Today in Labor History September 11, 1916: The trial of labor activist Warren Billings began in San Francisco on trumped up charges stemming from the San Francisco Preparedness Day parade bombing on July 22. As a result of the bombing, 10 people died and 40 were injured. Not surprisingly, only anarchists were suspected in the bombing. A few days after the bombing, they searched and seized materials from the offices of “The Blast,” Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman’s local paper. Billings and his codefendant Tom Mooney were wrongly convicted. They served 23 years in prison and were released in 1939. Governor Edmund G. Brown pardoned them in 1961.

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