Workers applying stucco to a wall of a new building

© Ognian Medarov/500px

Workers applying stucco to a wall of a new building

The unofficial end of summer has arrived. (Don’t break out the pumpkin spice coffee yet. Science says we have a couple more weeks.) Labor Day in the US traces back to the late 1800s, when unions began to form in an effort to protect workers’ rights. As the idea of a day set aside to celebrate working men and women caught hold, states began to declare it an official holiday. By 1894, appealing to workers’ votes in his bid for reelection, President Grover Cleveland made it a federal holiday. He lost. So if you have the day off, thank those 19th-century activists who made it possible.