On this day in 1980, the radical Christian anti-war "Plowshares Movement" committed their first act of protest when eight activists entered a private weapons factory, damaged missiles with hammers, and prayed for peace.

The Plowshares Movement is an anti-nuclear weapons and Christian pacifist movement that advocates active resistance to war. The group often practices a form of symbolic protest that involves the damaging of weapons and military property, taking its name from the idea of beating swords to plowshares (converting means of violence into peaceful tools) from the Book of Isaiah.

The movement's first act happened on September 9th, 1980, when eight activists entered the General Electric Re-entry Division building (where missiles and military vehicles were made), smashed the cones of two warheads with hammers, poured their own blood on documents, and prayed for peace.

Known as the "Plowshare Eight", they were arrested and charged with more than ten different felony and misdemeanor counts. Plowshare acts of civil disobedience continue into the modern day, with a widow of one of the original eight, Elizabeth McAlister, getting arrested in 2018 for direct action at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base.