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May 7

The Knights of St. Crispin union is formed at a secret meeting in Milwaukee. It grew to 50,000 members before being crushed by employers later that year - 1867

May 7

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May 6

Works Progress Administration (WPA) established at a cost of $4.8 billion?more than $72 billion in 2011 dollars?to provide work opportunities for millions during the Great Depression - 1935

May 6

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May 05

National Typographical Union founded, Cincinnati, Ohio. It was renamed the Int?l Typographical Union in 1869, in acknowledgment of Canadian members. When the ITU merged into CWA in 1986 it was the oldest existing union in the U.S. - 1852 On Chicago?s West Side, police attack Jewish workers as they try to march into the Loop to protest slum conditions - 1886 Some 14,000 building trades workers and laborers, demanding an 8-hour work day, gather at the Milwaukee Iron Co. rolling mill in Bay View, Wisc. When they approach the mill they are fired on by 250 National Guardsmen under orders from the governor to shoot to kill. Seven die, including 13-year-old boy - 1886

May 05

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May 04

Haymarket massacre. A bomb is thrown as Chicago police start to break up a rally for strikers at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Co. A riot erupts, 11 police and strikers die, mostly from gunfire, and scores more are injured - 1886

May 04

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May 03

Four striking workers are killed, at least 200 wounded, when police attack a demonstration on Chicago?s south side at the McCormick Harvesting Machine plant. The Haymarket Massacre is to take place the following day - 1886

May 03

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May 02

Chicago's first Trades Assembly, formed three years earlier, sponsors a general strike by thousands of workers to enforce the state's new 8-hour-day law. The one-week strike was unsuccessful - 1867

May 02