Demolition, a Riot, Refugees and a Long Overdue Veteran Memorial

Today in New Jersey history:

May 7, 1963: What began as an annual outburst of spring fever turned into a riot when more than 1,000 Princeton University students went on a property destroying spree. The riot, which lasted more than three hours, was finally quelled by police. The university expelled eleven students and placed fifteen others on suspension.

May 7, 1985: Demolition began at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City, the minor league venue where Jackie Robinson broke the “color barrier,” in order to make way for housing construction. 

May 7. 1995: The New Jersey Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial, situated alongside the Garden State Parkway in Holmdel, was dedicated. The memorial, a circular open-air pavilion, is ringed with black granite panels, each representing a day of the year, engraved with the names of New Jerseyans who died on that day during the war. Three sculpted figures—a dying soldier, a nurse and a standing soldier—represent those who died, women who served and those who survived the conflict.

May 7, 1999: The first of four thousand Kosovar refugees, ethnic Albanians from the disputed Serbian province of Kossovo, arrived at Fort Dix from camps in Macedonia prior to relocation around the country. The United States pledged to take in a total of twenty thousand Kosovar refugees.