5月1日国际劳动节，你知道它的来历吗？
Throughout the world, except in North America, May 1 is celebrated as International Worker's Day.
Oddly enough, May 1 has its origins in the United States. During the late 19th century, when the effects of the Industrial Revoultion were starting to take hold, workers had few, if any rights. Journalist Michael Thomas notes that the "political and legal system failed to recognize even the most basic rights of workplace safety, community sanitation and child protection." Despite all this, the right to an eight-hour workday, something we have come to recognize as a basic right and a pillar of our workday structure, turned into the rallying call that united workers everywhere.
On May 1, 1866 the American Labor Federation declared a national strike to demand an eight-hour workday. Hundreds of thousands heeded the call. Over the next several days more and more people joined the strike, culminating in a mass rally in Chicago's Haymarket Square on May 4. Toward the end of the rally, someone (it was never determined who) threw a bomb into the crowd, killing a police officer and injuring others. The police, in turn, opened fire and killed several demonstrators and injured hundreds of others.
Eight labour leaders were eventually brought to trial. Despite a lack of evidence, four were hanged, one committed suicide, and three were given life in jail (in 1893 all eight were pardoned owing to lack of evidence). Since then, these events, and the manner in which workers came together, have become a symbol for the sacrifices that were made in the struggle for better working conditions. May 1, the day of the original demonstrations, is now recognized as an international day of worker solidarity.