John Autry

March 16, 1988 - Iraqi forces acting under orders from President Saddam Hussein attacked the Kurdish village of Halabja with a variety of poison gasses including mustard gas and the nerve agents sarin, tabun, and VX. About 5,000 non-combatant men, but mostly women and children, died from the chemical weapons.

This was part of Saddam’s al-Anfal campaign, a slow genocide of the Kurds in Iraq. About 2000 villages were emptied and leveled as well as a dozen larger towns and cities, tens of thousands were killed.

#Halabja

March 16, 1968 - U.S. troops in South Vietnam killed 504 Vietnamese civilians at My Lai, a pair of hamlets in the coastal lowlands of Quang Ngai Province. The victims were from 247 families, completely eliminating 24 of them, three generations with no survivors. Among the dead were 182 women, 17 of them pregnant, and 173 children, including 56 infants, and 60 older men.

Lt. William L. Calley, Jr. commanded the men of Charlie Company, First Battalion, America l Division, and was the only one tried out of 80 involved in what is called the My Lai Massacre. The Army, including a young Major Colin Powell, at first tried to cover it up and the media resisted reporting it.

Some of Calley's soldiers refused to participate, but only 24-year-old helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson and his crew stopped it by putting themselves between the villagers and the troops pursuing them.

Chief My Lai prosecutor William Eckhardt described how Thompson responded to what he found when he put his helicopter down: "[Thompson] put his guns on Americans, said he would shoot them if they shot another Vietnamese, had his people wade in the ditch in gore to their knees, to their hips, took out children, took them to the hospital...flew back [to headquarters], standing in front of people, tears rolling down his cheeks, pounding on the table saying, 'Notice, notice, notice'...then had the courage to testify time after time after time."

#MyLai

Divine (Harris Glenn Milstead) died on this day in 1988. Divine was John Waters' muse. Together they made cinema history with collaborations like "Multiple Maniacs" "Female Trouble" & "Pink Flamingos". Knocking over the tables and delivering some cutting social commentary along the way. #Divine

March 7, 1988 - A Federal Court ruled in Atlanta, Georgia, that a peace group [Committee Against Registration and the Draft (CARD)] must have the same access to students at high school career days as military recruiters. #EqualAccessActOf1984

March 7, 1932 - The Ford Hunger March began on Detroit’s east side and proceeded 10 miles seeking relief during the Great Depression. Facing hunger and evictions, workers had formed neighborhood Unemployed Councils. Along the route, the marchers were given good wishes from Detroit Mayor Frank Murphy as well as two motorcycle escorts, and thousands joined the marchers along the route. At the Detroit city limit, the marchers were met by Dearborn police and doused by fire hoses. Despite the cold weather, they continued to the Employment Office of the Ford River Rouge plant, from which there had been massive layoffs. Five workers were killed and nineteen wounded by police and company “security” armed with pistols, rifles and a machine gun. According to Dave Moore, one of the marchers, “That blood was black blood and white blood. One of the photos that was published in the Detroit Times, but never seen since, shows a black woman, Mattie Woodson, wiping the blood off the head of Joe DiBlasio, a white man who lay there dying . . . It’s been 75 years, but when you drive down Miller Road today, your car tires will be moistened with the blood that those five shed.” Grave markers with the words “His Life for the Union” pay tribute to the fallen hunger marchers in Woodmere Cemetery on Detroit’s west side. #FordHungerMarch

March 4, 1969 - The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) was founded. From its founding document: “Misuse of scientific and technical knowledge presents a major threat to the existence of mankind. Through its actions in Vietnam our government has shaken our confidence in its ability to make wise and humane decisions. There is also disquieting evidence of an intention to enlarge further our immense destructive capability...” https://www.ucs.org/

February 27, 1973 - Hundreds of Oglala Lakota Sioux and members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) occupied the village of Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Angered over a long history of violated treaties, mistreatment, family dismemberment, cultural destruction, discrimination, and impoverishment through confiscation of resources, they particularly demanded the U.S. live up to the terms of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty. That treaty recognized the Sioux as an independent nation in the western half of South Dakota. Additionally, there had been a recent campaign of harassment and violence by tribal and FBI officials. Wounded Knee was chosen because of the 1890 massacre there of several hundred men, women and children by U.S. troops. The occupation lasted until May. #WoundedKnee

"Pink Moon" by Nick Drake was released this day in 1972. #NickDrake #PinkMoon

Sublime.
#SOTU

February 22, 1943

Sophie Scholl, a 22-year-old White Rose (Weisse Rose) activist at Munich University, was executed after being convicted of urging students to rise up and overthrow the Nazi government.

There are many memorials in Bavaria and Germany to Sophie and her group, the White Rose, but little is known outside of Germany. They were medical students who organized nonviolent resistance to Hitler, and were arrested for printing and distributing anti-Nazi flyers.

Sophie, her brother Hans, a former member of Hitler Youth who started White Rose, and Christof Probst, the three young people in the photo, were executed. Few White Rose members survived the war which is why the story is not well known.

#SophieScholl

#JamesBaldwin

‘Key quote from the judge's order releasing Liam Ramos and his father: "Observing human behavior confirms that for some among us, the perfidious lust for unbridled power and the imposition of cruelty in its quest know no bounds and are bereft of human decency. And the rule of law be damned.”’
 ~ Peter Birkenhead

It's Jennifer Camille's Birthday! Born this day in 1978. #JenniferAutryBest #LoveYouLikeAir

"As agents from Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which are under DHS, have continued to terrorize immigrant communities and kill US citizens, activists have sought to track and record their activity online in a bid to hold them accountable." https://www.wired.com/story/meta-is-blocking-links-to-ice-list-on-facebook-instagram-and-threads/?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=wired&utm_mailing=WIR_Daily_012826_PAID&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&utm_content=WIR_Daily_012826_PAID&bxid=5caf1f5cb90c2f2e2e5dac37&cndid=56945829&hasha=8874c6e9094975c42d745ecae7919d9d&hashc=bce4944c15db85d18ae918cf9c3d15ad46ddf1635240f039c57f209619973121&esrc=MARTECH_ORDERFORM&utm_term=WIR_DAILY_PAID

#MikeLuckovich 1/28/2026