Commentaries by Mary Margaret Penrose

On January 4, 1948, Burma became independent of the United Kingdom, regaining national soverignty for the first time since 1885. Fourteen years later, in 1962, a military junta seized power and changed the country's name to Myanmar. Read the Burma Independence Documents, including the independence treaty between the UK and Burma, from the Burma Peace Foundation Archives.

On January 4, 1979, the state of Ohio reached an out-of-court settlement with victims and relatives of victims shot by National Guardsmen at Kent State University on May 4, 1970. Under the settlement, plaintiffs received $675,000. Learn more about the Kent State settlement.