Today is Wednesday, May 4, the 124th day of 2022. There are 241 days left in the year.
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 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 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 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 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.
Today’s Birthdays: Katherine Jackson, matriarch of the Jackson musical family, is 92. Pulitzer Prize-winning political commentator George Will is 81. Singer Jackie Jackson (The Jacksons) is 71. Singer-actor Pia Zadora is 70. R&B singer Oleta Adams is 69. Country singer Randy Travis is 63. Comedian Ana Gasteyer is 55. Actor Will Arnett is 52. Sports reporter Erin Andrews is 44. Singer Lance Bass (‘N Sync) is 43.
