United States 1827

Synopsis

In 1827 journeymen tailors in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, went out on strike to protest the discharge of several colleagues who had demanded higher wages from their employer. After the tailors picketed, the employer took them to court on the theory that their actions constituted a conspiracy to harm commerce and the interests of third parties. The jury found the journeymen guilty, setting back early efforts of trade unions to take collective economic action to protect their interests.

Timeline

• 1802: Beethoven publishes his "Sonata quasi una fantasia," later nicknamed the "Moonlight Sonata."
• 1805: Britain's Royal Navy, commanded by Admiral Horatio Nelson, defeats the French at Trafalgar, thereby putting an end to Napoleon's hopes of dominating the seas.
• 1810: German art publisher Rudolph Ackerman invents the differential gear, which enables wheeled vehicles to make sharp turns.
• 1815: Congress of Vienna establishes the balance of power for post-Napoleonic Europe, and...