On this day in Labor History the year was 1912. That was the day that labor activist, Mother Jones, led a march of miners’ children through the streets of Charleston, West Virginia. Her aim was to illustrate the effects of poverty.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1878. That was the day that socialist author Upton Sinclair was born in Baltimore, Maryland. A prolific writer, Sinclair wrote nearly 100 books and other publications. Upton Sinclair’s father and father’s relatives had been wealthy Southerners. 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1981. More than 400,000 union members marched in labor’s first Solidarity Day demonstration in Washington, D.C. The demonstration was called by the AFL-CIO to protest the Reagan administration’s policies and the firing of striking air traffic controllers.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1830. That was the day that “Tom Thumb,” the first locomotive built in the U.S. raced a horse on a nine-mile course in Maryland.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1868. That was the day that Susan B. Anthony, and a committee on female labor called for a vote for equal pay for equal work at the National Labor Congress. It was the second annual meeting of labor leaders from throughout the country. Anthony had begun publication of a newspaper, The Revolution. 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1920. At noon, a horse-drawn wagon containing 100 pounds of dynamite pulled up across the street of the J.P. Morgan Chase Company on Wall Street in New York City. 500 pounds of cast-iron slugs were packed in with the dynamite.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1845.  5,000 female workers at the Allegheny Cotton Mills went on strike for a ten-hour day. The fast streams around Pittsburgh and Allegheny city were ideal to power cotton mills.  The mills were overheated and filled with dangerous dust.

On this day in Labor History the year was 1959. The United States Congress passed the Landrum-Griffin Act. President Eisenhower signed the new law, which was also called the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act. The new law had lasting consequences for the way unions operated.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 2013.  Riot police used tear gas and water cannons to clear out Zocalo Square in Mexico City.  The square was occupied by protesting teachers.  The teachers had been on strike for weeks.  They wanted changes made to education reforms that had been passed by the Mexican government. 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1918.  Socialist and labor leader Eugene Debs was sentenced to ten years in prison for opposing the  United States’ involvement in World War I. The Espionage and Sedition Act had been passed a year earlier.