Adam John Walsh, age 6,was abducted from a mall in Hollywood,
Florida, and later found murdered. In the aftermath of the crime,
Adam’s father, John Walsh (below) became a leading victims’
rights activist and host of the long-running television show
America’s Most Wanted (Feb. 7, 1988 – present) on Fox.

ROSS SIMPSON

Jerry Lewis (Joseph Levitch)
(March 16, 1926 – August 20, 2017)

ED DANAHUE

Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.)
(January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968)

The body of aviation hero Charles Lindbergh’s baby is found on May 12,
1932, more than two months after he was kidnapped from his family’s
Hopewell, New Jersey, mansion.

Lindbergh, who became the first worldwide celebrity five years earlier
when he flew The Spirit of St. Louis across the Atlantic, and his wife
Anne discovered a ransom note in their 20-month-old child’s empty
room on March 1. The kidnapper had used a ladder to climb up to the
open second-floor window and had left muddy footprints in the room
and in barely legible English, the ransom note demanded $50,000.

The crime captured the attention of the entire nation. The Lindbergh
family was inundated by offers of assistance and false clues. Even
Al Capone offered his help from prison, though it of course was
conditioned on his release. For three days, investigators had
found nothing and there was no further word from the kidnappers.

Then, a new letter showed up, this time demanding $70,000.

Charles Augustus Lindbergh
(February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974)

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.