May the Fourth be With You

2 Trilogies of Things Rather More Important Than Star Wars

"On this day in 1977, Star Wars was released to cinemas!" No, that happened on 25 May.
"Oh, so Empire Strikes Back was--" No, 6 May in the UK, 25 May in the US. And before you say it, none of the Star Wars films have seen a release of 4 May anywhere in the world. The only reason this is considered "Star Wars Day" is because it sounds like you said "May the Force be With You" with a lisp.

But, that isn't going to stop you spending the rest of the day marinating in Star Wars hell. Before you go off and rabidly consume as much of the ballooning roster of Star Wars content as you can pack into a 16-hour period, here are some things that I consider to be rather more important that happened on this day in history.

1970

Let's start with the big one. The Kent State massacre, perpetrated by the Ohio National Guard against an otherwise peaceful sit-in protest against Richard Nixon's inexplicable push into Cambodia during the Vietnam War, occurred today. Four students were killed— Jeffrey Miller, Allison Krause, William Schroeder, and Sandra Scheuer— and 9 were injured— Joseph Lewis, John Cleary, Thomas Grace, Alan Canfora, Dean Kahler, Douglas Wrentmore, James Russell, Robert Stamps, and Donald McKenzie, with Dean Kahler being rendered paraplegiac. It bears mentioning that none of the casualties were actually part of the protest. According to Gerald Casale (later the frontman of proto-punk and new-wave group, Devo), who had been talking to Allison Krause up to the point the shots were fired and saw her die, the newspapers in Kent and nearby Akron ran intentionally-misleading stories about "four guardsmen shot dead by students", leading the police chief of Akron to deputise people who would ride around town in their Chevys with shotguns hanging out the windows, looking for students to shoot in retaliation. In the aftermath, it galvanised the national opinion about the Vietnam war and effectively brought an end to the counterculture movement of the 1960s. It was the corporate feudal state loudly proclaiming for all to hear, "dissent will not be tolerated". So, just in case you thought Trump's authoritarian shitshow was anything new, it's been going on at least as long as the Nixon administration. Dispersal of peaceful protests by deadly force is as American as baseball and Agent Orange.

2007

Well, and tornadoes as well, I suppose. The most significant tornado in the May 4th-May 6th 2007 Tornado outbreak hit the town of Greensburg in Kiowa County, Kansas. At its widest point, the tornado was 1.7 miles in width with a Doppler radar-estimated wind speed of 205 mph. Entering Greensburg at 21:51 local time, it effected 95% destruction of the entire town, killing 10 people immediately and injuring 2 others seriously enough for them to die later. The initial severe weather outlook for the area having been fairly low, it was estimated that the tornado's body count would have been substantially higher had it not been for advances in dual-polarisation Doppler radar systems which allowed the Dodge City NWS office to issue the tornado warning nearly 40 minutes ahead of time and a tornado emergency statement for Greensburg 10 minutes ahead of time.

1961

Getting back to the Civil Rights Movement, the inaugural journey of the Freedom Riders, a group of American activists who tested the compliance with the Supreme Court ruling in Boynton v. Virginia on Greyhound and American Trailways interstate busses, set off from Washington D.C. to New Orleans, Louisiana. The picture shown here did not occur on this particular voyage, actually taking place in Birmingham, Alabama, on 14 May 1961. The point of the rides were to demonstrate hostility and discrimination against Black people in the United States Deep South irrespective of the Supreme Court decision that statutory race-based discrimination was unconstitutional. This kind of scene was fairly common, inasmuch as the police in the areas tended to be associated with the Ku Klux Klan in some way. Thus, large mobs of white men were typically to be found either awaiting the arrival of a Freedom Rider bus or intercepting one at an unscheduled stop. Don't misunderstand: the mob in this photo might be wearing spats, tucked teeshirts, and trilbies, but scenes of this type are still commonly found, not just in the Deep South anymore, and not just against Black people anymore. Nex Benedict's final moments occurred at the hands and feet of a lynch mob very much like this one.

Other events

1945. The Nazis sign an instrument of surrender at at Luneburg Heath near Hamburg, leading up to the final surrender and subsequent dismantling of the German Nationalist Party.

1979. Margaret Thatcher (aka. British Ronald Reagan) becomes prime minister of the United Kingdom. Under her auspices, Vietnamese immigration was limited, the Community Charge was introduced, and, oh yes, The Troubles were made worse by her refusal to negotiate with anyone. I know I'm not doing it justice because I'm just an American trying to summarise entire Wikipedia articles in 25 seconds or less.

2009. I began my 2-weeks-long exile as a high school senior whose grades did not permit her to graduate. I have never been closer to suicide than I was that first day back, knowing the rest of my class was now preparing for college and counting their scholarships. I understandably snapped at Mr. Kiplinger when he said, "you don't need to be here, graduation was last week". Do you think that I do not know this? Take 3 wild fucking guesses as to why I'm still hanging around this god forsaken place.