MAY 4 — 1886 Chicago Haymarket Affair; 1970 Kent State Murders; 2016 NBA Cleveland Cavs become playoff 3-point scoring machine
MAY 4
1886-A dynamite explosion goes off at an otherwise peaceful union rally,
…and the Chicago Haymarket affair begins.
This remains a controversial issue with two sides, so understand the side I’m telling you is directly from William J. Adelman, although I’m sure he wasn’t there when it happened, he seems to recall the situation as if it were.
According to Adelman, in 1884, for union workers to ask for an eight hour workday didn’t seem like such a big deal, since that had been the law since 1867. The problem was, the federal government failed to enforce this law, in fact in Illinois, employers forced workers to sign waivers of the law as condition of employment.
On May 1st, 80,000 workers marched up Michigan Avenue in Chicago carrying their union banners. One of the organizers of these demonstrations was former slave Lucy Parsons, of African American, Native American and Mexican heritage, and her husband Albert Parsons, who was a printer, a member of the Knights of Labor, editor of the labor paper The Alarm, and one of the found of the Chicago Trades and Labor Assembly. In the early days of May peaceful rallies were held in Chicago, but by May 3 things started to turn violent when police showed up and killed some of the picketers.
As a result, a protest rally was scheduled for the following day at Haymarket. There were supposedly only about 200 people there, when 176 police showed up, then an unknown person threw the dynamite bomb. Police started shooting, some of them at each other since they couldn’t see through the smoke and rain.
The next day martial law was declared on all unions, the government shut down labor newspapers and houses were searched without warrants. Eight men, including Albert Parsons, went to trial over the incident. Seven of them were found guilty with a death sentence of hanging, and the eighth was sentenced to 15 years hard time. Three of them were eventually pardoned. Parson was hanged on November 11, 1887.
These days Labor Day is a holiday not just here but in many industrialized cities around the world.
1970 — Police fire upon students and four are injured nine at Kent State University, OH.
The demonstration was in response to President Richard Nixon announcing that American and South Vietnamese forces had been ordered to execute and incursion in to Cambodia to destroy North Vietnamese bases. Cambodia was supposed to be neutral.
Some student protestors started burning down the ROTC building when the National Guard came in. Class what have we learned. If you started burning down buildings, your demonstration is no longer peaceful. Not saying you should be shot, not saying its right, not saying you should be killed over it. But don’t expect a bouquet of flowers and a please stop it from the National Guard. It doesn’t work that way.
2016 Cavaliers become 3 point scoring machines in playoffs.
Sah-wish!!!
Cleveland Cavs made at least 43% of threes shot, while trying at least 31 of them in consecutive playoff games, if you consider the Western Conference Semifinals against the Dallas Mavericks. A 43% from beyond the arc, not having to go into the paint. The Cavs had improved their overall 3 point game by 10% since the last season, and it showed up in this night’s game against the against the Atlanta Hawks.
1991- Happy ZZ Top Day Texas!
…Former Texas governor Ann Richards declared this one. From Houston the band got together in 1969, comprising of Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill and Frank Beard. For 45 years they’re still together, they were inducted into the Rock N Roll hall of fame in 2004, they’ve sold over 11 gold records and 7 platinum, and have sold over 25 million records.