Chronology

This is a chronology of ''Reds! A Revolutionary Timeline'' which lists every important event occured in the timeline since 1897.

1897

 * February 10 – The Western Federation of Miners breaks with the American Federation of Labor, following the sobering experience of the Leadville miners’ strike.
 * March 4 – William McKinley is inaugurated President of the United States, succeeding Grover Cleveland.
 * June 1 – American mine workers begin a strike that successfully establishes the United Mine Workers’ Union.
 * June 2 – Tan Malaka, Indonesian revolutionary, teacher and philosopher, is born.
 * June 15 – The original American Railway Union's final conclave begins in Chicago. The new organization, Social Democracy of America, is openly courted by delegates from the Socialist Labor Party following its quick and decisive repudiation of utopian colonization schemes.
 * July 24 – Amelia Earhart, American aviator, is born.
 * September 10 – The Lattimer Massacre: A sheriff's posse kills more than 19 unarmed immigrant miners in Pennsylvania.
 * October 4 – At the close of the first national meeting of Social Democracy of America, the organization ratifies a general endorsement of industrial unionism, as the first step towards an eventual union with the Socialist Labor Party.

1898

 * February 15 – The USS Maine suffers a catastrophic explosion in Havana's harbor, sinking with nearly all hands. Though the cause of the explosion is unknown, the press, particularly those under the ownership of William Randolph Hearst, portray the sinking as a result of nefarious Spanish treachery.
 * April 22 – The United States is at a de facto state of war with Spain, as the US Navy begins a blockade of Cuban ports and captures a Spanish merchant ship. A formal declaration will come three days later.
 * May 1 – The Socialist Labor Party organizes small pro-labor, anti-war demonstrations in its strongholds in New York, Chicago, Pittsburgh and San Francisco. While there are minor clashes with the police, the demonstrations fail to gain much public attention.
 * June 12 - The is established.
 * June 14 – Social Democracy of America votes to dissolve the organization and its meager assets into relevant sections of the Socialist Labor Party and the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance.
 * July – The United States annexes Hawai'i.
 * August 12 – Hostilities end in Cuba between American and Spanish forces.
 * October 1 – Victor Berger and other dissidents from the now defunct Social Democracy of America hold their first convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where they form the Social Democratic Party of America.
 * November 8 – New York state office elections: the Socialist Labor candidate Benjamin Hanford makes the party’s best run yet for the office, winning close to 30,000 votes, approximately 2.5% of the total.
 * December 10 – The Treaty of Paris is signed, formally ending hostilities between Spain and the United States. Cuban sovereignty is ensured, while Spain cedes the Philippine Islands, Guam and Puerto Rico to the United States, giving ambiguity to the Philippine Republic's sovereignty.
 * December 31 – By year's end, John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company controls 84% of the USA's oil, and most American pipelines. The age of monopoly capital has begun.

1899

 * January 6 – The American Railway Union is reassembled as a member of the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance. Eugene Debs returns as national chair during the reorganization period.
 * February 4 – The Philippine-American War begins following the outbreak of hostilities in Manila.
 * February 14 – The US Congress authorizes the use of voting machines for federal elections, providing endless amounts of fun for future corrupt corporations and conspiracy theorists.
 * April 17 – Following the firing of 17 union employees at the Bunker Hill Mine in Idaho, 250 workers affiliated with the Western Federation of Miners occupy and demolish a mill at the mine. Following a major bribe by the United Mineowners, the National Guard is deployed by the Governor to Coeur d'Alene. After a violent confrontation, over 1,000 miners and their families are herded into makeshift prisons. Many will never be charged, and won't be released from the concentration camps for many months.
 * June 1 – The Socialist Labor Party's 10th National Convention begins in New York City, to review the integration of the Social Democrats into the party organization.
 * June 18 – At the close of the SLP's 10th National Convention, the leadership of Daniel DeLeon and Henry Kuhn concede to ARU president Eugene Debs' proposal for increased parity between the STLA and the party administration.
 * June 19 – The Newsboys Strike begins in New York. Delegates from the SLP National Convention, inspired by the impressive initiative of the all-children Newsboys Union, agree to help the child laborers organize their strike.
 * June 24 – The use of brutal strikebreaking tactics on the Newsies begins to backfire, as the Newsies begin selling working-class alternate press cleverly disguised as more famous newspapers, which bring full exposés of Hearst and Pulitzer's brutal tactics.
 * August 21 – The Newsboys Strike ends, with the recognition of the union, and a return to the pre Spanish-American war bundle price of 50¢. The Newsies will join the STLA by the end of the year.
 * October 10 – Samuel Clemens, alias Mark Twain, has a chance meeting with young, up-and-coming writer Jack London in San Francisco. Clemens, a newly baptized anti-imperialist, befriends the young Socialist Labor activist, though he remains steadfastly opposed to joining the party.
 * December 2 – : Filipino forces successfully commit to a delaying action against the US military, guarding the retreat of Philippine President Emilio Aguinaldo before being wiped out.

1900

 * January 3 – The US Census estimates the country's population to be approximately 70 million.
 * January 8 – Following reports of miners’ revolts and lawlessness, President McKinley places the Alaskan territory under military governance.
 * March 5 – Two US Navy cruisers are sent to Central America to protect US interests following a dispute between Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
 * March 15 – The Gold Standard Act is ratified, placing the United States currency on the gold standard, ending the era of bimetallism.
 * May 15 – The II Olympiad opens in Paris, France, as part of the Paris World Exhibition.
 * September 13 – Filipino resistance fighters overrun a large American column at the Battle of Pulang Lupa.
 * November 6 – Republican incumbent William McKinley is re-elected President over Democrat William Jennings Bryan. The Socialist Labor Party places a distant 4th, with 165,000 votes, approximately 30,000 shy of the 3rd place Prohibition Party.

1901

 * March 2 – The U.S. Congress passes the Platt Amendment, limiting the autonomy of Cuba as a condition for the withdrawal of American troops.
 * March 4 – United States President William McKinley begins his 2nd term. Theodore Roosevelt is sworn in as Vice President of the United States.
 * May 17 – The US stock market crashes.
 * June 12 – Cuba becomes a US protectorate.
 * July 5 – The Western Federation of Miners adopts a socialist platform, calling for collective, worker control of the means of production, and a program of industrial unionism to further that end.
 * September 6 – Leon Czolgosz is arrested in Buffalo, New York for vagrancy. President McKinley attends the day's festivities unimpeded.
 * November 28 – The new constitution of the State of Alabama incorporates literary tests for voters in the state.

1902

 * February 18 – The US Attorney-General brings a suit against the Northern Securities Company, a railroad trust, under the Sherman Antitrust Act, in order to allay middle class outcry over the very public machinations of the schemers of the trust. In private, the President has expressed his support to the owners of the trust.
 * May 2 – The Coal Strike of 1902. 150,000 miners in the anthracite coal fields of western Pennsylvania from United Mine Workers of America go out on strike, demanding shorter hours, higher pay and increased control over their workplaces.
 * May 20 – The Republic of Cuba begins de jure independence. In reality, the country is an American puppet.
 * June 2 – The Coal Strike deepens as maintenance and clerical workers affiliated with the mines join the strike in solidarity.
 * July 10 – The Rolling Mill Mine disaster in Jonestown, Pennsylvania kills over 100 miners.
 * August 1 – The Coal Strike: The owners appeal to the federal government for aid in defeating the strikers, as the Pennsylvania National Guard is not sufficient to maintain security of the mines and suppress the strike. Coal stockpiles have been exhausted, and by now the entire coalfield has joined in the strike.
 * August 22 – President McKinley becomes the first American president to ride in an automobile today in Hartford, Connecticut.
 * October 15 – President McKinley deploys units of the U.S. Army to suppress the Coal Strike. Over four dozen miners are killed in the resulting battles. The strike ends by early November, with the beaten unionists agreeing to return to work in exchange for modest pay cuts and a chance to keep their jobs.
 * November 30 – The leadership of the United Mineworkers of America, radicalized by what they saw as the blatant betrayal of the people by the government, push for the adoption of a socialist platform at the next union national convention.

1903

 * February 11 – The Oxnard Strike of 1903 becomes the first time in U.S. history that a labor union is formed from members of different races.
 * March 4 – Turkey and Germany sign an agreement to build the Constantinople-Baghdad Railway.
 * March 11 – The Hay-Herran Treaty, granting the US the right to build a canal across the Isthmus of Panama, is ratified by the US Senate.
 * May 31 – Following Colombia's rejection of the Panama Canal Treaty, President McKinley orders the dispatch of a cruiser squadron and a contingent of Marines to support the Panamanian independence movement.
 * June 1 – The Butte Copper Strike begins in protest over low wages and the firing of known union leaders from the mine. The strike, jointly coordinated by the Socialist Labor Party local and the Western Federation of Miners, quickly shuts down the city's crown jewel industry.
 * October 6 – The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty is signed by the US and Panama, giving the US exclusive rights over the Panama Canal Zone.
 * October 11 – In spite of sporadic violence, the Butte Copper Strike ends with a minor victory for the miners’ union. While they fail to achieve all of their goals, the union wins pay raises and and a reinstatement of fired workers.
 * November 23 – Colorado Governor James Hamilton Peabody dispatches the state militia to the town of Cripple Creek to quash a miners’ strike. The Colorado Labor Wars begin.

1904

 * January 31 – The American Federation of Labor faces its first major reversal, the product of campaigns waged by employers for “open shops.” The employer and government back-push starts with a legal injunction against the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners.
 * March 14 – The Supreme Court delivers its verdict in Northern Securities Co. v. United States, 193 U.S. 197: The Sherman Antitrust Act is overturned as an unconstitutional overstretch of the federal government's authority to regulate interstate commerce due to a violation of the takings clause of the Fifth Amendment. The 5-4 decision represents a major blow to progressives in both major parties.
 * March 30 – The US Army Corps of Engineers begins work on the Panama Canal.
 * April 8 – The Entente Cordiale is signed between the UK and France
 * May 1 – The Socialist Labor Party's National Convention begins in Chicago. The convention nominates Eugene Debs and William Wesley Cox to run on the party's presidential ticket.
 * June 6 – The First Industrial Congress of the STLA opens in Chicago, to promote a national industrial union federation. At the Congress, the Western Federation of Miners amalgamates with the United Mine Workers, joining the STLA. With swelling membership, the STLA can, for the first time, stand as a legitimate alternative to the reformist AFL.
 * July 1 – The III Olympiad opens in St. Louis, Missouri.
 * August 14 – In the final vote before the Congressional Recess, a revised antitrust bill fails 40-44. The bill, tailored to attempt to pass the Supreme Court's scrutiny following the overturn of the Sherman Antitrust Act, withers under criticism that it will still fail to pass legal muster.
 * November 8 – Republican presidential nominee Charles Fairbanks defeats Bourbon Democrat Alton B. Parker.

1905

 * March 4 - Charles Fairbanks is inaugurated as President of the United States.


 * March 20 - The Grover Shoe Factory Disaster: a massive boiler explosion occurs in a factory in Brockton, Massachusetts. The building subsequently collapses, killing 60 workers and injuring numerous others.


 * April 6 - The United States Supreme Court overturns a New York state law regulating the work week in the case Lochner v. New York. The sweeping decision invokes the Fourteenth Amendment's “Due Process Clause,” and results in the widespread invalidation of many state laws regulating commerce and the work week. The doctrine of “substantive due process” as enumerated by the Court gives another blow to progressives in the GOP.


 * May 1 - STLA deputy chairman William “Big Bill” Haywood announces the creation of two new unions within the STLA: The Yeoman Farmer's Federation, and the Agricultural Worker's Organization. As part of the declaration, Big Bill Haywood promotes the concept of the “One Big Union,” in which all members of the producing classes would organize together for a common socialist platform. The new organizations seek to organize cooperative mutual aid and revolutionary enthusiasm among small freeholders and the workers, sharecroppers and hired hands in big plantations respectively.


 * May 16 - The beginning of the Congressional Revolt: Progressive GOP leadership in the House steer the passage of Comprehensive Federal Trade Act. The sweeping legislation, modeled in many ways off German Chancellor Bismarck's “practical Christianity” or “Staatssozialismus” programs, would establish a Department of Industrial Coordination, comprehensive safety regulations, an old-age safety net, as well as some limited collective bargaining standards.


 * June 1 - National Steel, a trust controlling almost 3/4ths of steel production in the United States, begins a major anti-union campaign against the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers, withdrawing recognition of the union in all of the organized mills. Though the AAISW and the AF of L attempt to organize a national campaign against this, many of the larger locals go down without a fight in the opening salvo. The Labor Wars begin.


 * June 4 - The Senate narrowly gives assent to the Comprehensive Federal Trade Act. However, the act is quickly and aggressively vetoed by President Fairbanks. In his veto message, Fairbanks scathingly denounces the Congressional leadership who forged the compromise act, accusing them of bowing to “syndicalist-anarchist intimidation” and “waging a bloody, unconstitutional class war by despotically depriving men of their property and liberty.”


 * June 12 - Amidst a growing sense of constitutional crisis and paralyzed government, Princeton University professor Woodrow Wilson's monograph Congressional Government is cited by popular editorials in newspapers across the country.


 * June 30 - The Labor Wars: The International Mercantile Marine Co. begins its own anti-union campaign, particularly against longshoremen, using the AF of L's counter-reaction as a pretext to destroy affiliated unions.


 * July 1 - Congressional leaders fire back at the President, accusing him of abuse of power, and of undermining the health of the nation by refusing any compromise over the growing inequalities of power in the country. Though attempts to override Fairbank's veto fail, it's clear that the honeymoon between Fairbanks and his party is over quite soon.


 * July 9 - The Labor Wars: Standard Oil joins in the attack on the AF of L. Attempts at organizing at fields and refineries owned by the trust are met with strikebreakers and scabs, resulting in the accidental death of three labor organizers in Texas.


 * July 20 - Governor Robert LaFollete of Wisconsin announces a major legislative deal with Victor Berger's growing Social Democratic Party. LaFollete's progressive Republicans and the Milwaukee “Sewer Socialists” agree to cooperate on a progressive agenda very close to the SDP's minimum program.


 * July 31 - The Women's Trade Union League votes to quit the AF of L, citing the ineffectiveness of the craft union policies, and the perverse indifference within the AF of L towards women workers and the women's suffrage movement. The predominantly socialist leadership of the League begin talks with the STLA to join the industrial union federation.


 * August 24 - The American Amalgamated Coal Company forms. The new trust is an offshoot of the National Steel trust, formed as part of a vertical integration plan by the trust's leadership. The new trust acquires the Consolidation Coal Company and the Pennsylvania Coal Company, two of the largest coal mining companies in the United States.


 * September 7 - The American Telephone & Telegraph Company joins the Labor Wars, successfully crushing small union strikes within its branches.


 * September 20 - Samuel Clemens, alias Mark Twain, publishes his political satire, What's Mine is Mine, skewering the unashamedly servile press coverage of, among other things, the 1902 Anthracite Coal Strike. Even the great humorist is not immune to charges of being a “socialist-anarchist bombthrower.”


 * October 1 - The Labor Wars: The Anaconda Copper Company, in Butte, Montana, begins a union-busting campaign at its flagship copper mines. The United Mineworkers responds by voting for a general strike against the Anaconda Company and its affiliates.


 * October 8 - Congressional GOP leadership enter into a further row with President Fairbanks, over corruption within the executive departments. The “Imperial President” widely loses favor with the public over apparently rampant connections to major trusts, especially the much reviled Northern Securities Company.


 * November 1 - One month into the Copper General Strike, there seems to be very little hope for a peaceful resolution. The Governor of Montana, Democrat Joseph K. Toole, is pressured into mobilizing the National Guard to “restore order” in Butte, Anaconda, and the surrounding counties. This move meets wide resistance from Farmer-Labor groups, and ends up pushing the remnants of Montana People's Party organizations into the Socialist Labor Party, which has played a significant role in organizing the strike.


 * November 12 - In one of the last votes of the year, the House of Representatives votes 254-99 to endorse the Congressional Government Amendment. The Amendment, authored by Democratic Minority Whip Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey, will be debated in the Senate next. The Amendment would significantly strip the powers of the presidency and establish a parliamentary governmental structure, with the Cabinet responsible to the House of Representatives.