National Guard Murders Four Students at Kent State

On this day in US history, National Guardsmen who were called in to keep the peace at an anti-war protest on Kent State’s campus killed four students and wounded nine on May 4, 1970. The tragedy was a watershed moment for a nation divided by the conflict in Vietnam, and it then further galvanized the anti-war movement. A federal court would drop the charges against eight of the National Guardsmen.