On May 11, 1969, Hamburger Hill became the scene of an
intense and controversial battle during the Vietnam War.

Known to military planners as Hill 937 (a reference to its
height in meters), the solitary peak is located in the dense
jungles of the A Shau Valley of Vietnam, about a mile from
the border with Laos.

The Vietnamese referred to the hill as “the mountain of the
crouching beast.”

The purpose of the operation was to cut off North Vietnamese
infiltration from Laos and enemy threats to the cities of Hue
and Da Nang.

In Gearhart Mountain, Oregon, Mrs. Elsie Mitchell and five
neighborhood children were killed while attempting to drag
a Japanese balloon out of the woods.

They were the first and only known American civilians to be
killed in the continental United States during World War II.

The U.S. government eventually gave $5,000 in compensation
to Mitchell’s husband, and $3,000 each to the families of Edward
Engen, Sherman Shoemaker, Jay Gifford and Richard and Ethel
Patzke, the five slain children.

The explosive balloon found at Lakeview was a product of one
of only a handful of Japanese attacks against the continental
United States, which were conducted early in the war by
Japanese submarines and later by high-altitude balloons
carrying explosives or incendiaries.

The Fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, marked the end of the
Vietnam War and the surrender of South Vietnam to North
Vietnamese forces.

Following the rapid collapse of South Vietnamese defenses
(ARVN) during the 1975 Spring Offensive, North Vietnamese
tanks entered the capital, and President Duong Van Minh
surrendered unconditionally.

On April 29, 1945, the U.S. Seventh Army liberated the
Dachau concentration camp, the first and longest-
running camp established by the Nazi regime.

The liberation was carried out by three primary units:
the 42nd Infantry Division (Rainbow Division), the
45th Infantry Division (Thunderbird Division), and
the 20th Armored Division.

On this day in April 28, 1967, boxing champion Muhammad
Ali refused to be inducted into the U.S. Army and was
immediately stripped of his heavyweight title.

Ali, a Muslim, cited religious reasons for his decision to
forgo military service.

The future three-time world champ changed his name
to Muhammad Ali in 1964 after converting to Islam.