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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Started doing a bit at work with another guy where when calling orders or whatever back and forth we pretend to also be verbally playing a chess game when we're just saying random pieces to random combinations of letters and numbers and sometimes saying 'Ah! The Morrocan Gambit! Good play!'. Neither of us know how to play chess at all.
The Schlomanzkikov Gambit...
I'm paranoid of sending TikTok videos, but @drewmuxlow has a tiktok video called "chess players written by non-chess players". It has some really riffable moments for that sort of thing.