Today in History

Osama Bin Laden is killed in Abbottabad Pakistan by US Navy SEALS in Operation Neptune Spear.

The Tass News Agency reports the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident.

Students from Kent State University riot in downtown Kent, Ohio, in protest of the American invasion of Cambodia.

In the second day of battle, U.S. Marines, with the support of naval fire, continue their attack on a North Vietnamese Division at Dai Do.

Fidel Castro announces there will be no more elections in Cuba.

Francis Gary Powers’ U-2 spy plane is shot down over Russia.

Gwendolyn Brooks becomes the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for her book of poetry called Annie Allen.

North Korea is established.

Martin Bormann, private secretary to Adolf Hitler, escapes the Führerbunker as the Red Army advances on Berlin.

The Messerschmitt Me 262, the first combat jet, makes its first flight.

The film Citizen Kane—directed by and starring Orson Welles—opens in New York.

Bobbie Ann Mason, American writer (Shiloh and Other Stories, In Country).

President Franklin Roosevelt signs an act of neutrality, keeping the United States out of World War II.

The Philippine legislature accepts a U.S. proposal for independence.

The Empire State Building opens in New York.