Today in labor history August 20 Gun battle between strikers and guards leaves six dead

[Omaha Steve]

August 20

Slave traders land their first cargo in the New World: 20 Africans, at Jamestown, Virginia - 1619

August 20, 1862 - Federal employees became the first workers to enjoy the eight-hour workday, after Congress approved legislation on this day in 1862. However, it wasn't until 1923, when the Carnegie Steel Corporation instituted an eight-hour workday, that the movement for a shorter workday took hold. Subsequently, President Franklin D. Roosevelt made the eight-hour workday a part of his New Deal legislation.

The short-lived National Labor Union is formed, headed by William H. Sylvis. It was the first American union to unite skilled and unskilled workers. One of its first acts: calling for an eight-hour workday - 1866

Colorado gold miners seize town of Cripple Creek and deport officials - 1904

In response to continuing violence by coal operators and their paid goons in the southern coalfields of West Virginia, a three hour gun battle between strikers and guards leaves six dead - 1920