Today in Labor History July 28, 1794: The authorities guillotined Robespierre, architect of the French Reign of Terror. There are too many historical novels set during the French Revolution to name them all. However, here are some of the most famous ones. “The Scarlet Pimpernel” (1905) by Baroness Orczy. “A Tale of Two Cities” (1859) by Charles Dickens. “Ninety-Three” (Quatrevingt-treize) by […]

Today in Writing History July 26, 1856: Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw was born. Some of his more well-known plays include “Man and Superman” (1902), Pygmalion” (1912) and “Saint Joan” (1923). He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1925. Shaw was also an activist with the socialist Fabian Society. He was also a eugenicist and an anti-vaxxer. By the late 1920s, he had

1850s Today in Labor History July 25, 1853: Joaquin Murrieta, the famous Californio bandit known as the “Robin Hood of El Dorado”, was supposedly killed. However, many disputed the news of his death. And people continued to claim to have seen him long after his death. According to legend, Murrieta was a 49er gold miner and a vaquero from Sonora. White men

The Great Upheaval Today in Labor History July 22, 1877: A General Strike began in St. Louis, as part of the national Great Upheaval. The St. Louis strike was the first General Strike in U.S. history. The communist Workingman’s Party was the main organizer. In addition to joining in solidarity with striking rail workers, thousands in

The Great Upheaval Today in Labor History July 21, 1877: 30,000 Chicago workers rallied on Market Street during the Great Upheaval wave of strikes occurring throughout the country. Future anarchist and Haymarket martyr Albert Parsons spoke to the crowd. He advocated the use of the ballot to obtain “state control of the means of production.”