History LGBT Tragedy

History LGBT Tragedy

The Stonewall Riots begin. Just after 3 a.m., police raided the Stonewall Inn—a gay club located on New York City’s Christopher Street. The incident turned violent as patrons and local sympathizers begin rioting against the police. Although the police were technically within their legal purview in raiding the club, which was serving liquor without a license, New York’s gay community had grown weary and wary of the police department frequently targeting gay clubs specifically because of their clientele. It is claimed that activist Marsha P Johnson yelled "I got my civil rights," and threw a shot glass at the wall, referred to as "the shot glass heard ‘round the world.” As the two groups faced off against each other, the protest spilled over into the neighboring streets, and order was not restored until the deployment of New York’s riot police. The Stonewall Riots were followed by several days of demonstrations in New York and was the impetus for the formation of the Gay Liberation Front as well as other gay, lesbian and bisexual civil rights organizations. It’s also regarded by many as history’s first major LGBT protest on behalf of equal rights.

Circus Tragedy 1944

Photo legend history, a fire breaks out under the Hartford, Connecticut big top of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum Bailey Circus. The disaster killed 167 people and left 682 injured. The cause of the fire was unknown, but it spread at incredible speed, racing up the canvas of the circus tent. Scarcely before the 8,000 spectators inside the big top could react, patches of burning canvas began falling on them from above, and a stampede for the exits began. Many were trapped under fallen canvas, but most were able to rip through it and escape. However, after the tent’s ropes burned and its poles gave way, the whole burning big top came crashing down, consuming those who remained inside. Within 10 minutes it was over, and because of a picture that appeared in newspapers of clown Emmett Kelly holding a water bucket, the event became colloquially known as "the day the clowns cried." An investigation later revealed that the tent had undergone a treatment with flammable paraffin thinned with three parts of gasoline to make it waterproof. The Circus eventually agreed to pay $5 million in compensation, and several of the organizers were convicted on manslaughter charges. In 1950, in a late development in the case, Robert D. Segee of Circleville, Ohio, confessed to starting the Hartford circus fire. Segee claimed that he had been an arsonist since the age of six. In November 1950, Segee was sentenced to two consecutive terms of 22 years in prison, the maximum penalty in Ohio at the time.