The miners were earning about a dollar a day when the company announced a 400 percent stockholders dividend just before Christmas, prompting the miners to strike for better pay and working conditions.

It was then that Annie Clemence, President of the Union's ladies auxiliary, began organizing a Christmas party for the children of striking miners.

In the book, Labor's Untold Story, authors Richard Boyer and Herbert Morais detail how an evening of celebration and joy turned tragic that evening.

Hundreds of children of striking miners and their families crowded into the hall. Annie had decorated a Christmas tree. The children sang Christmas carols and presents were handed out. After the children had received their gifts, a young girl began a solo performance on the piano.

Shortly after she started her piece, a deputy, reportedly hired to disrupt the event, shouted "fire" to the packed room. Panic ensued and the crowd surged to escape through the only exit located at the foot of a long and narrow staircase.

Boyer and Morais then allow organizer Ella Reeve Bloor, a witness at the event describe what she saw as the panic subsided:

"In about five minutes the door at the back of the room opened, and a man came into the room with a little limp figure in his arms. Another man followed, carrying another child. Then another, and another and another. They laid the bodies in a row on the platform beneath the Christmas tree. The children were dead. There were seventy three of them."

Today, especially during the holiday season, it is difficult to imagine such a callous act against innocent children.

With the passing of each Christmas, fewer and fewer people recall that the tragedy ever occurred.