Hundreds of colleges and universities across the nation shut down as thousands of students join a nationwide campus protest. Governor Ronald Reagan closed down the entire California university and college system until May 11, which affected more than 280,000 students on 28 campuses. Elsewhere, faculty and administrators joined students in active dissent and 536 campuses were shut down completely, 51 for the rest of the academic year. A National Student Association spokesman reported students from more than 300 campuses were boycotting classes. The protests were a reaction to the shooting of four students at Kent State University by National Guardsmen during a campus demonstration about President Nixon's decision to send U.S. and South Vietnamese troops into Cambodia. Four days later, a student rally at Jackson State College in Mississippi resulted in the death of two students and 12 wounded when police opened fire on a women's dormitory.
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May 6, 1970:
Students launch nationwide protest
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This Week in History, May 6 - May 12
- May 06, 1970
- Students launch nationwide protest
- May 06, 1972
- South Vietnamese defenders hold on to An Loc
- May 07, 1954
- French fall to Viet Minh at Dien Bien Phu
- May 08, 1970
- Nixon defends invasion of Cambodia
- May 08, 1972
- Mining of North Vietnamese harbors is announced
- May 09, 1969
- Reporter breaks the news of secret bombing in Cambodia
- May 09, 1970
- Demonstrations held in Washington
- May 09, 1974
- House votes to initiate impeachment proceedings
- May 10, 1969
- Operation Apache Snow is launched
- May 10, 1972
- Intense air war continues over North Vietnam
- May 11, 1961
- President Kennedy orders more troops to South Vietnam
- May 11, 1969
- Paratroopers battle for "Hamburger Hill"
- May 12, 1961
- Lyndon B. Johnson visits South Vietnam
- May 12, 1971
- Heavy fighting erupts in A Shau Valley
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