Happy Friday, UNP blog readers! It’s time for another edition of This Day in History, and this week’s featured historical occurrence is an interesting one.

On this day in 1973, the second battle of Wounded Knee ended. From the New York Times that day:

Wounded Knee, S.D., May 8 — The Second Battle of Wounded Knee ended Today.

After 70 days, two deaths, numerous injuries, countless meetings, bureaucratic bickering and a last-minute gunfight, more than 100 militants lay down their arms and surrendered this occupied reservation town to wary Federal officials.

Nearly 20 years after the occupation, which the NYT article described as having the atmosphere of a bizarre carnival, the University of Nebraska Press published Wounded Knee 1973: A Personal Account, by Stanley David Lyman. Lyman, the superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs at the time, gives an inside view of what happened when the American Indian Movement (AIM) activists occupied the village of Wounded Knee. Close to the action, he recorded it with unusual candor, directing his sorrow, frustration, and occasional anger to all parties involved—the Tribal Council, the Justice Department, the BIA, FBI, and AIM. His account of the besiegers and besieged reveals a well-meaning and intelligent man forced by dramatic events to reevaluate some long-cherished assumptions. It deserves to be read and studied in any attempt to understand fully Wounded Knee II.

Other notable events that occurred this day in history:

1899: The Irish Literary Theatre in Dublin opened to the public.

1928: JFK’s legendary speechwriter, Ted Sorensen, was born in Lincoln, Nebraska. 

1937: Thomas Pynchon, American novelist best known for The Crying of Lot 49 and Gravity’s Rainbow, among others, was born in New York. Pynchon is also known for the great lengths he’s taken to stay out of the spotlight; only a few photographs of him have ever been published.

That's it for this week. Have a great weekend!