[Sailor Steve]

January 15, 1919


Pianist Ignace Paderewski becomes first premier of Poland.

After four days of searching Spartacist leaders Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg are found in an apartment in the Wilmersdorf section of Berlin. They are questioned by Freikorps officers under orders from Hauptmann Ernst Julius Waldemar Pabst. After this the pair are beaten and then shot. Liebknecht's body is left at a nearby morgue while Luxemburg's is dumped in the Landwehrkanal where it will not be recovered until June 1. The official story put out was that Luxemburg was attacked by a mob and Liebknecht was shot while trying to escape.

At the Purity Distilling Company in Boston, Massachusetts, a storage tank bursts and 2.3 million gallons of molasses flood the city's streets. In what has become known as the "Great Molasses Flood" 21 people are killed and 150 injured. Rescue efforts are begun by cadets from the training ship USS Nantucket, who are soon joined by the Boston Police, Red Cross and other Army and Navy personnel. One result of the disaster is one of the first class-action lawsuits in Massachusetts and the beginning of corporate regulation in the United States. The company would claim that the tank was blown up by terrorists.

Buenos Aires, Argentina, is at peace for the first time since "Semana Tragica" ("Tragic Week") began on January 7. It had begun with a Communist-led strike at the Vasena Metal Works, which quickly turned into several days of rioting, looting and killing, which was finally put down on January 14 by the Argentine Federal Police with the aid of the Argentinian Army, Navy and Marine Corps. Communist newspaper Vanguardia claimed that there were 700 killed and 2,000 injured, while Conservative paper La Nación had the number at 100 killed and 400 injured. Police forces suffered 3 killed and 78 wounded, and more than 50,000 people were imprisoned.