One this day, June 25, the first federal law relating to an 8-hour workday was signed by President Andrew Johnson in 1868. It provided that “eight hours shall consume a day’s work for all laborers, workmen and mechanics who may be employed by or on   behalf of the Government of the United States.”

The eight-hour day movement or 40-hour week movement, also known as the short-time movement, was a social movement to regulate the length of a working day, preventing excesses and abuses. It had its origins in the Industrial Revolution in Britain, where industrial production in large factories transformed working life.