Leonard Finlay (1886 - 1976)

Refresh this page to see various historical events that occurred during Leonard's lifetime.

In 1886, in the year that Leonard Finlay was born, on May 4th, a general strike began in Chicago. Workers were striking for an 8 hour workday and in protest of the killing - by police - of several workers the day before. When an unknown person threw a dynamite bomb, the strike became violent. Seven policemen were killed as well as 4 civilians. It became known as the Haymarket Riot and eventually resulted in an 8 hourwork day as well as commemorations on May 1st for worker's rights.

In 1918, by the time he was 32 years old, in July, Russian revolutionaries executed the former Tzar Nicholas II and his immediate family. While it was rumored that two of the children had survived, it was later proven through DNA analysis - when their bodies were found - that the entire family had been killed.

In 1933, when he was 47 years old, Frances Perkins became the first woman to hold a cabinet-level position, appointed by President Roosevelt to serve as Secretary of Labor. She told him that her priorities would be a 40-hour work week, a minimum wage, unemployment compensation, worker’s compensation, abolition of child labor, direct federal aid to the states for unemployment relief, Social Security, a revitalized federal employment service, and universal health insurance. President Roosevelt approved of all of them and most them were implemented during his terms as President. She served until his death in 1945.

In 1966, Leonard was 80 years old when on September 8th, the first Star Trek episode, "The Man Trap," was broadcast on NBC. The plot concerned a creature that sucked salt from human bodies. The original series only aired for 3 seasons due to low ratings.

In 1976, in the year of Leonard Finlay's passing, on August 4th, a mysterious illness struck an American Legion convention in Philadelphia. Within a week, 25 people had died and 130 people had been hospitalized. It was the first known instance of what came to be called "Legionnaires Disease."