Okay, so my history proffessor told us that she would give us ten extra credit points if we could find out certain information about Labor Day and International Women’s Day. She said that we would be suprised by how incredibly difficult it would be to find out the Who, Where, and When, of these holidays, due to discrimination against the groups that these days celebrate. However, she did not count on the infinate knowledge to be found on the SDMB. So, I ask you all, with your boundless knowledge: Who started these holidays, Where were they started (country, state) and When were they started.
Labor Day is the first Monday in September, isn’t it? International Women’s Day is March 8th. It’s celebrated fairly strongly in Viet Nam, but I don’t think that’s where it started. I just happened to be there one March 8th.
Everywhere else in the world, Labour Day is 1 May, not the first Monday in September.
Your history professor knows neither the power of the Straight Dope nor the power of Google, at http://www.google.com - a simple entry of “International Womens’ Day” netted this page, on a UN site no less! The “who, where, and when” are easily found in the top third of the page. Of course, if you go to Google and do the same entry (including quote-marks) there are some 36,200 links. If that doesn’t give the information you’re looking for, the Man’s conspiracy is more effective than we thought.
As for the Straight Dope on May Day, Unca Cecil says this. The U.S. Department of Labor has this to say on the origins of Labor Day. (Try entering “Labor Day” history America - exactly as typed - in Google.)