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.

DAVID MELENDY
   

African American taxi driver Rodney King was severely beaten by
Los Angeles police officers on this day in 1991 during an arrest 
that followed a pursuit through the streets of Los Angeles. The
scene was captured on amateur video, one of the first police 
brutality videos of its kind. It forever changed the conversation
about police and race in America.

National Guardsmen patrol Los Angeles during the rioting after the acquittal of officers involved in the beating of Rodney King.

The first issue of Time magazine was published on this day in 1923
by Briton Hadden and Henry Luce. It was the first weekly news
magazine in the United States. The distinctive red border for which
the magazine has come to be known was lacking. On the cover
was the now-obscure Joseph G. Cannon, former House Speaker.
.

SANDY KOZEL

On this day in 1993, U.S. Federal agents raided the compound of an armed religious cult in Waco, TX. The ATF had planned to arrest the 
leader of the Branch Davidians, David Koresh (below) on firearms 
charges. Four agents and six Davidians were killed and a 51-day 
standoff followed.  

David Koresh (Vernon Wayne Howel)  
(August 17, 1959 – April 19, 1993)

BRIAN THOMAS

In Milwaukee on this day in 1992, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was sentenced to life in prison. He was later sentenced to a 16th term
of life imprisonment for an additional homicide committed in Ohio
in 1978. On November 28 of 1994, he was beaten to death in prison
by Christopher Scarver (below), a fellow inmate at the Columbia Correctional Institution.

Michael Jeffrey Jordan is 56 years old today.

Former high-flying Chicago Bulls shooting guard is considered by many to
be the greatest basketball player of all-time. He was a 6-time NBA champion,
6-time NBA Finals MVP, and 5-time NBA MVP. He didn’t make the varsity
squad as a sophomore at Emsley A. Laney High School in Wilmington, North Carolina because he was only 5’11".  MJ is currently the principal owner and chairman of the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets.

Here’s “Air Jordan” in Portland, Oregon.