On this day in 1932, Washington D.C. police and the U.S. Army battled with WWI veterans camped out at the capitol who were demanding early payment of their service bonus, killing three people and wounding fifty-five more.

The so-called "Bonus Army" was a group of 43,000 demonstrators, made up of 17,000 U.S. World War I veterans, together with their families and affiliated groups, who gathered in Washington, D.C. in mid-1932 to demand early cash redemption of their service certificates.

Most of the Bonus Army camped in a "Hooverville" on the Anacostia Flats, a swampy, muddy area across the Anacostia River from the federal core of Washington (now Section C of Anacostia Park). Approximately 10,000 veterans, women and children lived in the shelters, built from materials dragged out of a junk pile nearby, including old lumber, packing boxes, and scrap tin, which covered roofs of thatched straw.

On this day in 1932, President Hoover ordered the Secretary of War to disperse the protesters. When the veterans returned after being pushed out the first time, police fired on them, killing two. Federal troops were called in and, armed with bayonets and tear gas, they moved to evict the Bonus Army by force.

In the mayhem that followed, 55 veterans were injured, 135 were arrested, and one three month old baby died. The incident was politically disastrous for President Hoover, who lost the election that year to Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

In 1933, another Bonus Army marched on Washington D.C., but FDR, perhaps learning from his predecessor's mistakes, created a camp for the soldiers and fed them. He offered the veterans jobs with the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), and those who chose not to work for the CCC were given transportation home.