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Police fire-hose students on City Hall steps; HUAC hearings draw mass protest in San Francisco

Hundreds of Bay Area college students pack the building; witnesses are dragged down marble steps, some seriously hurt, as William Mandel denounces the committee from the witness chair.

In May 1960, hundreds of students from UC Berkeley, Stanford, and other Bay Area colleges packed San Francisco City Hall to protest the House Un-American Activities Committee's local hearings. On May 13, police fire-hosed the crowd and dragged protesters down the building's marble steps, leaving some seriously injured. Soviet affairs expert William Mandel, subpoenaed to testify, responded with a blistering denunciation of the committee — a statement Pacifica Radio's KPFA broadcast repeatedly for years afterward…

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More from May 13
1846

Congress declares war on Mexico; Polk tells the nation its blood was shed on its own soil

The vote formalizes three weeks of open conflict rooted in a disputed border, the annexation of Texas, and a decade of unresolved claims between two nations.
1985

Philadelphia police drop a bomb on a row house; fire spreads for hours, killing 11

Commissioner Sambor ordered the strike on 6221 Osage Ave; officials let the blaze run until 61 homes are ash and 250 people have nowhere to sleep.
1780

256 settlers sign a constitution at French Lick; judges' pay set in animal skins

Robertson and Donelson lead the compact at Fort Nashborough, electing a twelve-judge council the people may remove from office.
19431776 Club
Operation Vulcan stretches from Longstop Hill to Hill 609, battering a quarter-million trapped Axis troops whose fuel lines are already cut.
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Read the full May 13 edition →Everything that happened on May 13 →
More from Cold War America
1963

Walker rides the X-15 to 354,200 feet, becoming the first person to reach space twice

A frozen thruster and 650-degree reentry heat couldn't stop the highest flight the rocket plane program would ever make.
1949

The North Atlantic Treaty takes effect; twelve nations are now bound to defend each other

Four months after the signing in Washington, Article 5's promise becomes binding law.
1968

Democrats open in Chicago; protesters scale a Civil War statue in Grant Park

Police pull a demonstrator down and break his arm as chants of "kill the pigs" rise over the park.
1962

Mariner 2 lifts off for Venus, five weeks after its twin veered into the Atlantic

An Atlas-Agena rocket carries the patched-together probe off Launch Complex 12 before dawn.
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