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THIS WEEK IN PEOPLE’S HISTORY, JUNE 11–17  
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_ A Very Unusual Strike (1894), A Bad Day for the African National
Congress (1964), Nazi Germany’s Secret Weapons (1944), Sticking it
to Robert E. Lee (1864) _

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_Due to technical difficulties, this edition of This Week in
People’s History is abbreviated._

_A VERY UNUSUAL STRIKE _

130 YEARS AGO, on June 11, 1894, a bitter strike by thousands of
Western Federation Miners members in Colorado was settled in their
favor. The outcome was the result of both the strikers' determination
and the virtually unprecedented armed intervention by the state
government in support of the strikers. 

The strike began in response to the mine owners' decision to take
advantage of widespread unemployment among miners and impose a
17-percent pay cut even though the mines were operating profitably at
the prevailing wage. Very soon after the strike began, the smaller
mines in the Cripple Creek mining district agreed to rescind the pay
cut and reopened, but the large mines remained closed. 

After a month, the large mines attempted to reopen with scab labor
protected by thugs. As fighting between strikers and thugs escalated
and grew increasingly deadly, Colorado's governor dispatched the state
militia to Cripple Creek with the mission of protecting the miners
from the thugs. With the militia keeping the thugs in check, the large
mines had almost no success in reopening. On June 11 the large mines
agreed to rescind their attempted wage cut and resume production.
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_A BAD DAY FOR THE AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS_

60 YEARS AGO, on June 12, 1964, after a 9-month trial on charges of
conspiracy to commit sabotage and promote communism, a South African
Court sentenced Nelson Mandela and seven other leading members of the
African National Congress to life in prison; it was the beginning of
Mandela’s imprisonment for more than 25 years. Four years after he
was released, he was the first person elected President of South
Africa in a democratic election.
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_NAZI GERMANY’S SECRET WEAPONS_

80 YEARS AGO, on June 13, 1944, exactly a week after D-Day’s
invasion of German-occupied France, the Nazis gave every appearance of
throwing a deadly tantrum. 

For the first time, they targeted Britain with a hitherto secret
weapon, the first cruise missile. The jet-powered V-1 was essentially
an uncrewed 1-ton bomb with wings. And the tantrum wasn’t over,
because a week later the Nazis launched an experimental V-2 –  the
world’s first guided ballistic missile – in a demonstration
flight. The day’s launch, which did not carry a warhead, was aimed
nearly straight up and became the first artificial object to reach
outer space. The timing of the two events was regarded by some as an
ominous signal that the Nazis’ attempt to build the first atomic
weapon might not be far from completion. 

Before the Germans surrendered 11 months later, they had launched some
9500 V-1s at the UK, which killed about six thousand people and
wounded 16,000. Once the V-2s were ready to be used as a weapon, in
September 1944, the Germans fired more than three thousand of them at
allied targets in the UK and mainland Europe, killing an estimated
9,000 civilians and military personnel.
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_STICKING IT TO ROBERT E. LEE_

160 YEARS AGO, on June 15, 1864, the Civil War had been going for
three years and the Union was struggling. 

Confederate troops had just defeated Union forces just 90 miles south
of Washington, D.C. Five thousand Confederate troops were 135 miles
from D.C., marching north and aiming to invade the capital. It was an
important moment for the Union to stage a low-risk, in-your-face move
that would both build morale and demoralize the Confederacy. 

What better way to stick it to the rebels than to turn Robert E.
Lee’s 1100-acre estate, just across the Potomac from D.C., in
Arlington, Virginia, into a cemetery for Union soldiers, including
African-Americans?  On this day, Arlington National Cemetery was
established, providing the Union with an expanse of picturesque land
where enslaved people had once toiled for Robert E. Lee and his
family.
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