History Note

On this day, 20 May 1980, as part of a city-wide uprising against the US-backed military dictatorship, hundreds of taxi drivers in Gwangju, South Korea, used their vehicles to try to break a military blockade in a key turning-point in the struggle.
Since the uprising began on May 18, many taxi drivers had been beaten or killed by military forces as they tried to transport wounded demonstrators to hospital. So they organised themselves, gathered around 400 vehicles then used them to try to breach the main military barricade outside the provincial office at the end of Geumnan Avenue in the city centre.
They were backed up by a couple of buses, as well as protesters in the street who attempted to help clear the path using steel pipes and petrol bombs. They drove their vehicles directly at the barricade, facing live fire, attempting to smash through and drive the martial law forces from the provincial office.
While the military was able to repel the attack at that time, the sight of the organised assault on the paratroopers inspired workers and residents of the city that they could confront the army and potentially win. Soon, 200,000 people were on Geumnan Avenue, and by 9 PM demonstrators had seized City Hall and begun burning down police stations.
Elsewhere in the city, protesters occupied the offices of the news broadcaster MBC demanding that they show coverage of the uprising.
The demonstrators also firebombed the building, although the flames were put out by MBC employees, although the station was forced to stop broadcasting at 9 PM, at which point management evacuated the building.
Protesters then tried to broadcast themselves from the facility, but were unable to, so instead they set the building on fire. The fire threatened to spread to neighbouring buildings, but the rebels managed to contain the blaze to just destroy the office of the broadcaster of pro-dictatorship propaganda.