Today in History

Student anti-war protesters at Ohio’s Kent State University burn down the campus ROTC building. The National Guard takes control of campus.

The U.S. Army attacks Nhi Ha in South Vietnam and begins a fourteen-day battle to wrestle it away from Vietnamese Communists.

Prisoners revolt at California’s Alcatraz prison.

Russian forces take Berlin after 12 days of fierce house-to-house fighting.

Admiral Chester J. Nimitz, convinced that the Japanese will attack Midway Island, visits the island to review its readiness.

Hostilities break out between British forces in Iraq and that country’s pro-German faction.

Lieutenants Oakley Kelly and John Macready take off from New York for the West Coast on what will become the first successful nonstop transcontinental flight.

Satyajit Ray, Indian film director (Aparajito, The World of Apu).

The first U.S. air passenger service starts.

Benjamin Spock, pediatrician, author and activist.

Lorenz Milton Hart, lyricist, collaborator with Richard Rodgers.

Manfred von Richthofen (the Red Baron), German fighter ace of World War I.

The Territory of Oklahoma is created.

King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo Free State.

Vernon Castle, ballroom dancer.

Jesse Lazear, American physician and researcher of yellow fever.

President Andrew Johnson offers a $100,000 reward for the capture of the Confederate President

Stonewall Jackson smashes Joseph Hooker’s flank at Chancellorsville, Virginia.

William Maddock Bayliss, British physiologist, co-discoverer of hormones.

Henry Martyn Robert, parliamentarian (Robert’s Rules of Order).

Napoleon defeats a Russian and Prussian army at Grossgorschen.

The citizens of Madrid rise up against Napoleon.

The black General Toussaint Louverture forces British troops to agree to evacuate the port of Santo Domingo.

A mutiny in the British navy spreads from Spithead to the rest of the fleet.

France and Spain agree to donate arms to American rebels fighting the British.

Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle ends the War of Devolution in France.

Catherine II, Czarina of Russia.

The Hudson Bay Company is founded.

Henry IV signs Treaty of Vervins, ending Spain’s interference in France.