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Events/Strike or conflict · 1914

Ludlow Massacre

Strike or conflict, 20 April 1914, United States.

What happened

National Guardsmen aligned with the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company attacked the Ludlow tent colony during a UMWA strike. The attack killed 21 people, including 11 children, and set off ten days of fighting.1,2

Why it matters

The National Park Service links the massacre to the debate on the eight-hour working day.1,2

Story cards

Around the same time

  1. Bulli Colliery explosion

    It followed a strike that ended in February 1887, and the inquiry blamed lax safety practice by both management and miners.3,4

  2. Dudley Colliery explosion

    The regulator describes the mine as dry and dusty, with 292 workers.5,6

  3. Greta Colliery fire

    The regulator uses it as a case study; seven earlier gob fires there had not killed anyone.7,8

  4. Courrieres mine disaster

    Courrieres mine disaster. Wikidata records 1099 deaths.9

  5. Peak year for US coal mining deaths

    The figure shows the scale of the safety problem before federal regulation.10,11

  6. Senghenydd colliery disaster

    It led to tighter mine safety enforcement in Britain.12,13,14

  7. Mineral Leasing Act

    The BLM says that since 1920 the federal government has leased fuels and certain other minerals, while locatable minerals stay under the 1872 Mining Law.15,16

  8. Mother Jones dies

    Mother Jones dies (date from Wikidata).17

Open the full timeline

Where next

People

An example ofLouis TikasLouis Tikas was shot three times in the back on 20 April 1914 under a flag of truce.18An example ofJohn D. Rockefeller Jr.After Ludlow he was the target of hostility as primary stockholder of Colorado Fuel and Iron.18

Events

An example ofBattle of Blair MountainLudlow killed 21 in Colorado in 1914. Blair Mountain in 1921 was the largest armed labour uprising in the US.1ExamplesSanta Maria School massacre, IquiqueTroops fired on striking workers at Iquique in 1907. Guardsmen attacked the Ludlow colony in 1914.1

Sources

  1. War in the Coalfields: the Ludlow Massacre and its impact on the eight-hour workday US National Park Service
  2. Ludlow (item Q1003486), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  3. 1887 Bulli Colliery Explosion case study (Learning from disasters) NSW Resources Regulator
  4. Bulli (item Q4996904), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  5. 1898 Dudley Colliery case study (Learning from disasters) NSW Resources Regulator
  6. Dudley (item Q5311786), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  7. 1900 Greta Colliery Fire case study (Learning from disasters) NSW Resources Regulator
  8. Greta (item Q5607629), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  9. Wikidata item Q1550228 (Courrieres mine disaster)
  10. Coal fatalities, 1900 to date US Mine Safety and Health Administration
  11. United States (item Q30), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  12. Miners' lives at 5.5p each: the Government Enquiry into the 1913 Senghenydd mine disaster Amgueddfa Cymru, Museum Wales
  13. Site dedicated to thousands of lives lost officially recognised (12 Mar 2024) Cadw (Welsh Government)
  14. Senghenydd (item Q3404686), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  15. About Mining and Minerals US Bureau of Land Management
  16. Washington, D.C. (item Q61), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  17. Wikidata item Q107082 (Mother Jones)
  18. Ludlow Massacre Colorado Encyclopedia

Pictures on this page: Louis Tikas smiling for photograph - DPLA - 740c83a8dd26f0e77bfb2b485dd30204.jpg, not recorded on the file page (Public domain); John D. Rockefeller Jr. cph.3a03736.jpg, Underwood & Underwood (Public domain).

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Super Pit, Kalgoorlie by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0; Chuquicamata from the ISS by Alexander Gerst (ESA), CC BY-SA 2.0.