The film is scored by Japanese composer Takashi Ohmama. The film's theme song, "Traveller of Memories", is performed by the Japanese band Mr. Children. Production of the theme song began during the scriptwriting stage. Michihito Fujii is a long-time fan of the band who started listening to their songs in his teenage years and personally invited them to contribute to the film, which he considers a "milestone in his career". In addition, the film features the Taiwanese band Mayday's song "Peter and Mary", recommended by Fujii's Taiwanese assistant, who likened Mayday to the Taiwanese counterpart of Mr. Children. The film's score was released as a soundtrack album on 1 May 2024, in Japan.


The Japanese version teaser of the film was released on 7 October 2023, followed by the Taiwanese version on 30 October, alongside the official promotional poster. Both Taiwanese and Japanese versions of the official trailer were released on 25 January 2024. The Taiwanese version of the official trailer was edited by filmmaker John Hsu, who shared a similar background with the protagonist Jimmy, as they both aspired to become video game developers in their early lives. Jump! Boys, the film's production company, launched a marketing campaign in collaboration with the East Japan Railway Company and Klook in March 2024, which introduced a packaged rail pass that included the filming locations of Jimmy's journey. Additionally, a special collaboration with video game developer SIGONO took place, featuring a crossover poster with SIGONO's game Opus: Echo of Starsong released in selected cinemas on 30 and 31 March. An official guidebook was released on 2 May in Japan.


18×2 Beyond Youthful Days had its world premiere at Ambassador Theatres Taipei on 14 February 2024, and was released theatrically in Taiwan on 14 March. A special screening event took place in Tokyo on 27 March, with a theatrical release in Japan on 3 May. In addition, the film was selected to be screened at the 48th Hong Kong International Film Festival, 26th Far East Film Festival, and 23rd New York Asian Film Festival. The film is also available for streaming on Netflix starting 2 August 2024.


18×2 Beyond Youthful Days grossed over NT$7.7 million on its first day of release, directly ascending to the top of the box office in Taiwan. By the end of the first weekend, it had accumulated a total gross of NT$28 million, securing the top position in the weekly box office. In its second week, the film grossed over NT$45 million, making it the highest-grossing 2024 domestic film in Taiwan. The film grossed over NT$50 million by the third week, and surpassed NT$60 million within the fourth week. It reached a cumulative gross of over NT$70 million by the fifth weekend. On its seventh weekend, which also marked its premiere release in Japan, the film's box office stood at NT$73 million. The film also grossed over JPY$176 million in the first weekend after its release in Japan, rising to the seventh spot in the Japanese weekly box office. As of June 2024, the film's worldwide box office gross exceeded NT$500 million, which marks the film as the highest-grossing Taiwanese film of the first half of 2024.


The film received generally positive reviews from critics, with China Times describing it as "a success in both box office and critical acclaim".
Alan Chu, writing for United Daily News, lauded the film for its nostalgic and romantic elements, blending both Taiwanese and Japanese aesthetics, and its breathtaking cinematography. He also commended Greg Hsu for his versatile performance and Kaya Kiyohara for delivering an emotionally moving portrayal, while acknowledging the star-studded supporting cast that further enhanced the film's appeal. CommonWealth Magazine's Sumi Chen shared a similar opinion, praising director Michihito Fujii's meticulous attention to detail, the authentic performances of the actors, and the film's skillful exploration of love, nostalgia, and cultural differences, ultimately considering it a compelling cinematic experience.
Writing for HK01, Keith Ho focused on the aesthetics of the film, highlighting its capture of picturesque landscapes in Taiwan and Japan, which contributed to the film's portrayal of a poignant and beautiful love story set in 2024 Japan and 2006 Taiwan. Chien Ying-jou, reviewing for Yahoo! Lifestyle, highlighted the film as a heartfelt love story that paid homage to classic youth films, particularly those by Japanese director Shunji Iwai, and captured the essence of youth and creates a new classic in the genre of youth romance, with the nature and realistic performances of the lead actors Hsu and Kiyohara.
Conversely, James Marsh of South China Morning Post, while rating the film 3.5/5 stars and expressing compliments on the film as "refreshingly conventional" and "surprisingly effective", noted that the film's formulaic story and Hsu's portrayal of the younger Jimmy lack emotional maturity. Mark Schilling of The Japan Times also described the film as emotionally disconnected, with the two lead characters lacking romantic chemistry and the last act being formulaic, although the acting talents of the leads were showcased.


The 91st 24 Hours of Le Mans (French: 91e 24 Heures du Mans), also known as the Centenary 24 Hours of Le Mans (French: Centenaire des 24 Heures du Mans), was an automobile endurance race for teams of three drivers racing Le Mans Hypercars (LMH), Le Mans Prototype (LMP) and Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance (LMGTE) cars held from 10 to 11 June 2023 at the Circuit de la Sarthe, near Le Mans, France. Held in front of 325,000 spectators, it was the 91st running of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest's 24-hour race—100 years after the first—and marked the fourth round of the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). There was a test day on 4 June, a week before the event.
A Ferrari 499P shared by Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen of Ferrari AF Corse started from pole position after Fuoco set the overall fastest lap in the Le Mans Hypercar class in the Hyperpole session. Their teammates James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi in the second AF Corse Ferrari won overall after leading the final 55 laps. It was the first overall Le Mans victory for Calado, Giovinazzi and Pier Guidi, as well as Ferrari's tenth and its first since 1965. Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryō Hirakawa finished second in a Toyota GR010 Hybrid after battling the eventual winners in the second half of the race. Third overall was taken by Cadillac Racing's Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh car, driven by Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn and Richard Westbrook.
Albert Costa, Fabio Scherer and Jakub Śmiechowski of Inter Europol Competition led the last 112 laps of the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class in an Oreca 07-Gibson car to claim their maiden WEC class victory. Team WRT's Rui Andrade, Louis Delétraz and Robert Kubica finished second by 21.015 seconds, while René Binder, Neel Jani and Nico Pino of Duqueine Team took third. Corvette Racing's Nicky Catsburg, Ben Keating and Nicolás Varrone in a Chevrolet Corvette C8.R came from two laps down, after a second-hour pit stop to replace a failed damper, to win the final Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Am (LMGTE Am) and GTE race, one lap ahead of ORT by TF's Aston Martin Vantage AMR shared by Ahmad Al Harthy, Michael Dinan and Charlie Eastwood.
Calado, Giovinazzi and Pier Guidi's victory moved them from fifth to second in the Hypercar Drivers' Championship, 25 points behind leaders Buemi, Hartley and Hirakawa. Andrande, Delétraz and Kubica remained the leaders in the competition for the FIA Endurance Trophy for LMP2 Drivers; category winners Costa, Scherer and Śmiechowski moved from sixth to second. Catsburg, Keating and Varrone extended their Endurance Trophy for LMGTE Am Teams lead over Al Harthy, Dinan and Eastwood. Toyota, the No. 41 Team WRT and No. 33 Corvette Racing teams left Le Mans as the respective Hypercar World Endurance Championship, Endurance Trophy for LMP2 Teams and Endurance Trophy for LMGTE Am Teams leaders with three races left in the season.


The 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans, held at the Circuit de la Sarthe near Le Mans, France between 10 and 11 June, was the 91st running of the race, the 100th anniversary of its first edition in 1923 and the fourth round of the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship.
Before the event, Toyota drivers Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryō Hirakawa led the Hypercar Drivers' Championship with 71 points, five ahead of their teammates Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López. Ferrari AF Corse's Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen were third, with Cadillac Racing's Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn and Richard Westbrook fourth.
In the FIA Endurance Trophy for LMP2 Drivers, Phil Hanson and Frederick Lubin of United Autosports led Team WRT's Rui Andrade, Louis Delétraz and Robert Kubica by an eight-point advantage while Corvette Racing's Nicky Catsburg, Ben Keating and Nicolás Varrone led the Endurance Trophy for LMGTE Am Teams from Richard Mille AF Corse's Luis Pérez Companc, Alessio Rovera and Lilou Wadoux by 39 points.
Toyota led Ferrari by 33 points in the Hypercar World Endurance Championship, while the No. 22 United Autosports squad led the No. 41 Team WRT team in the Endurance Trophy for LMP2 Teams by eight points and the No. 33 Corvette Racing team led the No. 83 Richard Mille AF Corse squad in the Endurance Trophy for LMGTE Am Teams with an 39-point advantage.


Following a lengthy analysis of the safety car's use by the race organiser, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO), dating back to the 2018 event, in which Porsche won the Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Professional class (LMGTE Pro) by a large margin, a new procedure was implemented, with the goal of reducing the safety car's impact on the race. Three safety cars would be deployed, but two of them would be removed, allowing every car to circulate behind the remaining safety car. This would allow any lapped vehicles to pass the sole remaining safety car and go around the circuit until they reached the end of the queue. The field would then be sorted from fastest to slowest car categories, and racing would resume. This procedure would not be used in the race's final hour. Cars could still make pit stops during safety car periods until the pit lane exit was closed by the single safety car system. The system was tested during test day a week before the race.
The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and the ACO suspended a ban on tyre warmers (designed to provide additional grip to tyres at the start of a stint) to reduce the championship's environmental impact only for the race at Le Mans across all car categories. Concerns made by drivers at the preceding 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps race weekend, where many cars slid off the track on cold tyres and crashed in changing conditions, forced the modification. LMGTE Pro was dropped from the race in 2023, leaving only the Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Amateur (LMGTE Am) class as the only category for GT cars.


Entry to the race was open from 8 December 2022 to 21 February 2023. The ACO Selection Committee granted 62 invitations and entries were divided between the Le Mans Hypercar (Hypercar), Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) and LMGTE Am categories.


Teams that won championships in the European Le Mans Series (ELMS), Asian Le Mans Series (ALMS) and Michelin Le Mans Cup (MLMC) earned automatic entry invitations. Second-place finishers in the 2022 ELMS LMP2 and LMGTE championships also received an automatic invitation. All current WEC full-season entries were automatically invited. The ACO selected three IMSA SportsCar Championship (WTSC) teams as automatic enties, regardless of performance or category. Teams that earned automatic LMP2 entries were permitted to change their cars from the previous year. ELMS LMGTE and ALMS GT teams which earned automatic entries could only enter in LMGTE Am. The 2022 European and 2023 Asian LMP3 (Le Mans Prototype 3) champions had to enter a LMP2 car, while the 2022 MLMC Group GT3 (GT3) champion was restricted to LMGTE Am.
The ACO announced the full list of automatic entries on 20 February 2023. Prema Racing chose to forego their automatic invitation as winners of the 2022 ELMS LMP2 category as it wanted to field their two full-time WEC cars in the race.


The ACO announced the full 62 car entry list on the afternoon of 27 February. In addition to the 37 guaranteed WEC entries, there were 15 ELMS entries, four WTSC entries, four ALMS entries, and two one-off Le Mans entries. There were 40 cars in the two Prototype classes, 21 in the LMGTE Am class, and one innovative entry. In addition to the 62 entries invited, ten (three from LMGTE Am and seven from LMP2) were placed on a reserve list to replace withdrawn or unaccepted invitations. Reserve entries were ordered, with the first one replacing the first withdrawal from the race, regardless of class. Entries were selected for their sporting quality, technical, fan, media and public interest and commitment, loyalty to other ACO-administered series and entrant's performance.
Heart of Racing withdrew their No. 27 LMGTE Am Aston Martin Vantage AMR, which was the tenth and final entry on the reserve list, after the entry list was published. The ACO published a revised entry list on 5 May 2023. It confirmed the withdrawal of Heart of Racing's entry as well as Risi Competizione's No. 82 LMGTE Am Ferrari 488 GTE EVO, reducing the reserve list to eight entries with no other changes to the teams' list.


The Garage 56 concept to test new automotive technologies at Le Mans returned after a two-year absence. It was announced at a press conference at Sebring International Raceway in March 2022 that a modified Next Gen Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 car fielded by Hendrick Motorsports would compete in the race, marking NASCAR's 75th anniversary and the first time NASCAR had a presence at Le Mans since 1976, when a Dodge Charger and Ford Torino competed in the Grand International category.
The Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 received numerous aerodynamic updates, carbon brake discs, functional front and rear headlights, and a larger 32 US gal (120 L; 27 imp gal) fuel cell, which reduced its weight by 525 lb (238 kg) compared to the NASCAR Cup Series model. Mike Rockenfeller, the 2010 overall Le Mans co-winner, joined 2009 Formula One World Champion Jenson Button and seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson as its drivers. Former crew chief Chad Knaus was project manager, and the car had the No. 24 in commemoration of driver Jeff Gordon.


The ACO and FIA changed the balance of performance four days before the test day to try to achieve parity in all categories since the Le Mans Hypercar performance was "greater than initially anticipated" and they did not have the manufacturers' consent prior to implement the changes. Four Hypercars received weight increases. The Toyota GR010 Hybrid, Ferrari 499P, Porsche 963 and the Cadillac V-Series.R were made 37 kg (82 lb), 24 kg (53 lb), 11 kg (24 lb) and 3 kg (6.6 lb) heavier, respectively. The Glickenhaus SCG 007 LMH, Peugeot 9X8 and Vanwall Vandervell 680-Gibson cars received no performance changes. Toyota, Ferrari, and Cadillac had their energy per stints increased to compensate for the additional ballast on their vehicles. In LMGTE Am, every car model in the Porsche 911 RSR-19, Chevrolet Corvette C8.R, Ferrari 488 GTE EVO, and Aston Martin Vantage AMR received more ballast to affect their handling. Similarly, Corvette's performance was improved by permitting a wider air intake on its engine, while Ferrari and Aston Martin's boost pressures were increased for improved performance.


One week before the race, on 4 June, all entrants were obliged to participate in eight hours of driving divided into two sessions. Some drivers missed part or all of testing because they were competing in the Formula E double-header in Jakarta, the GT World Challenge Europe round at Circuit Paul Ricard or the IndyCar Series event in Detroit. Reserve drivers included Matt Campbell (Porsche Penske Motorsport; he did not participate in testing); Alexandre Cougnaud (Graff); Kazuki Nakajima (Toyota; he filled in for Buemi, who was in Jakarta); and Stoffel Vandoorne (Peugeot Sport; also in Jakarta).
The morning session was held in clear weather. Ferrari led the session with a 3:30.686 lap from Fuoco's No. 50 car, which was 0.660 seconds faster than Gustavo Menezes' No. 94 Peugeot. Yifei Ye's No. 38 Team Jota Porsche was third, ahead of James Calado's No. 51 Ferrari, Conway's No. 7 Toyota and Renger van der Zande's No. 3 Cadillac. Paul di Resta's No. 93 Peugeot halted testing at the exit of the first Mulsanne Straight chicane due to a probable electrical hybrid problem triggered by a red light illuminated to compel a high-voltage safety protocol. Conway ran into the grass and spun front first into the wall before the Tertre Rouge corner entry, ending testing with two minutes left; Toyota's No. 7 car required new front and rear bodywork.
Reshad de Gerus' No. 47 Cool Racing Oreca 07-Gibson car led LMP2 with a lap of 3:36.409, quicker than two Hypercar entries. Second and third in class were Paul-Loup Chatin's No. 48 IDEC Sport and Ferdinand Habsburg's No. 31 Team WRT cars. Louis Prette's No. 66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari from Ulysse de Pauw's No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari and Charlie Eastwood's No. 25 ORT by TF Aston Martin lead the last hour of LMGTE Am with a 3:56.623 lap. The safety car procedure was used for debris on the exit of the first Mulsanne chicane.
The weather improved for the second session, resulting in faster lap times and 80 km/h (50 mph) slow zones for incidents. Early in the session, Antonio Giovinazzi's No. 51 Ferrari was fastest overall at 3:29.504. Laurens Vanthoor's No. 6 Penske Porsche was second, 0.144 seconds slower. Third to fifth were Kobayashi's No. 7 Toyota, Fuoco's No. 50 Ferrari, and Felipe Nasr's No. 75 Penske Porsche (affected by a brake-by-wire issue that kept the car in the garage for much of the session). With a time of 3:35.472, Pietro Fittipaldi's No. 28 Jota entry led LMP2 ahead of Habsburg's No. 31 Team WRT and André Negrão's No. 35 Alpine. When Rodrigo Sales' No. 14 Nielsen Racing and Laurents Hörr's No. 48 IDEC vehicles collided at the Forest Esses at 1 hour, 35 minutes in, the safety car procedure was employed for 37 minutes. Both vehicles became beached in the gravel trap past the Dunlop Chicane. Ferrari were in the top three in LMGTE Am as Thomas Neubauer improved the No. 66 JMW Ferrari's first session lap to 3:56.088 to maintain its lead from Francesco Castellacci's No. 54 AF Corse and Daniel Serra's No. 57 Kessel Racing cars.


The No. 10 Vector Sport, No. 13 Tower Motorsports, No. 14 Nielsen, No. 30 Duqueine Team, No. 80 AF Corse and No. 923 Racing Team Turkey LMP2 teams were all assessed 20-minute stop-and-hold first practice session penalties for running ride height sensors during testing and outside of private testing, a violation of the vehicle's homologation.


The first three-hour practice session occurred in warm and sunny weather on the afternoon of 7 June. Toyota led from the start with López's No. 7 car leading early on before his teammate Hartley in the No. 8 entry lapped quickest overall at 3:27.742 in the closing 23 minutes. The only other car in the 3:28 range was Bamber's No. 2 Cadillac, while the Porsches of Nasr's No. 75 and Kévin Estre's No. 6 cars were within half a second of Toyota's pace. Fittipaldi's No. 28 Jota car led LMP2 with a lap of 3:34.579, followed by Malthe Jakobsen's No. 37 Cool Pro/Am car. Mirko Bortolotti's No. 63 Prema entry was another 1.8 seconds back in third. Marco Sørensen No. 55 GMB Motorsport Aston Martin led LMGTE Am with a 3:55.020 lap, three-tenths of a second faster than Riccardo Pera's No. 86 GR Racing Porsche. Casper Stevenson's No. 777 D'station Racing Aston Martin crashed into the left-hand side Armco barrier before the Tertre Rouge corner and Steven Thomas' No. 13 Tower Motorsports entry hit the Aston Martin's drivers-side door at high speed after other cars avoided Stevenson's stationary car in the track's centre. Stevenson and Thomas were unhurt. Practice was stopped for 35 minutes to allow marshals and safety crews to repair the damaged barrier. Varrone had relieved Catsburg in the No. 33 Corvette when he also lost control of the car on a kerb into the Tertre Rouge corner and crashed rear first into the tyre barrier, ending the session with four minutes remaining. Corvette Racing replaced multiple components on the car to allow it to be driven in qualifying.
D'station and Tower Motorsports had to start from the back of the outright grid after their chassis, damaged beyond repair, were replaced during qualifying. The stewards deemed Thomas to have not slowed enough before hitting Stevenson and imposed a four-minute stop-and-hold penalty on Tower Motorsports to be served within four laps of its announcement after the race began.
The second session, which lasted two hours, took place later that evening. Laurens Vanthoor's No. 6 Penske Porsche set the fastest lap of 3:28.878 with just over half an hour remaining in the session. Calado was second with Dane Cameron's No. 5 Penske Porsche third. Cadillac was fourth following a lap by Bamber and Toyota finished fifth after a lap by Kobayashi. Alexander Sims' Action Express Racing (AXR) car suffered front-right bodywork and minor cluster damage during the session and was driven into the pit lane for repairs. Bortolotti led LMP2 with a lap of 3:36.863 set before the session ended in Prema's No. 63 car. Filipe Albuquerque in United Autosport's No. 22 car was two-tenths of a second behind in second and Fittipaldi's No. 28 Jota entry was third. Kei Cozzolino's No 74 Kessel car lapped at 3:53.796 to lead LMGTE Am. Cozzolino demoted Alessio Picariello's No. 60 Iron Lynx Porsche to second and Matteo Cairoli's No. 56 Project 1 – AO Porsche was third.
The third session, three hours long, took place in warm weather on the afternoon of 8 June. Toyota set the early pace with Kobayashi and Buemi leading early on before Fuoco's lap of 3:26.579 led overall late in the session. Pier Guidi was second-fastest in the final eight minutes after spending 90 minutes in the garage due to a faulty transmission. The Toyotas in third (Kobayashi) and fourth (Hartley) were almost three-tenths of a second apart with António Félix da Costa's No. 38 Jota Porsche fifth. Jota again led LMP2 with Fittipaldi lapping at 3:34.071 ahead of Mathias Beche's No. 14 Nielsen entry. Castellacci led LMGTE Am from Ben Barker's No. 86 GR Racing Porsche and Matteo Cressoni's No. 60 Iron Lynx Ferrari. Although the session was not stopped, some cars did go off the circuit. Habsburg crashed the No. 31 WRT LMP2 entry into the barrier exiting Indianapolis turn and Manuel Maldonado ended practice early with a Full Course Yellow (FCY) after beaching the No. 65 Panis Racing car in the second Mulsanne Chicane gravel.
The final session, held for an hour, occurred later that evening. Calado set a 3:27.275 lap to lead practice with Esteban Gutiérrez's No. 709 Glickenhaus, Will Stevens' No. 38 Jota Porsche, Estre's No. 6 Penske Porsche and Sims' AXR Cadillac in second to fifth. Jean-Éric Vergne's No. 93 Peugeot stopped on the right-hand side of the Mulsanne Straight with an electrical fault, and race director Eduardo Freitas red-flagged practice for 19 minutes after becoming annoyed with drivers driving on the right rather than the left. Freitas extended practice by 15 minutes when the session was resumed with 20 minutes to go. Dries Vanthoor set LMP2's fastest lap of 3:36.229 in the No. 923 Racing Team Turkey car ahead of Job van Uitert's No. 65 Panis and Bortolotti's No. 63 Prema entries. Ferraris had the two fastest times in LMGTE Am with the top lap being a 3:52.965 set by Neubauer's No. 66 JMW car ahead of Scott Huffaker's No. 57 Kessel entry and Picariello's No. 60 Iron Lynx Porsche.


Divided into two sessions, an initial one-hour qualifying session decided the race's starting order, except for the fastest eight vehicles in each class, who qualified for a half-hour shootout, "Le Mans Hyperpole," which determined pole position in all three classes. Every Hypercar started upfront, regardless of lap time, followed by LMP2 and LMGTE Am. The eight qualifying Hyperpole cars were ordered by fastest Hyperpole-session lap time first, followed by the other non-qualifying class vehicles by fastest lap time set during the first qualifying session.
The fastest Hypercar lap was a 3:25.213 set by Fuoco's No. 50 Ferrari with 16 minutes left. Pier Guidi's sister No. 51 Ferrari was demoted to second by Fuoco and was hampered by a slower GTE Am Aston Martin in the track's final sector during his fastest lap. Kobayashi's No. 7 Toyota took third after leading the session early on with teammate Hartley in fourth. The final four Hyperpole qualifiers were Frédéric Makowiecki's No. 5 Penske Porsche, Sébastien Bourdais' No. 3 and Bamber's No. 2 Cadillacs as well as Nasr's No. 75 Penske Porsche (whose best lap was invalidated for using more than the maximum released powertrain power). Fittipaldi's No. 28 Jota along with Deletraz's No. 41 WRT, Bortolotti's No. 61 Prema cars, Vector Sport's Gabriel Aubry, IDEC's Chatin, Cool's de Gerus, Prema's other entry of Bent Viscaal and Nielsen's Ben Hanley (after Dries Vanthoor's fastest lap was deleted for insufficient slowing under red flag conditions) advanced to Hyperpole in LMP2.
In LMGTE Am, Rovera's No. 83 Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari and Davide Rigon's No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari along with Catsburg's Corvette, Eastwood's ORT by TF car, Serra's No. 57 Kessel car, Sørensen's GMB Aston Martin, De Pauw's No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari and Cozzolino's No. 74 Kessel car qualified for Hyperpole. Separate incidents for Matthieu Vaxivière's No. 36 Alpine and Albuquerque's No. 22 United Autosport car colliding into the Ford Chicane that saw Vaxivière get beached in the gravel and Jakobsen's No. 37 Cool car hitting the barrier at Indianapolis turn led to stoppages during qualifying.


Ferrari installed new tyres in Hyperpole, expecting Toyota to lap faster, and Fuoco and Pier Guidi drafted off each other as well as a Toyota. Fuoco's No. 50 Ferrari reset the Hypercar class record at 3:22.982 with eight minutes left for pole position despite Yorikatsu Tsujiko's LMGTE Am Kessel Ferrari slowing him into the left-hand Indianapolis corner and Arnage turn. It was Ferrari's first Le Mans pole since 1973, ending Toyota's streak of six consecutive poles extending back to 2017. It was also Ferrari's second pole of 2023 after the 1000 Miles of Sebring. Pier Guidi qualified the sister No. 51 Ferrari in second and held pole until Fuoco's lap. Hartley's No. 8 Toyota, Nasr's No. 75 Penske Porsche. Kobayashi's No. 7 Toyota, Bamber's No. 2 Cadillac, Makowiecki's No. 5 Penske Porsche and Bourdais' No. 3 Cadillac completed the top eight. The rear of Bourdais' car caught fire due to a burst high pressure fuel hose flooding it with engine fuel; he stopped at the first Mulsanne chicane for marshals and him to extinguish the fire, stopping Hyperpole with five minutes and 15 seconds left. The fire did not structurally damage the car but its engine was changed as a precaution.
LMP2 pole position was secured by Chatin's No. 48 IDEC entry with a lap of 3:32.923. Following in the top five were Fittipaldi's No. 28 Jota, Deletraz's No. 41 WRT, De Gerus' No. 47 Cool and Bortolotti's No. 63 Prema cars. Three of the four GTE manufacturers were represented in the top three in LMGTE Am. Keating's Corvette took the class pole position with a 3:52.376 time set on his final lap, ahead of Ahmad Al Harthy's ORT by TF Aston Martin and Thomas Flohr's No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari.
The FIA WEC Committee moved the Garage 56 No. 24 Hendrick Chevrolet to the rear of the LMP2 field, ahead of all GTE cars, at the request of all LMGTE Am entries, after it lapped faster than the GTE vehicles in testing and practice.


The ACO scheduled a 15-minute warm-up session for teams to check their cars on 10 June at midday, in varied conditions with teams running slick tyres and recording slower lap times. Calado lapped fastest at 3:30.113, 2.846 seconds ahead of teammate Nielsen. The rest of the top five consisted of Bourdais, Nico Müller's No. 94 Peugeot and Conway. Tom Blomqvist's No. 23 United Autosports car led LMP2 with a lap of 3:39.818 from Fabio Scherer's No. 34 Inter Europol and Beche's No. 14 Nielsen cars. Kessel paced LMGTE Am with Serra's 3:55.038 lap leading teammate Cozzolino. Although there were no major incidents, Nicolas Lapierre stopped the No. 37 Cool entry at the side of the track at the exit of Arnage corner before restarting.


Rainfall between the warm-up session and race start created mixed conditions around the circuit. The air temperature was between 18.2 to 26.4 °C (64.8 to 79.5 °F), while the track temperature ranged from 21 to 48 °C (70 to 118 °F); rain was forecast for the afternoon of 10 June. Basketball player LeBron James waved the French tricolor to start the race before 325,000 spectators at 16:00 CEST, which was led by the pole-sitter Nicklas Nielsen's No. 50 Ferrari. A total of 62 cars were scheduled to start the race, but the No. 708 Glickenhaus was in the garage having gearbox seal repairs arising from a differential setup change. The larger Hypercar field and driver behaviour meant greater risks were made while lapping slower vehicles. In the first hour, Buemi took the lead from Calado's No. 50 and Nielsen's No. 51 Ferraris on the outside entering Indianapolis Corner, while two incidents further down the field necessitated the first safety car intervention. Jack Aitken lost traction in the No. 311 AXR Cadillac's rear tyres on the damp track leaving the first Mulsanne Straight chicane. The car's front-left was heavily against the left-hand side Armco barrier. Mark Kvamme spun the No. 32 Inter Europol car into the gravel trap. Under the safety car, repairs to the barrier and debris cleanup took 35 minutes as Aitken returned to the garage for repairs and Kvamme was extricated from the gravel.
When racing resumed, Conway's No. 7 Toyota was duelling Calado's No. 51 Ferrari for second as Rigon moved the No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari into the LMGTE Am lead when Catsburg's No. 33 Corvette was one of several GTE cars to pit under safety car conditions. Following Aitken's incident, Daniil Kvyat's second-placed No. 63 LMP2 Prema car entered the pit lane for a lengthy stop to remove debris in the air intake. Catsburg drove the No. 33 Corvette into the garage during the second hour to repair a faulty front-right damper and Keating rejoined the race two laps down in LMGTE Am. Accidents for Sales' No. 14 Nielsen car into the outside tyre barrier approaching Dunlop corner, which removed the car's front-right, and Ricky Taylor's No. 13 Tower vehicle against the inside barrier at high speed in Arnage turn prompted the retirement of both cars and the implementation of a slow zone. Midway through the second hour, De Pauw's No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari was caught out by Bourdais' No. 3 Cadillac slowing for the slow zone and rammed into Bourdais' rear under the Dunlop Bridge. Gustav Birch's No. 55 GMB Aston Martin was also involved in the incident, and both his and De Pauw's cars were retired. While Bourdais drove the No. 3 Cadillac to the garage for rear-end repairs, Birch and De Pauw were unhurt.
Kubica's No. 41 WRT car took the LMP2 lead while Porsche had the first four places in LMGTE Am with Cairoli's No. 56 Project 1 car leading the category. Claudio Schiavoni's No. 60 Iron Lynx Porsche hit the inside kerb too hard on the entry to Tertre Rouge corner and spun into Ryan Hardwick's No. 16 Wright Motorsports front-right corner during the third hour. Both vehicles incurred enough damage to be retired from the race. Soon after, Lubin's No. 22 United Autosports car spun out of Tertre Rouge corner and collided with Mikkel O. Pedersen's No. 77 Proton Porsche's right-hand side. Both vehicles returned to the garage for repairs. Heavy rain fell from Indianapolis corner to the start/finish straight before the end of the third hour, and several vehicles were caught off guard by the sudden drop in grip while braking and leaving turns on slick tyres. Pera's LMGTE Am-class leading No. 86 GR Porsche spun rear-first into the inside barrier. Wadoux spun the No. 83 Richard Mille Ferrari and crashed backwards into the Porsche Curves right-hand side wall at high speed and underwent precautionary checks at the track's medical centre. Her car's sustained a broken toe-link but she was not seriously injured. Aquaplaning cars prompted a second safety car deployment as Rigon moved the No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari to the LMGTE Am lead.
During the safety car period, pit stop cycles in which teams switched to wet-weather tyres saw Menezes take the overall lead, with Estre's No. 6 Penske Porsche second. Sarah Bovy's No. 85 Iron Dames Porsche became the new LMGTE Am leader. The rain ceased soon after and teams began switching back to slick tyres as the track dried. Vergne beached the No. 93 Peugeot in the gravel at Mulsanne corner, extending the safety car period as it was tended to. After the safety car period ended, Ye's No. 38 Jota Porsche moved from sixth to the race lead into Indianapolis corner. Cameron moved the No. 5 Penske Porsche to second overall before being passed by the Ferrari 499Ps. He was imposed a drive-through penalty for passing the No. 100 Walkenhorst GTE Ferrari during the safety car period. Ye lost the overall lead when he lost control of the No. 38 Jota Porsche, removing its rear end assembly and engine cover in a high-speed sideways impact against the tyre barrier leaving the Porsche Curves. The car was repaired in the garage by mechanics for 20 minutes and four laps and Giovinazzi's No. 51 Ferrari took the lead. The debris on the circuit caused a Full Course Yellow.


As night fell, LMGTE Am became a duel between JMW's Giacomo Petrobelli, AF Corse's Flohr and Iron Dames' Michelle Gatting, while Ramussen's No. 28 Jota, Jakub Śmiechowski's No. 34 Inter Europol and Oliver Jarvis' No. 23 United Autosport entrants battled the LMP2 lead. Heavy rain again fell on parts of the circuit and reduced visibility in the seventh hour and more vehicles were caught out by the changing conditions as they made pit stops for wet-weather tyres. Petrobelli got the JMW Ferrari beached in the gravel at Karting turn, causing heavy rear-end damage and requiring extrication. The car lost the LMGTE Am lead to Iron Dames' Gatting before being passed by Cairoli's No. 56 Project 1 car. Rasmussen's No. 28 Jota car had a frontal crash in the Porsche Curves but drove slowly to the pit lane for repairs and Scherer's No. 34 Inter Europol car took the LMP2 lead in the seventh hour. Pier Guidi then lost control of the race-leading No. 51 Ferrari while attempting to avoid colliding with the No. 911 Proton Porsche that had hit a Glickenhaus ahead of him in the Daytona Chicane. He recovered with vehicular assistance and lost the race lead to Müller's No. 94 Peugeot.


Kobayashi slowed at Tertre Rouge corner in the ninth hour to avoid passing Giedo van der Garde's No. 39 Graff car into a slow zone enforced for Pier Guidi's accident. Prette's JMW Ferrari was caught off guard by Van der Garde and hit the No. 7 Toyota's left rear, while Memo Rojas' No. 35 Alpine struck the Toyota's right rear. Prette collided with the rear of Van der Garde's car, causing race-ending damage to the JMW Ferrari and the No. 7 Toyota. Although no driver was hurt, Prette was taken to the medical centre for evaluation. A third safety car period was used to allow marshals to clear debris at Tertre Rouge corner and to recover the damaged cars. The accidents promoted Bamber's No. 2 Cadillac to third and Pier Guidi's No. 51 Ferrari to fourth. Because a large piece of Kevlar became caught in the suspension and blocked the cooler's flow, the No. 8 Toyota's engine began overheating at the same time as the No. 7 car's collision. When racing resumed, Hirakawa's No. 8 Toyota followed Bourdais's No. 3 Cadillac past Müller's No. 94 Peugeot for the race lead at the Dunlop chicane. Kvyat's No. 63 Prema LMP2 car slid sideways into the tyre barrier in the Porsche Curves. He was unhurt but heavy rear-end damage forced the vehicle's retirement. Fuoco entered the garage to repair a front leak caused by a stone damaging the front-right brake radiator. The No. 50 Ferrari lost six laps and dropped out of the race lead duel.
René Binder and Neel Jani's Duqueine car joined the LMP2 lead duel with Śmiechowski's and Scherer's No. 34 Inter Europol and Andrade's No. 41 Jota entries in the 10th hour. Müller's No. 94 Peugeot regained the race lead during the following hour, but was passed by Buemi's No. 8 Toyota on the run from Mulsanne to Indianapolis. Calado used the No. 51 Ferrari's better straightline pace on the straight into the Indianapolis turn to pass Müller's No. 94 Peugeot on the inside and take second place. At the first Mulsanne chicane, Menezes slipped onto the wet gravel and skidded into the tyre barrier. Menezes limped the damaged No. 94 Peugeot back to the pits for eight laps of front-end repairs. Calado took the lead when Ferrari did not replace the tyres on the No. 51 Ferrari and instead only refuel it at pit stops. After Serra's quick laps, Kessel joined the LMGTE Am lead duel. De Gerus damaged the No. 37 Cool entry's front-left and rear-left suspension against the barrier at the exit to the first opening of the Porsche Curves during the 13th hour. He brought the car into the garage to be retired with tub damage.
Early in the morning, the race lead was shared by Hirakawa's No. 8 Toyota and Pier Guidi's No. 51 Ferrari, and both cars were on the same pit stop strategy. Jonas Ried's No. 88 Proton Porsche collided with the outside barrier entering the Indianapolis corner, forcing the car to withdraw and the wall to be repaired. Ben Barnicoat's No. 80 AF Corse LMP2 Pro/Am car attempted to overtake slower vehicles through the Porsche Curves not long after. Barnicoat hit the inside kerb and the barrier hard enough with his left side to force its retirement after 15 hours. Kessel's No. 57 Ferrari had become the LMGTE Am leader by this stage thanks to steady pace from drivers Serra and Huffaker, as well as pit stop strategy. After passing Al Harthy's No. 25 ORT by TF car under the Dunlop Bridge, Pera's No. 86 GR Porsche moved to third in class before Scherer passed Kubica in the LMP2 duel for first. Hirakawa's front bodywork and a slow right-rear puncture were replaced during a pit stop after he ran over a squirrel at around 7:00 a.m. local time, removing front downforce from the No. 8 Toyota. This returned Calado's No. 51 Ferrari to the race lead.
While lapping the No. 31 WRT LMP2 entry in the 17th hour, Estre's No. 6 Porsche hit the inside kerb in the Porsche Curves, severely damaging the car's floor against the tyre barrier. The car dropped out of a duel for fourth with Bourdais' No. 3 Cadillac after 43 minutes of bodywork and floor repairs in the garage. LMP2 remained a battle between Kubica's No. 41 Jota and Smiechowski's No. 34 Inter Europol cars, while LMGTE Am was a duel between Iron Dames' Frey and Project 1's Cairoli, and Catsburg and Keating's No. 33 Corvette moved to third in class after returning to the lead lap through pace and a safety car wave-by as the circuit dried. Eastwood's No. 25 ORT by TF Aston Martin pace and pit stop strategy allowed him to join the LMGTE Am lead duel as Keating passed P. J. Hyett's No. 56 Project 1 Porsche for second in class in the 18th hour. Pier Guidi's No. 51 Ferrari lost the lead to Buemi's No. 8 Toyota because he needed to power cycle the No. 51 Ferrari, which had difficulty restarting from his pit box due to a cockpit communications system failure, but reclaimed it by passing Buemi on the outside through slower LMP2 traffic into the second Mulsanne chicane. The gap between both drivers was small until Molina's No. 50 Ferrari attempted to regain a lap from Hartley's No. 8 Toyota, allowing Calado's No. 51 Ferrari to pull away. Actor Michael Fassbender lost control of the No. 911 Proton Porsche's rear exiting Karting corner, crashing into the tyre barrier hard enough to force the car to retire with rear-right damage after 20 hours.


In the 21st hour, Inter Europol's No. 34 car received a drive-through penalty for overtaking two vehicles under safety car conditions, although it did not lose the LMP2 lead to Kubica. Varrone's 33 Corvette set a series of quick laps to take the LMGTE Am lead from Bovy's No. 85 Iron Dames Ferrari and the No. 25 ORT by TF car of Al Harthy. He and Catsburg extended the Corvette's lead to more than 70 seconds over Gatting's Iron Dames Porsche who was being caught by Eastwood's No. 25 ORT by TF Aston Martin. Hartley closed to less than ten seconds of overall leader Giovinazzi's No. 51 Ferrari by the 22nd hour while Nielsen's sister No. 50 Ferrari returned to fifth overall after Mikkel Jensen's No. 93 Peugeot entered the garage with a hydraulics issue. Hirakawa, who replaced Hartley, spun into the left-hand side guardrail barriers entering the right-hand Arnage corner after locking the rear brakes in the braking zone due to a rearward brake balance setting that he was unaware of with 1 hour and 45 minutes remaining. He entered the pit lane to have mechanics replace the damaged front and rear bodywork before rejoining the track nearly a lap behind Giovinazzi's No. 51 Ferrari. In the 23rd hour, Iron Dames lost second in LMGTE Am to Eastwood's No. 25 ORT by TF car who passed Frey's No. 85 Iron Dames Ferrari on the inside into the first Mulsanne chicane after a short battle and began pulling away.
Although the No. 51 Ferrari underwent a system reset at its final pit stop in the final hour, Pier Guidi maintained the lead the car had held for the last 55 laps and won after 342 laps; it was Calado's, Giovinazzi's and Pier Guidi's maiden overall Le Mans victory, Ferrari's tenth and its first since 1965. They finished 1 minute, 21.793 seconds ahead of the No. 8 Toyota, with the No. 2 Cadillac finishing one lap behind in third place, despite losing time due to frequent oil replenishing during pit stops arising from an engine oil issue from the third hour. Inter Europol led the final 112 laps in LMP2 despite radio communication issues in the final hour, earning their first WEC LMP2 victory and second since the ALMS 4 Hours of Dubai. Jota's No. 41 team finished second 21.015 seconds later, and Duqueine finished third despite their car's right-front suspension failing at the final chicane on the final lap. Algarve Pro's No. 45 team of James Allen, Colin Braun and George Kurtz despite a puncture and functioning accident data recorder needing replacing won the LMP2 Pro/Am subclass by five laps over the No. 37 Cool trio of Alexandre Coigny, Jakobsen and Lapierre. It was Allen's second subclass win, as well as Braun's and Kurtz's first. In the final LMGTE Am and GTE race at Le Mans, Corvette had their ninth Le Mans GTE victory with their C8.R leading the ORT by TF Aston Martin by one lap. It was Keating's second category win and Catsburg's and Varrone's first. 40 of the 62 starting vehicles completed the event, the lowest number since 2015.


The top three teams in each of the four classes appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and spoke to the media at individual press conferences. Giovinazzi said it was "by no means a given" that Ferrari would finish the race but added that they "should be very proud" of the victory. Calado called it "a great achievement after so long, this will go down in history." Pier Guidi said "As an Italian, I have dreamed of driving for this brand since childhood. Now it's real. We won Le Mans with a red car." Ferrari chairman John Elkann described the win as an "unforgettable day" and that winning a competitive, wet-weather affected 24-hour race "serves as an example for us all." Hartley was disappointed but proud to finish second, and disclosed that Toyota instructed Hirakawa to push hard in order to win the race. Hirakawa felt a lot of pressure relieving Hartley for his final stint and did not expect abnormal car behaviour into the Indianapolis corner. Bamber felt Cadillac "had a nearly perfect race" through wet-weather strategy and Westbrook felt his team deserved to finish third after being told they were lucky. Lynn said that the presence of spectators distinguished his third-place overall finish from his 2020 LMGTE Pro victory when no fans could watch at Le Mans.
Porsche LMDh factory director Urs Kuratle believed the three Penske cars could have competed on pace with the No. 2 Cadillac if not for technical issues, adding: "It was not our race, definitely not. But next year, we'll come back strong." Ye said visibility issues caused his accident and Jota owner Sam Hignett added that the Hypercar's windscreen becomes more dirty than an LMP2 car's. Toyota technical director Pascal Vasselon said Toyota did not blame Hirakawa for his crash.
Scherer, whose left foot was broken after departing Inter Europol's No. 34 car during a third lap pit stop, had his crew adjust run plans to allow for rest, and treatment permitted him to continue driving, saying: "I tried to just go for it because winning Le Mans is the biggest thing for me to achieve in Europe, in motorsport. I was a bit like, 'I just go through, it doesn't matter what it costs.' Because I'm living for that and that's my dream. That you don't give up for a foot that gives you some pain." Catsburg stated that he did not observe Scherer as he entered his pit box and blamed the crash on a miscommunication. Checks revealed that Scherer's mid-left foot had an incomplete fracture and ligament damage. He was cleared for the following 6 Hours of Monza. WRT owner Vincent Vosse voiced his dissatisfaction at finishing second in LMP2, which was heightened as the team had lost the class victory on the final lap of the 2021 race due to a throttle sensor issue. Kubica said Inter Europol's competitiveness made WRT keep trying to pressure them to no avail but added that he was proud of his achievements at Le Mans.
Catsburg stated he did not think a comeback from two laps down to win the race was possible, calling it "insane" that Corvette's pace allowed his team to re-enter LMGTE Am contention. Keating described Corvette's comeback from pole position as a "emotional rollercoaster," but was enraged by the then-class leader being released from the pit lane too soon under safety car conditions in wet weather in the third hour and race control failing to correct the error, preventing Corvette from receiving a wave-by. Iron Dames' regret at not finishing on the LMGTE Am podium after duelling for the class lead was voiced by Bovy, while co-driver Gatting said that they were hindered by a brake replacement.
Bourdais argued that De Pauw had collided with him because "there was no next slow to say that slow zone 2 was still active. And the GT guys were nose-to-tail. I don't know what he was doing, but he basically forgot that the next one was yellow again. He just plowed into us." Kobayashi said of his accident: "It's so painful to end the race like this because we did the race pretty well and were running P3, catching up. It's very tough." Bourdais thought the Le Mans slow zone system was overly long and dangerous and advised that some slow zones be deactivated rather than having them along a long stretch of track. Kobayashi suggested that FCY to instruct every car to immediately slow to 80 km/h (50 mph) regardless of their location on the circuit be used more often for safety reasons.
The result kept Buemi, Hartley and Hirakawa atop the Hypercar Drivers' Championship with 102 points; race winners Calado, Giovinazzi and Pier Guidi moved from fifth to second, 25 points behind. Deletraz, Kubica and Andrade took the Endurance Trophy for LMP2 Drivers lead ahead of class victors Costa, Scherer and Śmiechowski. Catsburg, Keating and Varrone retained the Endurance Trophy for LMGTE Am Drivers points lead over Al Harthy, Eastwood and Michael Dinan. Toyota, the No. 41 Team WRT and No. 33 Corvette teams left Le Mans as the Hypercar World Endurance Championship, LMP2 Endurance Trophy for Teams and LMGTE Am Endurance Trophy for Teams leaders, respectively, with three races remaining in the season.


The minimum number of laps for classification at the finish (70 per cent of the overall race winner's distance) was 239 laps. Class winners are denoted in bold and with ‡.


Only the top five positions are included for all championship standings.


Duplex stainless steels are a family of alloys with a two-phase microstructure consisting of both austenitic (face-centred cubic) and ferritic (body-centred cubic) phases. They offer excellent mechanical properties, corrosion resistance, and toughness compared to other types of stainless steel. However, duplex stainless steel can be susceptible to a phenomenon known as 475 °C (887 °F) embrittlement or duplex stainless steel age hardening, which is a type of aging process that causes loss of plasticity in duplex stainless steel when it is heated in the range of 250 to 550 °C (480 to 1,020 °F). At this temperature range, spontaneous phase separation of the ferrite phase into iron-rich and chromium-rich nanophases occurs, with no change in the mechanical properties of the austenite phase. This type of embrittlement is due to precipitation hardening, which makes the material become brittle and prone to cracking.


Duplex stainless steel is a type of stainless steel that has a two-phase microstructure consisting of both austenitic (face-centred cubic) and ferritic (body-centred cubic) phases. This dual-phase structure gives duplex stainless steel a combination of mechanical and corrosion-resistant properties that are superior to those of either austenitic or ferritic stainless steel alone. The austenitic phase provides the steel with good ductility, high toughness, and high corrosion resistance, especially in acidic and chloride-containing environments. The ferritic phase, on the other hand, provides the steel with good strength, high resistance to stress corrosion cracking, and high resistance to pitting and crevice corrosion. They are therefore used extensively in the offshore oil and gas industry for pipework systems, manifolds, risers, etc. and in the petrochemical industry in the form of pipelines and pressure vessels.
A duplex stainless steel mixture of austenite and ferrite microstructure is not necessarily in equal proportions, and where the alloy solidifies as ferrite, it is partially transformed to austenite when the temperature falls to around 1,000 °C (1,830 °F). Duplex steels have a higher chromium content compared to austenitic stainless steel, 20–28%; higher molybdenum, up to 5%; lower nickel, up to 9%; and 0.05–0.50% nitrogen. Thus, duplex stainless steel alloys have good corrosion resistance and higher strength than standard austenitic stainless steels such as type 304 or 316.
Alpha (α) phase is a ferritic phase with body-centred cubic (BCC) structure, Im

 3
 ¯

 {\displaystyle {\bar {3}}}

m space group, 2.866 Å lattice parameter, and has one twinning system {112}<111> and three slip systems {110}<111>, {112}<111> and {123}<111>; however, the last system rarely activates. Gamma (

 γ

 {\displaystyle \gamma }

) phase is austenitic with a face-centred cubic (FCC) structure, Fm

 3
 ¯

 {\displaystyle {\bar {3}}}

m space group, and 3.66 Å lattice parameter. It normally has more nickel, copper, and interstitial carbon and nitrogen. Plastic deformation occurs in austenite more readily than in ferrite. During deformation, straight slip bands form in the austenite grains and propagate to the ferrite-austenite grain boundaries, assisting in the slipping of the ferrite phase. Curved slip bands also form due to the bulk-ferrite-grain deformation. The formation of slip bands indicates a concentrated unidirectional slip on certain planes causing a stress concentration.


Duplex stainless steel can have limited toughness due to its large ferritic grain size, and its tendencies to hardening and embrittlement, i.e., loss of plasticity, at temperatures ranging from 250 to 550 °C (482 to 1,022 °F), especially at 475 °C (887 °F). At this temperature range, spinodal decomposition of the supersaturated solid ferrite solution into iron-rich nanophase (

 a
 ´

 {\displaystyle {\acute {a}}}

) and chromium-rich nanophase (

 a
 ´

 ´

 {\displaystyle {\acute {a}}{\acute {}}}

), accompanied by G-phase precipitation, occurs. This makes the ferrite phase a preferential initiation site for micro-cracks. This is because aging encourages Σ3 {112}<111> ferrite deformation twinning at slow strain rate and room temperature in tensile or compressive deformation, nucleating from local stress concentration sites, and parent-twinning boundaries, with 60° (in or out) misorientation, are suitable for cleavage crack nucleation.
Spinodal decomposition refers to the spontaneous separation of a phase into two coherent phases via uphill diffusion, i.e., from a region of lower concentration to a region of higher concentration resulting in a negative diffusion coefficient

 d

 2

 G

 d

 x

 2

 {\displaystyle {d^{2}G \over dx^{2}}}

, without a barrier to nucleation due to the phase being thermodynamically unstable (i.e., miscibility gap,

 a
 ´

 {\displaystyle {\acute {a}}}

 +

 a
 ´

 ´

 {\displaystyle {\acute {a}}{\acute {}}}

 region in the figure), where

 G

 {\displaystyle G}

 is the Gibbs free energy per mole of solution and the composition. It increases hardness and decreases magneticity. Miscibility gap describes the region in a phase diagram below the melting point of each compound where the solid phase splits into the liquid of two separated stable phases.
For 475 °C embrittlement to occur, the chromium content needs to exceed 12%. The addition of nickel accelerates the spinodal decomposition by promoting the iron-rich nanophase formation. Nitrogen changes the distribution of chromium, nickel, and molybdenum in the ferrite phase but does not prevent the phase decomposition. Other elements like molybdenum, manganese, and silicon do not affect the formation of iron-rich nanophase. However, manganese and molybdenum partition to the iron-rich nanophase, while nickel partitions to the chromium-rich nanophase.


Using Field Emission Gun Transmission Electron Microscope FEG-TEM, the nanometre-scaled modulated structure of the decomposed ferrite was revealed as chromium-rich nanophase gave the bright image, and iron-rich darker image. It also revealed that these modulated nanophases grow coarser with aging time. Decomposed phases start as irregular rounded shapes with no particular arrangement, but with time the chromium-rich nanophase takes a plat shape aligned in the <110> directions.


Spinodal decomposition increases the hardening of the material due to the misfit between the chromium-rich and iron-rich nano-phases, internal stress, and variation of elastic modulus. The formation of coherent precipitates induces an equal but opposite strain, raising the system's free energy depending on the precipitate shape and matrix and precipitate elastic properties. Around a spherical inclusion, the distortion is purely hydrostatic.
G-phase precipitates appear prominently at grain boundaries. and are phase rich in nickel, titanium, and silicon, but chromium and manganese may substitute titanium sites. G-phase precipitates occur during long-term aging, are encouraged by increasing nickel content in the ferrite phase, and reduce corrosion resistance significantly. It has ellipsoid morphology, FCC structure (Fm

 3
 ¯

 {\displaystyle {\bar {3}}}

m), and 11.4 Å lattice parameter, with a diameter less than 50 nm that increases with aging.
Thus, the embrittlement is caused by dislocations impediment/ locking by the spinodally decomposed matrix and strain around G-phase precipitates, i.e., internal stress relaxation by the formation of Cottrell atmosphere.
Furthermore, the ferrite hardness increases with aging time, the hardness of the ductile austenite phase remains nearly unchanged due to faster diffusivity in ferrite compared to the austenite. However, austenite undergoes a substitutional redistribution of elements, enhancing galvanic corrosion between the two phases.


550 °C heat treatment can reverse spinodal decomposition but not affect the G-phase precipitates. The ferrite matrix spinodal decomposition can be substantially reversed by introducing an external pulsed electric current that changes the system's free energy due to the difference in electrical conductivity between the nanophases and the dissolution of G-phase precipitates.
Cyclic loading suppresses spinodal decomposition, and radiation accelerates it but changes the decomposition nature from an interconnected network of modulated nanophases to isolated islands.


The 1864 Washington Arsenal explosion occurred on June 17, 1864, at the Washington Arsenal (now known as Fort Lesley J. McNair) in Washington, D.C. after the Arsenal's superintendent left hundreds of flares to dry in the hot summer sun near some of the Arsenal's buildings. When the explosion happened, some of the flares entered into a warehouse via an open window. Inside, a fire quickly started and, when a barrel of gunpowder was set on fire, the roof of the building blew off. The warehouse was staffed with 108 women at the time of the explosion; 21 of them, mostly Irish immigrants, died and many more were seriously injured. Assistance from other Arsenal employees and several local fire companies soon arrived.
The day after the explosion, there were four burials at Mount Olivet Cemetery. The following day, a large number of people attended the funeral service held at the Arsenal. Among those in attendance were President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. The processions then moved to gravesites in Congressional Cemetery where two pits were dug: one for the identified bodies and the second for the unidentified. In the years that followed, there were additional explosions that happened at the Arsenal, including one that claimed the lives of 10 men. The Arsenal was closed a few years after the Civil War ended, and renamed Washington Barracks for many years, until acquiring its current name, Fort Lesley J.McNair.


During the Civil War, most young and middle-aged men were conscripted or volunteered to fight in the Union Army or Confederate Army. While husbands from Washington, D.C., were busy fighting in the war, some of their wives took up jobs throughout the city to earn money or to demonstrate patriotism. Many of these workers were women from the working class and immigrant community. At the Washington Arsenal, now known as Fort Lesley J. McNair, women worked a variety of jobs. The Arsenal was located on the peninsula where the Potomac River and Anacostia River bordered the area. The peninsula was called "The Island" despite not being one. On this "island", women and men would come to work at the Arsenal, the largest of its kind during the war.
The Arsenal was established in 1791 and, during the Civil War, it housed around 40 buildings containing ammunition, flares, and other military artillery. One of the buildings on the north side of the Island was a penitentiary until 1862, when it was converted into ammunition storage. It was in this building where the co-conspirators of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln were hanged. During an inspection in early 1862, there was an estimated 16.5 million rounds of ammunition at the Arsenal.


On the morning of June 17, 1864, superintendent Tom Brown began his daily inspections of the warehouses. Employees at one of the warehouses had just finished producing a large amount of flares. It was hot that day, so Brown had several hundred flares lying in the sun to dry. The flares contained potassium chloride, strontium nitrate, and carbon, and were drying in an out-of-the way area by two buildings. Just before noon that day, there was an intense explosion caused by the sun igniting the flares. It completely destroyed a 100-foot (30 m) long building that was originally designed into four sections. A window had been opened in the hottest room of the building and one of the flares entered the building through the open window, setting off an explosion of cartridges and a barrel of gunpowder. This caused the entire roof to blow off the building while the interior was set afire. At the time of the explosion, 108 women had been working in the building. Earlier that morning, the women had received a message thanking them for donating $170 towards a memorial for the Allegheny Arsenal explosion that occurred in 1862.
Many of the women were wearing hoop skirts that caught fire as they tried to escape the burning building. Some of the women were trapped because of the large worktables that had blocked entrances or windows. A few women who were rescued from the flames were taken to the Potomac River and thrown in the water to extinguish their burning clothes. Three women were most likely in shock when they began running up a hill while their clothes were on fire, but Arsenal employees managed to save them. Some of the survivors who were able to walk made their way to boats en route to the Sixth Street Wharf, where their families could take them home.
The explosion resulted in the worst civilian disaster in the nation's capital during the war. In total, 21 women died, some of whom were burned beyond recognition and only identifiable by a ring, piece of a dress, or other personal items. Some were not identified. In addition to the deaths, dozens of women were injured including some who were blinded. After the explosion, uninjured people from the Arsenal, military medical personnel, and several volunteer fire department companies arrived and began assisting the wounded.


News spread quickly throughout the city of the Arsenal disaster. A special edition of The Evening Star was printed that afternoon detailing the events of the explosion. When told of the disaster, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton announced the U.S. Department of War would be covering all expenses related to funeral costs. He told the Arsenal's commandant "You will not spare any means to express the respect and sympathy of the government for the deceased and their surviving friends." The following day male employees of the Arsenal adopted resolutions to not only have a funeral service for the women who died, but to include a large procession to Congressional Cemetery, where a monument would be erected to honor the victims.
The first funerals took place on June 18, when four of the victims were buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery. The remaining victims were buried the following day, except for one whose funeral was at her home and another who died three weeks later. The Aresenal held a funeral on June 19 for the victims of the explosion. Arsenal employees made coffins for each victim, with a silver-plated plaque on each one listing their name. Victims who were not identified also had plaques on their coffins, but the name was listed as "Unknown." Their coffins were adorned with flowers from city residents. St. Dominic Catholic Church's Reverend Father A. Bakel spoke at the service as did Reverend S. H. Leech from Gorsuch Methodist Church.
Among the attendees at the July 19 funeral were President Abraham Lincoln and Stanton. A funeral procession began at 3:15pm after the Army Medical Department put the bodies in hearses. Around 150 carriages traveled from the Arsenal to Congressional Cemetery followed by all employees of the Arsenal. A carriage with the remains of 13-year old Sallie McElfresh joined the procession at F Street. The funeral service at Congressional Cemetery began when the six identified victims and eight unidentified were placed in pits measuring 15-feet (4.6 m) wide and 5 1/2-feet deep. The first pit is where the identified bodies were buried. The last victim who succumbed to her injuries a few weeks later was buried at the site in July. A second pit, for those who were unidentified, was located a few feet away. Victims McElfresh and Annie Bache were buried in nearby family plots. The crowd chanted "Farewell, sisters, farewell" as the coffins were being placed into the pits.
There was an investigation and a coroner's inquest of the disaster, which revealed thousands of cartridges were carelessly put in an area where they could ignite. Brown was also "guilty of the most culpable carelessness and negligence in placing highly combustible substances so near a building filled with human beings, indicating a most reckless disregard of human life." During the trial, Brown claimed to not know how the explosions occurred since the materials he was drying did not include sulphur. He did admit the pans were the ones he had placed near the building. Arsenal Commandant Major James G. Benton told the jury he was not present at the Arsenal during the explosion, but that after investigating the three pans outside the building, he knew that they were the cause. Additional witnesses confirmed seeing the flares on fire and causing explosions. An article in The Evening Star stated Brown had shown a "degree of indifference to human life," yet Brown was never charged with any crime.
Congress passed a resolution on July 4, 1864, to pay victims' families "the sum of two thousand dollars, be and the same is hereby, appropriated out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the relief of victims of such explosion, – said money to be distributed under the direction of Major Benton, commanding at said arsenal and in such manner as shall most conduce to the comfort and relief of said sufferers, according to their necessities respectively, and that he report to this house."


Soon after the funeral, citizens of Washington, D.C. began raising funds for a monument to the victims. They managed to raise $3,000 within a year. A commission was created to find an artist and design for the monument. Commission members chose Lot Flannery and his company, Flannery Brothers. Flannery was an Irish American, like many of the victims. He carved the Grief statue on top of the monument, a few years before carving his most famous work, the statue of Abraham Lincoln in front of the District of Columbia City Hall. The monument was finished within a couple of months and dedicated on the one-year anniversary of the explosion.
The monument is 25 feet (7.6 m) tall and each side measures 5.6 feet (1.7 m) and was installed on June 17, 1865. The sculpture and pedestal are both made of marble, while the pediment is made of grey granite. The statue on top of the monument is of a woman with long hair wearing a gown, symbolizing Grief. Below her is a grape vine which symbolizes the sacrifice made by the victims. Her hands are clasped in front of her as she looks down. The second layer of the base includes reliefs of hourglasses with wings, demonstrating the women's time had ended. On two sides of the pedestal the name of each victim is carved. On the front of the pedestal is a relief of the explosion.


The explosion in 1864 wasn't the only industrial accident to take place at the Arsenal. In December 1865, while unloading old ammunition from a wagon, the ammunition fell and exploded. The ensuing explosion and fire resulted in 10 deaths. In describing the event, a reporter for The Evening Star wrote "The terrible scene, immediately after the explosion, was only equalled by the scene at the explosion in June 1864, some of the corpses being burned, blackened, and torn so as to expose the entrails, and none being recognizable from the features." In July 1871, another massive explosion occurred in one of the warehouses, destroying several nearby buildings, but without casualties since it occurred at 3 a.m. The blast was powerful enough to break windows throughout the Arsenal. The government closed the Arsenal in 1881, renaming it the Washington Barracks. The name was changed again in 1948 to its present name, Fort Lesley J. McNair.
In 2014, on the 150th anniversary of the explosion, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore visited the monument site while on an official visit to the U.S. and laid a wreath because many of the women who died or were injured were Irish immigrants. Personnel from Joint Base Myer–Henderson Hall held a ceremony on the same day, honoring the women who lost their lives helping to defend the Union. Speakers at the ceremony included historian Ed Bearss and Colonel Fern O. Sumpter. At 11:50 a.m., the same time the explosion occurred, there was a moment of silence for the victims. The name of each victim was then read aloud.


The 1901 Boston Marathon was the fifth edition of the marathon race from Ashland to Boston, Massachusetts, United States on April 19, 1901. The event was organized by the Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A.). Rather than the modern marathon distance of 26.2 miles (42.2 km), the distance was officially 25 miles (40 km), though it has since been measured to be about 23.1–23.9 miles (37.2–38.5 km). About 25,000 spectators lined the course, many of them following and cheering on their preferred runners for significant stretches as they passed.
Jack Caffery of Canada repeated as champion, improving his course record from the previous year by a further 10 minutes to 2 hours, 29 minutes, 33 seconds and becoming the first person to win the Boston Marathon two years in a row. His compatriot William Davis, a Mohawk Canadian, finished runner-up and Sammy Mellor finished third.


Following the first modern Olympic marathon at the 1896 Athens Olympics, the first American marathon race was held in fall 1896 from Stamford, Connecticut to New York City. According to the Hamilton Spectator, the Bostonians who competed claimed they were drugged, and John McDermott of New York won the race.
The first Boston Marathon was held one year later in 1897, and it was also won by McDermott. The race was credited with establishing interest in marathon running in America. That momentum continued through to the 1900 Boston Marathon, which broke the all-time participation record with the help of a new Canadian delegation led by winner Jack Caffrey.
For the 1901 race, it was expected that participation would exceed the 1900 edition, with race manager John Graham expecting several top entries. The Canadians were to be represented by Jack Caffery, Fred Hughson, William Davis, and 1900 Boston Marathon runner-up Billy Sherring from Hamilton, Ontario. On April 15, Sherring withdrew from the race with what was variously described as a sore knee or a sickness. The rest of the Canadians arrived a week before the race, and also on April 15 Caffrey raced Tom Kanaly in a cross-country tune-up in Boston, finishing fourth despite a seven-minute handicap. People in Cambridge favored Ronald MacDonald to win the 1901 Boston Marathon, as his recent 19-mile performance was 6 minutes better than that of Caffrey.
A total of 31 entries were received as of April 17, each runner to be accompanied by two bicycle riders to attend to their needs during the race. The top eight placers were to be awarded prizes, with a "souvenir" awarded to all finishers. A list of 33 entrants and a course description were published by the Boston Evening Transcript four days before the race, with that list being updated to 41 entrants as of the eve of the race.


The race started at 12 pm local time, with conditions described as favorable with no wind. Fred Hughson of the Hamilton Y.M.C.A. and Jack Caffery (also of Hamilton, Ontario) took the early lead. The first mile was reportedly covered in 4 minutes and 40 seconds, a pace that only five runners in history have averaged across a full marathon as of 2024. By the railroad tracks in Ashland center, Hughson led with Caffery close behind and both leading C. Crimmins from Cambridgeport Gym by 50 yards (46 m).


This pace proved to be too fast for some of the anticipated favorites, including John Vrazanas of Greece who was not seen again after the first few miles. Crimmins trailed in third place, as William Davis led T. J. Hicks in fourth and fifth. There was little course control: according to the Globe "hundreds" of bicyclists tailed the leading runners encumbered by cars, horses, and children.
As the race advanced through Framingham and Natick, Hughson had built up a lead but was still closely tailed by Caffery. 45 minutes in, Hughson passed the Natick town hall about 100 yards (91 m) ahead of Caffery. Ronald MacDonald at this point was 75 yards (69 m) behind Caffery, and Sammy Mellor and Davis were running in fourth and fifth 1⁄3 mile (0.54 km) behind MacDonald.
The race dynamic began to shift as the runners approached Wellesley. Caffery overtook Hughson on the Wellsley Hills steep incline. At this point a horse became frightened and ran into the street ahead of the runners, but a bicyclist grabbed the bridles and was able to stop the horse before any runners were injured.
With Caffery now in the lead, the race progressed to Newton Lower Falls as Caffery extended his lead over Hughson to about 150 yards (140 m). By this point, MacDonald had passed Crimmins and was in 3rd place, leading Crimmins (who was described as an "unknown proposition") by about 1⁄2 mile (0.80 km).
Caffery passed 15 miles (24 km) in 1 hour and 21 minutes – 9 minutes faster than last year's split – with a significant lead. Hughson was still in runner-up position, but at this point he was visibly struggling and onlookers predicted he would not finish the race. MacDonald was 1⁄3 mile (0.54 km) behind, and Crimmins was 220 yards (200 m) behind MacDonald in fourth position.
At Waban, MacDonald passed an ailing Hughson and was gaining ground on the leader Caffery. With nine miles to the finish, MacDonald had advanced to just 1⁄3 mile (0.54 km) behind Caffery. Meanwhile eventual runner-up William Davis was still only in fifth place, behind Caffery, MacDonald, Hughson, and Crimmins. Davis began to speed up, taking advantage of an incline on Cedar Street in West Newton to pass Crimmins and eventually Hughson.


Davis, now in third, caught up to MacDonald over the next mile, and MacDonald was alerted to his presence by the "Indian warhoops and catcalls" being made by the crowd of cyclist fans following Davis. MacDonald's followers tried to encourage him to maintain position, but nonetheless Davis passed MacDonald on a downhill en route to the Chestnut Hill Reservoir. Behind them, Hughson struggled significantly, falling on the road several times, and he was eventually brought off in a carriage and did not finish the race.
When the reservoir was reached, a "vast crowd" of spectators cheered on Caffery and Davis, then about a mile back. There were so many onlookers on the reservoir that they blocked the runners, with some having to make a detour to pass by the pedestrians lined 20 or 30 deep. Confusion was heightened after a "young man clad in running togs" slid in from one of the side streets and joined the race behind Caffery. The young man fooled many of the spectators before he dropped out.


Despite Davis' efforts, the gap was unsurmountable as Caffery finished first, breaking his own course record by about ten minutes in 2 hours, 29 minutes, and 33 seconds. Spectators stormed the course to embrace Caffery. Davis and Mellor followed, with Crimmins and Hicks taking the fourth and fifth positions. The race continued for about an hour after Davis finished, after which the final competitor completed the distance.


With about five miles remaining, 1898 Boston Marathon champion Ronald MacDonald was about 90 seconds behind leader Jack Caffery, a distance which MacDonald thought he could easily make up. However, MacDonald began to tire after dabbing himself with what he thought was a water sponge, which he received from his brother via a mobile canteen driven by a bicycle rider.
Showing visible signs of fatigue, MacDonald was approached by Dr. J. S. Thompson of East Cambridge, who offered him 1⁄30th of a grain of strychnine in pill form, intended to "strengthen his heart" (anti-doping rules did not yet exist). The pills appeared to have the opposite effect, and MacDonald soon collapsed and did not finish the race.
MacDonald was carried home, where he was bedridden for several days. At 10 p.m. the night of the race Dr. Thompson visited and said, "on examining the sponge used in wiping the face of the runner I found a very strong odor of chloroform. That was seven hours after he had used the sponge, showing that the dose must have been a powerful one". Dr. Thompson further stated, "The only reason I can see was that he was a dangerous man, and some one wanted to get him out of the race. I think the canteen of the soldier bicycle rider must have been tampered with at Ashland, and the drug inserted there."
The Canadian delegation was not receptive to the poisoning idea, believing it to have cheapened Caffery's win. They complained that "little, if any, attention was shown to" the Canadians and of the Boston Athletic Association's perceived exclusivity. They also noted that although MacDonald was widely celebrated in Boston, the actual bettors did not place much money on him. The Hamilton Spectator stated, "A better excuse than this will have to be found for MacDonald's defeat."


Being a member of the Mohawk people, William Davis was the first indigenous American to medal at a Boston Marathon, finishing second behind his countryman Caffery. A native of Hagersville, Ontario, Davis' running form was described as not suitable to "please the experts". He went on to coach Tom Longboat, winner of the 1908 Boston Marathon. John Vrazanis of Greece was the first Boston Marathon runner from outside North America, although he did not finish the race.
Caffery's win and course record was a significant highlight in his athletic career. He was aided by Tom Kanaly, then a runner himself, who followed Caffery on a tandem bike. Walter C. Kelly wrote in the Buffalo Courier, "The Marathon race of 1901 is a thing of the past. Like many other athletic events, it will now take its place in the annals of the athletic almanac. It will be forgotten, as athletic events are, but the performance of J. J. Caffery [sic] will long be remembered by the racing enthusiasts who long to see the runners reel off mile after mile until they have covered the quarter of a century".


There were 36 reported participants, but not all names and times were recorded.


The 1912–1913 Little Falls textile strike was a labor strike involving workers at two textile mills in Little Falls, New York, United States. The strike began on October 9, 1912, as a spontaneous walkout of primarily immigrant mill workers at the Phoenix Knitting Mill following a reduction in pay, followed the next week by workers at the Gilbert Knitting Mill for the same reason. The strike, which grew to several hundred participants under the leadership of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), lasted until January the following year, when the mills and the strikers came to an agreement that brought the workers back to the mills on January 6.
Little Falls, a city situated along the Mohawk River, saw substantial growth in its textile industry during the early 1900s. The city's textile mills were primarily operated by immigrant workers from Europe who faced poor and living conditions in the city. In 1912, as part of efforts to improve workplace safety, the state government passed a law that lowered the maximum number of weekly working hours for women and children from 60 to 54. However, the law did not address pay, resulting in many workers throughout the state seeing a decrease in wages relative to their reduced working hours. In many cases, brief labor disputes led to the companies altering pay, but in Little Falls, the Phoenix and Gilbert Knitting Mills resisted, leading to many mill workers receiving less pay than before. As a result, on October 9, 80 workers at the Phoenix Mill performed a walkout, and they were joined on October 18 by 76 workers from the Gilbert Mill. Over the next few days, the number of strikers continued to increase until over 600 workers were on strike.
Shortly after the walkout, Socialist Party members from nearby Schenectady, including that city's Socialist Mayor George R. Lunn, came to Little Falls to help the strikers. Many, including Lunn, were arrested during peaceful rallies at a park near the mills, but after criticism from regional publications and state politicians, the city backed down by late October. Around that same time, the IWW, which had sent organizers to the city near the beginning of the strike, took the lead in organizing the strikers, helping them to form a strike committee, teaching them picketing techniques, and helping to draft a list of demands that included pay wage increases. On October 24, the strikers voted to officially organize a local union of the IWW in Little Falls. Several days later, on October 30, there was a violent confrontation between law enforcement officials and strikers outside the Phoenix Mill, and in the resulting riot, police raided the strikers' headquarters and arrested many. Following this, IWW officials Matilda Rabinowitz and Bill Haywood came to Little Falls to help continue the strike. Around the same time, the IWW faced competition from the United Textile Workers of America (UTW), which organized its own separate local union and signed a labor contract that brought some mill workers back to work on December 2. However, the IWW local, with about 400 members, persisted. On December 24, the New York State Department of Labor initiated an investigation into the strike and helped to negotiate a contract that was approved by both the mills and the union. As a result, the IWW members returned to work on January 6, 1913, bringing the strike to a close.
The terms of the contract resulted in wage increases of between 6 and 15 percent for the workers, depending on their piece work pay, and resulted in the strikers receiving their employment back without discrimination. However, over the next several months, the IWW focused a great deal of time and resources into court cases regarding several of those arrested during the strike, and ultimately, two organizers were found guilty of assault and sentenced to a year in prison. As a result of these developments, the IWW local soon fell into a state of disorder, while nationally, the IWW suffered a serious blow to its size and power following the disastrous 1913 Paterson silk strike, which also concerned mill workers. By the 1920s, the IWW had entered into a period of serious decline, while the UTW ramped up its organizing efforts among immigrants in the area. The Little Falls strike was one in a wave of textile strikes in the Northeastern United States that followed the IWW's successful 1912 Lawrence textile strike, and one of numerous IWW-led strikes throughout the Northeast and the Midwest during the 1910s.


Little Falls is a city in Herkimer County, in the Mohawk Valley region of Upstate New York, near Utica. Situated along the banks of the Mohawk River, the city was one of several in the region to have a developed textile industry with multiple textile mills by the beginning of the 20th century. The city's first mill had been organized in 1872, and by 1912, the city was a sizeable center for the production of knitted fabrics and underwear, home to several mills and other manufacturing facilities, earning it the nickname "the Lowell of the Empire State". These mills employed many immigrants from Europe, including many Austrians, Hungarians, Italians, and Poles. Many were not fluent in English. These immigrants were drawn to Little Falls due to the robust economic growth the city was experiencing during the early 1900s, as the economic output of the city grew by 89 percent between 1904 and 1909, with the total value of goods produced during the latter year equal to about $8.5 million. The laborers at these mills often faced poor working conditions, with the mills employing children as young as 5 years old in sweatshop conditions, while their squalid living conditions led to a high rate of tuberculosis among the immigrants. The millworkers lived in tenements that an article in The New York Times compared to "rabbit warrens". The latter had prompted the Fortnightly Club, a local charity organization, to hire M. Helen Schloss to serve as a visiting nurse to treat tuberculosis and other sicknesses in the city.


During this period of growth in Little Falls, business interests worked to prevent worker unionization, and in 1912, there were only 12 local unions in the city, representing only 6 percent of the population. In the mills, only about 75 jack spinners were unionized, constituting about a quarter of the entire union membership in the city. These spinners, who worked 60 hours per week, made about $2.60 per day, which was higher than the daily pay for spinners in other nearby cities, but the majority of mill workers were not unionized and made substantially less. In a study of the weekly pay of about 800 male workers, almost half made $9 or less, while less than a quarter made over $12. Out of 900 female workers' weekly wages, about half made $7.50 or less, about a fifth made more than $10, and 30 percent made $6 or less. Many workers complained of the low wages, saying that they were insufficient to provide for themselves and their family. Nationwide, union membership remained relatively low, with only about 6 percent of the country's workforce in 1905 affiliated with the American Federation of Labor (AFL), a federation of labor unions that primarily focused on organizing skilled tradesmen into craft unions. AFL leaders were relatively unconcerned with unionizing unskilled workers and viewed immigrant laborers, such as the workers at the mills in Little Falls, as a potential danger to the craft union movement. Also in 1905, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, whose members are known as Wobblies), an anarcho-syndicalist union, was established and began to organize unskilled workers in the country into industrial unions. Unionization efforts by the IWW would eventually push the AFL to reconsider their approach to unskilled labor, and the two organizations often engaged in competition to represent workers and lead labor strikes. During the 1910s, the IWW attempted to organize many factories in New York, and they were involved in several labor disputes in the state, such as the 1912 New York City waiters' strike in May of that year. That same year, the union led a strike against the New York Mills Corporation of New York Mills, which involved many Polish immigrants. In the United States during the early 1900s, many Polish workers were receptive to industrial unionism with the IWW and similar militant unions, such as the United Mine Workers of America.


In 1911, New York State Assembly member Edward D. Jackson of Buffalo proposed legislation that would reduce the maximum number of weekly hours that women and minors could work in factories from 60 to 54. Additionally, the bill would bar them from working between the hours of 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. and prohibit them from working more than ten hours per day. The Jackson bill was opposed by industry interests, who hired lobbyists to attempt to prevent the bill's passage into law. Mill owners argued that the bill would hurt the state's textile industry, while one company that also operated mills in Georgia stated that the law would lead to more work being performed in those locations, where the cap on hours per week that women could work was 66. Meanwhile, organized labor supported the bill, with textile unionist John Golden speaking in favor of its passage. Additional support came from Frances Perkins, head of the New York branch of the National Consumers League, and the New York Child Labor Committee. The bill was proposed amidst a greater push for workplace safety for women following the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, an industrial disaster in New York City that had killed over 100 women. As part of this movement, the New York State Legislature had also created the Factory Investigating Commission to investigate working conditions in the state, with the commission visiting Little Falls in August 1912. Ultimately, with support from New York Governor John Alden Dix, the bill was approved and signed into law, with an effective date of October 1, 1912.
While the bill had addressed the number of hours that could be worked, the legislation did not address the impact that the change would have on wages. As a result, when the law came into effect, many companies reduced pay in proportion to the decrease in hours worked. This led to numerous and sporadic walkouts throughout the state, with workers objecting to receiving less money. A similar situation had occurred previously in Massachusetts when that state's government had passed a similar law that decreased working hours that similarly led to strikes, including the 1912 Lawrence textile strike. The Lawrence strike, led by the IWW and involving many immigrant workers, such as Poles, had occurred just a few months before the labor disputes in New York. In many cases, the companies were able to quickly resolve these disputes by adjusting wages. In Little Falls, the Phoenix Knitting Mill and the Gilbert Knitting Mill also lowered wages according to the reduced hours, leading to a labor strike at these two mills.


On October 9, 80 workers at the Phoenix Knitting Mill performed a walkout due to the reduced pay they had received. The walkout was a spontaneous action among the workers, who were primarily immigrants such as Italians and Poles. On October 18, 76 workers at the Gilbert Knitting Mill also performed a walkout to protest their reduced wages. Over the next several days, more workers began to honor the picket line, until the number of workers on strike was roughly equal to the number of workers who remained working, with about 664 workers involved in strike action and a further 659 workers indirectly affected by the strike. Around two-thirds of the strikers were women. However, throughout the strike, many skilled workers and native-born Americans resisted in joining. This was partially due to the fact that, in the past, the mill owners had hired immigrant workers to act as strikebreakers during labor disputes, such as in one that had occurred just two years prior. On October 17, Schloss, who had been involved in organized labor and socialist causes during her career prior to Little Falls while working as a nurse in New York City's Lower East Side, resigned from her position as nurse and became a fervent supporter of the strikers, helping to organize and lead many parades and rallies and opening a soup kitchen to feed the strikers.


Soon after the strike began, organized labor advocates and socialists from the surrounding area began to come to Little Falls to help the strikers. In Schenectady, located about 55 miles (89 km) down the Mohawk River from Little Falls, Mayor George R. Lunn, a member of the Socialist Party of America, recruited many to come with him to Little Falls to help organize the strikers and recruit more textile workers to join in picketing. While Mayor Lunn wished to hold a rally at Clinton Park (an area located directly across the street from the Phoenix Mill), city authorities took advantage of local ordinances to bar the socialists from holding the meeting, with one ordinance requiring permits from city officials to hold a rally and another forbidding gatherings of over 20 people in public. These ordinances were often enforced inconsistently, as previous political rallies by Democratic politicians William Sulzer and Martin H. Glynn had been allowed, but were invoked to prevent socialists who attempted to speak at the park. Local law enforcement officials were highly sympathetic to the mill owners, and both Herkimer County Sheriff James W. Moon and Little Falls Police Chief James "Dusty" Long stated that speeches by the socialists could possibly provoke a riot and further civil unrest. Many activists who attempted to speak in favor of the strike were arrested on charges of disturbing the peace or blocking traffic, including Mayor Lunn himself on October 15. Lunn refused to pay a $50 fine and was sentenced to a 50-day jail sentence. Regarding the strike and involvement of the socialists, Police Chief Long stated, "We have a strike on our hands and a foreign element to deal with. We have in the past kept them in subjugation and we mean to continue to hold them where they belong". In addition to law enforcement, local media institutions were also critical of the strike, with the Little Falls Journal and Courier expressing disapproval of the workers' decision to strike, saying, "The question of whether the wages paid were starvation or not, did not, and cannot enter into the merits of the case. The employer fixed the wages that he was willing to pay, and the men were at liberty to accept the employment or not. ... There were no extraordinary conditions, no disturbances, no suffering, no distress, so far as anyone here knew".
Organizers from Schenectady continued to push for the ability to hold rallies and employed strategies such as overcrowding the local jail and clogging the court system. Mayor Lunn called for 5,000 protestors to come to Little Falls, and following this, hundreds of labor activists, Wobblies, and socialists came to the city to aid the strikers. The action worked, as city officials began releasing many protestors on bail due to the small size of the city jail. Multiple newspapers in the area, such as The Post-Standard in Syracuse, criticized the double standard of preventing socialists from exercising their freedom of speech while allowing other groups, and in a letter to Little Falls Mayor Frank Shall and Sheriff Moon, Governor Dix cautioned them about suppressing New Yorkers' rights, saying:

Socialist activists arrive in Little Falls


"Your attention is invited to the fact that the Constitution of the State of New York guarantees the right of free speech and the right of people peacefully to assemble and discuss public questions. The people of the State of New York wish to see that these rights are not unnecessarily curtailed, but are respected in spirit as well as in letter, within your jurisdiction."


Facing this pressure, on October 21, Socialist candidates in the 1912 New York state election helped organize a pro-strike rally at Clinton Park that ran without interference from law enforcement. During the speech, Mayor Lunn told the strikers, "Let your enemies use violence if they will—which I hope will never be the case—but do not ever use violence yourselves. You have right on your side. You can unite as one mighty army of workers and thus secure the wages to enable you to live peaceably".


Following the free speech protests, IWW officials began to take the lead in organizing the strike activities. Wobblies had been involved since the early days of the strike, with organizers Fillippo Bochino of Rochester and Fred Hirsh of Schenectady arriving in Little Falls shortly after the initial walkouts. Other prominent IWW organizers who came to Little Falls included Benjamin Legere and George Lehney. Following the advice of the IWW, the strikers formed a strike committee that included representatives from both plants and from each nationality of the strikers. The strike committee organized subcommittees to handle other aspects of the strike, such as finances, and organized daily parades and picketing. Legere, who had spent the past few months working for the defense of Joseph James Ettor and Arturo Giovannitti in a court case related to their actions in the Lawrence strike, was the primary organizer, teaching the strikers different picketing techniques and helping to assemble the subcommittees. Additionally, the committee formulated some demands that they submitted to the mill owners on October 23:


"Same weekly wages for 54 hours' work as had been received for 60 hours.
Additional increase of 10 per cent for all workers on day shift.
Additional increase of 15 per cent for all workers on night shift.
No discrimination against workers for activity in strike."
On October 24, the strikers held a meeting where they voted to officially unionize with the IWW, with IWW General Secretary Vincent Saint John giving them a charter as Local No. 801 — the National Industrial Union of Textile Workers of Little Falls. On October 27, the strikers held a parade through Little Falls that involved over 1,000 people.