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TODAY’S LABOR HISTORY

Harold Phillips | Published on 8/24/2026

1827: The Mechanics Gazette, believed to be the first U.S. labor newspaper, is published in Philadelphia. Within five years there were 68 labor newspapers across the country, many of them dailies.


1877: The Gatling Gun Co. writes to B&O Railroad Co. President John W. Garrett during a strike, urging their product be purchased to deal with the "recent riotous disturbances around the country." 

1922: Birth of “people’s historian” Howard Zinn in Brooklyn, NY.


1970: Thousands of agricultural workers walk out in an illegal strike, beginning the United Farmworkers “Salad Bowl Strike.”


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