World and national events 50 years ago.
On May 1, U.S. and South Vietnamese troops moved against North Vietnamese forces in Cambodia. Protests against the action began on college campuses later the same day.
An estimated 500 students at Kent State University, following protests against the Cambodia incursion, went into Kent, Ohio, on May 2 and smashed windows of local businesses and cars. Five police officers were injured and 14 students arrested before the crowd was dispersed at 3 am by tear gas. Later the same day, a group of about 600 protestors set fire to the ROTC building on the Kent State campus, prompting the Kent mayor to request Ohio National Guard troops.
Four college students were shot and killed by Ohio National Guardsmen on the Kent State campus on May 4. At around noon, Guardsmen fired tear gas into a crowd of about 500 protestors. Some protestors threw rocks and threw back tear gas canisters at Guardsmen. At 12:24 pm, an estimated 28 Guardsmen fired 61 shots within 13 seconds.
Twenty-seven members of the U.S. Army 101st Airborne Division were killed by North Vietnamese troops on May 6 when NVN troops overran their base 16 miles south of the DMZ.
The New York Knicks won their first National Basketball Association championship on May 8, defeating the Los Angeles Lakers, 113-99, in game seven at Madison Square Garden. Knicks center Willis Reed, despite a muscle tear in his thigh suffered four days earlier and with medication helping to reduce the pain, started the game and played almost the first half.
An estimated 100,000 people gathered in Washington, D.C., on May 9 to protest U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia. Early that morning, before dawn, President Richard Nixon, accompanied only by Secret Service agents, made an unannounced visit to the Lincoln Memorial and later spoke to protestors gathered there. “Go shout your slogans on the Ellipse,” he told them. “Just keep it peaceful.”
The Boston Bruins won their first Stanley Cup since 1941 on May 10. Bobby Orr scored his iconic goal 40 seconds into overtime to beat the St. Louis Blues, 4-3, and sweep the series.
In the second day of demonstrations at predominately black Jackson State College (Miss.), state law enforcement officers poured an estimated 150 rounds into upper floors of a campus dormitory and into a crowd of demonstrators on May 15, killing two and wounding 12.
An estimated 150,000 people gathered in New York City’s Hall Park on May 20 to support U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia.
A programmable desktop computer was sold for the first time on May 25 when the Computer Terminal Company (CTC) sold 40 Datapoint 2200 machines to General Mills. The original Datapoint could had an internal memory of eight kilobytes and could store data on cassette tapes with 130 kilobyte capacity. Most computers were leased to customers at a current equivalent of $1,100 a month.
The National League of Pow/MIA Families was founded on May 28 by a group of wives of U.S. servicemen listed as prisoners of war or missing in action. The emblem of the organization continues to fly over many governmental installations.
