TODAY IN HISTORY

WEDNESDAY MAY 4, 2022

1970

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

1776

Rhode Island declared its freedom from England, two months before the Declaration of Independence was adopted.

1886

At Haymarket Square in Chicago, a labor demonstration for an 8-hour work day turned into a deadly riot when a bomb exploded.

1904

The United States took over construction of the Panama Canal from the French.

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.

1961

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

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.

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.

2006

A federal judge sentenced Zacarias Moussaoui to life in prison for his role in the 9⁄11 attacks, telling the convicted terrorist, “You will die with a whimper.”

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Katherine Jackson, matriarch of the Jackson musical family, is 92. Jazz musician Ron Carter is 85. Pulitzer Prize-winning political commentator George Will is 81. Pop singer Peggy Santiglia Davison (The Angels) is 78. Actor Richard Jenkins is 75. Country singer Stella Parton is 73. Actor-turned-clergyman Hilly Hicks is 72. Irish musician Darryl Hunt (The Pogues) is 72. Singer Jackie Jackson (The Jacksons) is

71. Singer-actor Pia Zadora is 70. R&B singer Oleta Adams is 69. Violinist Soozie Tyrell (Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band) is

65.