Episode 3 of 4
First International May Day Demonstrations
- When
- 1 May 1890
- Where
- Transnational: United States and most European countries
Demonstrations took place in the United States and most countries in Europe on 1 May 1890, marking the first international May Day.
On 1 May 1890, demonstrations took place in the United States and most countries in Europe. In France, workers wore a red triangle as a symbol of the eight-hour working day. The red leather triangle was adopted in Paris during the workers' struggles to distinguish demonstrators from the man in the street.
Sources
- International Workers' Day Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-05
- 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.