One hundred forty four years ago today, on September 5, 1882, roughly 10,000 workers marched up Broadway and Fifth Avenue to Union Square in what is now recognized as the first Labor Day parade in the United States, organized by New York’s Central Labor Union. This engraving from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper shows the procession passing the reviewing stand at Union Square, with banners reading “Labor Creates All Wealth” and “8 Hours Constitute a Day’s Work” carried among the marchers. The parade helped popularize the idea of a dedicated workers’ holiday, which Congress made a federal holiday twelve years later in 1894. This year’s Labor Day falls two days from now, on September 7. From Wikimedia Commons, public domain.