Haymarket Massacre
The Haymarket Massacre was a peaceful protest for shorter workdays turned into a fire fight. On May 1st, 1886 the city of Chicago held a massive strike in which over 60,000 workers left their jobs in protest of eight hour work days. Three days later several thousand protested at Haymarket at 7:30 in the evening. There were several speakers, but it wasn't until the last speaker when only about 300 people remained that a police force showed up to break up the riot. It was at this time that an unknown person threw a bomb into the crowd of policemen killing one and wounding several others. The police opened fired dispersing the crowd, and in the end leaving seven police officers dead and unknown number of civilians dead. It was well known that a pamphlet was given out the night before as well as a letter written by Albert Spies about previous civilian killings on May 3rd.