<Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> <Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> Monroe Heath </Td> </Tr> </Table> </Td> </Tr> <Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> Monroe Heath </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> Monroe Heath </Td> </Tr> <P> The Great Railroad Strike of 1877, sometimes referred to as the Great Upheaval, began on July 14 in Martinsburg, West Virginia, United States after the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) cut wages for the third time in a year . This strike finally ended some 45 days later, after it was put down by local and state militias, and federal troops . Because of economic problems and pressure on wages by the railroads, workers in numerous other cities, in New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland, into Illinois and Missouri, also went out on strike . An estimated 100 people were killed in the unrest across the country . In Martinsburg, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and other cities, workers burned down and destroyed both physical facilities and the rolling stock of the railroads--engines and railroad cars . Local populations feared that workers were rising in revolution such as the Paris Commune of 1871 . </P>

Who started the first major nationwide labor strike in 1877