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
(A People?s History of the United States: 1492-Present: If your last serious read of American history was in high school?or even in a standard college course?you?ll want to read this amazing account of America as seen through the eyes of its working people, women and minorities. Howard Zinn (1922-2010) was a widely respected historian, author, playwright, and social activist. In A People?s History of the United States: 1492-Present, he turns history on its head with his carefully researched and dramatic recounting of America and its people?not just its bankers, industrialists, generals and politicians.)
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
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
Mary Harris ?Mother? Jones born in County Cork, Ireland - 1830
(The Autobiography of Mother Jones: Mary Harris Jones??Mother Jones??was the most dynamic woman ever to grace the American labor movement. Employers and politicians around the turn of the century called her ?the most dangerous woman in America? and rebellious working men and women loved her as they never loved anyone else.)