Portal:Anarchism/Anniversaries/June/June 16


 * 1827 - Élie Reclus born. Ethnographer & journalist; participated in the Paris Commune in 1871. Member of the great generational anarchist family, including Élisée Reclus & Paul Reclus.
 * 1870 - Louis Segaud born, Châteauroux.
 * 1894 - Paolo Lega attempts to shoot Francesco Crispi, President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies. The bullet lodges in Crispi's car rather than Crispi. Lega is arrested & gets 20-years in prison for his poor aim.
 * 1903 - Lucien Bernizet born.
 * 1913 - Emma Goldman begins (June 16-July 9) lectures on anarchism & modern drama in Los Angeles.
 * 1917 - Emma Goldman & Alexander Berkman plead not guilty on conspiracy charges; bail set at $25,000 each. Emma Goldman disappointed by Ben Reitman's failure to return to New York to support their pending trial.
 * 1923 - Kurt Gustav Wilckens is shot in his cell by a prison guard, a rightwing fanatic. He dies the next day and, despite government attempts to cover up the crime, a nationwide General Strike is called in protest.
 * 1929 - Ronald Creagh (May 1968-2023) born. French historian of the American anarchist movement. Professor at l'université de Montpellier, author of Histoire de l'anarchisme aux USA (1981), Laboratoires de l'utopie, les communautés libertaires aux Etats Unis (1983), Sacco et Vanzetti (1984), etc. Also moderates the Internet "Research on Anarchism" discussion list.
 * 1937 - Spain: Members of the POUM Executive Committee & foreign activists are rounded up. The POUM is proscribed & its militants persecuted by the Stalinists & the Republic's police. Ethel MacDonald visited comrades in prison, smuggling in food & letters. She helped several foreign anarchists escape from Spain, borrowing clothes for their disguise & getting them on board foreign ships. She was finally captured & imprisoned herself. In prison she helped organize a hunger strike in every prison where there were anarchist prisoners.
 * 1969 - Marie Mayoux (1878-1969) dies (aka Joséphine Bourgon). French teacher, militant syndicalist, pacifist & anarchiste.
 * 2000 - Anarchists, eco-activists Jeff Luers & Craig Marshall arrested in Eugene, Oregon for arson.