ROSS SIMPSON

On this day in 1968, U.S.troops in Vietnam destroyed a village
consisting mostly of women and children. The event is known
as the My-Lai massacre.

Over 500 babies, children, women and men were slaughtered by American
soldiers. Many Vietnamese women and girls had been raped. Huts were
burned, livestock was killed, food supplies destroyed.

Twenty-six soldiers were charged with criminal offenses, but only one
Lieutenant William Calley Jr., a platoon leader in C Company, was
convicted. Found guilty of killing 22 villagers, he was originally given
a life sentence, but served only three and a half years under house
arrest.

William Laws Calley Jr. will be 76 on June 8.

This U.S. Army photo shows the aftermath of the Mỹ Lai Massacre 
with mostly women and children lying dead on a road.

The My Lai Massacre memorial site.

The Apr. 12, 1971, cover of TIME.

SANDY KOZEL

On this day in 44 BC, the assassination of Roman Emperor Julius
Caesar by many high ranking Roman Senators. The day is known 
as the "Ides of March."
 

A marble bust of Julius Caesar.

On this day in 1956, the Lerner and Loewe musical
"My Fair Lady" opened on Broadway.

Composer Frederick Loewe, left, and
lyricist Alan Jay Lerner, right.

The ballroom scene.

SANDY KOZEL

Eli Whitney received a patent for his cotton gin on this day in 1794.

Sir Michael Caine (Maurice Joseph Micklewhite) is 86 today.

Michael Caine is an English actor, producer and author. He has appeared in
more than 130 films in a career spanning 70 years and is considered a British
film icon.

1966

Quincy Delight Jones Jr. is also 86 day.

Quincy Jones is Influential record producer, arranger, and musician of
many film scores, classic albums, and hit songs. He is perhaps best
known for producing multiple albums by the great Michael Jackson,
including 1982’s Thriller and 1987’s Bad. In 2013, he was inducted into
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

MIKE GRACIA

The New York "Lantern" newspaper published the first "Uncle Sam cartoon" on this day in 1852 and quickly became the symbol of the
United States. The editorial cartoon, “Raising the Wind; or, Both
Sides of the Story,” was drawn by Frank Henry Bellew (below). It
was used in criticizing U.S. policies on shipping.

 

Frank Henry Temple Bellew
(April 18, 1828 – June 29, 1888)

The Dunblane school massacre took place at Dunblane Primary School (above) near Stirling, Stirlingshire, Scotland, on 13 March 1996, when Thomas Hamilton shot 16 children and one teacher dead before killing himself. It remains the deadliest mass shooting in British history
                                                                                                                                              

Public debate about the killings centered on gun control laws, including public petitions calling for a ban on private ownership of handguns and an official
inquiry, which produced the 1996 Cullen Reports. In response to this debate,
two new Firearms Acts were passed, which outlawed private ownership of
most handguns in Great Britain.

Thomas Watt Hamilton  (May 10, 1952 – March 13, 1996)

A memorial at the Dunblane primary school in Scotland, where a 43-
year-old former shopkeeper with four handguns stormed the school
gymnasium.