For decades before, Burma had been ruled by an isolationists and repressive military dictatorship led by General Ne Win. In 1987 Ne Win revalued Burma’s currency and overnight wiped out people’s savings.

Students in Burma began organizing protests about Burma’s mounting economic crisis. On 13 March 1988 students protesting outside the Rangoon Institute of Technology clashed with the military and Phone Maw, a fourth year engineering student, was shot dead.

Protests quickly escalated, with students being joined by ordinary citizens, monks, and civil servants. August 8, 1988 marks the day of the largest protests in Burma’s history with hundreds of thousands taking part in protests.

Like the protesters of the Saffron Revolution, students sported their symbol of the fighting peacock, and monks carried their alms bowls upside down to show they would not accept handouts from the military, again as a protest.

On 26 August, Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of independence hero Aung San who had only recently returned to Burma to nurse her sick mother, made a speech at Shwedagon Pagoda and became the public face of the democracy movement.

Protests continued until September 18th when the military sprayed automatic rifle fire into crowds of protesters. Other demonstrators were carried away in trucks and never seen again.

Human rights groups say at least 3,000 people were killed.

Watch director/producer Judd Apatow talk about what 8.8.88 means: