March 1, 1954: Four Puerto Rican nationalists open fire on the U.S. House of Representatives chamber from the gallery. They fire 30 shots, and wound 5 members, interrupting debate on an immigration bill.
This comes about three and a half years after a pair of Puerto Rican independence activists attempted to assassinate President Harry Truman at Blair House, and failed. It was the greatest attack on the U.S. Capitol Building between the burning of Washington in 1814 and the Trump Insurrection in 2021.
The would-be assassins were: Dolores "Lolita" Lebrón, 34; Rafael Cancel Miranda, also 34; Irvin Flores, 29; and Andres Figueroa, also 29. That morning, they all met in New York, and took a train to Washington. As they began the short walk from Union Station to the Capitol, Miranda noted the lateness of the hour and the rainy weather, and suggested they call it off. Flores and Figueroa agreed. Lebrón said, "I am alone," and kept walking. Emboldened -- or perhaps, embarrassed that a woman had more courage than they did -- the men followed her.
There were no metal detectors at the Capitol at the time, so sneaking their semi-automatic pistols in wasn't that hard. Prior to opening fire, Lebrón shouted, "¡Viva Puerto Rico libre!" and unfurled a Puerto Rican flag.
The wounded members, all of whom recovered:
* Alvin M. Bentley, 35, first elected as a Republican from Michigan in 1952. He was hit in the chest. He was re-elected in 1954, 1956 and 1958. In 1960, he ran for the U.S. Senate, and lost. He fell into poor health, unrelated to the shooting, and died in 1969.
* Ben F. Jensen, 61, first elected as a Republican from Iowa in 1938. He was wounded in the shoulder. He was re-elected until losing in the Lyndon Johnson landslide of 1964, and lived until 1970.
* Clifford Davis, 56, first elected as a Democrat from Tennessee in 1940. He was wounded in the leg. He was re-elected until he was primaried out by a more segregationist Democrat in 1964, and lived until 1970.
* George H. Fallon, 51, first elected as a Democrat from Maryland in 1944. He was wounded in the back. He was re-elected until 1970, when he was primaried out by eventual U.S. Senator Paul Sarbanes over his environmental record. He lived until 1980.
* Kenneth A. Roberts, 41, first elected as a Democrat from Alabama in 1950. He was wounded in the back. He was re-elected until he retired in 1964, and lived until 1989, the last survivor of the 5.
The defendants were immediately arrested, and charged with attempted murder, among other crimes. On June 16, after a 13-day trial, all 4 defendants were found guilty. Lebrón was sentenced to 50 years in federal prison, while the 3 men were sentenced to 75 years. They were sent to separate prisons: Lebrón to the women's prison in Alderson, West Virginia; Cancel Miranda to Alcatraz in San Francisco; Figueroa to Atlanta; and Flores to Leavenworth, Kansas.
Figueroa, ill, was given compassionate release in 1978, and died in 1979. That same year, President Jimmy Carter commuted the sentences of the other 3, who, like Figueroa in his final days, returned to Puerto Rico. Flores died in 1994, Lebrón in 2010, and Cancel Miranda in 2020.
*
March 1, 1954 was a Monday. Baseball had just begun Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were no NHL games played that day. And Only 1 game was played in the NBA that night.
The Philadelphia Warriors beat the Milwaukee Hawks, 78-73 -- in the Philadelphia suburb of Collingswood, Camden County, New Jersey. Neil Johnston had 33 points and 15 rebounds for the Warriors. I can find no source as to the name of the venue in Collingswood, or why the game was played there, instead of at the Philadelphia Arena or the Philadelphia Civic Center.
Also on this day, actors Ron Howard and Catherine Bach were born. Yes, Opie Taylor of Mayberry, North Carolina and Daisy Duke of Hazzard, Georgia were born on the same day. (Richie Cunningham of Milwaukee would have been 19 years older.)
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