Oregon was the first state to declare Labor Day an official holiday. That was in 1887, one year after thousands of U.S. workers went on strike and rallied for the eight-hour day. At the rally in Haymarket Square in Chicago on May 4, 1886, in support of the strike and to protest police murders of workers the previous day, someone threw a bomb at the police as they tried to disperse the crowd. Police gunfire was responsible for almost all the ensuing deaths of seven officers and four civilians. [...]
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