Bloody Friday is the name of an event which occurred in Minneapolis, Minnesota on July 20, 1934, when police shot at truck drivers injuring 67 picketers and killing strikers John Belor and Henry Ness. This was one incident in the Minneapolis general strike of 1934, beginning May 20 and ending on August 22.
In 1940 the Aquatennial celebrations were created in the same third week of July as the first Bloody Friday had landed on, "to take the minds of Minneapolis citizens off past troubles and focus all minds throughout the state on some pleasant event."[1]