English Peasant Revolt Today in Labor and Writing History July 15, 1381: The authorities executed Peasants Revolt leader John Ball by hanging, drawing and quartering. They later stuck his head on a pike and left it on London Bridge. Ball was a radical roving priest who routinely pissed off the Archbishop of Canterbury. As a […]
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Today in Writing History July 12, 1562: Fray Diego de Landa, Bishop of Yucatán, burned the sacred idols and books of the Maya. There were many Mayan books in print at the time of the conquest. The Maya produced them as codices, or folding books, printed on bark paper by professional scribes. They used them as their
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Today in Labor History July 11, 1302: Flemish weavers beat the Flemish and French cavalries in the Battle of the Golden Spurs. The French were attempting to subdue the County of Flanders. They had kidnapped the Count of Flanders, angering members of the Flemish guilds. Because of this, the citizens of Bruges went on to
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1800s Today in Labor and Writing History July 10, 1806: The Vellore Mutiny occurred, when Indian sepoys first mutinied against the British East India Company. The mutineers seized the Vellore Fort, killing or wounding 200 British troops. The rebellion lasted for one day, and was ultimately subdued by cavalry and artillery. 350 mutineers died. The authorities summarily executed another 100. English
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Today in Labor History July 7, 1882: Striking longshoremen in New York City held a meeting to plan how to keep new immigrants from scabbing on them. They were successful, at least temporarily, as 500 newly arrived Jews marched straight from the ship to the union hall on July 14. The following day, 250 Italian
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