The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday September 5, 1882, in New York City, with the plans of the Central Labor Union. They held it's second Labor Day just a year later, on September 5, 1883. However, it became a holiday the first Monday in September, 1884. The Central Labor Union urged other cities to follow what New York did and celebrate a "workingmen's holiday." The idea spread, and in 1885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers of the country. The next several years more and more states in the U.S. started to celebrate Labor Day, and also made it a holiday on the first Monday of September. On June 28, 1894, Congress passed the act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday. In Puerto Rico, the Canal Zone, the Virgin Islands, and Canada also celebrate Labor Day. They also made it a holiday on the first Monday of September.
There are two different views of who was the founder of Labor Day. Some people say that Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a co-founder of the American Federation of Labor, was the first in suggesting a day to honor those "who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold." Many believe that Matthew Maguire, a machinist, founded the holiday. Many research seem to support that Matthew Maguire proposed the holiday in 1882, while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York.
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Created: 5 December 2001