1860s
Today in Labor History December 26, 1862: The U.S. military hanged 38 Native Americans in Mankato, Minnesota, for participating in the “Sioux Outbreak,” in the nation’s largest public mass execution. They built the gallows in a square shape, with ten nooses per side. They buried the victims in a mass grave along the bank of the Minnesota River. Despite a large guard force, doctors stole all the corpses on the first night to use for research. William Worrall Mayo took the body of Maȟpiya Akan Nažiŋ (Stands on Clouds). In the late 20th century, the Mayo Clinic returned his remains to a Dakota tribe. They also created a scholarship for a Native American student as apology.
1890s
Today in Writing History December 26, 1891: The author Henry Miller, American was born. I still have the copy of Tropic of Cancer that I stole from my parents when I was a teenager. And it still has the graffiti that a French feminist friend scrawled in it when visiting me back in the 1980s: “Sexist piece of shit!” When I was in Paris, she told me that all punk rock was sexist. So, I combed through the Parisian record shops and found her a copy of “Penis Envy,” by Crass. After that, she conceded that some punk rock was good, maybe even radically feminist.
Today in Labor History December 26, 1893: Mao Zedong was born. 40-80 million people died during his reign from starvation, political violence, torture, imprisonment and mass executions. An estimated 30-46 million people died from starvation just during the Great Leap Forward, 1958-1961. Millions more perished during the violence of the Cultural Revolution.
1910s
Today in Labor History December 26, 1919: The Boston Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees, creating the Curse of the Bambino superstition.
1990s
Today in Labor History December 26, 1991: The Supreme Soviet of the USSR formally dissolved the Soviet Union.
Today in Labor History December 26, 1996: The largest series of strikes and walkouts in South Korean history were occurring on this date. Hundreds of thousands of workers protested new legislation that made it easier for companies to layoff and fire workers and avoid paying overtime.
2000s
Today in Labor History December 26, 2004: A magnitude 9.1–9.3 earthquake hit northern Sumatra. One of the largest tsunamis ever observed devastated coastal areas of Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Indonesia. Over 275,000 people died, making it the 9th deadliest disaster in history, not counting pandemics. The Haitian earthquake in 2010 killed over 300,000. The July 1931 Chinese floods were the deadliest, killing over 4 million people