The Tea Party rallies of recent years are reminiscent of several that took place in reaction to the antiwar protests on the 60s. Nearly half a century apart, both were motivated by dissatisfaction with the state of domestic affairs, with particular animosity reserved for its younger generation that criticised America. The Tea Party ralliers stayed peaceful — though if history is any sign, they would not have been if they met somebody like the Occupy types on the ground.

On this day, May 8, in 1970, in what became known as the Hard Hat Riot, a group of about 200 construction workers working on the World Trade, incensed at the liberal protest below them, confronted the crowd. Words, then firsts, flew. After scattering the crowd, the workers burst into the City Wall and demanded of mayor John Lindsay to raise the flags flowing that day at half mast.

Lindsay ordered the flags at half mast to commemorate the shootings at Kent State University, where student protesters against the wars in Vietnam and Cambodia were shot by police, killing four. Confronted with the angry crowd of construction workers, and fearing more violence, he agreed to order the flags back up. No conclusive changes came from the riot, but the city demonstrated its unity in the following weeks by staging joint construction-worker and activist marches.