Society
1915. A firing squad executes IWW organizer Joe Hill despite pleas by the Swedish government, AF of L president Samuel Gompers and President Wilson. On the eve of his execution, Hill has wired "Big Bill" Haywood, "Don't waste any time on mourning. Organize." The message will help make Joe Hill a legend among working men.1915. D. W. Griffith's full-length motion picture The Birth of a Nation heightens U.S. racial tensions.
1915. Prize fighter Jess Willard takes away Jack Johnson's heavyweight title. He is widely called the "great white hope" because Johnson has inflamed prejudice by marrying a white woman and by his lavish life style.
1915. A new Ku Klux Klan inaugurated Thanksgiving night on Stone Mountain near Atlanta will incite bigotry. It will attract a membership of nearly 100,000 throughout the country within 6 years.Dedicated to "white supremacy,"the protection of Southern womanhood, and "Americanism." Employs terrorist tactics against blacks, Jews and Roman Catholics, especially in the South and Midwest.
1915. The state of Delaware begins revising its corporation laws which will soon make Delaware the leading state in creating charters for the largest industrial corporations.
1915. The worst train wreck in British history kills 227 and injures 246. A Scottish regiment of 500 men is reduced to 72.
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