Today’s Highlights

On May 4, 1970, Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire on student demonstrators during an anti-war protest at Kent State University, killing four students and wounding nine others.

On this date

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.

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.”

2011: President Barack Obama said he had decided not to release death photos of Osama bin Laden because their graphic nature could incite violence and create national security risks. Officials told The Associated Press that the Navy SEALs who stormed bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan shot and killed him after they saw him appear to reach for a weapon.

2023: Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and three other members of the far-right extremist group were convicted of a plot to attack the U.S. Capitol in a desperate bid to keep Donald Trump in power after the Republican lost the 2020 presidential election. (Tarrio was later sentenced to 22 years in prison, but was pardoned by Trump on January 20, 2025, the first day of Trump’s second term in office.)

Today’s birthdays

Pulitzer Prize-winning political commentator George Will is 84. Actor Richard Jenkins is 78. Country singer Randy Travis is 66. Actor Will Arnett is 55. Rock musician Mike Dirnt is 53. Singer Lance Bass is 46.