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Today in History, May 4th

On May 4, 1970, Ohio National Guard troops killed four students at Kent State. Plus the Haymarket bombing and Thatcher's first day as prime minister.

By Today in History Updated November 10, 2026 3 min read Sources checked

Published May 4, 2026 · Last updated November 10, 2026

May 4 is best known for 1970, when Ohio National Guard troops opened fire on protesters at Kent State University, killing four students. The same date saw the Haymarket bombing in Chicago in 1886 and Margaret Thatcher take office as Britain’s first woman prime minister in 1979.

The big story: Shootings at Kent State (1970)

In the spring of 1970, students across the country were protesting the Vietnam War and the U.S. invasion of neighboring Cambodia. At Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, protests turned into rioting, and on May 2 the National Guard was sent in. Classes resumed on May 4, but so did the protests. By noon about 2,000 people had gathered on campus despite a ban on rallies. Guardsmen ordered them to leave, fired tear gas and advanced with bayonets fixed. Then, without a warning shot, some troops fired more than 60 rounds toward students in a nearby parking lot. Four students were killed and nine wounded; some victims were as far as 250 yards away. Protests spread to campuses across the country, and photos from that day became lasting images of the antiwar era. In 1974, a federal court dismissed charges against eight Guardsmen.

More events on May 4

Year	What happened
1776	Rhode Island became the first of the 13 colonies to renounce its allegiance to King George III, two months before the Declaration of Independence.
1865	Abraham Lincoln was buried in Springfield, Illinois, after a funeral train carried his body through 180 cities in seven states. His son Willie, who died in 1862, was reburied beside him.
1886	Someone threw a bomb at police breaking up a labor rally in Chicago’s Haymarket Square. The blast and the gunfire that followed left more than a dozen people dead. Eight men were later convicted in a controversial trial.
1919	More than 3,000 students in Beijing protested the peace conference’s decision to hand Germany’s former rights in Shandong province to Japan, launching China’s May Fourth Movement.
1959	At the first Grammy Awards, Ella Fitzgerald won two awards, becoming the first Black woman to win a Grammy.
1961	Thirteen Freedom Riders organized by the Congress of Racial Equality left Washington, D.C., by bus to challenge segregation in interstate travel across the South.
1979	Margaret Thatcher took office as Britain’s first female prime minister, the day after her Conservatives won a general election.
1994	Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat reached an agreement in Cairo on the first stage of Palestinian self-rule, in Gaza and Jericho.
2000	Ken Livingstone was elected mayor of London, the first person in Britain directly elected to an executive office.

Born on May 4

1796: Horace Mann, education reformer, born in Franklin, Massachusetts.
1826: Frederic Edwin Church, Hudson River school landscape painter, born in Hartford, Connecticut.
1929: Audrey Hepburn, film star of Roman Holiday and Sabrina, born near Brussels, Belgium.
1958: Keith Haring, pop artist, born in Reading, Pennsylvania.