On this day, May 4, in 1886, a bomb was thrown at policemen trying to break up a labor rally at the Haymarket Square in Chicago, killing eight officers and wounding 60.
The riot was a turning point in the early history of American labor and was a setback for the fight for the eight-hour workday. A day earlier, a worker was killed after police fired into a crowd on strike at the McCormick Reaper Works in Chicago. Outraged, workers and anarchists organized a rally the next day at the Haymarket Square, the hub of the bustling commercial district. As radicals spoke out for an eight-hour workday, police began to disperse the crowd. Someone threw a bomb. Officers returned fire and a riot broke out. Eight policemen and four workers were killed.
A period of panic followed. Chicago authorities rounded up hundreds of workers. Eight anarchists were charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Seven received death sentences. Four were hanged. One man killed himself the day before his execution. Gov. John Atgeld pardoned the remaining three defendants in 1893, after concluding that all eight were innocent. The pardons ended his political career. The bomb thrower has never been identified.
