TODAY IN HISTORY
Christopher Columbus presented his plan to Spain’s Queen Isabela I for a sea voyage to seek a western route to Asia.
1486: 1866: The Memphis massacre of 1866 began as a white mob – including police officers – attacked Black residents, killing 46 and injuring and robbing others, and destroying many buildings including homes, churches and schools.
1893: The World’s Columbian Exposition, AKA the Chicago World’s Fair, opened to the public. Inventions, devices and foods that were introduced or touted at
In other developments: the fair included a moving walkway, the Ferris wheel, an electric vehicle, Juicy Fruit gum and peanut butter.
1898: In the first major battle of the Spanish-American War, the U.S. destroyed the Spanish Pacific fleet in Manila Bay in the Philippines.
1915: As World War I engulfed Europe,
Biden administration was monitoring the escalating protests on U.S. campuses. “The president believes that forcibly taking over a building on campus is absolutely the wrong approach. That is not an example of peaceful protests,” Kirby said at a briefing.
White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement that Biden respects freedom of expression but believes protests must be lawful. “Forcibly taking over buildings is not peaceful, it is wrong. And hate speech and hate symbols have no place in America,” Bates said.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, speaking at a Senate budget hearing Tuesday morning, said, “What's happening on our campuses is abhorrent.”
Cardona said his agency has more than 100 pending civil rights investigations concerning allegations of discrimination, including antisemitic and antiMuslim harassment, at Columbia. “Hate has no place on our campuses and I'm very concerned with the reports of antisemitism,” he said.
In recent days, Republican lawmakers have floated the idea of pulling the Manhattan university's federal funding for failing to comply with federal antidiscrimination laws. Experts say that's highly unlikely. the International Congress of Women met in The Hague, Netherlands, and adopted resolutions on peace and women’s suffrage. They said international disputes should be resolved peacefully (calling for continuing mediation by neutral nations in the current conflict), and that women should be given the right to vote.
35 arrested at Northern California university
California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, said Tuesday its campus will be closed until May 10 as law enforcement began “a series of actions to restore order.” Two buildings were cleared and secured, and 35 people were arrested, the school said in a statement.
Protesters for more than a week had occupied Siemans Hall, an administrative building that includes the president's office, renaming it “Intifada Hall.” The school dismissed freedom of expressions claims of the protesters, calling their actions “criminal activity.”
“This is a difficult day, it breaks my heart to see it, and truly nobody wanted to see things come to this,” said school president Tom Jackson.
The statement said the school made repeated efforts to resolve the situation and that “this morning's enforcement action was determined to be necessary to restore order and to address the lawlessness and dangerous conditions that had developed.”