Bloody Sunday

Bloody Sunday

1. (historical) A 1905 event in St Petersburg in which as many as 4,000 unarmed citizens were killed by state forces.
2. (historical, US) A 1965 event in Selma, Alabama, where peaceful civil rights protesters were brutally beaten by police.
   • 2009 October 21, Dennis Hevesi, “Jack Nelson, Journalist, Dies at 80”, in The New York Times, retrieved 12 June 2014:

     Mr. Nelson covered the Selma-to-Montgomery freedom marches, including Bloody Sunday, on March 7, 1965, when 600 marchers were attacked with billy clubs and tear gas.

   • 2015 March 5, Douglas Brinkley, “Selma’s historic bridge deserves a better name”, in CNN‎^[1]:

     So when King – who had been in Atlanta for “Bloody Sunday” – telegrammed Parks about returning to Alabama to take part in a third mass march from Selma to Montgomery, her immediate answer was “Why, of course.”

3. (historical, British, Ireland) A 1972 event in Northern Ireland in which 14 civil rights protesters were shot and killed by a British Army regiment.
   • 1983, “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, in War, performed by U2:

     We eat and drink while tomorrow they die / Sunday, Bloody Sunday / The real battle just begun / Sunday, Bloody Sunday

4. (historical) Any of many similar events; see Bloody Sunday on Wikipedia for a complete list.

• Selma (Sunday 7 March 1965 in Selma, Alabama, USA)