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19 unusual facts about May Day


Beatrice Portinari

According to Dante, he first met Beatrice when his father took him to the Portinari house for a May Day party.

Bethlehem bus crash

The bus was transporting 90 trade union delegates to May Day celebrations in the town of Qwa Qwa in the Free State.

East Meon

A part of fund-raising for the Village Hall is an annual May Fair which attracts visitors from the whole of the region and is run by volunteers.

Fourmies, Nord

It was the first French and international celebration of International Workers' Day on May Day.

Frank Lovell

At the age of 84, Frank Lovell died in a heart attack in his apartment in Manhattan on May Day 1998.

Hans Koschnick

He was charged with high treason for having organized a May Day rally and made a speech and was sent to a zuchthaus and then Sachsenhausen concentration camp, before being released "on leave" in 1938.

Hans Kühne

As manager of IG Farben's Leverkusen plant he immediately took up the suggestion that the traditional May Day holiday should instead be celebrated as a new Nazi holiday for industrial excellence.

May wine

May wine is served in the spring, traditionally on the May Day holiday.

Molwyn Joseph

The same year, he was arrested for participating in an unauthorised May Day rally protesting the UPP administration; after a lengthy trial, he and several other ALP members were convicted and fined.

Norra Bantorget

Norra Bantorget is a traditional gathering spot for demonstrations, such as the ones arranged by the Social Democrats on May Day.

Pervomaisk, Mykolaiv Oblast

The name derives from the Russian pervomajsk (первомайск) meaning "May Day," i.e., the first of May, referring also to the city's formation on 1 May 1919 from the merger of three neighbouring places.

Pietro Gori

As a precaution, authorities regularly arrested him just before demonstrations each May Day.

On May 13, 1890, he was arrested again, this time for helping to organize May Day demonstrations in Livorno.

Piotr Ikonowicz

Released soon afterwards, following the imposition of the Martial Law in Poland he was again arrested and sentenced to 1.5 years in prison for organization of May Day demonstration independently from the communist authorities.

Restore Our Alienated Rights

Notably, the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) organized a coordinated, violent assault against ROAR when ROAR attempted to disrupt PLP's 1975 May Day march with massive resistance.

Rick Cook

: Black Oak Mall was built on an elven power source, the gateway between Earth and Faery, and on the eve before May Day, security guard Andy Westlin may be the only chance of stopping the worst Faery has to offer from overrunning the Earth.

Thomas Broke

On receiving her message, Cromwell ordered that the prisoners should be sent over for trial, and on May Day they were led through the streets of Calais, Broke being in irons as the 'chief captain' of the rest.

Time for Heroes

Based on singer/guitarist Pete Doherty's experiences and police brutality at the London May Day Riots of 2000.

Tom Uphill

He would make appearances and make speeches at events such as May Day organized by the Communists and later the Labour-Progressive Party.


Bank holiday

Prior to 1834, the Bank of England observed about 33 saints' days and religious festivals as holidays, but in 1834 this was reduced to four: 1 May (May Day), 1 November (All Saints Day), Good Friday, and Christmas Day.

Chavagnes International College

The College also plays host to a range of traditions with a particularly Catholic and/or English flavour: religious processions, the election of a boy bishop on St Nicholas Day, an annual 110 km pilgrimage on foot from Paris to Chartres, rising at dawn on May Day to welcome the summer, and rowing in coxed fours.

Cyderdelic

Cyderdelic was narrated by John Peel and starred Barry Castagnola (Beetle), Marc Wootton (Su Long), Liam Woodman (Frogger), and followed the trio over two months as they traveled from the May Day demonstrations to the sunrise celebrations at Stonehenge.

Donald Rooum

He was a founding member of the Malatesta Club, an anarchist social club and venue that opened in London on May Day 1954.

Ewiger Wald

The years of the Weimar Republic appeared to be disastrous for people and forest alike to legitimize the assumption of power and thus the film culminated in a National Socialist May Day celebration filmed at the Berlin Lustgarten.

Freedom on the Wallaby

The "Rebel flag" referred to in the poem is the Eureka Flag that was first raised at the Eureka Stockade in 1854, above the Shearers' strike camp in 1891 and carried on the first Australian May Day march in Barcaldine on 1 May 1891.

Marcel Oopa

In 1950 Marcel Oopa took part in the first May Day celebrations in the history of French Polynesia, participating in military uniform.

Progressive Youth Association

It made close relations with trade unions and democratic mass organizations, took part in May Day celebrations, protests against DGMs (Courts of State Security) and campaigns against the ultra-right party MHP and its youth organization.

Sakae Ōsugi

1923 - February: Arrives in France; May: Arrested at May Day demonstration in Saint-Denis; June: Deported from France; July: Arrives in Japan.

Stop the City

These demonstrations can be seen as the forerunner of the anti-globalisation protests of the 1990s, especially those in London on May Day and the Carnival against Capitalism on 18 June 1999.