April 5, 1975
Chiang Kai-shek, Chinese military and political leader, died; Chiang fled to Taiwan after his Nationalist forces lost the Chinese civil war against Mao Zedong in 1949.

April 7, 1980
President Jimmy Carter broke off diplomatic relations with Iran and ordered out all Iranian embassy staff because of the detention of U.S. embassy hostages in Tehran.

May 9, 1961
In a speech to the National Association of Broadcasters, Federal Communications Commission chairman Newton N. Minow condemned television programming as a ``vast wasteland.''

May 12, 1955
Passengers crowded in to ride the last run of the Third Avenue elevated, "The El", in New York City. The way-above-ground train trip down memory lane went from Chinatown to the Bronx.