1791 Philadelphia carpenters throughout the city join together and spontaneously and illegally strike by dropping their tools and demanding a general ten-hour workday. It is widely recognized as the first major organized strike in US labor history. (Le Blanc, 182; Brooks, 17-18).

1819 New York Tailor’s Union threatened to go on strike to protest the increasing number of female tailors in their trade, arguing their presence was helping to depress wage rates (Le Blanc, 32).

1867 5,000 Chinese railway workers in the Sierra Nevada Mountains struck to demand an eight-hour day for Chinese workers: “Eight hours a day good for white man, all the same good for China man” (Murolo and Chitty, 102).

1874 A peaceful workers demonstration in New York City’s Tompkins square calling for the end to unemployment and an 8-hour workday drew 25,000 men women and children. The throng was attacked and dispersed by mounted police (Le Blanc, 45).

1877 In July, after the B&O Railroad cut wages by 10%, there were massive nationwide railway strikes throughout the US. Martial law was declared and military and state militia forces were brought in to suppress the strikes. A wave of sympathy strikes spread throughout the country. These were among the largest strike waves in American history and some historians argue that the workers were calling, in a general sense, for broad changes to the industrial system that would give the workers control of the railways (Brecher, 13-37; Brooks, 65; Le Blanc, 184; Yates, 27).

1882 White workers throughout California organize to protest the use of Chinese immigrant labor (Le Blanc, 184).

1886 General strikes involving 340,000 workers in late April and during the first three days of May in major cities such as Chicago (45,000), New York (32,000), Cincinnati (9000), Baltimore (7000), Milwaukee (4700), Boston (4250), Pittsburgh (3000), Detroit (2000), St. Louis (1500) and Washington DC. The strikes were part of a broad based movement for a legislated 8-hour day. These strikes were, for the most part, organized by the Knights of Labor. On May 3, police sought to put an end to the strikes, a bomb went off among a mixed group of demonstrators and police in Chicago’s Haymarket Square as the Terrified and confused police began firing into the crowd. Riots ensued and, with harsh repression from government forces, the strikes came to an end. The eight leaders of the Chicago demonstrators were convicted and seven were sentenced to death. Four were hung, one committed suicide and the rest were pardoned. The shock of the violence and repression effectively killed the eight-hour day movement in the US for several years and led to the establishment of 1 May as an international workers' holiday (Brecher, 54-57; Brooks, 68-70; Yates, 28; Murolo and Chitty, 126-127).

1903 On February 14, 76 miners at the Colorado City Mill, members of the Western Federation of Miners left work to demand recognition of the union, increased wages and a state legislated eight hour day for all underground mines (Foner, Vol.III: 395).

1912-1913 The Brotherhood of Timber Workers (1300 men) in Merryville, Louisiana struck from November 11 to May of 1913 to protest the status of black laborers, the Grabow Massacre, the trial that followed and the firing of workers for involvement in the trial. There was both a petition to president Taft and a subsequent strike (Foner, Vol. IV: 251-255; Murolo and Chitty, 158-159).

1914 In Ludlow, Colorado, striking miners and their families are machine gunned by state militia. Surviving strikers protest the violence and then several strikers counterattack and rout the state militia. Federal troops are sent in and the miners are defeated (Le Blanc, 185; Murolo and Chitty, 150, 152-155).

1914 Hop Pickers in California strike and call for a new trial for convicted murderers Ford and Suhr. The pickers, members of the IWW, insisted that the convicted pair be given a new trial at once or no crops would be picked (Foner, Vol. IV: 272-275).

1919 In January in Seattle a shipyard strike for higher wages quickly escalated into a general strike to protest against government indifference to working class demands for union recognition and a decent standard of living. 60,000 workers participated and several contemporary observers thought that the strikers were “revolutionary” in their tone and in their political demands (Le Blanc, 70; Brecher, 289; Perlman and Taft, 439-441).

1927 In August, immigrant workers across the nation from northeast factories to southeast mines struck to protest the execution of Sacco and Venzetti in Massachusetts (Murolo and Chitty, 185).

1932 More than 100, 000 people demonstrated in Chicago to protest the murder of several people by police who were trying to enforce an eviction of a family from their home. Many of the demonstrators had stopped work for the day to protest (Yates, 29).

1934 Thousands of Minneapolis workers, including Teamsters and other union members participated in a militant general strike. During the strike, the protestors held huge private and pubic rallies with as many as 2,000 protestors. The speeches at these rallies protested a wide range of government policies. Over the course of the strike, several picketers and strikers demanded an end to the Stalinist dictatorship in Russia. (Le Blanc, 34, 186; Bernstein, 233-239).

1934 San Francisco workers organized a general strike to protest the National Guard’s suppression of a longshoreman strike. Local newspaper headlines referred to the strike as the “War in San Francisco” (Brecher, 289; Le Blanc, 186; Bernstein, 271-277; Yates, 29).

1934 United Textile workers called a nation wide general strike as part of a year long strike wave. Martial law was declared and state governments called on the National Guard. 16 strikers were killed (Le Blanc, 84-85).

1969 United Mine Workers struck for compensation for black lung disease in Ohio, Pennsylvania and in West Virginia. In late 1969, Congress passed the Coal Mine Health and Safety Act, which included the compensation program and new safety standards (Murolo and Chitty, 268).

1970 For the first time in US history, federal worker struck in a wildcat strike for higher pay. It began with postal workers in New York City and spread throughout major cities across the country. The federal government imposed injunctions. The injunctions only seemed to fuel the fire. Within days, 150,000 federal workers were on strike. Richard Nixon called in the National Guardsmen and other military troops. Union officers were arrested. After negotiations, strikers were given amnesty (Murolo and Chitty, 269).

1973 After the Arab-Israeli War, 2,000 members of an ad hoc Arab workers caucus of the Detroit UAW organized a one-day strike against union investments in Israeli bonds (Murolo and Chitty, 272).

1998 Puerto Rico, a US territory, is rocked by massive general strikes that began with telephone workers and spread throughout the island (Le Blanc, 190).