The Rock Springs massacre occurred on September 2, 1885, in the
present-day United States (U.S.) city of Rock Springs, Wyoming, in
Sweetwater County. The riot, between Chinese immigrant miners and
white, mostly immigrant, miners, was the result of racial tensions and
an ongoing labor dispute over the Union Pacific Coal Department's
policy of paying Chinese miners lower wages than white miners. When the
rioting ended, at least 28 Chinese miners were dead and 15 were
wounded. Rioters burned 75 Chinese homes resulting in approximately
US$150,000 in property damage. Tension between whites and Chinese
immigrants in the late 19th century American West was particularly
high, especially in the decade preceding the violence. The massacre in
Rock Springs was the violent outburst of years of anti-"coolie"
sentiment in the United States. In the immediate aftermath of the riot,
federal troops were deployed in Rock Springs. They escorted the
surviving Chinese miners, most of whom had fled to Evanston, Wyoming,
back to Rock Springs a week after the riot. Reaction came swiftly from
the era's publications. In Rock Springs, the local newspaper endorsed
the outcome of the riot, while in other Wyoming newspapers, support for
the riot was limited to sympathy for the causes of the white miners.
The massacre in Rock Springs touched off a wave of anti-Chinese
violence, especially in the Puget Sound area of Washington Territory.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Springs_massacre>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
31 BC:
Final War of the Roman Republic: Troops supporting Octavian defeated
the forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra in the naval Battle of Actium
on the Ionian Sea near Actium in Greece.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Actium>
1666:
A large fire began on London's Pudding Lane and burned the city for
three days , destroying St Paul's Cathedral and the homes of 70,000 of
the city's 80,000 inhabitants.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_London>
1901:
U.S. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt first uttered the famous phrase
"speak softly and carry a big stick" at the Minnesota State Fair,
describing his philosophy of negotiating peacefully while
simultaneously threatening to use military force.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Stick_ideology>
1990:
Transnistria unilaterally declared its independence from what was then
the Moldavian SSR of the Soviet Union, but no country or international
organization has yet ever recognized it to this day.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transnistria>
1998:
Swissair Flight 111, en route from New York City to Geneva, crashed
into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 229 on board.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swissair_Flight_111>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
front (v):
1. To lead or be the spokesperson of a group.
2. To provide money or financial assistance in advance.
3. To assume a
haughty manner, especially as a pretense
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/front>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The first casualty when war comes is truth.
--Hiram Johnson
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hiram_Johnson>