The red ice berg

The First Red Scare

  • Communist Manifesto- February 1848

    Communist Manifesto- February 1848
    In February 1848, European political theorists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels write and publish a critique of capitalism. The basis for the industrial revolution in Europe and America was based on the economic theory of capitalism. However, Marx and Engels had observed injustices and inequities between the classes that owned factories and those who comprised the workforce.
  • Assassination of McKinley

    Assassination of McKinley
    In September 1901, President William McKinley was shot by Leon Czolgosz, supposed anarchist. President McKinley died less than a week later from his wounds, leaving the Presidency to Theodore Roosevelt.
  • Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

    Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
    In June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by a Bosnian Serb group fighting to break up the control of the Austro-Hungarian of the south-Slavic territories in southern Europe. The death of the Ferdinand, the next throne to the empire, compelled Austro-Hungary to invade Serbia.
  • World War I Begins

    World War I Begins
    In July 1914, shortly after the Austro-Hungarian empire invaded Serbia, the Central powers formed, including the Austria-Hungry, German, and Ottoman empires. The opposing forces were the Allied or Western force, including Great Britain, France, and Russia.
  • United States Enters WWI

    United States Enters WWI
    In April 1917, despite many Americans who opposed entering a European conflict, over two-million American military troops joined the Allied Western forces in Europe.
  • World War I Ends

    World War I Ends
    In November 1918, after years of trench and chemical warfare and over nine million lives lost, Germany finally surrenders to Western Forces. The official Treaty of Versailles peace agreement was signed in June 1918. However, the U.S. did not sign the agreement.
  • Boston Police Strike

    Boston Police Strike
    In September 1919, the majority of the Boston police force went on strike. The general public condemned the strike as Bolshevik. Backed by Massachusetts Governor Calvin Coolidge, Police Commissioner Edwin Curtis refused to give into the striker’s demands and hired new policemen to take their place.
  • Anarchists Deported

    Anarchists Deported
    In December 1919, Emma Goldman and 248 other “radicals” were deported to Russia under the authority of the 1918 Alien Act. Overseen by Justice Department officials such as J. Edgar Hoover, ensured the “Red Ark” departed from American shores.
  • Sacco and Vanzetti Trial

    Sacco and Vanzetti Trial
    In July 1921, despite little evidence, Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are convicted of murder in the first degree for a robbery of a shoe factory in Boston in which two men were shot and killed.
  • Soviet Union Forms

    Soviet Union Forms
    In 1922, after the Russian civil war concluded, Vladimir Lenin’s Bolsheviks were victorious, effectively establishing the Soviet Union.
  • Sacco and Vanzetti Executed

    Sacco and Vanzetti Executed
    In August 1927, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are put to death by the electric chair.