Twenty people, including at least nine firefighters, are killed in Boston?s worst fire. It consumed 65 downtown acres and 776 buildings over 12 hours ? 1872
Some 1,300 building trades workers in eastern Massachusetts participated in a general strike on all military work in the area to protest the use of open-shop (a worksite in which union membership is not required as a condition of employment) builders. The strike held on for a week in the face of threats from the U.S. War Department - 1917