When the Mason City Trades and Labor Assembly received its official charter from the American Federation of Labor on Oct. 8, 1915, the document was signed by then AFL President Samuel Gompers.
At that point, the London native had been the organization s head since 1886 when it arose out of the former Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions.Â
That very same year, on May 4, in Chicago, at Haymarket Square, a workers strike for an eight-hour work day descended into chaos when an unknown person threw a dynamite bomb at police who had killed a person the day prior while breaking up a strike at a local machine company. After the bomb went off on May 4, gunfire rang out and at least 11 people were killed (seven police and four civilians). Steadily, in the years after that, May 1, May Day, began to be marked as International Workers Day.Â