Stalin Funeral Stampede
On March 9, 1953, thousands of people showed up in the Red Square of Moscow for the funeral service of Joseph Stalin. During the ceremony, there were multiple speeches given in his honor, and there was a moment of silence. Then bells chimed from the Kremlin Tower. Horns and sirens wailed, and the soldiers gave a 21-gun salute. After the silence, a military band began playing the Soviet National Anthem, and they began a parade through the square. Meanwhile, similar services were being held in other parts of the USSR including China, Mongolia and North Korea. But the crowd was so huge during this funeral, that it caused people to be crushed in the stampede. There were an estimated 109 people who perished that day in the Russian Red Square.