The Protectors of Our Industries.
Puck, Feb. 1883, p.368.

1865

New York Stock Exchange established at modern Wall Street location

1866

Economic depression hits, lasting into 1867

Trans-Atlantic cable between US and Britain becomes fully operable

Goodnight Trail, a major cattle trail from New Mexico to Texas, established

National Labor Union founded

Iron Molders locked out, Troy, NY

Chinese railroad builders’ strike, Central Pacific, over wage rates and eight-hour day

1867

Chisholm Trail, a major cattle trail from Texas to Kansas, established

Knights of St. Crispin, union for workers in shoe factories, founded

1868

Congress passes law stipulating an eight-hour day for laborers employed on federal projects

George Westinghouse invents railroad air brakes, not widely adopted for many years

Abram Hewitt introduces open-hearth steel process to the United States

Inventor Christopher Sholes introduces typewriter

Anthracite coal strike, Penn., over wage levels and eight-hour day

Image courtesy the Victorian Scrapbook at
 The Trade Card Place.

1869

First transcontinental rail line joins Union Pacific and Central Pacific at Promontory Point, Utah

Heinz food company established in Philadelphia

Knights of Labor founded in Philadelphia

Collar laundresses strike, Troy, NY, over wages and union recognition

1870

J. W. Hyatt introduces celluloid

Armour & Co. established in Chicago

First asphalt-paved road is built in New Jersey

1871

Pillsbury Co. created

1872

Montgomery Ward begins mail-order business in Chicago

Vaseline (petroleum jelly) patented

Shoe workers’ strike, Lynn, MA, over wage levels

1873

Coinage Act establishes process for placing the United States on the gold standard over the next six years; species payments resume in 1879

Andrew Carnegie begins to focus on steel production

Major economic depression hits nationwide, enduring through 1878

1874

Joseph F. Glidden develops and markets barbed wire

South Dakota gold rush begins

Macy’s department store in New York introduces Christmas display windows

1875

Anthracite coal strike over reduction in wages; met by massive police force, strikers riot and burn coal cars and Reading Railroad buildings; 20 Irish-American “Molly Maguires” convicted and hanged for labor-related assassinations

1876

Alexander Graham Bell develops and patents first telephone

Thomas Edison introduces a mimeograph machine

Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers founded

Black rice workers’ strike, Combahee River area, South Carolina, over wages and “scrip” pay; strike forcibly suppressed amid violence in ensuing political campaign (1876-1877)

1877

First local telephone exchange set up in Lowell, MA; first switchboard built in Boston; intercity telephone communications betgions between Chicago and Milwaukee and Boston and Salem

First electric streetlight introduced in Newark, NJ

Hires root beer marketed for the first time

Great Railroad Strike spreads across eastern United States, from Buffalo to Baltimore to St. Louis; gunfights and violence in many cities, notably Pittsburgh, triggered by arrival of National Guard and US troops

Cigarmakers’ strike, New York City, to protest wage cuts

Anti-Chinese riots, San Franciso

Image courtesy the Victorian Scrapbook at
 The Trade Card Place.

1878

Thomas Edison demonstrates and patents phonograph

1879

Thomas Edison develops and patents incandescent light bulb

James and John Ritty patent a cash register

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University develop saccharine

Frank Woolworth opens his first “five and dime” store in Pennsylvania

1880

Cleveland installs first electric streetlight system in the nation

First hydroelectric power company created in Grand Rapids, Michigan

Sherwin-Williams begins manufacturing house paint

1881

First electric power plant serving multiple customers is built in New York City

Frederic Ives produces the first color photograph

Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners founded

1882

Economic depression hits, lasting through 1885

Inventor Henry Seely patens an electric iron

John D. Rockefeller creates Standard Oil Trust, first corporation to use trust mechanism

Cotton mill strike in Cohoes, NY, to protest wage reductions

1883

Northern Pacific Railroad completed, creating additional transcontinental link

United States railroads set up four standard timezones; most of the nation converts to these standard times on the “day of two noons”

Completion of 1595-foot Brooklyn Bridge, a suspension bridge and engineering marvel designed by John Roebling; links Brooklyn to New York City for pedestrians and road traffic

William Jenney designs the first steel-frame skyscraper, the Home Insurance Building, Chicago

Cowboy strike in Texas panhandle over wage reductions

Tobacco workers’ strike, Lynchburg, VA

Iron Molders’ lockout, Troy, NY, results in violence and murders on both sides (1883-1884)

1884

Otto Mergenthaler patents a typesetting machine that cuts publishing time and costs for newspapers and magazines

Textile workers’ strike in Fall River, MA, over wage cuts

Union Pacific Railroad Strike across the West (Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah) over wage cuts

1885

Inventor Charles Tainter introduces the Dictaphone

William Stanley patents the electric transformer

Cloakmakers’ general strike, New York City, over wages and working hours (1885-1886)

Carpet weavers’ strike, Yonkers, New York, over union recognition (1885-1886)

Series of two strikes against Jay Gould’s Southwest Railroad, along the Missouri Pacific, Kansas and Texas, and Wabash lines; after Gould reneges on agreement, riots erupt in Ft. Worth, Texas, and Parsons, Kansas; the killing of nine strikers in East St. Louis precipitates riots and imposition of martial law (1885-1886)

McCormick Harvesting Machine Company strike, Chicago, over wage cuts; repeated violent clashes occur in front of plant, with strikers facing off against replacement workers, Pinkerton detectives, and Chicago police (1885-1886)

Anti-Chinese violence by Knights of Labor miners in Rock Springs, Wyoming, results in burning to death of Chinese miners; subsequent anti-Chinese riots in Seattle Tacoma, and many towns in Oregon and Northern California; includes assaults and forcible expulsion of Chinese miners and agricultural workers (1885-1886)

Image courtesy the Victorian Scrapbook at
 The Trade Card Place.

1886

May 1 national strike for the Eight-Hour day; over 350,000 suspend work activities, with labor militancy especially strong in Chicago; in Detroit, participation by workers at Michigan Car Works precipitates violence

Continued violence in Chicago McCormick strike, including police killing of two strikers, leads to protest meeting at Haymarket Square; bomb thrown by unknown person kills a policeman and more are killed by ensuing police fire; nationwide hysteria over anarchist threat; eight Chicago anarchists sentenced to hang.

Textile stirke in Augusta, Georgia, over low wages and “pass system” that bars workers from seeking higher wages from a new employer; lockout follows

Cowboy strike in Wyoming, to protest layoffs and wage cuts

Collar laundresses strike and lockout in Troy, NY, over wages and union recognition

American Federation of Labor founded

First Coca-Cola sold in Atlanta, Georgia

1887

Congress establishes Interstate Commerce Commission to regulate and oversee interstate trade

Massachusetts Bureau of Labor uses the term “unemployment” for the first time, in its modern usage, in one of its reports

New York Longshoremen’s strike over wage cuts; spreads to Hoboken and other New Jersey ports

1888

George Eastman develops and patents hand-held “Kodak” camera

Nikola Tesla introduces first motor running on alternating current, enabling electric power to be transmitted over large distances

Herman Hollerith invents a punch-card tabulating machine, used in the 1890 census, that underlays the technology for early “computers”

Richmond, Virginia, installs the nation’s first electric trolley system

International Association of Machinists founded

Burlington Railroad workers’ strike on lines running from Chicago to Colorado and Wyoming; armed clashes between strikers and Pinkerton detectives, trains burned and dynamited

Cincinnati shoemakers’ lockout over wages and union recognition

1889

Stunt reporter Nellie Bly, under sponsorship of the New York World, circles the world in 72 days, 6 hours, 11 minutes, beating the fictional record set in Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days

Singer Sewing Machine Co. produces first electric sewing machine in America

Otis Elevator Co. installs the country’s first electric elevators in a New York office building

Textile workers strike in Fall River, MA, over wages, safety, and pace of work; strikers beat and stone replacement workers

Professional baseball players’ revolt against the National League; strikers run their own league, the Players’ League, which competes with the NL for one season (1889-1890)

1890

Economic depression hits, lasting through 1891

Congress passes Sherman Antitrust Act

United Mine Workers founded

Gorras Blancas (White Caps), protesting Anglo intrusion, issue manifesto in New Mexico

Carpenters’ eight-hour day strike wins gains in 137 cities

1891

United States becomes party to an international copyright bill protecting copyrights in US and Europe

American Sugar Refining Company founded

Thomas Edison patents the Kinetoscope, a motion-picture technology

Inventor Jesse Reno develops the escalator

Chinese sugar-cane workers strike, Hawai’i, over deductions from wages; violently crushed by police

Black dockworkers’ strike, Savannah, GA, over wage cuts

Coal miners’ strike, eastern Tennessee, over “scrip” pay and competition from convict labor; strikers forcibly remove convict laborers from the mining regions and burn convict stockades; military force used in response

1892

Boll weevils begin to wreak devastation on cotton crops in Texas

American Telephone and Telegraph opens long-distance telephone service between New York and Chicago

General Electric Company founded

Steel workers lockout at Carnegie Steelworks, Homestead, PA, over union recognition, leads to burning of barges, pitched battle between strikers and large contingent of Pinkerton detectives; US troops sent to impose order

Hardrock miners’ strike in Couer d’Alene district, Idaho, over wage reductions precipitates a lockout, gunfights, and the dynamiting of mine property; National Guard and federal troops impose martial law and carry out mass detentions of strikers

New Orleans general strike for ten-hour day, overtime pay, and union recognition; a cross-racial effort in a number of trades and industries, it is defeated by a mass show of force on the part of state authorities

1893

Major economic depression hits, lasting through at least 1897 (some historians argue longer, through 1898 or beyond)

Federal Railroad Safety Appliance Act requires air brakes on all trains

American Railway Union founded

Western Federation of Miners founded

Inventor W. L. Judson patents the zipper

1894

Hardrock miners’ strike in Cripple Creek, CO, for eight-hour da precipitates fierce violence between Western Federation of Miners and National Guard; the Strong Mine is dynamited

Great Northern Railroad Strike, on lines stretching from Minneapolis to Seattle, over wage cuts

Fall River, MA, textile workers strike over wage levels

American Railway Union organizes nationwide boycott of Pullman Cars, in solidarity with strike at Pullman Car Works, Chicago; strike spreads across the West, armed clashes and mob violence result in Chicago and many other cities result after US troops intervene to break strike

Image courtesy the Victorian Scrapbook at
 The Trade Card Place.

1895

George B. Selden develops and patents an internal combustion engine; Frank Duryea introduces gasoline-driven motors, key to development of the automobile

The Baltimore & Ohio begins to use electric locomotives, the first US railroad to do so

First pneumatic tires manufactured by Hart Rubber Works, Connecticut

National Association of Manufacturers holds first meeting in Ohio

Haverhill, MA, shoe factory workers’ strike over wage cuts

1896

Guglielmo Marconi demonstrates wireless telegraph, soon to be the basis of radio

Hardrock miners’ strike in Leadville, CO, precipitates violence as mine owners and state leaders vow to clean out union; gun fights, dynamiting incidents, and attack on Coronado Mine (1896-1897)

1897

Klondike gold rush begins

Jell-O introduced

Massacre of Slavic coal miners in Lattimer, PA, as miners march for higher wages and an end to “scrip” pay; 50 dead or wounded

1898

Boston begins operating the first US subway system

Marlboro, MA, shoe workers’ strike over wage levels

1899

Brotherhood of Teamsters founded

Grain shovelers’ strike in Buffalo, NY, over wages and system of using saloons as labor centers

Street railway workers’ strike in Cleveland, OH, over speedup and safety issues; strikers attack and beat strikebreakers

Hardrock miners’ strike in Couer d’Alene district, Idaho, over union recognition and wages; precipitates armed clashes and dynamiting of Bunker Hill Mine property; US Army imposes martial law, large numbers of striking miners are rounded up and held for extended periods in stockades

Newsboys in New York strike over pay; spreads to other parts of New York state, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, and to bootblacks and messenger boys

1900

Olds Motor Works begins large-scale production of automobiles in Detroit

International Ladies Garment Workers Union founded

Japanese, Chinese, and Portuguese sugar-cane workers strike, Hawai’i, over low pay

Anthracite coal strike in PA, over working conditions, leads to armed battles between sheriff’s men and strikers in Shenandoah and Oneida; National Guard called in

National Negro Business League created

Machinists’ strike in Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Paterson, N.J., for union recognition, minimum wage, and a nine-hour day (1900-1901)

1901

J. P. Morgan creates U.S. Steel Corporation

Oil struck at Spindletop, Texas, beginning oil extraction in the state

United Textile Workers founded

National Cash Register Co. strike in Dayton, OH, for union recognition; workers locked out

San Francisco restaurant workers strike over wages and for a six-day workweek

Federación Libre de los Trabajadores is admitted to the American Federation of Labor, marking the first entry of Mexican-Americans to this major union

Major steelworkers’ strike against newly created US Steel Corp., seeking union recognition

1902

American Automobile Association founded

Inventor Willis Carrier patents an air conditioner

Inventor Arthur Little patents rayon

Anthracite coal strike, PA, for eight-hour day, UMW recognition, minimum wage; strikers shot by company guards, precipitating violent clash in Shenandoah and calling of National Guard; houses are burned and strikebreakers stoned before President Theodore Roosevelt intervenes and pressures mine owners for settlement

Chicago teamsters’ strike versus packing houses over wages and working conditions; consumer boycott accompanies strike; three days of riots in Chicago against the “beef trust”

1903

Orville and Wilbur Wright succeed in first flight of an aircraft at Kitty Hawk, NC

William Harley designs and introduces the Harley-Davidson motorcycle

Department of Commerce and Labor created at the Cabinet level in the federal executive branch

Ford Motor Company founded in Detroit

Women’s Trade Union League founded

Japanese and Mexican sugar beet workers in Oxnard, California, unite in strike over wage reductions; in gunfights, four members of the new Japanese Mexican Labor Association are shot

Hardrock mining strike in Cripple Creek, CO, in sympathy with a strike of refinery workers in Colorado City, over wages; armed battles are followed by military occupation of the district, burning and destruction of union halls in Cripple
Creek area, and forcible expulsion of WFM miners from the district (1903-1904)

Hardrock mining strike in Telluride, CO, over wage cuts and eight-hour day; violence on both sides , National Guard called in, strike is forcibly ended amid mass arrests (1903-1904)

Italian, Finnish,and Slavic coal miners in Utah strike for union recognition; pitted against Utah Fuel Company with secret support of Mormon church; violence against strikers occurs, National Guard called in (1903-1904)

1904

Transit workers’ strike in New York City over wages and hours of work

Packinghouse workers strike in Midwestern cities for minimum wage; violence erupts and black strikebreakers area ttacked in Chicago, Kansas City, and St. Joseph, MO, and militia are called in to Sioux City, Iowa

Thomas Edison introduces motion-pictures with sound

Invention of the ice cream cone

1905

International Workers of the World founded