Today in history

January 13

1874
The depression of 1873-1877 left 3 million people unemployed. In the winter of 1873, 900 people starved to death, and 3,000 deserted their infants on doorsteps. A public meeting was called in New York City’s Tompkins Square Park, for January 13, 1874, to lobby for public works projects.

The night before, the city secretly voided the permit for the gathering. The next morning, mounted police charged into the crowd of 10,000 with nightsticks swinging, driving men, women, and children into the streets and injuring scores. Police commissioner Abram Duryee commented “It was the most glorious sight I ever saw.”

The Tompkins Park Massacre

1898
Novelist Emile Zolaexposes rampant French anti-Semitism & a military cover up in the Dreyfus Affair with publication of J’accuse!

1898
Birthday of Danish playwright & priest Kaj Munk, whose outspoken sermons & plays during World War II led to his execution by the Nazis.

1988
13-Jan U.S. Supreme Court rules (5-3) public school officials have broad powers to censor school newspapers, plays & other expressive activities.

1993
13-Jan Vigil against arrival of ship bringing plutonium for nuclear reactor, Tokai, Japan.

2003
Gov. George Ryan (IL) commutes sentences of 167 death row inmates and begins death penaly moratorium.