May Day is one of the world's most widely celebrated holidays. It commemorates the Haymarket riot - a bloody clash of American workers with police at Haymarket Square in Chicago. Although this event took place on May 4, the Second International decided in 1889 that the riot was to be commemorated on May 1.
As such, the holiday predates the USSR and has been widely celebrated outside the communist world. Adolf Hitler, for example, proclaimed May 1 a national holiday very soon after he took power in Germany, calling it “the Day of National Labor."
May Day is one of the world's most widely celebrated holidays. It commemorates the Haymarket riot - a bloody clash of American workers with police at Haymarket Square in Chicago. Although this event took place on May 4, the Second International decided in 1889 that the riot was to be commemorated on May 1.
As such, the holiday predates the USSR and has been widely celebrated outside the communist world. Adolf Hitler, for example, proclaimed May 1 a national holiday very soon after he took power in Germany, calling it “the Day of National Labor."
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