Historedia
Episode 4 of 4

Belgian Strike and Creation of International Workers' Day

When
1 May 1890
Where
Belgium
Part of
International May Day strikes for the eight-hour workday

Following the success of the mobilization on 1 May 1890, particularly in Belgium, the date was decided to become a worldwide day of action.

In Belgium, 150,000 workers went on strike on 1 May 1890. Following the immense success of this mobilization, it was decided shortly afterward to make this date a worldwide day of action, leading to the creation of International Workers' Day.

Sources

  1. Eight-hour day movement Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-24

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.