Fourmies massacre

The Fourmies massacre was an event which happened on 1 May 1891 in Fourmies, in the French Nord department. Government troops fired on a peaceful demonstration of workers demanding an eight-hour workday. The troops' action against the workers, claiming "C'est les huit heures qu'il nous faut !" (it's the eight-hour day we need), killed nine people, including two children, and injured 35 people. With the Clichy affair, happening the same day, it was one of the events of this period where the social tensions reached their peak in France.