146 workers are killed in a fire at New York’s Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, a disaster that would launch a national movement for safer working conditions - 1911 (see poem)

A dynamite bomb destroyed a portion of the Llewellyn Ironworks in Los Angeles, where a bitter strike was in progress - 1910

21 Chicago firefighters, including the chief, died when a building collapsed as they were fighting a huge blaze at the Union Stock Yards. By the time the fire was extinguished 26 hours after the first alarm, 50 engine companies and seven hook and ladder companies had been called to the scene. Until Sept. 11, 2001, it was the deadliest building collapse in American history in terms of firefighter fatalities - 1910

Brotherhood of Timber Workers organized. The Brotherhood – which affiliated with the International Workers of the World two years later -- was a union of sawmill workers from East Texas and West Louisiana and not only included female members, but was known for having interracial membership at a time when racial segregation was increasing in many areas of the Deep South - 1910

Six young women burn to death and 19 more die when they leap from the fourth-story windows of a blazing factory in Newark, N.J. The floors and stairs were wooden; the only door from which the women could flee was locked - 1910

Twenty-one die when the L.A. Times building is dynamited during a citywide fight over labor rights and organizing. A union member ultimately confessed to the bombing, which he said was supposed to have occurred early in the morning when the building would have been largely unoccupied - 1910

Eighteen-year-old Hannah (Annie) Shapiro leads a spontaneous walkout of 17 women at a Hart Schaffner & Marx garment factory in Chicago. It grows into a months-long mass strike involving 40,000 garment workers across the city, protesting 10-hour days, bullying bosses and cuts in already-low wages - 1910

Cloakmakers begin what is to be a two-month strike against New York City sweatshops - 1910

A few weeks after workers ask for a 25 cent hourly wage, the Philadelphia Rapid Transit (streetcar) Co. fires 173 union members “for the good of the service” and brings in replacements from New York City. Striker-scab battles and a general strike ensued - 1910

Philadelphia shirtwaist makers vote to accept arbitration offer and end walkout as Triangle Shirtwaist strike winds down. One year later 146 workers, mostly young girls aged 13 to 23, were to die in a devastating fire at the New York City sweatshop - 1910

20,000 female garment workers are on strike in New York; Judge tells arrested pickets: “You are striking against God and nature” - 1909

259 miners died in the underground Cherry Mine fire. As a result of the disaster, Illinois established stricter safety regulations and in 1911, the basis for the state’s Workers Compensation Act was passed - 1909