TIM MAGUIRE

On this day in 1963, a bomb explodes during Sunday morning services in
the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four young
girls.

With its large African-American congregation, the 16th Street Baptist Church
served as a meeting place for civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr.,
who once called Birmingham a “symbol of hardcore resistance to integration.” Alabama’s governor, George Wallace, made preserving racial segregation one
of the central goals of his administration. Birmingham had one of the most
violent and lawless chapters of the Ku Klux Klan.

    2001

On this day in 1950 During the Korean War, U.S. Marines land at Inchon on
the west coast of Korea, 100 miles south of the 38th parallel and just 25 miles
from Seoul. The location had been criticized as too risky, but U.N. Supreme Commander Douglas MacArthur (below) insisted on carrying out the landing.

General Douglas MacArthur (center) observes the shelling of
lightly defended Incheon from the U.S. Navy amphibious force
command ship USS Mount McKinley.