Editor’s note: This story was originally published on March 1, 2025.
A look back at local, national and world events through Deseret News archives.
Does it feel like we’ve been through an unprecedented period of contention never before seen in the nation’s history?
Think again.
On March 1, 1954, four Puerto Rican nationalists opened fire from the spectators gallery of the U.S. House of Representatives, wounding five members of Congress.
That day, while members gathered on the House floor for an upcoming vote, three men and one woman entered the visitor’s gallery above the chamber and quietly took their seats. All four belonged to the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party and only hours earlier had traveled from New York City to Washington.
The United States had annexed Puerto Rico in 1898, and the island’s relationship with the federal government had long been a point of contention. Despite some security measures in place, the assailants entered the gallery armed with handguns.
Five congressmen were wounded in the shooting. House page and police officers quickly helped detain three of the assailants outside the gallery, while the fourth escaped the Capitol and was apprehended later that afternoon.
According to coverage in the Deseret News, Utah’s two congressmen — Reps. William A. Dawson and Douglas R. Stringellow — had just left the House floor for a meeting when the shots occurred. No one was killed even though some 240 members were on the floor at the time of the shooting.
For years a desk with a bullet hole was positioned in House chambers to remind representatives of the attack.
On an unrelated note, the rule for flying the American flag at half-staff was established in a proclamation issued March 1, 1954, by then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower and published in the Federal Register.
Sixteen years later to the day, on March 1, 1971, a bomb went off inside a men’s room at the U.S. Capitol. The radical group Weather Underground claimed responsibility for the pre-dawn blast, which damaged the building but resulted in no injuries.
Here are some stories from Deseret News archives about the 1954 shooting, the U.S. relationship with Puerto Rico and why flags fly at half-staff:
“Bullet hole is reminder of ‘54 raid on Congress”
“If Puerto Rico becomes a U.S. state, how will complex issues be handled?”
“Values did 180-degree turn from ‘60s to ‘80s”
“Flages should fly at half-staff for 30 days after Nixon’s death”