On this day in 1968, students at Columbia University in NYC take control of five campus buildings. They cite Columbia's plan to build an allegedly segregated gymnasium in Harlem, and the university's research ties to the Institute for Defense Analyses, a Pentagon-linked weapons research consortium. The students find the university president’s private correspondence and read it aloud from his office window.

The next week, the NYPD clears the buildings by force, arresting 712 students and injuring more than 100. Images of police dragging students down the steps of the university are published nationwide.

Columbia cancels the gymnasium project and the president resigns five months later. The site of the proposed gymnasium in Morningside Park remains undeveloped to this day.