Today’s highlights in history
On May 1, 1992, on the third day of the Los Angeles riots, a visibly shaken Rodney King appeared in public to appeal for calm, pleading, “Can we all get along?”
On this date
In 1866, three days of race-related rioting erupted in Memphis, Tenn., as white mobs targeted blacks, 46 of whom were killed, along with two whites. (The violence spurred passage of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution defining American citizenship and equal protection under the law.)
In 1931, New York’s 102-story Empire State Building was dedicated.
In 1941, the Orson Welles motion picture “Citizen Kane” premiered in New York.
In 1960, the Soviet Union shot down an American U-2 reconnaissance plane over Sverdlovsk and captured its pilot, Francis Gary Powers.
In 1967, Elvis Presley married Priscilla Beaulieu at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas. (They divorced in 1973.)
In 2011, President Barack Obama announced the death of Osama bin Laden during a U.S. commando operation (because of the time difference, it was early May 2 in Pakistan, where the al-Qaida leader met his end).
Ten years ago: Thousands of people protested across the country to demand a path to citizenship for an estimated 12 million people living in the U.S. without legal permission.
Five years ago: Hundreds of activists across the U.S. joined worldwide May Day protests, with Occupy Wall Street members in several cities leading demonstrations and in some cases clashing with police.
One year ago: Elephants performed for the last time at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in Providence, R.I.