Artisans and laborers in Sons of Liberty protest oppressive British taxes
Laborers protest royal taxation in the Boston tea Party
American Revolution begins
New Hamsphire enacts first state 10-hour-day law
Abraham Lincoln takes office as president and Civil War begins
National Labor Union founded
Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions formed
American Federation of Labor founded
Triangle Shirtwaist factory in fire in New York kills nearly 150 workers
Woodrow Wilson takes office as president and appoints the first secretary of labor, William B. Wilson of the Mine Workers
Leadership of Industrial Workers of the World sentenced to federal prison oncharges of disloyalty to the United States
Stock market crashes as stocks fall 40 percent; Great Depression begins
President Franklin Roosevelt proposes New Deal programs to Congress
National Labor Relations Act and Social Security Act passed Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO) formed within AFL
Fair Labor Standards Act establishes first minimum wage and 40-hour week Congress of industrial Organizations forms as an independent federation
Largest strike wave in U.S. history
Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (Landrum-Griffin) passed
Occupational Safety and Health Act passed
Organizing Institute created
40,000 union activists and allies protest the Free Trade Area of the Americas in Quebec City, Canada, the largest anti-globalization mobilization to date.
Shortly after his inauguration, President Obama signs the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which restored the rights of working women to sue over pay discrimination.
