Industrializing America (1855-1938)

Ah Bing begins working for the Lewelling family in Milwaukie, Oregon.

Railroad workers angry about wage cuts halt rail traffic in Martinsburg, West Virginia. This is the first nationwide strike.

The self-binding harvester is sold to farmers. The technology advance aids the agriculture industry and improves farming conditions.

Chinese Exclusion Act is passed. This law prohibits Chinese immigration into the U.S. for ten years.

Haymarket Square Riot

President Grover Cleveland sends the U.S. Military to Seattle and Tacoma, Washington, to suppress anti-Chinese riots.

August Spies hanged for his role in the Haymarket Square Riot.

Congress extends the Chinese Exclusion Act; the General Federation of Women's Clubs is founded.

Rose Cohen arrives in the U.S. at the age of 12; Charlotte Perkins Gilman's book Women in Economics is published.

National Consumers' League is founded for the purpose of supporting a fair marketplace for workers and consumers, and promoting the manufacture of safe and reliable products.

Female workers are represented in 60 of the census's 69 occupations.

National Child Labor Committee is founded.

Congress passes the Clayton Antitrust Act, declaring that unions could not be considered "unlawful combinations" operating in "restraint of trade" and that strikes, boycotting, and picketing did not violate federal law.

The nation's population hits 105.7 million; approximately 25 percent of the population are new immigrants.

American workers gain the right to organize and bargain collectively with their employers.

The Fair Labor Standards Act legalizes the eight-hour workday.