Today in history

March 25

1807
Britain abolished the slave trade.
1872
Toronto printers strike for the 9-hour day — the first major strike in Canada.
1894
Coxey’s “Army” heads peacefully from Ohio for Washington DC, demanding economic reform.
1911
Triangle shirtwaist fire kills 145 in New York City,stirring public outrage and spurs workplace safety reform.
1915
Sisterhood of International Peace founded in Australia.
1965
Their numbers having swelled to 25,000, the Selma-to-Montgomery marchers arrived at the Alabama state capitol. “Yes, we are on the move and no wave of racism can stop us. (Yes, sir) We are on the move now. The burning of our churches will not deter us. (Yes, sir) The bombing of our homes will not dissuade us. (Yes, sir) We are on the move now. (Yes, sir) The beating and killing of our clergymen and young people will not divert us. We are on the move now.”

Martin Luther King Jr. and wife Coretta lead march into Montgomery, Alabama.
Read all of Dr. King’s Speech

1965
Viola Gregg Liuzzo, a housewife and mother from Detroit, driving marchers back to Selma from Montgomery, was shot and killed by Klansmen in a passing car. She had driven down to Alabama to join the march after seeing on television the Bloody Sunday attacks at Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge earlier in the month. It was later learned that riding with the Klansmen was an FBI informant.

Anthony & Viola Liuzzo

1969
The newly wed John Lennon and Yoko Ono-Lennon began their seven-day “bed-in for peace” against the Vietnam War at the Amsterdam Hilton in New York City.

“Yoko and I are quite willing to be the world’s clowns, if by so doing it will do some good.”

1972
30,000 in Children’s March for Survival, Washington, D.C., protesting welfare cuts.