Haymarket Square riot: West's Encyclopedia of American Law (Full Article) from Answers.com

Haymarket Riot

(May 4, 1886) Violent confrontation between police and labour protesters in Chicago that dramatized the labour movement's struggle for recognition. Radical unionists had called a mass meeting in Haymarket Square to protest police brutality in a strike action. A bomb was thrown into the crowd, killing seven policemen and injuring 60 others. Police and workers fired on each other. Public demand for action led to the arrest of eight anarchists (see anarchism). Convicted of conspiracy to murder, they were sentenced to death; four were executed and one committed suicide. In 1893 the three survivors were pardoned by Illinois Gov. John Peter Altgeld.

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