On December 27, 1944, as World War II dragged on, President
Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered his secretary of war to seize
properties belonging to the Montgomery Ward company
because they refused to comply with a labor agreement.

In an effort to avert strikes in critical war-support industries,
Roosevelt (below) created the National War Labor Board in
1942.

The board negotiated settlements between management and
workers to avoid shut-downs in production that might cripple
the war effort. During the war, the well-known retailer and
manufacturer Montgomery Ward had supplied the Allies with
everything from tractors to auto parts to workmen’s clothing–
items deemed as important to the war effort as bullets and
ships. However, Ward’s Chairman Sewell Avery (below) 
refused to comply with the terms of three different collective
bargaining agreements which the United Retail, Wholesale
and Department Store Union hammered United Retail,
Wholesale and Department Store Union hammered out
between 1943 and 1944.

President Roosevelt creating the National War Labor Board
in 1942.

SANDY KOZEL

At noon April 10, 1912, the White Star Liner Titanic sets sail on her maiden voyage from the docks of Southampton UK to New York
Harbor.

The Mayflower sails from Plymouth, England, bound for the New World with
102 passengers. The ship was headed for Virginia, where the colonists–half religious dissenters and half entrepreneurs–had been authorized to settle by
the British crown. However, stormy weather and navigational errors forced
the Mayflower off course, and on November 21 the “Pilgrims” reached Massachusetts, where they built the first permanent European settlement
in New England in late December.

Depiction of the signing of a document that today is called the
Mayflower Compact. It was signed by 41 of the Pilgrim men and
John Carver was elected as the first governor of the colony.

John Carver (before 1584–1621)

From left: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, U.S. President Bill
Clinton, and Yasser Arafat at the agreement signing ceremony.   
    
 

After decades of bloody animosity, representatives of Israel and Palestine
meet on the South Lawn of the White House and sign a framework for
peace. The “Declaration of Principles” was the first agreement between
the Israelis and Palestinians towards ending their conflict and sharing
the holy land between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea that
they both claim as their homeland.

Israel and Palestine signed their first major agreement. Palestine was
granted limited self-government in the Gaza Strip and in Jericho.

General Edmund Kirby Smith (5-16-1824 – 3-28-1893)

In an event that is generally regarded as marking the end of
the Civil War on this day in 1865, Confederate General
Edmund Kirby Smith (above), commander of Confederate
forces west of the Mississippi, signed the surrender terms
offered by Union negotiators and Major General Canby. With
Smith’s surrender, the last Confederate army ceased to exist,
bringing a formal end to the bloodiest four years in U.S.
history. The war began on April 12, 1861.