President Richard Nixon announces that the United States has invaded Cambodia, sparking a wave of angry protests across the nation.
Students protest Nixon’s expansion of the war by symbolically burying the Constitution. That evening, other protesters break a number of downtown business windows, incensing Kent citizens.
Kent’s mayor asks that the National Guard be put on standby. After the ROTC building burns, 850 Ohio National Guardsmen enter campus.
After touring the grounds, Governor Rhodes calls students “the worst type of people that we harbor in America.” He vows to use any means necessary to “eradicate the problem.” That night, Guard troops use tear gas and bayonets to disperse students from a sit-in at the front of campus.
The Ohio National Guard fires at student demonstrators during a protest, killing 4 students and wounding 9.