On This Day in History: September 5

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

September 5 is the 248th day of the year (249th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 117 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1882, the first Labor Day was celebrated in NYC with a parade of 10,000 workers. The Parade started at City Hall, winding past the reviewing stands at Union Square and then uptown where it ended at 42nd St where the marcher’s and their families celebrated with a picnic, concert and speeches. The march was organized by New York’s Central Labor Union and while there has been debate as to who originated the idea, credit is given to Peter McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a co-founder of the American Federation of Labor.

It became a federal holiday in 1894, when, following the deaths of a number of workers at the hands of the U.S. military and U.S. Marshals during the Pullman Strike, President Grover Cleveland  put reconciliation with the labor movement as a top political priority. Fearing further conflict, legislation making Labor Day a national holiday was rushed through Congress unanimously and signed into law a mere six days after the end of the strike. The September date was chosen as Cleveland was concerned that aligning an American labor holiday with existing international May Day celebrations would stir up negative emotions linked to the Haymarket Affair. All 50 U.S. states have made Labor Day a state holiday.

 1590 – Alexander Farnese’s army forces Henry IV of France to raise the siege of Paris.

1661 – Fall of Nicolas Fouquet: Louis XIV Superintendent of Finances is arrested in Nantes by D’Artagnan, captain of the king’s musketeers.

1666 – Great Fire of London ends: 10,000 buildings including St. Paul’s Cathedral are destroyed, but only 16 people are known to have died.

1698 – In an effort to Westernize his nobility, Tsar Peter I of Russia imposes a tax on beards for all men except the clergy and peasantry.

1725 – Wedding of Louis XV and Maria Leszczynska.

1774 – First Continental Congress assembles in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1781 – Battle of the Chesapeake in the American Revolutionary War.

1793 – French Revolution the French National Convention initiates the Reign of Terror.

1798 – Conscription is made mandatory in France by the Jourdan law.

1800 – Napoleon surrenders Malta to Great Britain.

1812 – War of 1812: The Siege of Fort Wayne begins when Chief Winamac’s forces attack two soldiers returning from the fort’s outhouses.

1816 – Louis XVIII has to dissolve the Chambre introuvable (“Unobtainable Chamber”).

1836 – Sam Houston is elected as the first president of the Republic of Texas.

1839 – The First Opium War begins in China.

1840 – Premiere of Giuseppe Verdi’s Un giorno di regno at La Scala of Milan.

1862 – American Civil War: the Potomac River is crossed at White’s Ford in the Maryland Campaign.

1862 – James Glaisher, pioneering meteorologist and Henry Tracey Coxwell break world record for altitude whilst collecting data in their balloon.

1864 – Achille Francois Bazaine becomes Marshall of France.

1877 – Indian Wars: Oglala Sioux chief Crazy Horse is bayoneted by a United States soldier after resisting confinement in a guardhouse at Fort Robinson in Nebraska.

1882 – The first United States Labor Day parade is held in New York City.

1905 – Russo-Japanese War: In New Hampshire, USA, the Treaty of Portsmouth, mediated by US President Theodore Roosevelt, ends the war.

1906 – The first legal forward pass in American football is thrown by Bradbury Robinson of St. Louis University to teammate Jack Schneider in a 22-0 victory over Carroll College (Wisconsin).

1914 – World War I: First Battle of the Marne begins. Northeast of Paris, the French attack and defeat German forces who are advancing on the capital.

1915 – The pacifist Zimmerwald Conference begins.

1918 – Decree “On Red Terror” is published in Russia

1927 – The first Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon, Trolley Troubles, produced by Walt Disney, is released by Universal Pictures.

1932 – The French Upper Volta is broken apart between Ivory Coast, French Sudan, and Niger.

1937 – Spanish Civil War: Llanes falls.

1938 – Chile: A group of youths affiliated with the fascist National Socialist Movement of Chile are assassinated in the Seguro Obrero massacre.

1942 – World War II: Japanese high command orders withdrawal at Milne Bay, first Japanese defeat in the Pacific War.

1943 – World War II: The 503d Parachute Infantry Regiment lands and occupies Nazdab, near Lae in the Salamaua-Lae campaign.

1944 – Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg constitute Benelux.

1945 – Cold War: Igor Gouzenko, a Soviet Union embassy clerk, defects to Canada, exposing Soviet espionage in North America, signalling the beginning of the Cold War.

1945 – Iva Toguri D’Aquino, a Japanese-American suspected of being wartime radio propagandist Tokyo Rose, is arrested in Yokohama.

1948 – In France, Robert Schuman becomes President of the Council while being Foreign minister, As such, he is the negotiator of the major treaties of the end of World War II.

1957 – Cuba: Fulgencio Batista bombs the revolt in Cienfuegos.

1969 – My Lai Massacre: U.S. Army Lt. William Calley is charged with six specifications of premeditated murder for the death of 109 Vietnamese civilians in My Lai.

1970 – Vietnam War: Operation Jefferson Glenn begins: the United States 101st Airborne Division and the South Vietnamese 1st Infantry Division initiate a new operation in Thua Thien-Hue Province.

1972 – Munich Massacre: A Palestinian terrorist group called “Black September” attack and take hostage 11 Israel athletes at the Munich Olympic Games. 2 die in the attack and 9 die the following day.

1975 – Sacramento, California: Lynette Fromme attempts to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford.

1977 – Hanns Martin Schleyer, is kidnapped in Cologne, West Germany by the Red Army Faction and is later murdered.

1977 – Voyager program: Voyager 1 is launched after a brief delay.

1978 – Camp David Accords: Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat begin peace process at Camp David, Maryland.

1980 – The St. Gotthard Tunnel opens in Switzerland as the world’s longest highway tunnel at 10.14 miles (16.224 km) stretching from Goschenen to Airolo.

1984 – STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery lands after its maiden voyage.

1984 – Western Australia becomes the last Australian state to abolish capital punishment.

1991 – The current international treaty defending indigenous peoples, Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989, came into force.

2000 – The Haverstraw-Ossining Ferry makes its maiden voyage.

2000 – Tuvalu joins the United Nations.

2007 – Three terrorists suspected to be a part of Al-Qaeda are arrested in Germany after allegedly planning attacks on both the Frankfurt International airport and US military installations.