Today In History...

In 1626 Dutch explorer Peter Minuit lands on present-day Manhattan Island.
In 1776 Rhode Island declares independence from England, two months before the Declaration of Independence was adopted.
In 1886 A labor demonstration for an eight-hour work day at Haymarket Square in Chicago turns into a riot when a bomb explodes.
In 1916 Responding to a demand from President Wilson, Germany agrees to limit its submarine warfare, thereby averting a diplomatic break with Washington.
In 1927 The Academy of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences is founded.
In 1932 Mobster Al Capone, convicted of income-tax evasion, enters the federal penitentiary in Atlanta.
In 1942 The Battle of the Coral Sea, the first naval clash fought entirely with carrier aircraft, begins during World War II.
In 1946 A 2-day riot at Alcatraz prison in San Francisco Bay kills five.
In 1961 The first "Freedom Riders" leave Washington, DC, for New Orleans to challenge racial segregation in interstate buses and bus terminals.
In 1970 Ohio National Guardsmen open fire on a crowd of anti-war protestors at Kent State University, killing four students and wounding nine.
In 1973 Valerie Perrine appears in the nude on PBS's "Steambath."
In 1976 Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser announces "Waltzing Matilda" would serve as his country's national anthem at the upcoming Olympic Games.
In 1980 The president of Yugoslavia, Marshal Josip Broz Tito dies at age 87.
In 1984 Poland's premier, General Wojciech Jaruzelski and Soviet President Konstantin Chernenko sign a 15-year economic cooperation agreement in Moscow.
In 1987 The U.S. Supreme Court rules that Rotary Clubs must admit women.
In 1987 Conrail engineer Ricky Gates is charged with 16 deaths after his freight train hit an Amtrak passenger train.
In 1987 Pope John Paul II ends a five-day visit to West Germany.
In 1988 A year-long amnesty program for illegal aliens in the United States who met certain conditions ends.
In 1988 Three French hostages including Marcel Carton, Marcel Fontaine and Jean-Paul Kauffmann, are released in Beirut by pro-Iranian kidnappers.
In 1989 A jury convicts Oliver North of obstructing Congress, altering documents and illegally accepting a gratuity.
In 1990 The South African government and the African National Congress conclude historic talks in Cape Town concerning the "existing climate of violence."
In 1992 Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton tours riot-ravaged Los Angeles streets, blaming the destruction on what he called 12 years of Republican neglect.
In 1993 The U.S. hands over control of the relief effort in Somalia to the United Nations.
In 1994 Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat sign accord on Palestinian self-rule in Gaza Strip and Jericho.
In 1996 Grindstone wins the Kentucky Derby, giving trainer D. Wayne Lukas a sixth straight victory in a Triple Crown race.
In 1998 Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski is given four life sentences plus 30 years by a federal judge in Sacramento, CA, under a plea agreement that spared him the death penalty.
In 2000 The "Love Bug" virus infects computer networks across the globe.
In 2002 A Nigerian airliner crashes in the northern city of Kano just after takeoff, killing a total of 154 people on the plane and the ground.
In 2003 Two American astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut end up nearly 300 miles off course after returning from the international space station.

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