Seeds of Fire: A People’s Chronology
Recalling events that happened on this day in history.
Memories of struggle, resistance and persistence.
Compiled by Ulli Diemer
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July 16, 1099
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Christian Crusaders storm Jerusalem and slaughter thousands of Muslims and Jews.
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July 16, 1877
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Railway workers on the Pennsylvania and Baltimore & Ohio Railroads refuse to work, and block scabs from taking their jobs. They manage to halt all railroad traffic at the Camden Junction just outside of Baltimore. The railroad companies had cut wages and shortened the workweek. After a second pay cut in June, Pennsylvania RR announced that the same number of workers would be expected to service twice as many trains. The work stoppage spreads west and eventually becomes the first nationwide strike in the United States.
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July 16, 1979
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The largest release of radioactive material in U.S. history occurs in the territory of the Navajo Nation. More than 1200 metric tons of uranium tailings (mining waste) and 378 million litres of radioactive water burst through a mud containment dam near Church Rock, New Mexico. The spill contaminates the Rio Puerco river, source of drinking water for the Navajo, showing 7,000 times the allowable standard of radioactivity for drinking water.
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July 16, 1983
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10,000 peace activists form a human chain linking the American and Soviet embassies in London, England.
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