This chronology offers a list of selected dates related to the Catholic Responses to Industrialization website.
1830
Mother Jones is born in County Cork, Ireland.
December 1859
William H. O'Connell is born in Lowell, Massachusetts.
1867
A yellow fever epidemic hits Memphis, TN, killing Jones' four children and her husband.
1869
The Noble Order of Knights of Labor is established in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
May 1869
John A Ryan is born in rural Minnesota.
1873
Epidemics of cholera, smallpox, and yellow fever hit a number of southern cities. This same year the United States is hit by an economic depression.
1877
Workers on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad go on strike, action that leads to a violent national railroad strike.
Mother Jones traveled to Pittsburgh in support of the striking railroad workers.
1881
William H. O'Connell entered the American College in Rome, Italy.
1884
William H. O'Connell is ordained a priest.
1886
A bomb exploded in Haymarket Square, Chicago during a meeting of protesters against the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company. Seven police officers and four workers die and seventy police officers are wounded.
The American Federation of Labor is established in Columbus, Ohio.
1890
Approximately 23,000 children worked in factories in thirteen southern states.
1891
Pope Leo XIII wrote his encyclical, Rerum Novarum.
Mother Jones traveled to Norton, Virginia in support of striking coal miners.
1894
The United States experienced a number of labor strikes in the coal mining, clothing, and railroad industries.
Mother Jones joined striking United Mine Workers near Birmingham, Alabama.
1895
William H. O'Connell is appointed rector of the American College in Rome, Italy.
1897
Mother Jones organized the wives and mothers of striking coal miners in northern West Virginia.
1898
John A. Ryan ordained by Archbishop John Ireland of St. Paul, Minnesota. Later in the year, Ryan enters a graduate program at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
1900
The International Ladies Garment Workers Union is established in New York City.
1901
The United States Steel Corporation is founded.
Mother Jones is arrested in West Virginia.
William H. O'Connell is elevated to Bishop of Portland, Maine.
1902
American Catholic Quarterly Review published Ryan's essay, "The Morality of the Aims and Methods of Labor Unions," a piece supportive of unions.
150,000 members of the United Mine Workers of America go out on strike in Pennsylvania.
1903
Mother Jones traveled to Philadelphia to assist child textile workers in their strike, eventually leading a group of children to Theodore Roosevelt's retreat in Oyster Bay, New York.
1904
Mother Jones arrested while assisting striking coal miners in Colorado.
1905
The Industrial Workers of the World is established in Chicago, Illinois.
The Vatican appointed William H. O'Connell special papal emissary to Japan.
1906
William H. O'Connell is made coadjutor archbishop of Boston, Massachusetts.
1907
The American economy experiences a major crisis as the stock market crashes and a number of banks fail.
William H. O'Connell became Archbishop of Boston.
1911
One hundred and forty-six workers die in a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City.
The Vatican elevated William H. O'Connell to the rank of cardinal.
1912
Congress approved an eight-hour day for all federal employees.
Mother Jones spoke on behalf of striking railroad workers (Pacific Northwest), women bottling plant workers (Milwaukee, Wisconsin), copper miners (Montana), and coal miners (Kanawha Valley, West Virginia).
1913
The National Conference of Charities and Correction elected John A. Ryan to the executive committee of its national board. This same year, Ryan launched a campaign in support of a minimum wage law.
1914
Mother Jones testified before the House Committee on Mines and Mining.
1915
John A. Ryan joined the faculty of The Catholic University of America.
1918
A major influenza epidemic began in the United States and eventually killed 500,000 persons.
1919
Members of the Amalgamated Iron, Steel and Tin Workers went out on strike across the United States.
Mother Jones arrested while helping steel workers preparing for strike in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
1923
John A. Ryan initiated the Catholic Conference on Industrial Problems.
1924
John A. Ryan clashed with Cardinal William H. O'Connell of Boston over a constitutional amendment banning child labor. Ryan supported the idea, while O'Connell opposed it on the basis that the amendment would lead to unnecessary governmental intervention in the life of the family.
1926
At a Labor Sunday meeting at Carnegie Hall in New York City, John A. Ryan called for American labor to become more militant.
1929
The Stock marker crashed, an event that ushered in the Great Depression.
November 1930
Mother Jones died.
1931
The number of persons unemployed in the United States reached approximately four to five million.
John A. Ryan urged the federal government to develop a $5 billion public works campaign.
1932
The State of Wisconsin passed the first unemployment insurance law in the United States.
1933
The Roosevelt administration enlisted John A. Ryan to generate Catholic clerical support for its NRA codes.
1934
A general strike in San Francisco in support of striking dock workers paralyzed the city.
John A. Ryan elected to the three-person Industrial Appeals Board of the National Recovery Administration.
1935
The Committee of Industrial Organizations is formed within the A.F.L., three years later the renamed Congress of Industrial Organizations separated from the A.F.L.
1937
John A. Ryan gave the benediction at Franklin D. Roosevelt's second inaugural.
