Nine interesting facts you need to know about Labours' day

International Workers' Day, also known as labours' day is celebrated every year on May 1 to honour the labourers and working classes started after the eight-hour movement in Chicago in 1886.

International Workers' Day, also known as labours' day is celebrated every year on May 1 to honour the labourers and working class people started after the eight-hour movement in Chicago in 1886. 132 years on, it is trivial to look at the history of this  

1) The Haymarket massacre was what defined the May Day that it is today. US workers at that time were paid low wages and their working condition was bad. Thus, protests were common in the 1880s.

2) On May 4, 1886, a strike was held to condemn the long working hours (almost 15 hours), which they wanted to be reducted to eight hours a day. When an unidentified person threw a bomb in the crowd, police started firing that led to the death of eight people and injured nearly 60. The labour leaders were rounded up and four of them were executed by hanging. In 1889, a meeting in Paris was held and May Day was formally recognised as an annual event in 1891. (Photo | S Senbagapandiyan, EPS)

3) Following the second riots that happened in 1894 at Cleveland, Ohio, The International Socialist Congress, Amsterdam 1904 called on all Social Democratic Party organisations and trade unions from all countries to demonstrate energetically on the First of May for the legal establishment of the eight-hour day. (Photo | K K Sundar, EPS)

4) It made mandatory upon the organisations of all countries to not work on May Day. (Photo | P Jawahar, EPS)

5) May Day is celebrated in more than 80 countries. (Photo |R Satish Babu, EPS)

6) The first May Day in India was celebrated in Chennai in 1923 by The Labour Kisan Party Of Hindustan. Singaravelu Chettiar raised the red flag in Chennai, which was used for the first time in India. He organised two meetings - one at the beach opposite to The Madras High Court and the other at Triplicane beach. (Photo | Biswananth Swain, EPS)

7) May 1 is also celebrated as Maharashtra Day and Gujarat Day. (Photo | Vincent Pulickal, EPS)

8) May Day was declared as an official national holiday after MDMK chief Vaiko appealed to the then PM VP Singh regarding the same.(Photo: File|EPS)

9) Historically, May Day was also used as a tool to showcase political strength. Adolf Hitler, Fidel Castro and Nikita Khrushchev took to streets to rally and parade.(Photo: File|EPS)