when their school bus slid off the road and sank in the icy waters of Lake Chelan. And on November 27, 1998, a Metro bus plunged off of the Aurora Bridge, after the driver was shot by a crazed passenger.

Desolation: On November 30, 1947, a chartered Alaska Airlines C-54 overshot Sea-Tac Airport and crashed, killing nine and injuring 17. Five years later a U.S. Air Force C-54G Skymaster crashed in Tacoma, killing 37 people, on November 28, 1952.

Obfuscation: On November 24, 1969, the first Sasquatch tracks were sighted in Stevens County. Exactly two years later, "Dan Cooper" (better known as D. B.) hijacked a 727 jetliner, and parachuted into the annals of mystery.

Observation: On November 21, 1988 the Port of Tacoma dedicated its Public Observation Tower. Around the same time, the Port of Seattle began planning a third runway at Sea-Tac International Airport, which finally opened last year on November 20, 2008.

Culmination: Logging and mining were important industries in Washington's early days, but times do change. On November 30, 1995, the Port Gamble sawmill closed, marking the end of the oldest continuously operating sawmill in the country. And on November 27, 2006, the last coal mine in Washington shut down near Centralia.

Quote of the Week

There are events which are so great that if a writer has participated in them his obligation is to write truly rather than assume the presumption of altering them with invention.

                               --Ernest Hemingway

Image of the Week

On November 25, 1998, the serenity in Anacortes was shattered by a blast at the Equilon Puget Sound Refinery.