1648    Boston Shoemakers form first U.S. labor organization.

1834    US President Andrew Jackson orders first use of federal soldiers to suppress a labor dispute.

1834    Six farm labourers from Tolpuddle, Dorset, England are sentenced to be transported to Australia for forming a trade union.

1872    Trade unions are legalised in Canada.

1892    The New Orleans general strike begins, uniting black and white American trade unionists in a successful four-day general strike action for the first time.

1925    The All-China Federation of Trade Unions is officially founded. Today it is the largest trade union in the world, with 134 million members.

1926    UK General Strike 1926: In the United Kingdom, a nine-day general strike by trade unions ends.

1931    Ådalen shootings: five people are killed in Ådalen, Sweden, as soldiers open fire on an unarmed trade union demonstration.

1933    ''Gleichschaltung'': Adolf Hitler bans trade unions.

1936    The Steel Workers Organizing Committee, a trade union, is founded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Philip Murray is elected its first president.

1936    The United Auto Workers union stages its first sit-down strike.

1938    Trade union members elect John L. Lewis as the first president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations.

1942    The Steel Workers Organizing Committee disbands, and a new trade union, the United Steelworkers, is formed.

1982    Poland bans Solidarity and all trade unions.

1988    Chico Mendes, a Brazilian rubber tapper, unionist and environmental activist, is assassinated.