John Filo’s Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of Mary Ann Vecchio kneeling over the dead body of Jeffrey Miller
On this day in 1970, the Kent State shootings, also known as the May 4 massacre or the Kent State massacre, of unarmed college students by members of the Ohio National Guard at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, during a mass protest against the bombing of Cambodia by United States military forces. Twenty-eight guardsmen fired approximately 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds, killing four students and wounding nine others, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis. Those killed were: Jeffrey Glenn Miller, age 20; Allison B. Krause, age 19; William Knox Schroeder, age 19; Sandra Lee Scheuer, age 20.
Some of the students who were shot had been protesting against the Cambodian Campaign, which President Richard Nixon announced during a television address on April 30 of that year. Other students who were shot had been walking nearby or observing the protest from a distance.
There was a significant national response to the shootings: hundreds of universities, colleges, and high schools closed throughout the United States due to a student strike of 4 million students, and the event further affected public opinion, at an already socially contentious time, over the role of the United States in the Vietnam War.
The Final Footprint
Each May 4 from 1971 to 1975, the Kent State University administration sponsored an official commemoration of the shootings. Upon the university’s announcement in 1976 that it would no longer sponsor such commemorations, the May 4 Task Force, a group made up of students and community members, was formed for this purpose. The group has organized a commemoration on the university’s campus each year since 1976; events generally include a silent march around the campus, a candlelight vigil, a ringing of the Victory Bell in memory of those killed and injured, speakers (always including eyewitnesses and family members), and music.
On May 12, 1977, a tent city was erected and maintained for a period of more than 60 days by a group of several dozen protesters on the Kent State campus. The protesters, led by the May 4 Task Force but also including community members and local clergy, were attempting to prevent the university from erecting a gymnasium annex on part of the site where the shootings had occurred seven years earlier, which they believed would obscure the historical event. Law enforcement finally brought the tent city to an end on July 12, 1977, after the forced removal and arrest of 193 people. The event gained national press coverage and the issue was taken to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 1990, twenty years after the shootings, a memorial commemorating the events of May 4 was dedicated on the campus on a 2.5-acre (1.0 ha) site overlooking the University’s Commons where the student protest took place. Even the construction of the monument became controversial and, in the end, only 7% of the design was constructed. The memorial does not contain the names of those killed or wounded in the shooting; under pressure, the university agreed to install a plaque near it with the names.
In 1999, at the urging of relatives of the four students killed in 1970, the university constructed an individual memorial for each of the students in the parking lot between Taylor and Prentice halls. Each of the four memorials is located on the exact spot where the student fell, mortally wounded. They are surrounded by a raised rectangle of granite featuring six lightposts approximately four feet high, with each student’s name engraved on a triangular marble plaque in one corner.
On this day in 1975, actor and comedian and Stooge, Moe Howard died of lung cancer in Los Angeles, California just shy of his 78th birthday. Born Moses Harry Horwitz on 19 June 1897 in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn. The leader of The Three Stooges, the classic comedy team who stared in motion pictures and television for four decades. The original line up included Moe and his brother Shemp and Larry Fine. When Shemp left in 1932 he was replaced by another brother, Jerome who took the stage name, Curly. Shemp returned when Curly suffered a stroke in 1946. On 22 November 1955, Shemp died of a heart attack and was replaced by Joe Besser. Besser was eventually replaced by Joe DeRita who took the name Curly-Joe. Moe was married to Helen Schonberger (1925-1975 his death). He apparently was very romantic and wrote his wife hundreds of love poems. My kinda guy! The Three Stooges humour spans generations. One of my sons is a fan.
The Final Footprint – Howard is entombed in the Garden of Memories, Alcove of Love mausoleum at Hillside Memorial Park in Culver City, California. His wife Helen was entombed next to him when she passed away in later that year. Other notable Final Footprints at Hillside Memorial include; Jack Benny, Milton Berle, Neil Bogart, Cyd Charisse, Percy Faith, Lorne Greene, Al Jolson, Michael Landon, Leonard Nimoy, Suzanne Pleshette, Dinah Shore, Lupita Tovar, and Shelley Winters.
| Diana Dors | |
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 in I Married a Woman trailer, 1958 |
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On this day in 1984, actress and singer Diana Dors died from ovarian cancer in Windsor, Berkshire, England at the age of 52. Born Diana Mary Fluck on 23 October 1931 in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. She first came to public notice as a blonde bombshell in the style of American Marilyn Monroe, as promoted by her first husband, Dennis Hamilton, mostly via sex film-comedies and risqué modelling. After it turned out that Hamilton had been defrauding her, she continued to play up to her established image, and she made tabloid headlines with the parties reportedly held at her house. Later, she showed a genuine talent for TV, recordings, and cabaret, and gained new popularity as a regular chat-show guest.
Dors claimed to have left a large fortune to her son in her will, via a secret code in the possession of her third husband, actor Alan Lake, but after Lake’s suicide, this code was never found, and no money has ever been traced.
Dors was married three times:
- Dennis Hamilton Gittins (3 July 1951 – 3 January 1959, his death): married five weeks after meeting, at Caxton Hall; no children; lived in London, Berkshire, and Hollywood
- Richard Dawson (12 April 1959 – 1966, divorced): married in New York; two sons, Mark Dawson and Gary Dawson; lived in London, New York, and Hollywood
- Alan Lake (23 November 1968 – her death): married at Caxton Hall; one son, Jason Lake; lived at Orchard Manor, Sunningdale, Berkshire
In 1949, while filming Diamond City, she had a relationship with businessman Michael Caborn-Waterfield, the son of the Count Del-Colnaghi, who later founded the Ann Summerschain, which he named after his cousin/secretary. During the short relationship, Dors became pregnant, but Caborn-Waterfield paid for a back-street abortion, which took place on a kitchen table in Battersea. The relationship continued for a time, before Dors met Dennis Hamilton Gittins on the set of Lady Godiva Rides Again, with whom she had a second abortion in 1951.
During her relationship with Hamilton and until a few months before her death, Dors regularly held adult parties at her home. There, a number of celebrities, amply supplied with alcohol and drugs, mixed with young starlets against a background of both softcore and hardcore porn films. Dors gave all her guests full access to the entire house; her son Jason Lake later alleged in various media interviews and publications that she had equipped it with 8 mm movie cameras. The young starlets were made aware of the arrangements and were allowed to attend for free in return for making sure that their celebrity partners performed in bed at the right camera angles.
Dors became an early subject of the “celebrity exposé” tabloids, appearing regularly in the News of the World. In need of cash after her separation from Hamilton in 1958, she gave an interview in which she described their lives and the adult group parties in full, frank detail. The interview was serialised in the tabloid for 12 weeks, followed by an extended six-week series of sensational stories, creating negative publicity. Subsequently, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher, denounced Dors as a “wayward hussy”.
Television news and film companies with more general interests, partly because of her popularity and partly because of who was attending the parties, were unwilling to repeat the stories until well after Dors’ death. Her former lover and party guest Bob Monkhouse later commented in an interview after Dors’ death, “The awkward part about an orgy, is that afterwards you’re not too sure who to thank.”
The Final Footprint
She had converted to Catholicism in early 1973; hence, her funeral service was held at the Sacred Heart Church in Sunningdale on 11 May 1984, conducted by Father Theodore Fontanari. She was buried in Sunningdale Catholic Cemetery.
#RIP #OTD in 2009 actor (Blazing Saddles, History of the World Part I, The Cannonball Run), comedian and author Dom DeLuise died from cancer at Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California, at age 75. Calvary Cemetery, Woodside, New York
Have you planned yours yet?
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The Final Footprint – Gioachino Rossini, who, not having heard the news, came to Meyerbeer’s apartment the day after his death, intending to meet him, was shocked to hear the news and fainted. He was reportedly moved to write on the spot a choral tribute (Pleure, pleure, muse sublime!). A special train bore Meyerbeer’s body from the Gare du Nord to Berlin on 6 May, where he was entombed in the family vault at the 
On this day in 1883, painter 
Leenhoff in 1863. Leenhoff was a Dutch-born piano teacher of Manet’s age with whom he had been romantically involved for approximately ten years. Leenhoff initially had been employed by Manet’s father, Auguste, to teach Manet and his younger brother piano. She also may have been Auguste’s mistress. In 1852, Leenhoff gave birth, out of wedlock, to a son, Leon Koella Leenhoff. Eleven-year-old Leon Leenhoff, 
whose father may have been either of the Manets, posed often for Manet, most famously, as the subject of the Boy Carrying a Sword of 1861 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). He also appears as the boy carrying a tray in the background of The Balcony. Manet painted his wife in The Reading, among other paintings.
The Final Footprint – Manet is buried in Passy Cemetery in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. Opened in 1820 in the expensive residential and commercial districts of the Right Bank near the Champs-Élysées, by 1874 the small Passy Cemetery had become the aristocratic necropolis of Paris. Sheltered by a bower of chestnut trees, the cemetery is in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. The retaining wall of the cemetery is adorned with a bas relief (by Louis Janthial) commemorating the soldiers who fell in the Great War. Other notable final footprints as Passy include; Claude Debussy, Gabriel Fauré, Hubert de Givenchy, Octave Mirbeau, and Berthe Morisot.
Dead Matador, National Gallery of Art, 1864–1865
On this day in 1983, ballet choreographer George Balanchine died, aged 79, in Manhattan from Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease. Born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze on January 22, 1904 in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire. In my opinion, one of the most influential 20th century choreographers. Styled as the father of American ballet, he co-founded the New York City Ballet and remained its Artistic Director for more than 35 years.
On this day in 1989, director, producer and screenwriter, Sergio Leone died from a heart attack in Rome at the age of 60. Born on 3 January 1929 in Rome. Best known as the director of three legendary, iconic westerns, often referred to as Spaghetti Westerns: A Fistful of Dollars (Per un pugno di dollari) (1964) with Clint Eastwood; For a Few Dollars More (Per qualche dollaro in più) (1965) with Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef; and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo) (1966) with Eastwood, Van Cleef and Eli Wallach. The film score for all three movies was composed by Ennio Morricone. Leone also directed Once Upon a Time in the West (C’era una volta il West) (1968) with Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Jason Robards and Claudia Cardinale; and Once Upon a Time in America (C’era una volta il America) (1984) with Robert De Niro. All five of these movies are among my very favorites and I will stop what I am doing to watch them.
On this day in 1967, blues guitarist and singer-songwriter J. B. Lenoir died in Urbana, Illinois, at the age 38, of internal bleeding related to injuries he had suffered in a car crash three weeks earlier, which had not been properly treated in a hospital in Illinois. Born on March 5, 1929 in Monticello, Mississippi. He was active in the Chicago blues scene in the 1950s and 1960s.
On this day in 1980, director and producer, Alfred Hitchcock died of renal failure in his Bel Air, Los Angeles, California home at the age of 80. Born Alfred Joseph Hitchcock on 13 August 1899 in Leytonstone, London, England. One of the most influential filmmakers of all time. Hitchcock took suspense and psychological thrills to a whole new level in his films. His stories frequently feature fugitives on the run and beautiful blonde female characters. My favorite Hitchcock movies include: Suspicion (1941) with Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine; Spellbound (1945) with Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman; Notorious (1946) with Grant and Bergman; Dial M for Murder (1954) with Ray Milland and Grace Kelly; Rear Window (1954) with Jimmy Stewart and Kelly; To Catch a Thief (1955) with Grant and Kelly; Vertigo (1958) with Stewart and Kim Novak; North by Northwest (1959) with Grant and Eva Marie Saint; and Psycho (1960) with Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh.
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On this day in 1953, English-born Irish revolutionary, feminist, actress, and muse of William Butler Yeats, Maud Gonne died in Clonskeagh, Ireland at the age of 86. Born Edith Maud Gonne on 21 December 1866 in Tongham near Farnham, Surrey, England. She was won over to Irish nationalism by the plight of evicted people in the Land Wars. In 1889, she first met Yeats, who fell in love with her. Gonne in turn, was in love with Lucien Millevoye a French journalist and right-wing politician with whom she would have two children. Many of Yeats’s poems are inspired by her, or mention her. He wrote the plays The Countess Cathleen and Cathleen Ní Houlihan for her. His poem Aedh wishes for the Cloths of Heaven ends with a reference to her:
The Final Footprint – Gonne is interred in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin, the largest nondenominational cemetery in Ireland. Her grave is marked by a simple upright stone marker. Upon their deaths, her son, his wife and their son were interred next to her. Michael Collins is also interred at Glasnevin.
On this day in 1932, poet Hart Crane likely died by suicide by jumping overboard from the steamship 
On this day in 1989, legendary comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, multiple Emmy winner, Lucille Ball died Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles from an aortic aneurysm at the age of 77. Born Lucille Désirée Ball on 6 August 1911 in Jamestown, New York. Perhaps best known as the star of the sitcom I Love Lucy, co-starring her then husband Desi Arnaz as Ricky Ricardo and Vivian Vance and William Frawley as Ethel and Fred Mertz, the Ricardo’s landlords and friends. Ball met and eloped with Cuban bandleader Arnaz in 1940. Ball and Arnaz founded Desilu Productions and Desilu Studios which was home to I Love Lucy and other hit television shows including; Star Trek, The Andy Griffith Show, Mission: Impossible, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Lucy Show, My Three Sons, Family Affair, The Untouchables, I Spy, Mannix, Gomer Pyle, USMC, and That Girl. On 17 July 1951, almost 40 years old, Ball gave birth to their first child, Lucie Désirée Arnaz. A year and a half later, Ball gave birth to their second child, Desiderio Alberto Arnaz IV, known as Desi Arnaz, Jr. Ball and Arnaz divorced on 4 May 1960. Her second marriage was to Gary Morton (1961-1989 her death).
