March 21, 1937: The Ponce Massacre

March 21, 1937: Police in Ponce, Puerto Rico kill 19 members of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. Two policemen also end up killed.

The Ponce Massacre was nearly 5 times as bad as the Kent State Massacre of 1970, but it wasn't shown on TV news. That's because, at the time, TV news did not exist. But, between that, and the distance of time, and the fact that it wasn't white people who died, it got buried in history.

It was nearly 4 times as bad as the Boston Massacre of 1770, but didn't become an important part of a successful revolution. That's another reason why most of you won't know about it.

No one who participated in the killings was punished, although President Franklin D. Roosevelt did remove Governor Blanton Winship from his post -- 2 years later.

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March 21, 1937 was a Sunday. Tom Flores was born that day. He was the 1st starting quarterback for the Oakland Raiders in 1960, and coached them to win Super Bowls XI and XV (the latter after they had moved to Los Angeles).

Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. It was the last day of the NHL's regular season, and these 3 games were played:

* The New York Rangers beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-1 at the old Madison square Garden.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 6-1 at the Boston Garden.

* The Montreal Maroons beat the Detroit Red wings, 5-1 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

* And the Toronto Maple Leafs were not scheduled.