Today in history

May 9
1933

First Nazi-inspired mass public book-burning, Germany

1967
In April, Muhammad Ali refused induction into the U.S. Army due to his religious convictions. He angered many Americans after claiming, “I ain’t got no quarrel with those Vietcong.” He was stripped of his heavyweight boxing title and his license to fight.
In June, a court found him guilty of draft evasion, fined him $10,000, and sentenced him to five years in prison. He remained free, pending numerous appeals, but was still barred from fighting.

1969
The New York Times revealed the United States had been secretly bombing Cambodia–officially a noncombatant, neutral country during the Vietnam War.

1970
Five days after the Kent State killings, 100,000 marched in Washington, DC against the Vietnam War. About 600 Canadian protesters defaced the Peace Arch at the U.S.-Canadian border in Blaine, Washington.

1979
At least 18 demonstrators were killed and many wounded after police opened fire on anti-government protesters outside the Metropolitan Cathedral in San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador.

Read more.
CBS reporter: “The police continued to fire as bodies piled up on the cathedral steps”

1993
Network for deserters & conscientious objectors from former Yugoslavia established, Salzburg, Austria.

1999
Chinese people protest at U.S. embassies in Beijing & around the world after the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade is hit in a bungled NATO airstrike.