On May 4, 1926, the Trade Union Congress called a General Strike in response to government plans to change the working conditions for coal miners. More than two million workers across Britain, including railwaymen, went on strike. The railway companies resorted to recruiting volunteers with no railway experience to act as train drivers and signalmen. These amateurs ran the risk of violence from strikers, and the Flying Scotsman was deliberately derailed in Northumberland. The strike lasted nine days, and the following year the government passed the Trade Disputes Act which outlawed the sympathetic strike action that had created the General Strike. File Photo courtesy The National Archives

Construction of the Panama Canal, looking north at Gold Hill, from the Cucaracha Slide ca. 1912. File Photo by Library of Congress/UPI

Ohio National Guardsmen watch from a distance as students gather in the commons late in the morning of May 4, 1970 to protest the war in Vietnam. Photo courtesy of Kent State University Archives | License Photo

The Ohio National Guard fire tear gas to disperse the crowd of students gathered on the commons, May 4, 1970 to protest the war in Vietnam. Photo courtesy of Kent State University Archives | License Photo

Students dive to the ground as the Guard fires on faculty and students, May 4, 1970 to protest the war in Vietnam. Photo courtesy of Kent State University Archives | License Photo

Today is Thursday, May 4, the 124th day of 2017 with 241 to follow.

The moon is waxing. Morning stars are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Uranus, and Neptune. Evening stars are Jupiter and Saturn.


Those born on this date are under the sign of Taurus. They include educator Horace Mann in 1796; English biologist/agnostic Thomas Huxley in 1825; American landscape painter Frederic Church in 1826; New York Roman Catholic Cardinal Francis Spellman in 1889; former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in 1928 (age 89); musician Maynard Ferguson in 1928; actor Audrey Hepburn in 1929; opera singer Roberta Peters in 1930; Katherine Jackson, matriarch of the singing Jackson family, in 1930 (age 87); guitarist Dick Dale in 1937 (age 80); novelist Robin Cook in 1940 (age 77); political commentator George Will in 1941 (age 76); singer Nickolas Ashford in 1941; Sigmund "Jackie" Jackson, member of the Jackson 5, in 1951 (age 66); singer Oleta Adams in 1953 (age 64); actor Pia Zadora in 1954 (age 63); country singer Randy Travis in 1959 (age 58); actor Ana Gasteyer in 1967 (age 50); actor Will Arnett in 1970 (age 47); sports reporter Erin Andrews in 1978 (age 39); pop singer Lance Bass in 1979 (age 38); professional golfer Rory McIlroy in 1989 (age 28).

On this date in history:

In 1494, on his second expedition to the New World, Columbus discovered Jamaica.

In 1886, four police officers were killed when a bomb was thrown during a meeting of anarchists in Chicago's Haymarket Square protesting labor unrest. Four leaders of the demonstration, which became known as the Haymarket Square Riot, were convicted and hanged.

In 1904, construction began on the Panama Canal.

RELATED Students remember 1970 Kent State shooting

In 1926, the Trade Union Congress called a General Strike in response to government plans to change the working conditions for coal miners. More than two million workers across Britain went on strike.

In 1942, the Battle of the Coral Sea began. It was a turning point for the Allies in World War II, with Japan losing 39 ships and the United States one.

In 1945, French author Marcel Conversy wrote of the 15 months he spent as a prisoner at Buchenwald concentration camp, describing it as a "living hell."

In 1953, "The Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

In 1959, the first Grammy Awards were presented. "Nel Blu Dipinto di Blu (Volare)" by Domenico Modugno won the awards for Record and Song of the Year.

In 1970, National Guardsmen killed four students at Kent State University in Ohio during a demonstration against the Vietnam War. The shootings set off a nationwide student strike that forced hundreds of schools to temporarily close.

In 1980, President Joseph Broz Tito of Yugoslavia died at age 87.

In 1982, an Argentine jet fighter sank the British destroyer HMS Sheffield during the Falkland Islands war.

In 2000, the "I Love You" virus crashed computers around the world.

In 2006, confessed terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui was sentenced to life in prison without parole. The 37-year-old Moroccan implicated himself in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

In 2009, fighting between feuding families broke out at a wedding in southeast Turkey, with combatants using guns and grenades, leading to the deaths of 44 people, including the bride and groom.

In 2011, rival Palestinian political factions Hamas and Fatah signed a reconciliation accord, citing as common causes opposition to the Israeli occupation and disillusionment with U.S. peace efforts.

In 2013, a limousine carrying 10 people caught fire on a bridge over San Francisco Bay. Five women were killed.

In 2014, Juan Carlos Varela was elected president of Panama.

A thought for the day: Michel de Montaigne said, "There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees."