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1917 - Russian Revolution

March 12, 1917 - It is a time of great upheaval in world politics. The Russian Revolution begins when Czar Nicholas II is forced to resign, or abdicate. A new political party will be in power by autumn: the Bolsheviks, who will come to be known as Communists. They will change Russia into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. In years to come, the U.S.S.R. and the United States will become enemies.

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1919 - Trolley Strike

 August 25, 1919 - Five men are killed and several more are wounded by police protecting Charlotte's streetcar barns against trolley workers who have walked off the job in a labor dispute, called a strike. Two weeks earlier streetcar operators demanded higher wages and group representation by a union. When the Southern Public Utilities Company hired replacement workers, called strikebreakers, violence began. The trolley strike is the worst violence in Charlotte's labor history. 

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1932 - Keeping the Mills Open

Millions are out of work during these Depression years. But the president of the Chadwick-Hoskins Mill, Ben Gossett, has an idea. He asks President Herbert Hoover for help. The Red Cross will get 50,000 bales of cotton that are sitting in shut-down factories. Mill workers will weave cloth and sew it into clothing for the needy. This is a way to provide jobs and goods for people who have lost everything.

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1917 - U. S. Declares War

April 6, 1917 - Germany continues to sink non-military, or civilian ships, some American. The U.S. can no longer stay out of the war. Over the next two years, more than one million U.S. troops will go to fight the war in Europe, and help its friends, or allies. The disputes of colonial times are long past, and the Americans join with Britain and France to become allies fighting against Germany.

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1933 - Lakewood Closes

Charlotte's Lakewood Park closes. For years, countless people have ridden the streetcars to this westside park. But after a storm washes away the dam across the lake, there is no money to make repairs.Casino at Lakewood Park

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1940 - Charlotte Memorial Hospital

Incorporated in 1938, Charlotte Memorial Hospital now admits its first patient. By 1992, the facility will be known as Carolinas Medical Center. It will be designated a center specially equipped to handle emergencies, or trauma.

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1913 - The Mint Closes

Charlotte's Mint closes. It never again manufactured money after the Confederate soldiers left. Since 1867, is had been used to measure and analyze, or assay, gold. Now the building will be used by the Red Cross and by the Charlotte's Women's Club.

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1918 - Auto Factory Expands

The Ford Motor Company in Charlotte produces 85 cars each day. The factory, which opened in 1915, will operate until the 1930s. There will also be a Ford repair shop in the 200 block of North College Street, operated by Doc Crowell and W.G. Frye.

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1933 - Play Ball

 July 8, 1933 - In Charlotte's first interracial baseball game, the white Highland Park Mill team meets the North Charlotte Black Yankees. The Charlotte Observer reports that Highland Park wins, 11-10. But the Charlotte News reports that the Black Yankees win, 10-7!

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1941 - The Mind of the South

W.J. Cash's The Mind of the South is a landmark of American intellectual history. The author who lived on North Church Street and wrote for the Charlotte News tragically dies the same year his award-winning book is published.

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