April 20th

On this day - April 20th 1999 - The Columbine High School Massacre 

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 fellow student and one teacher in the Columbine High School massacre in 1999. They injured another 12 students before the committed suicide. The massacre was a highly planned attack against their High School in Colorado, USA. Their motives were unclear, but they had been inspired by the Oklahoma City Bombing (April 19th) and other violent attacks in the US. Their original plan included bombing of the cafeteria at the busiest time, which wold have resulted in the death of hundreds of students. The bomb, thankfully, only went of partially. It was after this, at 11.19 am the two boys started shooting. Rachel Scott  who was eating lunch outside became their first victim in the Columbine School Massacre.
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The massacre sparked a debate on gun control in the US. We would like to recommend the movie "Bowling For Columbine" by Michael Moore about the massacre and the debates that followed. Several book about Rachel Scott and based on her writing has also been written. See for example  Rachel's Tears which was written by her parents.

April 13th

On this day - April 13th 1919 - Over 300 Indians were killed in the Jallianwala Bagh massacre

Jallianwala Bagh massacre, also known as the Amritsar massacre, was a massacre of over 300 peaceful protesters in Punjab, India. The people was gathered in an large open area to celebrate the Baisakhi festival. The protesters were fired on for 10 minutts by the British army, and the main fire was directed at the protesters who were trying to escape. At least 379 people died and 1100 people were inured in the incident, but the number might have been much higher. The incident led to the Non-cooperation Movement of 1920–22 in India.

The area a few months after the massacre 

February 14th

On this day - February 14th 1929 - Saint Valentine's Day Massacre

Saint Valentine's day massacre is a name given to the murder of seven mob assosiates in Chicago. The baground for the murders were a conflict between Bugs Moran's "North Side" gang and Al Capone's "South Side" gang in Chicago. The conflict was mainly about smuggeling, in particular alchol, due to the prohbition in the US at the time. The victoms belonged to the North Side gang, an Irish-American criminal mob, while the South Side gang mainly consisted of the Italian mob. The seven mob members were lined up and shot by four of Al Capones gang members dressed as police and whiskey smuglers. Although Bugs Moran was not one of the seven who died were this the beginning of the end as his time and he was not able to keep his Territory after this massacre.

One of the mortally wounded mob members, Gusenberg, last Words were allegdely  “No one, nobody shot me.” when asked who shot him by the police.

The massacre has inspired several Movies and can be seen in several different mob and/or Chicago related Movies and tv shows. The best known is probably the 1967 Movie "The St. Valentine's day massacre".


Happy Valentinedays to all Our Readers!

Al Capone

 Bugs Moran