Episode 5 of 5

International Workers' Day

When: 1889
Where: International
Part of: Event of 1886: A general strike begins in the United States, which escalates on May 4 into the

The Haymarket affair is considered the origin of International Workers' Day, established to honor the martyrs and demand the eight-hour workday.

The Second International adopted a resolution for an international demonstration on May 1, 1890, to demand the eight-hour workday. A secondary purpose was to honor the memory of the Haymarket martyrs. Historians note that the 1886 events influenced this adoption.

Sources

Haymarket affair Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-08

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.