Who Really Founded Labor Day?
Over a hundred years after the first Labor Day was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, it is still unclear who should receive credit for this national holiday.
Some say the original founder was Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a cofounder of the American Federation of Labor, while others believe it was Matthew Maguire, a machinist, who founded the holiday.