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October 20

Eugene V. Debs, U.S. labor leader and socialist, dies in Elmhurst, Ill. Among his radical ideas: an 8-hour workday, pensions, workman's compensation, sick leave and social security. He ran for president from a jail cell in 1920 and got a million votes - 1926

October 20

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October 19

The National Association of Letter Carriers achieves equalization of wages for all letter carriers, meaning city delivery carriers began receiving the same wages regardless of the size of the community in which they worked ? 1949

October 19

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October 18

The "Shoemakers of Boston"?the first labor organization in what would later become the United States?was authorized by the Massachusetts Bay Colony - 1648

October 18

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October 17

A huge vat ruptures at a London brewery, setting off a domino effect of similar ruptures, and what was to become known as The London Beer Flood. Nearly 1.5 million liters of beer gushed into the streets drowning or otherwise causing the deaths of eight people, mostly poor people living in nearby basements - 1814

October 17

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October 16

Queen Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI, is beheaded during the French Revolution. When alerted that the peasants were suffering due to widespread bread shortages, lore has it that she replied, ?Let them eat cake.? In fact she never said that, but workers were, justifiably, ready to believe anything bad about their cold-hearted royalty - 1793

October 16

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October 15

President Woodrow Wilson signs the Clayton Antitrust Act?often referred to as "Labor?s Magna Carta"?establishing that unions are not "conspiracies" under the law. It for the first time freed unions to strike, picket and boycott employers. In the years that followed, however, numerous state measures and negative court interpretations weakened the law - 1914

October 15