Labor Day in September 1882. In connection with this clandestine Knights assembly, a public parade of various labor organizations was held on September 5 under the auspices of the Central Labor Union (CLU) of New York. Secretary of the CLU Matthew Maguire is credited for first proposing that a national Labor Day holiday subsequently be held on the first Monday of each September in the aftermath of this successful public demonstration. An alternative thesis is maintained that the idea of Labor Day was the brainchild of Peter J. McGuire, a vice president of the American Federation of Labor, who put forward the
On the First Warm Day discs to 19 cents by early August. Rosemary Clooney recorded "First Warm Day" one month before her 24th birthday. At about the same time, the veteran performer from the previous generation for whom the song was written, 52-year-old Mabel Mercer (who first sang one of Bart Howard's compositions in 1938 and employed him as her piano accompanist during the late 1940s), recorded the song for issue on an Atlantic Records EP. It was also included on her first 10" Atlantic LP album, "Songs by Mabel Mercer, Vol. 1" (1953), and subsequently reappeared on Atlantic's double 12" LP album, "The Art