Today in History, May 4th:

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Highlights of this day in history: Deadly shootings at Kent State during the Vietnam War; Margaret Thatcher becomes Britain’s prime minister; Chicago’s Haymarket Riot; ‘Freedom Riders’ head South; Birth of the outfit behind the Oscars.

Among other notable May 4th events:

1871 – The National Association, the first professional baseball league, opens its first season in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

1904 – Construction begins by the United States on the Panama Canal.

1972 – The Don’t Make A Wave Committee, a fledgling environmental organization founded in Canada in 1971, officially changes its name to “Greenpeace Foundation”.

1988 – The PEPCON disaster rocks Henderson, Nevada, as tons of space shuttle fuel detonates during a fire.

1989 – Iran-Contra Affair: Former White House aide Oliver North is convicted of three crimes and acquitted of nine other charges. The convictions, however, are later overturned on appeal.

1994 – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat sign a peace accord regarding Palestinian autonomy granting self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.

1998 – A federal judge in Sacramento, California, gives “Unabomber” Theodore Kaczynski four life sentences plus 30 years after Kaczynski accepts a plea agreement sparing him from the death penalty.