Following the extraordinarily light sentencing of Dan White for the assassinations of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and supervisor Harvey Milk, a peaceful gay community demonstration turned violent, causing damage and injuries throughout the night.

A Historical Newspaper Perspective

On May 20, 1896, a counterweight holding the grand chandelier in the Palais Garnier - Paris Opera House - fell, killing one and injuring others. This is one of the pivotal events which inspired Gaston Leroux to write The Phantom of the Opera, a story which has made its way to film and a wildly successful Broadway musical.

A Historical Newspaper Perspective

On May 19, 1962, President John F. Kennedy celebrated his 45th birthday. Marilyn Monroe infamously sung "Happy Birthday to You" in a "new" way...

A Historical Newspaper Perspective

On May 18, 1974, India became the sixth nation to detonate a nuclear weapon, exploding a bomb under the codename "Smiling Buddha."

A Historical Newspaper Perspective

On May 17, 1974, police assaulted a safehouse used to shelter members of the Symbionese Liberation Army, a left-wing militant group in California famous for kidnapping Patty Hearst, among other things. Authorities had acquired the address from an anonymous tip.

A Historical Newspaper Perspective

On May 13, 1960, a protest of University of California - Berkeley students against the House Committee on Un-American Activities served as a precursor to the Free Speech Movement of 1964 - 1965.

On May 10th, 1940, Neville Chamberlain resigned as Britain's Prime Minister and was succeeded by Winston Churchill. Churchill was known for his rule during World War II, leading Britain through the Battle of Britain and helping the Allies to turn the tide against the Axis powers.

On Monday, April 19th, Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot won his 5th Boston Marathon, setting a new course record time of 2:05:52. This is Kiprono Cheruiyot's first Boston Marathon win (he took 5th place in the 2009 race) - but another Kenyan with a similar name, Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot, has taken four recent titles.

Last Friday, a NewspaperARCHIVE.com member visited us at our headquarters to ask for some research help. He was originally from Gibraltar, but in 1940, was moved to a refugee camp in Jamaica due to the bombings from World War II. Since this is the kind of interesting history that I wouldn't have know about if this gentleman had not stopped by, I thought I'd write about the Gibraltar Camp for today's Daily Perspective.

A Historical Newspaper Perspective

The recent mining disaster in West Virginia has brought mining safety back into the spotlight, shortly after mining companies had their safest year (2009). Some research in newspapers shows that the worst mining disaster in American history occured in 1907 in Monongah, West Virginia - lets take a look.

Over several weeks in late March, 1968, a strange incident occured on the Skull Valley Indian Reservation outside of Salt Lake City, Utah. More than 6,000 sheep perished from an unknown cause, though soon the deaths were linked to nerve agent tests at a nearby military base.

It sounds like a bad B-movie, but it happened. Truth be told, the hijackers weren't real Samurai warriors, but on March 31, 1970, a group of Japanese dissidents hijacked a plane in Tokyo and forced the pilots to fly them to North Korea.

On March 30, 1909, the 59th Street Bridge (also known as the Queensboro Bridge) opened, connecting Long Island City with Manhattan in New York City. The bridge is a cantilever, and was one of the longest of its type when constructed.

On March 29, 1999, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed over 10,000 for the first time in history. The Dow is a stock market index of thirty large, publicly-owned companies. It was created in May of 1896 by Charles Dow and consisted of only 12 stocks, mostly large industrial firms.

Ten thousand 'hippies' gathered in Central Park, New York City on Easter in 1967 to stage a 'Be-In' - a peaceful gathering to celebrate being alive. This was not the largest Central Park Be-In, but it was notable for its lack of protests against the Vietnam War, which most Be-In's focused on.

In March of 1872, the Yellowstone Valley became the world's first National Park. Congress passed a bill reserving the area for recreation, preserving the grand ecosystems in the valley from settlement or sale. Yellowstone is home to endangered species, the largest grouping of geothermal features in the world (such as Old Faithful Geyser) and the Yellowstone Caldera, the largest supervolcano in North America.

On March 24, 1989, the tanker Exxon Valdez struck Bligh Reef in the Prince William Sound. The ship ruptured and spilled 54.1 million gallons of oil into the water (much of it eventually washed onto the shore). The disaster killed hundreds of thousands of animals and disrupted the delicate ecosystem of Prince William Sound, as well as impacting Alaska economically.

On March 23, two Korean Americans attacked diplomat Durham White Stevens, shooting him twice. Stevens, who had been worked as American diplomat and then for the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, had incurred the ire of Koreans due to his pro-Japanese stance on Japanese-Korean relations.

On March 22, 1916, Emperor Yuan Shikai abandoned his monarchy and China returned to a Republic. Shikai had assumed the throne only months earlier, after deciding that China would better prosper as an Empire because the people were used to a monarchy. Shikai had been a General and President of the Republic of China prior to his ascension, but as an Emperor, his reign only caused dissension and rebellion.

On March 19, 1954, William Joseph Mosconi successfully ran 526 consecutive balls without missing during a straight pool exhibition in Springfield, Ohio. This record has never been bested.