The Haymarket affair (also known as the Haymarket riot ) was a disturbance that began at a strike rally in Haymarket Square in Chicago on May 4, 1886. An unknown person threw a bomb at police as they dispersed the public meeting. The bomb blast and ensuing gunfire resulted in the deaths of eight police officers and an unknown number of civilians. In the internationally publicized legal proceedings that followed, eight anarchists were tried for murder. Four were put to death, and one committed suicide in prison.

The Haymarket affair is generally considered to have been an important influence on the origin of international May Day observances for workers. In popular literature, this event inspired the caricature of "a bomb-throwing anarchist." The causes of the incident are still controversial, although deeply polarized attitudes separating business and working class people in late 19th century Chicago are generally acknowledged as having precipitated the tragedy and its aftermath. The site of the incident was designated as a Chicago Landmark on March 25, 1992. The Haymarket Martyrs' Monument in nearby Forest Park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and as a National Historic Landmark on February 18, 1997. (read more...)

A 19th century depiction of a meeting of the Alþingi at Þingvellir.

19th century interpretation of the Althing in the Icelandic Commonwealth by W.G. Collingwood. Anarcho-capitalists such as David Friedman and Roderick Long consider Medieval Iceland to exemplify some features of an anarchist society.

• ...that the parents of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini gave him the middle name "Amilcare" in honour of the revolutionary anarchist Amilcare Cipriani (pictured)?
• ...that Lewis Call developed an account of post-anarchism based on the work of philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche and cyberpunks such as William Gibson?
• ...that John Turner was the first person to be ordered deported from the United States for violation of the 1903 Anarchist Exclusion Act?
• ...that Milly Witkop and her common-law husband Rudolf Rocker, both notable anarchist activists and writers, were rejected admission to the United States in 1898, because they refused to get legally married?
• ...that the anarcho-capitalist contingent of the Young Americans for Freedom was excommunicated from the group after one of them burned a draft card during the 1969 convention, an event credited with spawning the modern libertarian movement?

• 1874 – Spain: The Cantonal rebellion is brought to an end, with the surrender of Cartagena.
• 1894 – Anarchist armed insurrection in Lunigiana, Italy.
• 1894 – England: During this month the anarchist-communist monthly "Liberty" premiers in London. Founded by James Tochatti, the magazine runs until December 1896, its columns present a wide range of libertarian ideas, & articles by Louise Michel & Peter Kropotkin.
• 1909 – US: Emma Goldman lectures on "The Dissolution of Our Institutions" in San Francisco, California, followed by a statement by William Buwalda, a soldier court-martialed last year & recently pardoned by President Roosevelt. This event actually takes place without police interference.
• 1910 – Russia: Moishe Tokar, a young Russian Jewish anarchist who attempted to assassinate Hershelman, the hated military commander of the Vilna Fortress, is sentenced to death.
• 1924 – The originator of Epistemological anarchism, Paul Feyerabend was born in Vienna, Austria.

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