Boston Police Strike begins.

More than 1,100 of the city’s 1,544 officers protest poor working conditions and low pay by walking off the job. Three days and nights of rioting and looting centered around Scollay Square follow, during which nine people are killed, 23 injured [8/75-Puleo], and $300,000 worth of property damaged. According to Francis Russell, “[The rioting shocked respectable middle-class observers . . . For a few moments, the lid was off their stratified social structure, and the glimpse they had of what lay underneath was cold and cruel, something they did not like to think about.” Volunteers, including 700 Harvard students, vainly try to keep order. Although the striking officers’ demands are subsequently met, not one of them is ever rehired and the Boston police do not form a union until 1965.