New York City maids organize to improve working conditions - 1734
Mine explosion in Mount Pleasant, Pa., leaves more than 100 dead - 1891
First meeting of the Int?l Labor Organization (ILO) - 1920
In what could be considered the first workers? compensation agreement in America, pirate Henry Morgan pledges his underlings 600 pieces of eight or six slaves to compensate for a lost arm or leg. Also part of the pirate?s code, reports Roger Newell: shares of the booty were equal regardless of race or sex, and shipboard decisions were made collectively - 1695
Samuel Gompers, first AFL president, born in London, England. He emigrated to the U.S. as a youth - 1850
Krueger's Cream Ale, the first canned beer, goes on sale in Richmond, Va. Pabst was the second brewer in the same year to sell beer in cans, which came with opening instructions and the suggestion: "cool before serving" - 1935