Today in History

Ohio National Guardsmen open fire on student protesters at Kent State University, killing four and wounding nine others.

13 civil rights activists, dubbed Freedom Riders, begin a bus trip through the South.

Graham Swift, British novelist (The Sweet Shop Owner, Out of this World).

The United States begins food rationing.

Amos Oz, Israeli novelist (The Black Box, TheThird State).

Mahatma Gandhi is arrested by the British.

Audrey Hepburn (Edda van Heemstra Hepburn-Ruston), actress, later U.N. special ambassador.

Thomas Kinsella, Irish poet.

A balloon soars over 40,000 feet for the first time.

Agnes Fay Morgan, American nutritionist and biochemist.

Frank Conrad, electrical engineer and broadcasting pioneer.

Union General Ulysses S. Grant‘s forces cross the Rapidan River and meet Robert E. Lee‘s Confederate army.

The Battle of Chancellorsville ends when Union Army retreats.

John Hanning Speke, English explorer.