Today in History: May 31, the Tulsa Race Massacre begins
Advertisement
In 1921, a two-day massacre erupted in Tulsa, Okla., as white mobs began looting and burning the affluent Black district of Greenwood over reports a Black man had assaulted a white woman in an elevator. Though the exact number remains unknown, as many as 300 Black Tulsans were killed during the riot.
In 1949, former State Department official and accused spy Alger Hiss went on trial in New York, charged with perjury. The trial ended with a hung jury, but Hiss was convicted in a second trial.
In 1970, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck the Ancash region of Peru; the quake, combined with the landslide it triggered, killed an estimated 67,000 people.
In 1977, the 800-mile-long Trans-Alaska oil pipeline was completed after three years of construction.
In 2005, Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein confirmed a Vanity Fair magazine report naming former FBI official W. Mark Felt as the Watergate scandal informant previously known only as 'Deep Throat.'
Advertisement
In 2009, Millvina Dean, the last survivor of the 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic, died in Hampshire, England at 97.
In 2014, Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, the only American soldier held prisoner in Afghanistan, was freed by the Taliban in exchange for five Afghan detainees from the US prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (Bergdahl, who had gone missing in June 2009, later pleaded guilty to endangering his comrades by walking away from his post in Afghanistan. His sentence included a dishonorable discharge, a reduction in rank, and a fine, but no prison time.)
In 2019, a longtime city employee opened fire in a municipal building in Virginia Beach, Va., killing 12 people on three floors before police shot and killed him. Officials said DeWayne Craddock had resigned by email hours before the shooting.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Miami Herald
2 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Ex-General Mills employee alleges retaliation after he objected to ‘fun facts' Black history flyers
A Black former General Mills employee is suing the company for discrimination and retaliation, alleging he was fired after objecting to Black History Month flyers that referred to racist atrocities as "fun facts." According to the lawsuit filed in Hennepin County (Minnesota) District Court, L. Lee Tyus Jr., who worked at a General Mills facility in St. Paul for more than five years, said he raised concerns in February after the company posted flyers in the employee breakroom as part of its Black History Month recognition. The flyers, decorated in red, black, and green - colors associated with the Pan-African flag - included brief descriptions of historic injustices, such as the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre (also known as the Black Wall Street Massacre) and the Black Codes that preceded Jim Crow. They were titled: "Fun Facts About Black History," according to photos included in Tyus' complaint. Tyus found the phrasing offensive, according to the lawsuit, and asked the plant's human resources manager whether similar language would be used to describe atrocities involving white Americans. The HR manager allegedly responded: "No, it would just be labeled 'American Tragedies.' " Days later, Tyus said he raised the issue with the plant manager and his team lead, "explaining that the situation caused him to use his paid time off and exert time and energy to deal with General Mills' response, stating: 'Much like the massacre(,) I wish this didn't happen and I could put energy into something actually 'Fun' or doing the work as I have for years before now.'" When told no apology would be issued, he filed a formal complaint through the company's internal ethics platform. He was placed on leave the same day and instructed to submit medical documentation if he wished to return. "After learning he was being placed on an involuntary leave, Tyus Jr. responded that he was 'being retaliated against for my beliefs and aren't being allowed back to work which feels again like an injustice,'" the lawsuit said. When his leave ended, Tyus found his building access deactivated, the complaint says. Soon after, General Mills' Senior Employee Relations Lead, Tracey Hatchew, contacted him to discuss the allegations. She encouraged him to share her contact information with others who might also have been offended by the flyers. With his supervisor's approval, Tyus printed flyers listing Hatchew's contact information and placed them on the same breakroom tables where the original posters had appeared. On March 19, General Mills had Tyus escorted from the building and terminated his employment, citing "multiple violations of General Mills' standards of conduct and policies," according to the complaint. "General Mills has a national brand and a deep Minnesota footprint," Tyus' attorney, Naomi Martin, wrote in a statement. "That kind of presence comes with responsibility and a company of this size should be modeling what it means to support employees who speak up - not firing them." A spokesperson from General Mills wrote that while they cannot comment on pending litigation, "General Mills does not tolerate discrimination or retaliation." Tyus is seeking at least $50,000 in damages for each of three counts named in the complaint. Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
The Hill
3 hours ago
- The Hill
2 Chinese nationals charged with spying inside the US for Beijing, Justice Department says
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two Chinese nationals have been charged with spying inside the United States on behalf of Beijing, including by taking photographs of a naval base, coordinating a cash dead-drop and participating in efforts to recruit members of the military who they thought might be open to working for Chinese intelligence. The case, filed in federal court in San Francisco and unsealed Monday, is the latest Justice Department prosecution to target what officials say are persistent efforts by the Chinese government to secretly collect intelligence about American military capabilities — a practice laid bare in startling fashion two years ago with China's launching of a surveillance balloon that U.S. officials ultimately shot down over the coast of South Carolina. 'This case underscores the Chinese government's sustained and aggressive effort to infiltrate our military and undermine our national security from within,' Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement announcing the case. 'The Justice Department will not stand by while hostile nations embed spies in our country – we will expose foreign operatives, hold their agents to account, and protect the American people from covert threats to our national security.' Officials identified the defendants as Yuance Chen, 38, who arrived in the U.S. on a visa in 2015 and later became a lawful permanent resident, and Liren 'Ryan' Lai, 39, who prosecutors say lives in China but traveled to Texas this past spring and was part of an effort to supervise clandestine espionage operations on behalf of China's Ministry of State Security or MSS. The two were arrested on charges of secretly doing China's bidding without registering as foreign agents with the Justice Department, as required by law. It was not immediately clear if they had lawyers. Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said he had no information about the specific case but asserted that allegations against China 'have no facts or evidence' and that 'the U.S. has never stopped its espionage activities against China.' According to an FBI affidavit filed in connection with the case, investigators believe Lai had been developing Chen to be a Chinese intelligence asset since at least mid-2021. Their activities, the FBI says, included coordinating on a dead-drop of at least $10,000 in cash to another person who was operating at the direction of the MSS. They also participated and arranged surveillance of a Navy recruiting station in California and Navy base in Washington state, including through photographs that Chen is accused of taking and that investigators believe were transmitted to Chinese intelligence. Authorities say Lai and Chen also discussed recruiting Navy employees to work for China, with Chen at one point obtaining names, hometowns and programs of recent recruits. Many listed China as their hometown and investigators believe the information was sent to China, the FBI affidavit says. The affidavit recounts conversations aimed at assessing whether individual Navy employees would make for good recruits for Chinese intelligence. In one instance, the FBI said, Chen sent Lai the name of a Navy employee and wrote: 'I found out. His mother is Chinese. His father and mother did not get along and the mother was given custody when he was 8 years old. That is why he uses his mother's last name.' The case is one in a series concerning Chinese intelligence-gathering, sometimes related to the U.S. military. In August 2023, for instance, two Navy sailors were charged with providing sensitive military information to China, including details on wartime exercises, naval operations and critical technical material. 'Adverse foreign intelligence services like the PRC's Ministry of State Security dedicate years to recruiting individuals and cultivating them as intelligence assets to do their bidding within the United States,' Assistant Attorney General John Eisenberg, the head of the Justice Department's National Security Division, said in a statement. _____ Associated Press writer Didi Tang in Washington contributed to this report.
New York Post
4 hours ago
- New York Post
Pint-sized Michigan perp caught stealing cars and selling them for 30 bucks: ‘Attempting to live his own grand theft auto'
Thirty bucks for a car – what a steal! That's because the car was, in fact, stolen by a pint-sized perp in Michigan who had gone on a crime spree worthy of the video game Grand Theft Auto, according to police. Officers from the Oakland County Sheriff's Department caught the 12-year-old suspect red-handed as he was breaking into cars in Pontiac Saturday, according to a statement released by Sheriff Michael Bouchard. A 12-year-old boy was arrested in Michigan for stealing cars. PBXStudio – 'Through their investigation, detectives learned the boy had taken three or four vehicles over the past month, selling at least one of them for $30,' Oakland County Sheriff's Department said in a statement. It is unclear if the person who purchased the stolen car for thirty bucks was arrested as well. The boy was arrested in the former home of General Motors, which made a line of cars of the same name. Detectives had been trying to crack the case for weeks, according to WCRZ. There had been a rash of stolen cars in the area, with four stolen from one business alone, police said. Investigators from the Oakland County Sheriff's Department had set up a stakeout at one parking lot on June 28 and waited, police said. They caught the tween terror breaking into a car. He had a license plate on him when he was caught, according to the statement. 'The suspect entered numerous vehicles in the parking lot and when he was stopped and apprehended, he was carrying a license plate,' the statement said. Bouchard said he is optimistic that since the boy's brush with the law came so early in his life, he still has a chance to change the road he is on. 'This young man is on a very bad path, attempting to live his own grand theft auto,' Bouchard said in the news release. 'Hopefully intervention by the courts will send him on a better life path as well as stopping the constant theft from this business.' A 12-year-old suspect sold one of the cars he stole for $30, police said. Oakland County Sheriff The boy is being held in Oakland County Children's Village, and the case remains under investigation, according to police. Like Motor City, a 30 minute drive away, Pontiac went from an industrial powerhouse in its heyday to a city in steep decline, a ghost town after the collapse of the American automobile industry in the 1970s and the shuttering of all the city's factories. In recent years, violent crime in Pontiac has gone down, but it is still much higher compared to other cities of similar sizes.
