On this day in 1919, the "Semana Trágica" began in Argentina when police attacked striking metalworkers in Buenos Aires, killing five, after workers set the police chief's car on fire. The city was quickly placed under martial law.
Image: Photograph taken during the "Semana Trágica" in Argentina, in 1919. Depicts an overturned wagon on the street. [WikiCommons]
Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were prominent German communists who were assassinated on this day in 1919 by the German Freikorps, a group of government-sponsored paramilitary forces, after the Spartacist Uprising.
On this day in 1919, the republican party Sinn Féin declared Irish independence from Britain. After two years of guerilla warfare against British occupation and ~2,300 deaths, the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed, creating the Irish Free State.
Image: Photocopy of image taken during the Irish War of Independence. Seán Hogan's (NO. 2) Flying Column, 3rd Tipperary Brigade, IRA. 1920-1921 [Wikipedia]
Marina Ginestà, born on this day in 1919, was a French-born communist who served in the Spanish Civil War. She became famous due to the photo taken by Juan Guzmán on a Barcelona roof in 1936, when she was just 17 years old (shown).
Image: Iconic photo of Marina Ginestà i Coloma by Juan Guzmán on top of Plaça de Catalunya, 9, 08002 Barcelona, Spain in 1936 [Wikipedia]
On this day in 1919, 150 workers at Fort Leavenworth Prison stopped their assigned work in the middle of the day, beginning a labor strike that would quickly grow to more than 2,000 strong over the next few days and win reforms.
On this day in 1919, the Battle of George Square took place in Glasgow, Scotland, a conflict between Glasgow police and the British Army against 25,000 striking Glasgow workers who were demanding a 40-hour work week.
Image: David Kirkwood being detained by police during 1919 Battle of George Square on January 31st 1919 [Wikipedia]
On this day in 1919, 17,000-30,000 immigrant workers walked out of mills throughout Lawrence, Massachusetts and began the '54-48' strike. Despite being beaten, arrested, and kidnapped, strikers won a 48 hour week and a 15% wage increase.
Image: Lawrence strike announced in the New York Times, February 3rd, 1919
On this day in 1919, a general strike broke out in Catalonia when thousands of workers across multiple industries went out on strike, causing widespread power outages and the Spanish government to declare a state of war.
Image: Military forces patrolled the city during the general strike (23/3/1919), Josep Brangulí Soler, National Archive of Catalonia. [elnacional.cat]
On this day in 1919, a general strike involving ~100,000 workers in Seattle began. Workers, vilified as "Bolsheviki", set up an alternative government that distributed 30,000 meals daily and a police force that did not carry weapons.
Image: Seattle General Strike participants leaving the shipyard after going on strike, 1919. [Wikipedia]
On this day in 1919, social democratic revolutionary Kurt Eisner was assassinated by a far-right nationalist while leading the People's State of Bavaria. Eisner became a martyr and a Bavarian Soviet Republic was declared just a few months later.
Image: A photograph of Kurt Eisner, taken in late October/early November 1918 after his discharge from prison on October 14th. Photo by radical photographer Germaine Krull. [Wikipedia]
Schenck v. United States, decided on this day in 1919, was a Supreme Court case that upheld the conviction of socialist Charles Schenck for encouraging draft resistance, establishing the "clear and present" danger limitation of speech.
On this day in 1919, on the signal of "Come on the Bolsheviks!", 15,000 Canadian soldiers in Bodelwyddan, Wales began rioting following delays in their return home and being used as forced labor by British officers.
Image: Damage to 'tin town', a collection of shops and pubs set up to cater for the thousands of troops stationed in the camp [westernfrontassociation.com]
Leon "Leo" Jogiches (1867 - 1919), also known by the party name Jan Tyszka, was a Marxist revolutionary and politician who was executed on this day in 1919 for investigating the recent murders of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht.
On this day in 1919, Arkansas, joining the majority of U.S. states at the time, passed a law to explicitly "punish anarchy and to prevent the introduction and spread of Bolshevism and kindred doctrines" within its borders.
Image: Charles Brough, the Arkansas Governor who signed Act 512 into law, in 1919
On this day in 1919, socialists declared a new Bavarian Soviet Republic during the German Revolution of 1918-19. Revolutionaries formed a Red Army and expropriated factories for the workers and luxury apartments for the homeless.