October 5, 1789

6,000 angry working-class women — armed with everything they had and could get from the city armory — march in the rain from Paris to King Louis XVI’s palace in Versailles to demand bread.  Once there, they stormed the gates and compelled the king to return with them to Paris, which proved to be his downfall.

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June 2, 1786

Printers in Philadelphia begin what will be a successful strike to protest a reduction in their wages from 45 shillings to 35 shillings a week.  According to Henry Rosemont, the International Typographical Union’s unofficial historian, “these were the first American workers who deliberately voted to stand out for a specific wage and to provide mutual assistance in maintaining it.”