On April 9, 1942, Major General Edward P. King Jr. surrendered
at Bataan, Philippines, against General Douglas MacArthur’s
orders—and 78,000 troops (66,000 Filipinos and 12,000
Americans), the largest contingent of U.S. soldiers ever to
surrender, were taken captive by the Japanese.

The prisoners were at once led 55 miles from Mariveles, on
the southern end of the Bataan peninsula, to San Fernando,
on what became known as the “Bataan Death March.”

At least 600 Americans and 5,000 Filipinos died because of
the extreme brutality of their captors, who starved, beat and
kicked them on the way; those who became too weak to walk
were bayoneted.

Those who survived were taken by rail from San Fernando to
POW camps, where another 16,000 Filipinos and at least
1,000 Americans died from disease, mistreatment, and
starvation.

Prisoners photographed during the march. They have their hands tied behind their backs.

Bataan Death March Memorial featuring Filipino and
American soldiers at the Veterans Memorial Park in
Las Cruces, New Mexico.

              
MIKE  GRACIA    

   
Douglas MacArthur (26 January 1880 – 5 April 1964)

MacArthur died in Walter Reed Army Medical Center after
surgery on 5 April 1964, of primary biliary cholangitis at
age 84.

A riot brook out in Harlem when local residents suspect that a
Black boy has been beaten, and possibly killed, by a white
business owner. Although the rumors turn out to be false,
the riot highlighted the struggles of Harlem’s historically Black community against discrimination during the Great Depression.

At 12:18 p.m., a terrorist bomb exploded in a parking garage of
the World Trade Center in New York City, leaving a massive,
multi-story crater and causing the collapse of several steel-
reinforced concrete floors in the vicinity of the blast.

Although the terrorist bomb failed to critically damage the main
structure of the skyscrapers, six people were killed and more
than 1,000 were injured, many severe.

The World Trade Center itself suffered more than $500 million in
damage. After the attack, authorities evacuated 50,000 people
from the buildings, hundreds of whom were suffering from
smoke inhalation. The evacuation lasted the whole afternoon.

Operation Detachment, the U.S. Marines’ invasion of Iwo Jima, 
was launched. Iwo Jima was a barren Pacific island guarded
by Japanese artillery, but to American military minds, it was
prime real estate on which to build airfields to launch bombing
raids against Japan, only 660 miles away.