Today in Labor History July 28, 1932: General Douglas MacArthur, Major Dwight D. Eisenhower and their troops, on orders by President Herbert Hoover, burned down a shantytown by unemployed veterans near the U.S. Capitol. They also shot and killed two veterans. 20,000 ex-servicemen had been camped out in the capital demanding a veterans’ bonus the government had promised but never given. Consequently, they called themselves the Bonus Army. Cavalry troops and tanks fired tear gas at veterans and their families and then set the buildings on fire. MacArthur and President Herbert Hoover declared that they had saved the nation from revolution. The shootings are depicted in Barbara Kingsolver's novel “The Lacuna.”

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