Labor History

Today in Labor History January 18, 1788: The First Fleet arrived in Botany Bay, Australia, with 736 convicts from Great Britain. It took over 250 days to reach its destination. The penal colony became the first European settlement in Australia. Mary Bryant, with her husband, children and 6 other convicts escaped the colony and eventually returned to England. […]

1500s Today in Labor History January 17, 1536: Francois Rabelais was absolved of apostasy by Pope Paul III and allowed to resume his medical practice. Rabelais was a physician, writer, Catholic monk and Greek scholar. He published “Pantagruel” in 1532. He later incorporated it into his larger work, “Gargantua and Pantagruel,” which satirized the nobility,

1300s-1600s Today in Labor History January 16, 1362: The Second Saint Marcellus’s Flood killed 25,000 people in the British Isles, Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. It was caused by an intense extratropical cyclone. The storm swept inland, creating islands on the mainland. Entire towns were swept away. Today in Labor History January 16, 1605: Miguel de

1910s Today in Labor History January 15, 1919: German Freikorps tortured and murdered Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht at the end of the Spartacist uprising. Luxemburg and Liebknecht were two of the most prominent socialists in Germany. The Spartacist uprising was essentially a power struggle between the Spartacists and other Council Communists against the Social Democrats.

1840s Today in Labor History January 12, 1848: The Palermo rising began in Sicily against. It was the first of many revolutions that occurred that year in Europe. Three times the people of Sicily rose up against Bourbon rule in the 1800s. This time they succeeded, creating an independent state that survived for 16 months. Their new constitution included a proposal to confederate the