May 1, 1886 [View all]

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.workdayminnesota.org/history/05/01



May 1 is International Workers Day. May Day started in the United States. On the first May Day, May 1, 1886, the labor movement called for an eight-hour workday. Two days later, the Haymarket Massacre occurred in Chicago during a strike support rally. Haymarket has been indelibly linked to May Day ever since.

Other May 1 milestones:

May 1, 1830 - Mary Harris "Mother" Jones was born. The renowned labor organizer, who lived to be 100, said, "I live in the United States, but I do not know exactly where. My address is wherever there is a fight against oppression. My address is like my shoes; it travels with me. I abide where there is a fight against wrong."

May 1, 1888 - Nineteen machinists at the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad assembled in a locomotive pit to decide what to do about a wage cut. They voted to form a union, which became the International Association of Machinists.

May 1, 1894- The cross-country march by Coxey’s Army, thousands of unemployed workers, culminated in a march down Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington, D.C.

May 1, 1933 - The first issue of the Catholic Worker was published.

May 1, 2006 - Millions of immigrants, participating in a national day of mobilization, stayed home from work to demonstrate their economic power and demand comprehensive reform of U.S. immigration laws.