On this day, 110 years ago, Reverend Thomas Leyden gives a speech at City Hall in Haverhill, Massachusetts, in which he voices opposition the appropriation of state money to Catholic schools. He is drowned out by mock applause as hundreds of people surge into the Hall to protest his lecture. Leyden flees to the police station and hides there as 10,000 people take to the streets. Bricks, stones and coal are hurled and gunshots are fired at City Hall and the police station. The local militia disperses the rioters with bayonets. No arrests are made, but the mayor and board of aldermen are charged with neglect to suppress an unlawful assembly. Four more men are indicted on rioting charges.

Leyden never returns to Haverhill but, to this day, Massachusetts does not permit state money to fund parochial schools.