On March 26, 2014, Connecticut became the first state in the country to pass legislation setting its minimum wage above $10 an hour. The new law mandated slight increases, rolled out over three years, that would raise the state’s minimum wage to $10.10 an hour by the start of 2017, increasing the paychecks of…
Tag: work
January 16: Yale Breaks Graduate Students’ Grading Strike
On this day in 1996, graduate student teachers at Yale University finally turned in final grades for the classes they taught during the previous semester — a deceptively simple action that ended what had become an incredibly tense standoff over teacher compensation and labor rights that was closely watched by students and university…
November 19: The International Silver Company Founded in Meriden
Today in 1898, the International Silver Company, one of Connecticut’s most famous and globally-recognized brands, was formally incorporated in Meriden. The central Connecticut city had already established a national reputation as a leading producer of silver and silver-plated goods by the late 19th century, earning it the nickname “the Silver City.” By 1898, over…
November 8: The Last Wooden Whaling Ship Arrives in Mystic
On this day in 1941, the last remaining wooden whale ship in the world made her permanent home in Mystic, Connecticut. The Charles W. Morgan, a massive vessel with a deck measuring over 110 feet in length and a main mast rising 110 feet into the air, once numbered among a combined fleet of…
November 3: Joshua Hempstead’s Remarkable Diary
Born in New London in 1678, Joshua Hempstead lived a rather unremarkable life for a colonial freeman. He was one of nine children, and being the only son, he inherited his father’s house. After marrying in his early 20s, Joshua and his wife had nine children before she passed away in 1716. He never…
October 5: A Revolt Against the State Income Tax
One of the largest protests in Connecticut history took place on this day in 1991, as tens of thousands of Connecticans gathered on the lawn of the State Capitol in Hartford to call for the repeal of the brand-new state income tax. 1991 was a tumultuous year in state politics; during the summer, legislators…
September 24: Connecticut’s Last Whaling Voyage
In the 19th century, New London, Connecticut was one of the busiest whaling hubs in the entire world, outranked only by Nantucket and New Bedford, Massachusetts. Whale oil was a crucial and versatile resource that played a huge role in powering the Industrial Revolution, serving as both fuel for lamps and as a lubricant…
September 15: Climax Fuse Company Explosion Ignites a Human Tragedy.
Today in 1905, an employee using a hot iron to clear fuse debris from a reeling machine touched off a muffled explosion in the main building of the Climax Fuse factory in Avon. Though the blast was barely heard 300 feet away, the sheets of flame it triggered instantly engulfed the factory, suffocating seven…
September 12: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Segregation-Free Summer in Simsbury
As a teenager, years before he became an internationally famous speaker and advocate for social change, Martin Luther King, Jr. worked a number of jobs to make ends meet for his family, just like many of his peers in northern Georgia. During the summer of 1944, after he gained early admission to Morehouse College…
September 1: The Unknown Genius Behind Connecticut’s Industrial Greatness Dies in Hartford
The largely unknown man at the root of Connecticut’s 19th century industrial greatness – Elisha King Root – died in Hartford on this day in 1865. Root’s machine tool genius revolutionized axe production in Collinsville and made the Colt Firearms Company in Hartford an worldwide icon of precision manufacturing. Born in western Massachusetts in…
August 16: Mary Hall, Connecticut’s First Female Lawyer
Today in 1843, Mary Hall was born in Marlborough, Connecticut. Growing up on a farm in antebellum America, when high Victorian culture placed an increasingly stringent emphasis on female domesticity, made her perhaps one of the most unlikely candidates to defy gender norms and become the first woman in Connecticut to be admitted to…
August 7: Statewide Strikes Bring Connecticut to a Halt
Today in 1919, Connecticut companies throughout the state were effectively shuttered as thousands of workers across a multitude of different industries joined in a massive regional strike that, within the course of a week, spread from Maine to New York and brought New England commerce to a screeching halt. Connecticut, like many other states…