Today in Labor History—May 29

Louise Michel

May 29, 1830 – Anarchist Louise Michel, was born in Vroncourt, France. Michel, also known as The Red Virgin, was a leader of the Paris Commune. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 29, 1839 – Revolution against the Mexican government broke out in Yucatan. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 29, 1854 – Civil rights activist, Lydia Flood Jackson, opened the first school for black children in Sacramento, California. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 29, 1881 –Chinese anarchist Li Shizeng was born. He led the anarchist Jinde Hui group (Society for Progress and Virtue), with Wu Zhihui, & Zhang Ji. He also tried unsuccessfully to turn the Guomindang into an anarchist organization. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 29, 1922 – The Portuguese army and police opened fire on 10,000 protesters outside the police station in Macau. The protesters wanted the release of three Chinese barbers who had beaten up soldiers for sexually harassing a Chinese woman. Seventy people were shot dead, while over 100 beaten, leading ultimately to a general strike is declared. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 29, 1943 – The British RAF dropped 1,500 tons of bombs on Wuppertal, Germany killing 2,450 civilians and destroying nearly 4,000 houses. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 29, 1946 - The United Mine Workers (UMWA) and the U.S. government signed a pact establishing one of America’s first union medical and pension plan. The UMWA Welfare and Retirement Fund permanently changed health care delivery in U.S. coal fields. The Fund was used to build eight hospitals in Appalachia. It also established many clinics and recruited doctors to practice in rural coal field areas. (From Workday Minnesota)

May 29, 1950 –The United Auto Workers (UAW) at General Motors won hospitalization plan. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 29, 1967 – The Poor Peoples' Campaign was launched in Washington D.C. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 29, 1969 – Government violence triggered General Strikes in Cordoba and La Plata Argentina. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—May 27

Communards in their Coffins

May 27, 1871 –Today marks the end of the Paris Commune and the Bloody Week that destroyed it. Communards were lined up and shot against the wall, now known as "mur des fédérés," to honor their memory. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 27, 1947 –The U.S. Fishermen and Allied Workers union merged with Harry Bridges' ILWU. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 27, 1958 – Ernest Green became the first African-American to graduate from Little Rock Central High School, Arkansas. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 27, 1968 –A grand jury indicted the "L.A. 13" for conspiracy to disturb the peace for their role in the Chicano school walkouts: Sal Castro, Eliezar Risco, Patricio Sanchez, Moctezuma Esparza, David Sánchez, Carlos Montes, Ralph Ramirez, Fred Lopes, Richard Vigil, Gilberto Olmeda, Joe Razo, Henry Gomez, & Carlos Muñoz, Jr. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 27, 1968 – University and high school students went on strike in Dakar, Senegal. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 27, 1980 – 3,000 unarmed civilians were slaughtered by the South Korean military during the Kwangju Uprising, which lasted from May 18 through May 27. The victims had been protesting military rule and demanding democracy. A similar uprising and massacre occurred in 1950 in Cheju-do. However, the Cheju-do Massacre, which resulted in 60,000 civilian deaths, was backed, and then covered up, by the U.S. government. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—May 26

Mandrin, France's "Robin Hood"

May 26, 1755 – Louis Mandrin, the French version of Robin Hood, was caught and executed. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1791 – King Louis XVI of France was forced by the revolutionary French Assembly to relinquish his crown and state assets. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1851 – Stevedores and Longshoreman struck in San Francisco. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1871 – The “Bloody Week” of repression and violence against the Paris Commune continued, with battles at the Bastille and Villette. Communards were defeated on this date at Belleville and Père Lachaise. The Versailles forces assassinated injured communards in their ambulances, inspiring an angry crowd to execute 50 hostages in revenge. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1894 –The Western Federation of Miners (WFM) struck for an eight-hour day in Cripple Creek, Colorado. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1920 –The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) Marine Transport Workers struck in Philadelphia. (From the Daily Bleed)

Walter Reuther, UAW

May 26, 1937 - Henry Ford unleashed his company goons on United Auto Workers organizers at the “Battle of the Overpass” near the River Rouge plant. General Motors and Chrysler signed collective bargaining agreements with the UAW in 1937, but Ford held out until 1942. (From Workday Minnesota)

May 26, 1937 --The "Little Steel" strike began in Ohio. Over 600 workers picketed at Republic’s mill in Cleveland, while virtually every one of its 6500 workers abandoned the mill. The National Guard was used to crush the strike, first in Youngstown, and then in Canton, Massillon, Warren and finally Cleveland, completely busting the strike by mid-July. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1944 –The French resistance called General Strike against the Nazis in Marseille, while a U.S. bombing raid on Marseille killed 6,000 in the workers' districts. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1968 – The May Days uprisings were continuing in France. A General Strike had paralyzed the government which was on the verge of collapse. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—May 25

Anti-Slavery Medallion Produced by Josiah Wedgewood as a Jasper-Ware Cameo at his Pottery Factory

May 25, 1807 –The U.S. slave trade was abolished. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 25, 1871 – The “Bloody Week” assault on the Paris Commune continued. The Left Bank by this point was now in the hands of the reactionaries of Versailles, who were summarily executing the Communards with machine-guns. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 25, 1901 – The Federación Obrera Argentine (FOA) held its founding congress and was attended by workers, socialists and anarchists. (From the Daily Bleed)

Zapatistas in the Battle of Cuautla (1911)

May 25, 1911 --Mexican President Porfirio Díaz resigned after a popular uprising. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 25, 1925 – Labor “racketeers” blew up two “company” houses in which scab coal miners were living during a strike against the Glendale Gas & Coal Company in Wheeling, West Virginia. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 25, 1946 – The railroad strike was settled with terms imposed by President Harry Truman. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 25, 1968 —The May Uprisings were still going on in France, with negotiations beginning in Grenelle between the government and the trade unions. The government was so afraid that soldiers would abandon their posts and fight with the workers and students, that they called up reservists and kept the soldiers in isolation. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—May 23

May 23, 1827 –The first American nursery school was established in New York City as a way to “relieve parents of the laboring classes” and offer their children “protection from idleness” and other evils that typically infected the rabble. (From the Daily Bleed)

Statue of Sam Sharpe, Montego Bay (Image by Pozole, wikipedia)

May 23, 1832 – Jamaican national hero Samuel Sharpe was executed. He was an instigator of the 1831 Slave Rebellion which was largely instrumental in bringing about an end to slavery. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 23, 1838 – The second "Trail of Tears" began, resulting in the deaths of over 4,000 relocated Cherokee. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 23, 1871 – The "Bloody Week" (Semaine Sanglante) entered its third day, as the citizens of the The Paris Commune were slaughtered by government troops. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 23, 1903 – Thousands of children went on strike in the textile mills of Philadelphia. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 23, 1933 - The "Battle of Toledo" erupted when sheriffs' arrested picket leaders at the Auto-Lite plant in Toledo, Ohio, and beat an old man. 10,000 strikers blockaded the plant for seven hours, preventing strikebreakers from leaving. Ultimately, the crowd was broken up with tear gas and water cannons. The National Guard was called in the following day. The strikers held their ground against the troops, who shot and killed two of their members and wounding 15 others, winning union recognition and a 5% raise after two weeks on the picket line. (From Workday Minnesota and the Daily Bleed)

May 23, 1963 – Congress passed the first law to ensure women equal pay for equal work. The legislation was originally submitted in 1947. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 23, 2006 – Angry garment workers in Bangladesh set fire to seven textile factories in and around the capital in the wake of the police killing of a worker during recent protests for better pay and working conditions. (From the Daily Bleed)

Utah Phillips at Haymarket Martyrs Memorial on 100th Anniversary, 1986

May 23, 2008 –Labor folk singer and IWW member U. Utah Phillips (1935-2008) died. (From the Daily Bleed)

 

 

Today in Labor History—May 21

May 21, 1856 – The first eight hour working day was achieved by stonemasons in Victoria, Australia. (From the Daily Bleed)

Barricade, Édouard Manet, 1871

 May 21, 1871 – The Bloody Week, a savage orgy of repression and violence, was launched against the Paris Commune. The French government’s massacres and summary executions resulted in 20,000 to 35,000 civilian deaths. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 21, 1934 – The Minneapolis General Strike by Teamsters Union on May 21, 1934, with a pitched battle between striking teamsters and business goons. (From the Daily Bleed)

Street battle between striking teamsters and cops, Minneapolis, 1934

May 21, 1945 – The "Little Wagner Act" was signed in Hawaii (still an American colony), guaranteeing collective bargaining rights for pineapple and sugar workers. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 21, 1946 – The U.S. government seized control of the nation’s coal mines in order to maintain production during a nationwide coal strike. Despite the government’s actions, miners continued to strike, forcing the government to concede to many of their demands, concessions that even the mine owners refused to grant. Miners struck again in November, in violation of a federal injunction, resulting in a $3.5 million fine. (From Workday Minnesota and the Daily Bleed)

Rioters outside City Hall, S.F. (Image by Daniel Nicoletta)

May 21, 1965 – Clashes between striking mine workers in Bolivia and federal troops resulted in 48 deaths. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 21, 1979 – White Night riots occurred in San Francisco, California, in protest of the hand slap given to former city supervisor, Dan White, for murdering the city’s first openly gay supervisor, Harvey Milk, and mayor George Moscone. White was determined to be temporarily insane from having eaten too much junk food. A similar defense has failed repeatedly to get students excused from exams or school detentions. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—May 16

Voltaire, age 70

May 16, 1717 – Voltaire was imprisoned in the Bastille for writing subversive satire. (From the Daily Bleed)

Lamartine in front of the Town Hall of Paris rejects the red flag on 25 February 1848

 

May 16, 1848 – An unsuccessful communist coup was attempted, Paris. (From the Daily Bleed)

Napoleon atop the Vendôme column: "So, you low-life bugger, we'll take you down like we did your scoundrel nephew!"

May 16, 1871 – The Paris Commune destroyed the Vendôme Column ("monument de barbarie"). (From the Daily Bleed)

May 16, 1898 - 1,600 woodworkers in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, went on strike at seven sash and door manufacturers for better pay and union recognition. (From Workday Minnesota)

May 16, 1912 – Studs Terkel was born, New York City. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 16, 1918 – Congress passed the Sedition Act against radicals, leading to the arrest, imprisonment, execution and deportation of dozens of unionists, anarchists and communists. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 16, 1934 – Teamsters initiated a General Strike for union recognition in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 16, 1938 - The U.S. Supreme Court issued the Mackay decision permitting employers to permanently replace striking workers. In a classic case of double speak, the court said that management could not fire strikers, but could "permanently replace" them. One of the most recent and well-known examples of this occurred when Reagan crushed the air traffic controllers’ strike. The U.S. is one of the only countries in the world that allows bosses to fire (er, replace) striking workers. (From Workday Minnesota)

May 16, 1943 –The Warsaw ghetto resistance was finally crushed by the Nazis. 56,000 died in the process. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 16, 1979 –A. Philip Randolph died. Randolph was an African American labor leader, peace activist, and president and founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 16, 2007 – Baristas at the Starbucks in East Grand Rapids announced their membership in the IWW Starbucks Workers Union. Starbucks, notorious for poor treatment of workers, followed with numerous anti-labor violations and was forced by the NLRB to settle Grand Rapids union worker complaints in October. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today In Labor History: April 5

Élisée Reclus (Image from Wikipedia)

April 5, 1871—Élisée Reclus, was taken prisoner during the Paris Commune. (From the Daily Bleed)

April 5, 1954 - Workers struck the Kohler Company in Wisconsin. The walkout was part ongoing labor disputes that lasted 30 years at the company. There had also been strikes from 1934 to 1941 and another, from 1954 to 1960. The latest dispute lasted until December, 1965, with the company agreeing to pay $4.5 million in back wages and pension credits for committing numerous unfair labor practices. (From Work Day Minnesota. For more on the strike, see here and here)

April 5, 1989 - The United Mine Workers launched their strike against Pittston Coal Co., eventually winning concessions by Pittston on February 20, 1990. The strike started in response to Pittston’s termination of health care for widows, retirees and disabled veteran miners. During the strike, there were 2,000 miners camped out daily at Camp Solidarity, and up to 40,000 total engaging in wild cat strikes, civil disobedience, picketing, occupations and sabotage. The strike reduced Pittston’s production by two-thirds, while over 4,000 strikers were arrested during the strike. (From Workday Minnesota and Wikipedia)

Today In Labor History: March 28

March 28, 1871 – Paris Commune, over 200,000 people turn out at the City Hall to see their newly elected officials, whose names are read to great & festive acclaim, making this day a revolutionary festival. The red flag, raised over all public buildings, is emblematic of the Commune.

March 28, 1911: Part of the anarchist Bonnot Gang was caught & killed by cops after months of bank robbing & mayhem.

March 28, 1915: Emma Goldman was arrested for giving a lecture on contraceptives. Goldman believed that knowledge of and access to contraceptives was key to women’s ability to control their own bodies and thus their social and material wellbeing.

March 28, 1918—2,000 Canadians protested against conscription and forced police to retreat.

March 28, 1968—Martin Luther King led a march of striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee. Police attacked the workers with mace and sticks. A 16-year old boy was shot. 280 workers were arrested. He was assassinated a few days later after speaking to the striking workers. The sanitation workers were mostly black. They worked for starvation wages under plantation like conditions, generally under racist white bosses. Workers could be fired for being one minute late or for talking back and they got no breaks. Organizing escalated in the early 1960s and reached its peak in February, 1968, when two workers were crushed to death in the back of a garbage truck.

March 28, 1972—A General Strike was called in Quebec to support workers locked out of La Presse newspaper. The workers went out in early April and again in May, however, some sources also give late March as the beginning of the General Strike. (Also see here and here).

(Sources: AFSCME, Socialist Worker, Daily Bleed, and Workaday Minnesota).

Today in Labor History—March 23

March 23, 1871 – Communes were proclaimed in Lyon and Marseilles. The Paris Commune began the day before. (From the Daily Bleed)

March 23, 1918 – 101 Wobblies (members of the Industrial Workers of the World, IWW) went on trial in Chicago for opposing World War I. They were tried for violating the Espionage Act. In September, 1917, 165 IWW leaders were arrested for conspiring to subvert the draft, and encourage desertion. Their trial lasted five months, the longest criminal trial in American history up to that time. The jury found them all guilty. The judge sentenced Big Bill Haywood and 14 others to 20 years in prison. 33 others were given 10 years each. They were also fined a total of $2,500,000. The trial virtually destroyed the IWW. Haywood jumped bail and fled to the USSR, where he remained until his death 10 years later. (From the Daily Bleed)

March 23, 1932—The Norris-La Guardia Act  proclaimed that yellow-dog contracts requiring workers to promise not to join a union were unenforceable. The law also limited the courts' ability to issue injunctions against strikes. (From the Daily Bleed)

March 23, 1970 - President Richard Nixon declared a national emergency and ordered 30,000 troops to New York City to break the first nationwide postal strike. (From Workday Minnesota)

Today in Labor History—March 18

(Image from the Daily Bleed)

March 18, 1871 – The Paris Commune began on this date, beginning as resistance to occupying German troops and the power of the bourgeoisie. The uprising was suppressed two months later. (From the Daily Bleed)

(Image from the Daily Bleed)

March 18, 1918 – Mexican anarchist Ricardo Flores Magón was arrested under the Espionage Act, charged with hindering the American war effort, and imprisoned at Leavenworth, where he died under highly suspicious circumstances. The authorities claimed he died of a "heart attack," but Chicano inmates rioted after his death and killed the prison guard they believed killed Magon. (From the Daily Bleed)

March 18, 1937 – Police evicted striking retail clerks occupying a New York Woolworth's for the 40-hour week. (From the Daily Bleed)

March 18, 1937 – A natural gas explosion in New London, Texas killed over 300 students, teachers and parents in the worst public school disaster in American history. The event led to worldwide sympathy. Even Hitler sent a telegram of condolences. (From the Daily Bleed)

March 18, 1968 – The staff of San Francisco's "progressive" rock station KMPX-FM walked out on strike citing a lack of control over programming & "hassles over the whole long-hair riff." Performers like the Rolling Stones, Joan Baez, the Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead request the station not play their music as long as the station is run by strikebreakers. (From the Daily Bleed)

March 18, 1970 - The first mass work stoppage in the 195-year history of the U.S. Postal Service began on this date in New York City. The walkout was illegal, giving President Richard Nixon the excuse to send in federal troops to sort the mail. But the strike succeeded in forcing Congress to raise wages and reorganize the postal system and marked a new militancy among postal employees. (From Workday Minnesota)

Today in Labor History—February 27

Guards' cannon dragged to Montmartre During Paris Commune (contemporary sketch)

February 27, 1871 – The Paris Commune began when regular soldiers, sent to confiscate cannon from the National Guard militia in Paris, were confronted by the crowd and then decided to fraternize with them. (From the Daily Bleed)

Cartoon showing US Socialist Presidential candidate, Eugen V. Debs, who ran from in prison in the 1920 election.

 February 27, 1875 – Eugene V. Debs became a charter member and secretary of the Vigo Lodge, Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen. By 1880, he had become grand secretary of the national Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and editor of the Locomotive Fireman's Magazine. He later led the bitter Pullman strike. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 27, 1902 – John Steinbeck was born on this date in Salinas, California. Steinbeck, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1962, wrote numerous novels from the perspective of farmers and the working class, including The Grapes of Wrath (1939), Tortilla Flats, Of Mice and Men, Cannery Row & East of Eden. (1952). (From the Daily Bleed)

February 27, 1912 – “The Times" of London published a lead story about a "conspiracy" of unions to take over ownership of British coal mines. The piece was based on a pamphlet, "The Miner's Next Step," which had been printed in Tonypandy, a scene of recent bloodshed between strikers and police. The pamphlet, written by the South Wales Miner's Federation, called for direct action and industrial solidarity. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 27, 1933 – Berlin's Reichstag parliament building was torched. The Nazi's tried to blame it on communists as a ploy in their steady consolidation of total power. (From the Daily Bleed)

Jarama Valley, Woody Guthrie

February 27, 1937 – Lincoln Brigadiers attacked Pingarrón Hill ("Suicide Hill") in Jarama Valley, Spain. Of the 500 who fought in this infamous battle, over 300 were killed or wounded. The Lincoln Brigade was made up of Americans who went to Spain (in violation of U.S. law) to help fight Franco and the fascists. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 27, 1939 - Following a decade of sit-down strikes, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that sit-down strikes were illegal. (From Workday Minnesota)

February 27, 1942 – The Seattle School Board accepted the forced resignation of Japanese-American teachers. (From the Daily Bleed)


February 27, 1943 – A mine disaster killed 74 workers at Red Lodge, Montana. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 27, 1973 – 300 Oglala Sioux American Indian Movement (A.I.M.) activists liberated and occupied Wounded Knee, South Dakota (the site of the 1890 massacre of Sioux by the U.S. cavalry), in response to a campaign of terror by tribal and FBI officials. From the Daily Bleed)

February 27, 2001 – Seattle ACORN workers went on strike. Their office shut was down after their employer refused to recognize Public Interest Workers IU 670 union of the IWW. From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—February 23

Traven's Supposed Birth Place, Rathaus Schwiebus about 1900

February 23, 1882 – B. Traven (1882?-1969) was born on this date in Poznañ, Poland. Traven (also known as Ret Marut, Hal Croves, Bruno Traven, Traven Torsvan, Otto Feige) wrote the Death Ship, Treasure of the Sierra Madre and numerous novels depicting working conditions among Mexican peasants and indigenous people in his Jungle series. He was also active in the Bavarian Soviet of 1918-1919. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 23, 1887 - The Journeyman Bakers National Union was chartered by the American Federation of Labor on this date. Its founder, George Block, was also nominated to head the newly-formed AFL. When he declined, Samuel Gompers was unanimously chosen. Today, the bakers union has become the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union. (From Workday Minnesota)

Jean-Baptiste_Clément_recadré.jpg‎

 February 23, 1903 – Jean-Baptiste Clément (b.1836) died on this date. Clement was a Paris Communard, poet, singer and author of the famous song "The Time of Cherries." He was one of the last on the barricades during the commune, ultimately being forced into hiding and taking refuge in England. He was condemned to death in absentia, later returning to France after the Amnesty of 1879. Paris now has schools and a street named for him. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 23, 1917 – A strike began among women textile workers in Petrograd. Demonstrations turned into bread riots and spread throughout the city. The troops who crushed similar demonstrations in 1905 refused to put down the uprising, with many joining in by the end of the month. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 23, 1995 – Two hundred high school students rioted outside Patterson City Hall, New Jersey, in response to the shooting of a classmate by police. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—January 30

January 30, 1826 – Gustave Lefrancais (1826-1901) was born on this date. Lefrancais was a French revolutionary, member of the First International, participant in the Paris Commune and a founder of the anarchist Jura Federation. (From the Daily Bleed)

January 30, 1909 -- Organizer Saul Alinsky was born on this date i, Chicago, Illinois. (From the Daily Bleed)

January 30, 1919 - The International Labor Organization (ILO) was founded on this date. The ILO is an international watchdog for workers' rights. (From Workday Minnesota)

January 30, 1970 – For the second time in six months, rioting broke out during an anti-war protest in East Los Angeles. (From the Daily Bleed)


January 30, 1970 – 20,000 rioted in Manila to protest the regime of U.S.-backed dictator Ferdinand Marcos following his State of the Nation address. Over 2000 attempted to storm the presidential palace on the 30th & riots continue throughout the year. (From the Daily Bleed)


January 30, 1972 – Bloody Sunday in Northern Ireland occurred on this date when British soldiers gunned down 14 Roman Catholic civil-rights marchers in Derry. (From the Daily Bleed)

January 30, 1992 – Chicago gravediggers ended a 43-day strike. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—January 9

Kropotkin, 1870

January 9, 1883 – In Lyon, France the trial continued for the 68 anarchists accused of inciting workers’ strikes and the abolition of property. The anarchists included Peter Kropotkin, Emile Gautier, Toussaint Bordat and Joseph Bernard. (From the Daily Bleed)

Karel Capek

January 9, 1890 -- Karel Capek, internationally renowned Czech novelist, short-story writer, playwright, essayist, was born on this date in Bohemia, Austria-Hungary (now in Czech Republic). Two of his best known works includeR.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), which first introduced the word “robot,” and War with the Newts, which ridicules Nazi-Germany and fascism. (From theDaily Bleed)

Louise Michel in Uniform

January 9, 1905 – French anarchiste Louise Michel died on this date. Michel was a leader in the Paris Commune & co-founder of the Women's Battalion. Founder of the journal "Le libertaire" with Sébastien Faure. 100,000 mourners attended her funeral. (From the Daily Bleed)

Bloody Sunday massacre, St Petersburg

January 9, 1905 – Russia’s "Bloody Sunday" occurred on this date, with revolution breaking out in St. Petersburg. (From the Daily Bleed)

January 9, 1939 – The Southern Tenant Farmers' Union led a Missouri Highway sit-in of 1,700 tenant families. (From the Daily Bleed)

January 9, 1997 -- South Korea's primary labor group called the biggest strike in the nation's history to protest a controversial new labor law. (From the Daily Bleed)