Today in Labor History March 16, 1811: Luddites attacked machines throughout the northwest of England. They destroyed over 100 frames in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Kirby, Woodborough, Lambley, Bulwell, & Ilkeston in Derbyshire.
19102-1920s
Today in Labor History March 16, 1916: The 7th and 10th US cavalry regiments under John J. Pershing cross the US–Mexico border to join the hunt for Pancho Villa.
March 16, 1918: The Battle of Länkipohja was fought during the Finnish Civil War. In the aftermath, the Whites executed 70–100 Reds who had already surrendered.
March 16, 1921: Bolsheviks, under orders from Trotsky, launched their final assault on the sailors of Kronstadt. They slaughtered hundreds of rebels, earning Trotsky the moniker, “The Red Butcher.”
1940s-1960s
Today in Labor History March 16, 1945: British bombers destroyed ninety percent of Würzburg, Germany in only 20 minutes. Over 5,000 people died.
March 16, 1968: U.S. troops slaughtered 500 Vietnamese villagers in the My Lai Massacre.
1970s
Today in Labor History March 16, 1977: Unidentified gunmen assassinated Kamal Jumblatt, the main leader of the anti-government forces in the Lebanese Civil War. Jumblatt founded the Lebanese Progressive Socialist Party and was an ally of the Palestine Liberation Organization. In 1972, he won the International Lenin Peace Prize. George Hawi, General Secretary of the Lebanese Communist Party, claimed in an interview that the uncle of Syria’s president Assad was the assassin.
March 16, 1978: The far-left terrorist group Red Brigades (BR) kidnapped Former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro. They murdered him 55 days later. There are lots of hypotheses about their motivations. One hypothesis claims they did it to stop Moro’s mediation between the Communist Party and the Christian Democrats in order to halt the CP’s rise to power so as to increase the BR’s influence within the Left. Other hypotheses include the idea that the CIA, or Gladio, a clandestine paramilitary associated with NATO, had infiltrated BR and were manipulating them.
1980s
Today in Labor History March 16, 1988: Saddam Hussein attacked the Kurdish town of Halabja with poison gas and nerve agents. 5,000 people died. 10,000 were injured.
March 16, 1988: Ulster loyalist militant Michael Stone attacked a Provisional IRA funeral in Belfast with pistols and grenades, killing three and wounding 60.
1990s-2000s
Today in Labor History March 16, 1995: Mississippi finally ratified the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, 130 years after it was officially ratified by the U.S. in 1865.
March 16, 2003: Israeli Defense Forces murdered American activist Rachel Corrie in Rafah by running over her with a bulldozer. She had been defending a Palestinian home that the IDF was trying to demolish as part of their collective punishment of the Palestinian people.