Sponsored by
When did searching turn into an endless scroll?
Social media doesn’t facilitate exploration. You find a topic which interests you, swipe and then see 10 AI videos with fruit.
heywa rewards curiosity. Ask it a question about Stonehenge and it will build you a visual story curated for your learning style. Want to go deeper on one angle? Here’s a new story about the Druids. Curious about something similar? A story about the winter solstice. And there’s no need to reprompt.
heywa is designed to send you down knowledge rabbit holes without diverting your attention into twenty different directions.
A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR, MASTERS OF TRIVIA
Trivia is more than a game; it’s a global tradition of knowledge and competition. Masters of Trivia’s tournaments have gone live, with 30 fast, multiple-choice questions. Most correct wins. Speed breaks ties. Compete worldwide for a $MOT token prize purse, plus valuable in-kind prizes.
Get the entry link and reminders by email — subscribe free at PlayMOT.
—— ON THIS DAY ——
MAY 1, 1886
Chicago, Illinois, USA
140 years ago
A contemporary sketch depicting the chaos at Haymarket Square, Chicago, May 4, 1886 — the night a bomb killed seven police officers and set off one of America's most controversial trials.
On May 1, 1886, approximately 80,000 workers marched through the streets of Chicago demanding an eight-hour working day. It was the largest labor demonstration the United States had ever seen, and it was just one of hundreds taking place simultaneously across the country — an estimated 340,000 workers struck that day. The movement was peaceful. The violence came three days later.
On the evening of May 4, a rally was called in Haymarket Square to protest the police killing of striking workers at the McCormick Reaper Works the day before. The crowd had thinned to a few hundred by 10 p.m. when police ordered it to disperse. As the officers advanced, a bomb was thrown into their ranks. The explosion killed seven police officers. Officers fired into the crowd. At least four civilians died. The identity of the bomb-thrower was never established.
—— MARQUEE EVENT ——
The Haymarket Memorial in Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood — a monument to the labor martyrs whose executions transformed May 1 into International Workers' Day across much of the world.
What followed the explosion was a prosecution that had more to do with ideology than evidence. Eight anarchist leaders were arrested, tried, and convicted — not for throwing the bomb (it was acknowledged that none of them had) but for creating an atmosphere that inspired it. The case was openly about suppressing the labor movement. The prosecution's closing argument was explicit: 'Anarchy is on trial.'
Four men were hanged on November 11, 1887 — a date still observed in labor movements worldwide as Martyrs' Day. One committed suicide in his cell the night before execution. Three others were imprisoned. In 1893, Illinois Governor John Peter Altgeld pardoned the three survivors, writing a blistering 18,000-word document that found the trial had been conducted with fundamental unfairness. He destroyed his political career doing it and became one of the most admired figures in American progressive history.
The International Socialist Congress in Paris, meeting in 1889, designated May 1 as International Workers' Day in commemoration of the Haymarket events. It is now observed in most countries on Earth. The United States, notably, chose a different date for its Labor Day — in part, historians have argued, specifically to avoid legitimizing the Haymarket legacy that had inspired the international movement.
—— WHY THIS MATTERS ——
The Haymarket affair established the eight-hour day as the central demand of the American labor movement — a goal not achieved federally until the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. The martyrs of 1886 helped create the conditions for reforms that benefit workers to this day.
The trial is a landmark case in the history of political prosecution in America. The conviction of men for their ideas rather than their proven actions set a pattern that recurred in the Red Scare, the McCarthy era, and debates about political speech ever since.
May Day as an international institution is a direct product of Chicago, 1886. The date observed by workers in over a hundred countries traces directly to the Haymarket hangings. The United States is one of the few developed nations where May 1 is not a public holiday.
—— THE TAKEAWAY ——
On May 1, 1886, workers marched for dignity and an eight-hour day. Three days later, a bomb changed the argument from labor rights to sedition. Eight men were convicted for an idea, four were hanged, and a date was inscribed into the world's calendar as a tribute to what they represented. The identity of the bomber is still unknown.
—— QUOTE OF THE DAY ——
"Anarchy is on trial. These men have been selected by the grand jury as representative anarchists to be tried. It is not for the specific act alone that they are on trial."
— State's Attorney Julius Grinnell, closing argument at the Haymarket trial, 1886
—— OUR QUIZ OF THE DAY ——
How much do you know about the Haymarket affair, the eight-hour workday movement, the trial's disputed justice, and the origin of May Day as an international institution?
