On May 4, 1776, Rhode Island declared its freedom from England.

In 1886, at Haymarket Square in Chicago, a labor demonstration for an 8-hour workday turned into a deadly riot when a bomb exploded.

In 1904, the United States took over construction of the Panama Canal.

In 1961, the first group of “Freedom Riders” left Washington, D.C., to challenge racial segregation on interstate buses.

In 1970, Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire during an anti-war protest at Kent State University, killing four students and wounding nine others.

In 2001, Bonny Lee Bakley, wife of actor Robert Blake, was shot to death as she sat in a car in Los Angeles.

In 2020, New York state reported more than 1,700 previously undisclosed coronavirus deaths at nursing homes.