Venustiano Carranza called on revolutionary leaders to meet for convention in Mexico City,
The Battle of Arras began with a French assault on German positions.
Canadian William Lyon Mackenzie King, a future Prime Minister, and then director for the Rockefeller Foundation since June, was assigned to head an inquiry the Colorado mining strife of 1914.
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Álvaro Obregón's forces captured Tepic and thus the only railroad between the ports of Guadalajara and Colima.
Robert Bartlett arrived in Emma Harbour.
A day late, but the day prior, May 15, Colorado National Guardsman Sergeant Patrick N. Cullom testified that soldiers in his company shot and killed labor activist Louis Tikas and two other fellow strikers while they tried to escape during the Ludlow Massacre. Moreover, it was revealed that large numbers of strikebreakers were recent enlistees in the subject unit.
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The Boomerang was pondering Colorado Governor Ammon's fate. . . and war with Mexico.
Ammons would survive the impeachment attempt, but he's seen the handwriting on the wall politically and made his current term, which expired in 1915, his last.
Suffragette Mary Ann Aldham slashed John Singer Sargent's portrait of Henry James as part of the ongoing suffragette campaign of terrorism that had been going on in recent weeks in the UK. The painting was on display at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.
There were suffrage parades and marches across the United States. The day, in fact, had been declared National Suffrage Day by those advocating for a nationwide franchise for women.
In a lot of ways, this was a carryover of labor protests that had occured the day prior, on May Day.
In Wyoming, where Wyoming had the vote, the news was on the war in the state to the South, where Federal troops were deploying.
With Federal troops arriving, John R. Lawson of the United Mine Workers ordered miners to lay down their arms, which they did on this day, but not before an additional fifteen Colorado minders were killed.
On this day in 1914, President Wilson ordered Federal troops to Colorado at the request of Gov. Eliam M. Ammons following days of fighting (the Ten Day War) between miners, Colorado National Guardsmen and mine owners that had broken out with the April 20 Ludlow Massacre, which we should have covered but managed to omit, occured.
Rise up and strike! If you are too cowardly, there are enough women in this country to come in here and beat the hell out of you.
The companies brought in strike-breaking forces, and law enforcement was generally aligned with the companies. They also had influence in the Colorado National Guard, which would soon be deployed, which was extremely unfortunate as the Guard had been working since the early 20th Century to escape this role specifically, and had made progress in that regard with the passage of the Dick Act, which made them the official reserve of the Army. In classic Western form, gunmen were recruited from Texas and New Mexico, some of whom became National Guard "recruits". Colorado's National Guard CO, Gen. John Chase, had, additionally, played a role in suppressing strikes at Cripple Creek in 1903-04, making him literally a pre Dict Act figure, as the Dick Act, which officially established the Guard system, came into effect in 1903.
In October 1913 the Colorado National Guard was called out, but six months later the financial drain on the state caused all but two companies to be withdrawn. When more fully deployed miners had welcomed it, as it was a neutral party, but the change, with quite a few of the Guardsmen deployed in that period being imported strikebreakers with no military experience, changed things considerably. Strikebreakers were additionally brought in by the mines in the form of Baltwin-Felts detectives, who had experience in the same from West Virginia.
Clashes occured all winter long, with the Guard sometimes acting as strikebreakers and sometimes acting as intervening parties between strikers and private strikebreakers. Things had largely calmed down by early 2014, but the death of a strikebreaker near Ludlow caused increased tension once again. Mother Jones returned in late March and was detained in dank conditions.
On Orthodox Easter, April 20, 1914, many of the miners were Greek immigrants, fighting broke out after early morning negotiations between the parties, the miner's UMW representative Louis Tikas being among those participating in discussion. The negotiations were brought about by rising tensions and threads the prior day. Perhaps ironically, Tikas, who had initially refused to meet, was encouraged to do so by Colorado National Guard Major Patrick J. Hamrock, who had been with the Army at Wounded Knee.
The two parties nonetheless began to move for position and fighting broke out.
The remaining Guard companies attacked the camp and fighting went on all day long. At some point Lt. Karl "Monte" Linderfelt, a notable figure in the actions locally, butt stroked Tikas in the head, although later examinations showed Tikas, who was a Cretan immigrant, to have multiple gunshot wounds. Linderfelt's unit had been kept some distance from Ludlow as he was so inclined to violence. Thirty-two strikers or their families, including women and children, were killed, and thirty-seven Guardsmen lost their lives. Four Hundred miners were arrested, and the camp was destroyed.
The violence at Ludlow led to a union call to arms throughout Colorado and a switch to miner sympathy on the part of the press. The Southwestern Mine Co.'s Empire Mine was laid under siege on April 22, with the miners yielding after 21 hours, a ceasefire being negotiated by a Protestant minister. An attempt to take Delagua, Colorado, was made by strikers who were republished, but three mine guards were killed in the assaults. A mine guard was killed at Tabasco and the Las Animas County Sheriff's Department cabled that it had been defeated and requested Federal troops.
While this was going on, the UMW briefly organized a truce, but at the same time the Governor attempt to deploy the National Guard to what had become a 175-mile-long front. Of the 600 Guardsmen who were expected to answer the call, only 362 men reported showing that the insurrection and public sympathy had passed to the miners, who now had the press's full support nationwide. One of the cavalry troops of the Colorado Guard, which included two of the Colorado Guard's commander's sons, mutinied and had to be removed from deployment. Artillery was deployed from Denver, but the miners also secured firearms.
The Chandler Mine near Cañon City was fired upon on April 25, breaking the truce. On the 26th, 1,000 armed miners attacked and took the town. Residents of Walsenburg's fled. Greek miners grew unhappy with union officials and began guerilla attacks on the town and attacked the McNally Mine. Communiques from both sides took on the nature of those from regular combatants.
The Women's Peace Association staged a sit in Denver starting on April 25, which forced Governor Ammons to act, sending his request on the 25th. On the 26th, protesters in Denver demanded the impeachment of Governor Ammons. One of the speakers was former Denver Police Commissioner George Creel.
The National Guard deployed in force on April 27 near Trinidad, where Tikas' funeral was scheduled to, and did, take place without incident. There had been plans to retake the town, which was in miner control, but the assault did not occur.
On this day, the Battle of Heclar Mine in Louisville took place, with that mine owned by the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company. This was considerably further north than the other mine attacks and fairly near Denver. National Guardsmen that had been rotated off of the southern front were sent to quell that attack.
The Army was on its way.
Ironically, perhaps, on the same day a mine explosion in Eccles, West Virginia, killed over 180 miners.
British suffragettes Hilda Burkitt and Florence Tunks burned down the Felixstow Bath Hotel in Suffolk as part of an ongoing suffragette terror campaign.
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