TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

1970

Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire during an anti-war protest at Kent State University, killing four students and wounding nine others.

ALSO ON THIS DATE 1626

Dutch explorer Peter Minuit landed on present-day Manhattan Island.

1916

Responding to a demand from President Woodrow Wilson, Germany agreed to limit its submarine warfare.

1932

Mobster Al Capone, convicted of income-tax evasion, entered the federal penitentiary in Atlanta.

1942

The Battle of the Coral Sea, the first naval clash fought entirely with carrier aircraft, began in the Pacific during World War II.

1945

During World War II, German forces in the Netherlands, Denmark and northwest Germany agreed to surrender.

1959

The first Grammy Awards ceremony was held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Domenico Modugno won Record of the Year and Song of the Year for “Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu”; Henry Mancini won Album of the Year for “The Music from Peter Gunn.”

1961

The first group of “Freedom Riders” left Washington, D.C. to challenge racial segregation on interstate buses and in bus terminals.

1968

The Oroville Dam in Northern California was dedicated by Gov. Ronald Reagan; the 770-foot-tall earth-filled structure, a pet project of Reagan’s predecessor, Pat Brown, remains the tallest dam in the United States, but was also the scene of a near disaster in February 2017when two spillways collapsed, threatening for a time to flood parts of three counties in the Sierra Nevada foothills.