The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen of the City of New York is founded "to provide cultural, educational and social services to families of skilled craftsmen." The Society remains in existence to this day - 1785

British soldiers, quartered in the homes of colonists, took the jobs of working people when jobs were scarce. On this date, grievances of ropemakers against the soldiers led to a fight. Soldiers shot down Crispus Attucks, a black colonist, then others, in what became known as the Boston Massacre. Attucks is considered the first casualty in the American Revolution - 1770

Deborah Samson was born in Plympton, Massachusetts. She was the first known woman to impersonate a man in order to fight in the Revolutionary War. Her family was poor. As a girl, young Deborah, became an indentured servant.

New York City maids organize to improve working conditions – 1734

The first slave revolt in the U.S. occurs at a slave market in New York City’s Wall Street area. Twenty-one blacks were executed for killing nine whites. The city responded by strengthening its slave codes - 1712

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

The "Shoemakers of Boston" - the first labor organization in what would later become the United States - was authorized by the Massachusetts Bay Colony - 1648

First revolt of enslaved people in the U.S - 1526

History’s first recorded (on papyrus) strike, by Egyptians working on public works projects for King Ramses III in the Valley of the Kings. They were protesting having gone 20 days without pay -- portions of grain -- and put their tools down. Exact date estimated, described as within “the sixth month of the 29th year” of Ramses’ reign -- 1170BC -- in The Spirit of Ancient Egypt, by Ana Ruiz. Scholar John Rome adds in Ancient Lives: The story of the Pharaoh’s Tombmakers that the strike so terrified the authorities they gave in and raised wages. Romer believes it happened few years earlier, on Nov. 14, 1152 BC.

"Bloody Sunday" Vancouver, BC police Battle unemployed at Post Office - 1938

Terrence V. Powderly, a resident of the Petworth neighborhood in Washington, D.C., in the last years of his life, dies at his home there. He is buried at nearby Rock Creek Cemetery. Powderly was an American labor union leader, politician and attorney, best known as head of the Knights of Labor in the late 1880s, one of the largest American labor organizations of the 19th century. Powderly led the Knights to a membership that was upwards of 800,000 and included both African Americans and women, although many lodges in the U.S. South were segregated.

Canada's Supreme Court confirms bargaining as a constitutional right - 2007