1835 - possibly the world's first general strike
in 1835, several unions executed a simultaneous walkout in philadelphia. as this was done without a guiding strike committee, there is a question among labor history scholars about where this constitutes the world's first general strike.
exerpted from zachary m. schrag's thesis: the boston police strike in the context of american labor (now offline).
the world : north america : united states : pennsylvania