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Chronicling America is a searchable digital collection of historic newspaper pages through 1963 sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress.
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Also, see the Directory of U.S. Newspapers in American Libraries, a searchable index to newspapers published in the United States since 1690, which helps researchers identify what titles exist for a specific place and time, and how to access them.
On May 4, 1886, a bomb detonates near Haymarket Square in Chicago after police arrive to break up a rally in support of striking workers. This protest is one of a number of strikes, demonstrations, and other events held by workers and their supporters in Chicago from May 1-4 to advocate for an eight hour workday. Many police officers and protesters are wounded or killed by the blast, and ultimately 8 individuals are arrested, tried, and convicted in relation to the bombing. Read more about it!
The information in this guide focuses on primary source materials found in the digitized historic newspapers from the digital collection Chronicling America.
The timeline below highlights important dates related to this topic and a section of this guide provides some suggested search strategies for further research in the collection.
| May 1, 1886 | Industrial workers across the U.S. go on strike, demanding an 8-hour workday. |
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| May 3, 1886 | During a strike at McCormick Reaper Works in Chicago, demonstrators clash with police, and several of the strikers are wounded or killed. |
| May 4, 1886 | A bomb is detonated after police break up a meeting of labor activists near Haymarket Square in Chicago. One police officer is killed by the blast, and several men, both strikers and police officers, die or are wounded in the ensuing violence. |
| May 27, 1886 | Thirty-one men are indicted and 8 men—Albert Parsons, August Spies, Oscar Neebe, Louis Lingg, George Engel, Adolph Fischer, Michael Schwab, Samuel Fielden—are arrested and charged as accessories to murder. |
| July 16, 1886 | The eight men go to trial. On August 19th, the men are found guilty, and seven are sentenced to death by hanging. The eighth man, Oscar Neebe is given a lighter sentence of 15 years in the penitentiary. |
| September 14, 1887 | After an appeal is filed, the Illinois Supreme Court upholds the lower court’s ruling. An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in November is denied. |
| November 10, 1887 | Louis Lingg commits suicide in prison. |
| November 11, 1887 | Parsons, Spies, Engel, and Fischer are executed. Their funeral is witnessed by over 150,000 people. |
| June 26, 1893 | Illinois governor John Peter Altgeld pardons Neebe, Fielden, and Schwab. |
