Myanmar celebrates 25th anniversary of the '8888' movement

When: 8th Aug 1988 (thats why '8888')

Where: Burma (Nationwide)

What: a series of marches, demonstrations, protests, and riots

Why: Since 1962, the country had been ruled by the Burma Socialist Programme Party regime as a one-party state, headed by General Ne Win. The catastrophic Burmese Way to Socialism had turned Burma into one of the world's most impoverished countries. Almost everything was nationalized and the government combined Soviet-style central planning with superstitious beliefs. 

Explanation: Hundreds of thousands of ochre-robed monks, young children, university students, housewives, and doctors demonstrated against the regime. The uprising ended on 18 September, after a bloody military coup by the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). Thousands of deaths have been attributed to the military during this uprising, while authorities in Myanmar put the figure at around 350 people killed. 

During the crisis, Aung San Suu Kyi emerged as a national icon. When the military junta arranged an election in 1990, her party, the National League for Democracy, won 80% of the seats in the government (392 out of 447). But the military junta suppressed everything that could have developed from these democratic achievements.

Sources: Wiki