Labor Day was first celebrated on September 5th, 1882 in New York City and became a national holiday in 1894.⁴⁶

Baseball players dissatisfied with pay and conditions in the National League set up their own league in 1889. Owners of the established teams labeled them "hot-headed anarchists." The new league couldn't compete and soon folded.⁴⁷

In 1883, cowboys went on strike. One of the demands was better food—fewer beans, perhaps. Ranches proved hard to picket, owners brought in replacements, and the strike collapsed after a month.⁴⁸

Members of the Actors Equity Association struck Broadway theaters in 1919. Packed houses of theater-goers were left with no plays to watch, but New Yorkers were soon fascinated to see the stars of the day—Eddie Cantor, Marie Dressler, Lionel Barrymore—walking picket lines.⁴⁹

President Ronald Reagan was noted for his anti-labor stance in the 1980s. But he served as president of the Screen Actors Guild, a prominent labor union, during the 1940s and 1950s.⁵⁰

In his youth, William O. Douglas traveled with the Wobblies and "came to know them as warm-hearted people," with higher ideals "than some of the men who ran our banks." Douglas went on to become a Supreme Court justice.⁵¹