Social Justice diary for 2017
We acknowledge the important service of the Australian Catholic Social Service Council ( www.socialjustice.catholic.org.au ) and its work in preparing the Social Justice elements of this resource. Adaptions have been made for this web site.
Jan |  Feb  | Mar  | Apr |  May  | Jun  | Jul |  Aug  |  Sep  | Oct  |  Nov  |  Dec

January

Pictured: Grameen Bank founder, Muhammad Yunus,
receiving Nobel Prize in 1966.

1 World Day of Prayer for Peace. Theme:  'Non-violence, a style of politics for peace'
1901: Foundation of Commonwealth of Australia
1994: Commencement of Native Title Act
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3 1977: First loans by Grameen Bank, founded by Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh
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10 1946: First UN General Assembly opens with 51 nations represented
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15 World Day of Prayer for Migrants and Refugees
1842: Mary MacKillop born in Fitzroy, Victoria
1929: Martin Luther king Jr born in Atlanta USA
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24 Feast of St Francis de Sales, patron saint of journalism
25 1959: Pope John XXIII announces his intention to convoke the Second Vatican Council
26 Australia Day / Survival Day
1972: Aboriginal Tent Embassy established in Canberra
27 International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust
28 Chinese New Year - Year of the Rooster
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February

Pictured: 'Freedom Rides' begin 1965.
1 World Interfaith Harmony Week begins
2 Presentation of Jesus
World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life
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5 Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time
1996: Cape York Peninsula Heads of Agreement signed
6 International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation
Waitangi Day, Aotearoa New Zealand
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8

St Josephine Bakhita
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11 World Day of Prayer for the Sick
1990: Nelson Mandela released from prison
12 Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time
1965: The Freedom Ride commenced in Australia
2005: Sr Dorothy Stang murdered in Brazil
13 2008: Apology to Stolen Generations by Australian Government
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19 Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time
20 World Day of Social Justice
21 International Mother Language Day
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26 Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Project Compassion begins
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March

Clean up Australia  / Fukushima
1 Ash Wednesday
Zero Discrimination Day
Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific Day
1999: International Treaty to Ban Landmines becomes effective
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3 World Wildlife Day
World day of Prayer: Theme - 'Am I being unfair to you?'
4 1979: Pope John Paul II's encyclical Redemptor Hominis
5 First Sunday of Lent
Clean Up Australia Day
1970: International Treaty in Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
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8 International Women's Day
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11 2011: Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, devastated by earthquake and tsunami, killing 18,500 people, destroying the nuclear plant and causing widespread contamination
12 Second Sunday of Lent
1913: Founding of Canberra as Australia's Capital
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17 St Patrick
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19 Third Sunday of Lent
1866: Beginning of Sisters of St Joseph at Penola, SA
2003: US and allies invade Iraq
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21 International Day for Elimination of Racial Discrimination
World Down Syndrome Day
World Poetry Day
World Forestry Day
Week of Solidarity with the Peoples Struggling Against Racism and Racial Discrimination begins
National Harmony Day (Australia)
22 World Water Day
23

World Meteorological Day
24

International Day for the Right to the Truth concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims
1980: Assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero
25 Annunciation
International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade
International Day of Solidarity with Detained and Missing (UN) Staff Members
Earth Hour (8.30 to 9.30 pm local time)
1877: Death of Caroline Chisholm
26 Fourth Sunday of Lent
1967: Pope Paul VI's encyclical Populorum Progressio ('On the Progress of Peoples')
1975: Biological Weapons Convention enters into force
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31 National Youth Week begins
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April

Chernobyl  / Land mine awareness
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Fifth Sunday of Lent
World Autism Awareness Day
2005: Death of Pope John Paul II
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International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action

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6 International Day of Sport for Development and Peace
7 World Health Day
Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Rwandan Genocide
8 National Youth Week begins
9 Palm Sunday
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11 Jewish Passover begins
1963: Pope John XXIII's encyclical Pacem in Terris (Peace on Earth)
12 International Day of Human Space Flight
13 Holy Thursday
14 Good Friday
15 Holy Saturday
1991: Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Royal Commission Final Report signed
16 Easter Sunday
17 Easter Monday
1816: Massacre of Aboriginal people at Appin, NSW
18 World Heritage Day
1955: Death of Albert Einstein
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22 International Mother Earth Day
23 Second Sunday of Easter
World Book and Copyright Day
24 1945: First United Nations Conference opens with 45 nations attending
25 Anzac Day
26 1986: Nuclear plant accident in Chernobyl, Ukraine, causing thousands of deaths and widespread contamination in Europe
1998: Bishop Gerardi murdered in Guatemala
27 2014: Popes John XXIII and John Paul II canonised
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30 Third Sunday of Easter
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May


1 St Joseph the Worker
International Workers Day
1991: Pope John Paul II's encyclical Centesimus Annus, on the 100th anniversary of Rerum Novarum
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3 World Press Freedom Day
4 Yom ha-Shoah, Holocaust Memorial Day
5 Blessed Edmund Rice
6 1992: Introduction of mandatory detention for asylum seekers in Australia (25th anniversary)
Fair Trade fortnight begins
7 Fourth Sunday of Easter
World Day of Prayer for Vocations
8 World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day
1945: War ends in Europe
1970: First Moratorium March against the Vietnam War in Australian cities
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10 1994: Nelson Mandela's Inaugural Address as President of South Africa
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13 World Fair Trade Day
14

Fifth Sunday of Easter
Mothers' Day
1971: Pope Paul VI's Apostolic Letter Octogesima Adveniens (A Call to Action)
15 International Day of Families
1891: Pope Leo XIII's encyclical Rerum Novarum (on Capital and Labour)
1931: Pope Pius XI's encyclical Quadragesimo Anno (on Reconstruction of the Social Order)
1961: Pope John XXIII's encyclical Mater et Magistra (on Christianity and Social Progress)
16 World Debt Day
17

World Telecommunications and Information Society Day
2005: Death of Fr Ted Kennedy
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20 2002: Timor-Leste Constitution came into force with Xanana Gusmao as first President
21 Sixth Sunday of Easter
Jubilee Sunday
World Day of Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development
22 International Day for Biological Diversity
23 International Day to End Obstetric Fistula
24

Mary Help of Christians, Patron of Australia
1948: Foundation of World Council of Churches
2015: Pope Francis' encyclical 'Laudato Si'
25 Week of Solidarity with the Peoples of Non Self-Governing Territories begins
26 National Sorry Day
1997: Bringing Them Home Report tabled in Parliament
27 National Reconciliation Week begins
1967: Referendum changes articles in the Australian Constitution discriminating against Indigenous people (50th anniversary)
Ramadan begins
28 The Ascension
World Communicaions Day. Theme: 'Fear not, for I am with you:communicating hope and trust in our time.'
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity begins.
29 International Day of UN Peacekeepers
1992: Torres Strait Islander flag launched (25th anniversary)
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31 World No Tobacco Day
1942: Japanese submarine attack, Sydney Harbour
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June        
1 Global Day of Parents
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3 1886: Catholic and Anglican Martyrs of Uganda
1992: High Court hands down decision in Mabo Case (25th anniversary)
4 Pentecost Sunday
International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression
1989: Tiananmen Square Massacre
5 World Environment Day
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8 World Oceans Day
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10 1838: Myall Creek Massacre
1935: Alcoholics Anonymous established in New York
11 Trinity Sunday
1971: Neville Bonner first Aboriginal Australian to hold a seat in Federal Parliament
1975: Australia ratifies the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
12 World Day Against Child Labour
1988: Barunga Statement presented to Prime Minister Bob Hawke by Aboriginal leaders
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14 World Blood Donor Day
15 World Elder Abuse Awareness Day
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17 World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought
18 Corpus Christi (The Body and Blood of Christ)
National Refugee Week begins
19 International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict
1945: Birth of Aung San Suu Kyi
1969: Arbitration Commission affirms principle of equal pay for women performing equal work
20 World Refugee Day
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1989: Destruction of the Berlin Wall
23 Public Service Day
International Widows' Day
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25 Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Day of the Seafarer
26 International Day in Support of Victims of Torture
International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking
Eid-al-Fitr: Muslim breaking of the fast
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29 Saints Peter and Paul
30 1945: Introduction of unemployment benefits in Australia
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July
1 2012: The Fair Work Amendment (TCF Industry) Act 2011 commenced, ensuring fair pay and conditions for outworkers in the garment industry
International Tartan Day (Australasia)
2 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time
National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday
NAIDOC Week begins
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1935: Birth of Dalai Lama - awarded Nobel Peace Prize in 1989
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7 1945: Blessed Peter To Rot - killed in Papua New Guinea, recognised as a martyr
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9 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Apostleship of the Sea
10 1985: Sinking of Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland
11 World Population Day
12 1971: Aboriginal Flag first flown in Adelaide
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14 1995: Aboriginal Flag and Torres Strait Islander Flag proclaimed official flags of Australia
15 World Youth Skills Day
16 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time
1945: First Atomic bomb detonated in New Mexico
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18 Nelson Mandela International Day
1918: Birth of Nelson Mandela
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20 1969: First moon landing accomplished by US astronauts: Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin and Michael Collins
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23 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time
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26 1833: Emancipation Bill approved, abolishing slavery throughout the British Empire
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28 Schools Tree Day
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30 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Bible Sunday
World Day against Trafficking in Persons
International Day of Friendship
31 National Tree Day
National Missing Persons Week begins
TOP

August
1 2010: Convention on Cluster Munitions comes into effect
2 1965: First Indochinese refugees allowed to settle in Australia
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4 National Aboriginal and Islander Children's Day
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6 The Transfiguration
National Homeless Persons Week begins
National Missing Persons Week begins
National Vocations Awareness Week begins
1945: Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima
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8 St Mary MacKillop
9 International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples
1945: Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki
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12 International Youth Day
13 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time
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15 Assumption of Mary
16 1975: Wave Hill Station, NT, returned to the Gurindji People
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18 St Alberto Hurtado SJ
Vietnam Veterans Day
19 World Humanitarian Day
2007: Beginning of protests led by Buddhist monks in Burma
20 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time
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23 International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition
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26 2001: MV Tampa rescues 433 asylum seekers from a sinking vessel. Australian Government sends troops to prevent disembarkation
27 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
Refugee ans Migrant Sunday
1999: Death of Dom Helder Camara
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29 International Day Against Nuclear Tests
30 International Day of the Victims of Forced Disappearances
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September
1

National Wattle Day
National Biodiversity Month (Australia)
1815: Sisters of Charity founded by Mary Aikenhead
2 1991: Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation Act passed by Parliament
3 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Fathers' Day
4 National Child Protection Week
5 International Day of Charity
1997: Death of Mother Teresa of Calcutta
2013: The Conventon Concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers came into force
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7 National Threatened Species Day
1936: Death in Hobart Zoo of the last Tasmanian tiger in captivity
2013: Nova Peris became the first indigenous woman elected to Federal Parliament
8 International Literacy Day
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10 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Child Protection Sunday
World Suicide Prevention Day
11 2001: Terrorist attacks on World Trade Centre, New York, and on Washington DC
12 1977: Death of anti-apartheid activist Steve Bilko
13 2007: UN General Assembly adopts Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
14 1981: Pope John Paul II's encyclical Laborem Exercens ('On Human Work')
15 UN International Day of Democracy
16 International Day for Prevention of the Ozone Layer
17 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time
18 1961: Death of UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold
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21 International Day of Peace
World Alzheimer's Day
Rosh Ha-shana (Jewish New Year)
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23 1959: Australian Consumers Association launched
24 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Social Justice Sunday
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26 International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons
27 Feast of Saint Vincent de Paul
World Tourism Day
1988: Aung San Suu Kyi forms Burma's National League for Democracy
28 World Maritime Day
1872: Birth of David Unaipon, Aboriginal writer and activist
1983: Death of John Pat in Roeburne Prison WA, prompting the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
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30 Yom Kippur (Jewish Day of Atonement)
1975: Australia's Racial Discrimination Act proclaimed
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October
1

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time
International Day for Older Persons
2005: Second Bali bombing: 20 people killed and more than 100 injured
2 International Day of Non-Violence
World Habitat Day
1869: Birth of Mahatma Ghandi
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4 St Francis of Assisi
World Space week begins
1957: Launch of Sputnik 1 by the Soviet Union
5 World Teachers Day
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8 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time
9 World Post Day
10 World Mental Health Day
11 International Day of the Girl Child
1962: Opening Session of Vatican Council II
12 2002: First Bali bombing: 202 people killed and 240 injutred
13 International Day for Disaster Reduction
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15 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time
World Mission Sunday
International Day of Rural Women
16 World Food Day
Anti-Poverty week begins
17 International Day for Eradication of Poverty
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19 2001: Sinking of SIEV X
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22 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time
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24 United Nations Day
World Development Information Day
Disarmament Week begins
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26 1985: Uluru returned to traditonal owners, the Anangu people
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29 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time
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31 World Cities Day
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November
1 All Saints Day
2 All Souls (Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed)
International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists
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4 Day of prayer for Anglican-Roman Catholic Reconciliation
5 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time
World Tsunami Awareness Day
2014: Sydney Peace Prize awarded to Julian Burnside AO QC
6 International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict
International Week for Science and Peace
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8 1907: Justice Higgins hands down minimum wage judgment in Harvester case
9 1989: Berlin Wall opened
10 World Science Day for Peace and Development
1995: Nine Nigerian environmentalists and human rights activists hanged
11 Remembrance (Armistice) Day, commemorating the end of World War I in 1918
1975: Dismissal of the Whitlam government
2014: European Space Agency's Rosetta mission placed its lander module, Philae, on a comet 510 million km from Earth
12 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
1991: Dili massacre, Timor-Leste: more than 271 people killed
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14 World Diabetes Day
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16 International Day for Tolerance
World Philosophy Day
1989: Six Jesuit priests and co-workers murdered in El Salvador
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19 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
World Toilet Day
20 Universal Childfren's Day
1959: UN adopts the Declaration of Rights of the Child
21 World Television Day
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24 1964: Parliament passed the National Service Act
25 International Day for the elimination of Violence Against Women
1981: Declaration of the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief
26 Christ the King
27 1998: First Sydney Peace Prize awarded to Muhammad Yunus
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29 International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People
1980: Death of Dorothy Day, Founder of Catholic Worker Movement
1986: Meeting of St John Paul II with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Alice Springs
30 1971: Synod of Bishops Statement Justice in the World
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December
1 World AIDS Day
2 International Day for Abolition of Slavery
3 1st Sunday of Advent
UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities
1874: Battle of the Eureka Stockade
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5 International Volunteer Day for Economic & Social Development
World Soil Day
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7 UN International Civil Aviation Day
1965: Vatican II Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes
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9 UN International Anti-Corruption Day
International Genocide Prevention Day
10 2nd Sunday of Advent
Human Rights Day
1948: Adoption of United Nations Declaration of Human Rights
1968: Death of Thomas Merton
1992: Redfern Speech by Prime Minister Paul Keating, at launch of International Year of the World's Indigenous People (25th anniversary)
11 International Mountain Day
12 1831: Sisters of Mercy founded by Catherine McAuley
13 First day of Hanukkah (Jewish Feast of Dedication)
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17 3rd Sunday of Advent
18 International Migrants Day
1894: South Australia becomes the first state in Australia to give women the right to vote
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20 UN International Human Solidarity Day
21 1991: Dissolution of the USSR and the founding of Commonwealth of Independent States including Russia
1993: Native Title Bill passed by the Australian Senate
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23 1901: Immigration Restriction Act (White Australia Policy) enacted
1996: Wik High Court decision
24 4th Sunday of Advent
25 Christmas Day
26 2004: South Asia devastated by tsunami, killing 200,000 to 300,000 people
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30 1987: Pope John Paul II's encyclical Sollicitudo Rei Socialis
31 Feast of the Holy Family
1946: Paid annual leave granted to workers in Australia
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