Welsh manufacturer and social reformer Robert Owen formulates the slogan that would become the symbol of the labour movement for decades.
The British parliament passes legislation limiting working hours for children in textile factories, an early step in labour law.
A strike for the eight-hour workday in Chicago escalates into violence after a bomb is thrown during a labor rally.
Socialist parties and trade unions united in the Second International choose May 1st as the annual international day of action for the eight-hour workday.
New Zealand is among the first countries to enshrine the eight-hour working day in law, partly thanks to early labour legislation.
Ford shortens the working day to eight hours while simultaneously raising wages, in the belief that this increases productivity and worker loyalty.
After the end of the First World War, the International Labour Organization is established, whose first convention lays down the eight-hour working day internationally.
The young Soviet state incorporates the eight-hour workday into its labor legislation as part of the revolutionary reforms.
Under British colonial rule, the eight-hour workday is enshrined in law in Indian factory legislation.
France consolidates the eight-hour workday into national legislation, as the culmination of decades of union struggle in Western Europe.
New Zealand was internationally regarded as a pioneer in labour rights, with laws such as the Factories Act and later labour mediation legislation that gradually enshrined the eight-hour working day. The country benefited from a relatively small, well-organised labour movement and a government that was open to social reform early on, making it a model for other English-speaking countries.