Today in History: May 4, four killed at Kent State
Today in History: May 4, four killed at Kent State
Ohio National Guardsmen throw tear gas at students across the campus lawn at Kent State University during an anti-Vietnam War demonstration at the university on May 4, 1970. The Guard killed four students and wounded nine. (AP Photo)
Members of an interracial group pose in Washington, with a map of a route they plan to take to test segregation in bus terminal restaurants and rest rooms in the South, May 4, 1961. From left are: Edward Blankenheim, Tucson, Ariz.; James Farmer, New York City; Genevieve Hughes, Chevy Chase, Md.; the Rev. B. Elton Cox, High Point, N.C., and Henry Thomas, St. Augustine, Fla. They are all members of the Congress of Racial Equality, the organization sponsoring the trip. (AP Photo/Byron Rollins)
Blind Chinese legal activist Chen Guangcheng arrives at Washington Square Village on the campus of New York University, Saturday, May 19, 2012, in New York. Chen escaped from his village in April and was given sanctuary inside the U.S. Embassy after seven years of prison and house arrest. He is planning to study law at NYU. But before that, he says he is planning to spend time recuperating. (AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams)
FILE - Smoke rises from the Azovstal steel mill in Mariupol, in territory under the government of the Donetsk People’s Republic, eastern Ukraine, May 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Alexei Alexandrov, File)
Ohio National Guardsmen throw tear gas at students across the campus lawn at Kent State University during an anti-Vietnam War demonstration at the university on May 4, 1970. The Guard killed four students and wounded nine. (AP Photo)
Ohio National Guardsmen throw tear gas at students across the campus lawn at Kent State University during an anti-Vietnam War demonstration at the university on May 4, 1970. The Guard killed four students and wounded nine. (AP Photo)
Members of an interracial group pose in Washington, with a map of a route they plan to take to test segregation in bus terminal restaurants and rest rooms in the South, May 4, 1961. From left are: Edward Blankenheim, Tucson, Ariz.; James Farmer, New York City; Genevieve Hughes, Chevy Chase, Md.; the Rev. B. Elton Cox, High Point, N.C., and Henry Thomas, St. Augustine, Fla. They are all members of the Congress of Racial Equality, the organization sponsoring the trip. (AP Photo/Byron Rollins)
Members of an interracial group pose in Washington, with a map of a route they plan to take to test segregation in bus terminal restaurants and rest rooms in the South, May 4, 1961. From left are: Edward Blankenheim, Tucson, Ariz.; James Farmer, New York City; Genevieve Hughes, Chevy Chase, Md.; the Rev. B. Elton Cox, High Point, N.C., and Henry Thomas, St. Augustine, Fla. They are all members of the Congress of Racial Equality, the organization sponsoring the trip. (AP Photo/Byron Rollins)
Blind Chinese legal activist Chen Guangcheng arrives at Washington Square Village on the campus of New York University, Saturday, May 19, 2012, in New York. Chen escaped from his village in April and was given sanctuary inside the U.S. Embassy after seven years of prison and house arrest. He is planning to study law at NYU. But before that, he says he is planning to spend time recuperating. (AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams)
Blind Chinese legal activist Chen Guangcheng arrives at Washington Square Village on the campus of New York University, Saturday, May 19, 2012, in New York. Chen escaped from his village in April and was given sanctuary inside the U.S. Embassy after seven years of prison and house arrest. He is planning to study law at NYU. But before that, he says he is planning to spend time recuperating. (AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams)
FILE - Smoke rises from the Azovstal steel mill in Mariupol, in territory under the government of the Donetsk People’s Republic, eastern Ukraine, May 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Alexei Alexandrov, File)
FILE - Smoke rises from the Azovstal steel mill in Mariupol, in territory under the government of the Donetsk People’s Republic, eastern Ukraine, May 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Alexei Alexandrov, File)
Today’s Highlight in History:
On May 4, 1970, Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire during an anti-war protest at Kent State University, killing four students and wounding nine others.
On this date:
In 1776, Rhode Island declared its freedom from England, two months before the Declaration of Independence was adopted.
In 1886, at Haymarket Square in Chicago, a labor demonstration for an 8-hour work day turned into a deadly riot when a bomb exploded.
In 1904, the United States took over construction of the Panama Canal from the French.
In 1932, mobster Al Capone, convicted of income-tax evasion, entered the federal penitentiary in Atlanta. (Capone was later transferred to Alcatraz Island.)
In 1942, the Battle of the Coral Sea, the first naval clash fought entirely with carrier aircraft, began in the Pacific during World War II. (The outcome was considered a tactical victory for Japan, but ultimately a strategic one for the Allies.)
In 1945, during World War II, German forces in the Netherlands, Denmark and northwest Germany agreed to surrender.
In 1961, the first group of “Freedom Riders” left Washington, D.C., to challenge racial segregation on interstate buses and in bus terminals.
In 1998, Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski (kah-ZIHN’-skee) was given four life sentences plus 30 years by a federal judge in Sacramento, California, under a plea agreement that spared him the death penalty.
In 2001, Bonny Lee Bakley, wife of actor Robert Blake, was shot to death as she sat in a car near a restaurant in Los Angeles. (Blake, accused of Bakley’s murder, was acquitted in a criminal trial but found liable by a civil jury and ordered to pay damages.)
In 2006, a federal judge sentenced Zacarias Moussaoui (zak-uh-REE’-uhs moo-SOW’-ee) to life in prison for his role in the 9/11 attacks, telling the convicted terrorist, “You will die with a whimper.”
In 2011, President Barack Obama said he had decided not to release death photos of Osama bin Laden because their graphic nature could incite violence and create national security risks. Officials told The Associated Press that the Navy SEALs who’d stormed bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan shot and killed him after they saw him appear to lunge for a weapon.
In 2012, The U.S. and China outlined a tentative deal to send Chen Guangcheng (chehn gwahng-chung), a blind legal activist, to America for study and potentially bring a face-saving end to a delicate diplomatic crisis. (Chen left China on May 19, 2012.)
In 2017, Buckingham Palace announced that Queen Elizabeth II’s 95-year-old husband, Prince Philip, was retiring from royal duties.
In 2020, New York state reported more than 1,700 previously undisclosed coronavirus deaths at nursing homes and adult care facilities. Struggling fashion brand J.Crew became the first major retailer to file for bankruptcy protection since the start of the pandemic. Former Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula died at 90; he’d won more games than any other NFL coach.
In 2021, President Joe Biden set a new vaccination goal to deliver at least one shot to 70% of adult Americans by July Fourth. (The effort would fall short, with a 67% vaccination rate.) Crews in Mexico City untangled train carriages from the steel and concrete wreckage that fell onto a roadway a day earlier, killing 26 people.
In 2022, complaining that the West was “stuffing Ukraine with weapons,” Russia pounded railroad stations and other supply-line points across the country, as the European Union moved to further punish Moscow for the war by proposing a ban on oil imports, a crucial source of revenue. Heavy fighting also raged at the Azovstal steel mill in Mariupol. Donald Trump Jr., oldest son of former President Donald Trump, met with the congressional committee investigating the 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Comedian Dave Chappelle was tackled during a performance at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Security guards chased and overpowered the attacker.