On this day in 1898, the Battle of Virden began when armed members of the United Mine Workers of America (UMW) surrounded a train full of strikebreakers and exchanged fire with company guards. 13 people were killed, dozens more wounded.
After a local chapter of the UMW began striking at a mine in Virden, Illinois, the Chicago-Virden Coal Company hired black strikebreakers from Birmingham, Alabama and shipped them to Virden by train.
The company hired armed detectives or security guards to accompany the strikebreakers, and an armed conflict broke out when armed miners surrounded the train as it arrived in town. A total of four detectives and seven striking mine workers were killed, with five guards, thirty miners, and an unrecorded number of strikebreakers wounded.
After this incident, Illinois Governor John Tanner ordered the National Guard to prevent any more strikebreakers from coming into the state by force. The next month, the Chicago-Virden Coal Company relented and allowed the unionization of its workers.
"When the last call comes for me to take my final rest, will the miners see that I get a resting place in the same clay that shelters the miners who gave up their lives on the hills of Virden, Illinois...They are responsible for Illinois being the best organized labor state in America."
Mother Jones
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Theory:
The worst thing that happened to classic Trek is cheap and good digital effects on TV budgets. Battles went from TNG-style tense encounters between a handful of ships at most and where all the ships involved could take a major pounding and manoeuvred like seagoing battleships, to DS9-style fleets of thousands of ships that raced around like fighter jets and blew up from a handful of phaser hits. Compare and contrast "Yesterday's Enterprise" with "Sacrifice of Angels". (I hate the whole stupid Dominion War plot. I wanted more Bajor stuff.)
The best thing that happened to new trek is the Lower Decks writers having the self-discipline to not shove in battle scenes every episode despite easily being able to if they wanted. I think the Cerritos fired its phasers exactly once in the entire first season, and even that was a warning shot that Mariner accidentally did when she misinterpreted Freeman's orders.
And the best thing that happened to Lower Decks was the season 2 finale, which showed that you can have a tense and exciting season finale without any stupid contrived starship battles because the writers actually know what they're doing for the first time in 25 years of the franchise.
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