Today in Labor History February 28, 1525: Hernan Cortes executed Cuauhtémoc , king of the Aztecs. Bernal Diaz del Castillo wrote in his journal that it was an unjust execution, that there was no evidence the Cuauhtémoc was plotting against Cortes. Cuauhtémoc said, through his interpreter, La Malinche, “Now I understand your false promises and the kind of …
1800s Today in Labor History February 27, 1812: Poet Lord Byron gave his first address as a member of the House of Lords. In his speech, he spoke out in support of Luddite violence against industrialism in his home county of Nottinghamshire. He spoke specifically against the Frame Breaking Act, which gave the death penalty …
1600s-1800s Today in Labor History February 26, 1616: The Roman Catholic Church formally banned Galileo Galilei from teaching or defending the view that the earth orbits the sun. In 1633, they tried and convicted him of heresy. They imprisoned him for the rest of his life. February 26, 1848: 29-year-old Karl Marx published “The Communist …
1800s Today in Labor History February 25, 1843: Lord George Paulet, naval captain, occupied the Kingdom of Hawaii in the name of Great Britain. Paulet and his men controlled the islands for five months, until the U.S. sent warships to expel them. Great Britain supposedly never authorized the invasion. The Hawaiian Kingdom was a sovereign …
1800s Today in Labor History February 24, 1831: The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was proclaimed. It was the first removal treaty of the Indian Removal Act. Under the treaty, the Choctaws in Mississippi gave up their land east of the Mississippi River (15 million acres) in exchange for cash and land in the West …