Which U.S. president signed the law making Labor Day a federal holiday in 1894?

President Grover Cleveland signed the law making Labor Day a federal holiday in 1894.

Congress passed the federal Labor Day legislation during Cleveland’s second, nonconsecutive presidential term. Cleveland signed it on June 28, 1894, establishing the first Monday in September as the official date.

The law followed years of labor organizing and growing state-level recognition. It also came shortly after the Pullman Strike, a major nationwide railroad conflict that Cleveland’s administration had suppressed with federal troops. That timing made the new holiday politically significant, although the legislation had broader roots in the labor movement.

Cleveland is sometimes remembered mainly for the Pullman Strike, but his administration also signed the measure that gave Labor Day national legal status. The holiday had already been celebrated in many communities before becoming a federal observance.