Welcome to a whirlwind tour of the 10 acts anarchist that left an indelible mark on world history. From fiery labor protests in Chicago to bombings that rattled Wall Street, each episode reveals the radical fervor, daring tactics, and tragic fallout of anarchist militancy.
10 Acts Anarchist Overview
Below we dive into each incident, preserving the gritty facts while giving you a fresh, conversational spin on the events that shocked societies across continents.
11 The Haymarket Riot
On May 3, 1886, a clash erupted outside Chicago’s McCormick Reaper Works when police confronted striking workers, resulting in two worker fatalities. The following evening, roughly 2,000‑3,000 laborers gathered in Haymarket Square, spearheaded by August Spies, editor of the anarchist newspaper Die Arbeiter‑Zeitung. Spies famously declared, “A pound of dynamite is better than a bushel of bullets,” urging the crowd to confront the “bloodhounds of capitalism.”
The city deployed 175 officers, but as rain thinned the crowd and the final speaker wrapped up, the gathering seemed poised to disperse peacefully. Suddenly, an unknown individual hurled a dynamite charge into the police ranks, killing Officer Matthias Degan and wounding seven other officers. In the ensuing panic, police opened fire indiscriminately, injuring several demonstrators, including Spies’s brother Henry. Four workers lost their lives.
Authorities could not pinpoint the bomber, yet xenophobic fervor led to the arrest of hundreds of foreign‑born radicals. A grand jury indicted 31 individuals, and eight—including Spies—were convicted and sentenced to death. Spies proclaimed, “Let the world know that in 1886, eight men were sentenced to death because they believed in a better future!” On November 11, 1887, Spies and three comrades were executed, their final words urging silence as a potent weapon. Persistent doubts about the guilt of the “Haymarket Eight” prompted Illinois Governor John P. Altgeld to grant full pardons to the three survivors in 1893.
10 Berkman Shoots Frick
In 1892, steel magnate Andrew Carnegie slashed wages amid a price slump, delegating the crackdown to plant manager Henry C. Frick. The ensuing Homestead Strike saw 3,000 workers clash with Pinkerton agents, resulting in three detective deaths and nine worker fatalities before state militia armed with Gatling guns seized control.
Frick’s ruthless tactics enraged anarchist Alexander Berkman, whose partner Emma Goldman wrote that striking Frick would “re‑echo in the poorest hovel” and terrorize the enemy’s ranks. Berkman infiltrated Frick’s office, catching him mid‑conversation with partner John Leishman. He fired two bullets into Frick’s neck, then, when Leishman wrestled him, unleashed a third stray shot. After a brief scuffle, Berkman stabbed Frick four times with a dagger before being subdued. Remarkably, Frick survived his injuries.
Berkman proudly declared he had committed “the first terrorist act in America.” He served fourteen years before a 1906 pardon, after which he and Goldman were expelled from the United States in 1919. When asked about Frick’s fate before their exile, Berkman quipped that Frick had been “deported by God” and expressed relief that the tyrant left before him.
9 Slaughter At The Opera
The deadliest anarchist terror strike of its era unfolded on November 8, 1893, at Barcelona’s Liceu opera house, just three days after the Haymarket executions. The elite flocked to Rossini’s William Tell, a story of oppressed rebels. Midway through the second act, two bombs were lobbed from the gallery. One detonated harmlessly, but the second exploded with catastrophic force, shredding bodies, tearing the floor, and collapsing overhead beams.
Chaos erupted as patrons scrambled for exits, men abandoning their ladies in the frantic rush. Blood‑stained shirts and torn dresses painted a grim tableau. Queen‑regent Christina declared a state of emergency, suspending constitutional liberties. Hundreds of suspects were hurled into the dungeons of Montjuïc Castle, where brutal torture extracted the name “Santiago Salvador” as the perpetrator.
Salvador was apprehended in January 1894, confessing that the bombing was vengeance for the execution of a fellow anarchist named Pallas. He asserted, “I conceived a plan to terrorize those who had enjoyed killing him and who believed they were untouchable.” Authorities, doubting his sole culpability, continued coercive interrogations, forcing six additional prisoners to confess. All were executed in April, and Salvador met his end in November.
8 Attack On The French Parliament
August Vaillant, a destitute youth who once stole food to survive, found himself in Paris after a stint in Argentina. Penniless and desperate, he resolved to make a statement against the corrupt French Parliament, the symbol of societal inequality.
Vaillant packed a saucepan with nails and a modest explosive charge, intending a symbolic gesture rather than mass murder. On December 9, 1893, he entered the Chamber of Deputies and hurled the device into the midst of a heated debate, showering the legislators with shrapnel and lightly injuring twenty. He fled the scene but surrendered the next morning.
Although no fatalities occurred, the attack terrified lawmakers, prompting immediate censorship of provocative publications and a crackdown on anarchist newspapers. Surprisingly, some far‑right royalists expressed sympathy, with poet Laurent Tailhade remarking, “What do the victims matter if it’s a fine gesture?” Vaillant was guillotined on February 5, 1894, his final words echoing, “Death to the bourgeoisie society! Long live Anarchy!”
7 The Cafe Terminus Bombing
On February 12, 1894, Parisian café Terminus became the stage for a new era of terror when intellectual Emile Henry detonated a bomb hidden inside a metal lunchbox. Previously, anarchists had mainly targeted authority figures; Henry aimed at ordinary civilians simply going about their day.
Seeking vengeance for Vaillant’s death, Henry stalked the elegant cafés along Avenue de l’Opéra, finally selecting Terminus. He ordered a beer, lit the bomb, and unleashed a blast that killed one patron and injured twenty others before being wrestled to the ground while attempting escape.
Henry’s philosophy proclaimed that “there are no innocent bourgeois.” Though he intended greater carnage, his plan fell short. At his April 1894 trial, he openly embraced his guilt, using the courtroom as a platform for anarchist propaganda, declaring, “We who hand out death know how to take it… Anarchism is violent revolt… It will finish by killing you.” He was sentenced to death.
6 The Assassination Of President Carnot
Just weeks after Henry’s bombing, another shockwave rippled through France on June 24, 1894, when President Sadi Carnot attended an exhibition in Lyon. Eager for public adulation, Carnot kept his carriage open, unwittingly inviting disaster.
Cesare Giovanni Santo, a 21‑year‑old Italian anarchist, approached the carriage with a rolled‑up newspaper, presumed to be a petition. Guarding the president, officials allowed Santo close access. He then sprang forward, brandishing a dagger concealed within the paper, and plunged it into Carnot’s abdomen, shouting, “Long live the Revolution! Long live Anarchy!”
Carnot collapsed onto the plush seat; Santo was seized as he leapt from the carriage. Police had to encircle him to prevent a lynch mob. Carnot was rushed to the prefecture, succumbing at 12:45 a.m. The assassin’s Italian heritage ignited anti‑Italian riots; an Italian restaurant was looted that night, and police guarded the Italian consulate.
This murder spurred a global anti‑anarchist movement. In 1898, Italy convened an International Anti‑Anarchist Conference in Rome, where 21 nations condemned anarchism as illegitimate. Unlike his comrades, Santo trembled before the guillotine, needing assistants to drag him, repeatedly crying, “I won’t go! I won’t go!”
5 The Corpus Christi Attack
Late 19th‑century Barcelona earned the nickname “City of Bombs,” rivaling modern conflict zones. On June 7, 1896, Corpus Christi Day, a bomb descended from a high window during a solemn procession bearing the Sacred Host, the bishop, and the Captain‑General.
The device missed its intended target—the church and high‑ranking officials—and instead killed seven working‑class citizens and a soldier. The bomber’s identity remains unknown.
Captain‑General Valeriano Weyler responded with brutal force, deploying the newly formed Brigada Social. Mass arrests of anarchists and anti‑clerical activists followed, with detainees thrown into Montjuïc’s dungeons and subjected to torture. Executions and deaths from abuse surged.
In retaliation, Italian anarchist Michel Angiolillo assassinated Spanish Prime Minister Antonio Cánovas del Castillo at the spa of Santa Agueda, firing three close‑range shots. Cánovas died uttering “Long live Spain.” The subsequent liberal government curtailed Weyler’s power, reigniting the Cuban conflict and providing a pretext for U.S. intervention in the Spanish‑American War.
4 The Assassination Of President McKinley
Leon Czolgosz, a child of Polish‑Russian immigrants, fell under the sway of anarchist ideology. Inspired by Gaetano Bresci’s 1900 assassination of Italy’s King Umberto, Czolgosz attended Emma Goldman’s fiery speeches, which urged direct action against the state.
On September 6, 1901, at the Pan‑American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, Czolgosz joined the line to shake hands with President William McKinley. The president’s secretary had downplayed security risks, naïvely asking, “Who would want to hurt me?”
Czolgosz approached with a handkerchief concealing a revolver. He fired two bullets into McKinley’s chest. The wounded president staggered, pleading, “Be careful how you tell my wife,” before Secret Service Agent George Foster tackled the assassin.
McKinley was taken to a nearby hospital, initially appearing to recover, but gangrene set in, leading to his death on September 14. Czolgosz openly confessed, declaring, “I killed President McKinley because I did my duty. One man should not have so much power while another has none.” He was executed by electric chair on October 29, his body drenched in sulfuric acid to obscure identification.
The murder prompted Congress to assign the Secret Service permanent presidential protection duties.
3 The Murderous Wedding Crasher
May 31, 1906 promised a fairy‑tale celebration for Spanish King Alfonso XIII and his bride Victoria Eugenie “Ena” of Battenberg at Madrid’s Royal Monastery of San Jerónimo el Real. As the newlyweds departed for the palace, an explosive device hurled toward their carriage detonated.
A medal on Alfonso’s chest deflected most shrapnel; a guard’s blood splattered Ena’s dress, yet she escaped unharmed. Approximately 25 people perished and 130 were injured, marking this as the bloodiest anarchist assault up to that point.
The perpetrator, Mateo Morral, had previously attempted a bomb during the wedding ceremony itself but was denied entry. His later bomb, though less successful, still caused massive casualties.
2 The Galleanists Bombings
On the night of June 2, 1919, a coordinated series of bombings rocked major American cities: New York, Boston, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Patterson (NJ), Washington D.C., and Philadelphia. Targets spanned a mayor, state legislator, three judges, two businessmen, a police officer, and a Catholic priest.
The most high‑profile victim was U.S. Attorney General Mitchell Palmer, who had just ascended stairs when a massive explosion ripped through his home’s lower level. Palmer and his family escaped unharmed, but the blast shattered the windows of nearby Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt’s house. Roosevelt rushed to the scene, discovering the lifeless body of anarchist Carlo Valdinoci, whose device had detonated prematurely.
Although none of the intended victims died, two bystanders lost their lives. The attacks ignited the 1919 Red Scare, amplifying fears of Bolshevism after the Russian Revolution. Anarchist propaganda warned, “There will have to be bloodshed… there will have to be murder… we will destroy your tyrannical institutions.”
Attorney General Palmer launched sweeping raids, arrests, and deportations of anarchists, socialists, and communists, violating civil liberties. Palmer predicted a May 1, 1920 revolution; when it never materialized, his credibility crumbled, and he fell from power.
1 The Bombing Of Wall Street
At noon on September 16, 1920, a wagon pulled up before J.P. Morgan & Co.’s Wall Street headquarters, laden with dynamite and weighted shrapnel. The driver fled, and seconds later a massive explosion erupted, sending debris skyward and shattering windows across lower Manhattan.
Among the stunned onlookers was a young stockbroker, Joseph P. Kennedy. The blast produced a mushroom‑shaped, yellow‑green cloud rising about 30 meters, killing 39 and injuring hundreds—the deadliest U.S. terrorist act until the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
J.P. Morgan himself was on vacation, but his son Junius was wounded, and his chief clerk was killed. Victims included messengers, clerks, stenographers, and brokers. One woman’s severed head remained attached to a wall, hat still perched. A half‑naked, burned victim attempted to rise, only to collapse again.
No group claimed responsibility, yet suspicion fell on anarchists, who had been sending threatening letters to the Morgans. A nearby mailbox held a note demanding political prisoners’ release, hinting at the Sacco‑Vanzetti case. Suspects included famed anarchist Carlo Tresca and eccentric tennis champion Edward Fischer, who was later deemed mentally unstable and committed to Bellevue Hospital.
This audacious attack underscored the era’s volatile climate, where anarchist fury collided with the world’s financial heart.
These ten acts anarchist illustrate how desperation, ideology, and a willingness to use violence reshaped societies, prompting tighter security, sweeping legal reforms, and a lasting legacy of fear and fascination.