| On
this date in: |
| 1506 |
Christopher
Columbus died in poverty in Spain. |
| 1861 |
North
Carolina voted to secede from the Union. |
| 1861 |
The
capital of the Confederacy was moved from Montgomery, Ala.,
to Richmond, Va. |
| 1902 |
The
United States ended its occupation of Cuba. |
| 1932 |
Amelia
Earhart took off from Newfoundland for Ireland to become the
first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. |
| 1939 |
Regular
trans-Atlantic air service began as a Pan American Airways plane,
the Yankee Clipper, took off from Port Washington, N.Y., bound
for Europe. |
| 1961 |
A
white mob attacked a busload of Freedom Riders in Montgomery,
Ala., prompting the federal government to send in U.S. marshals
to restore order.
 |
| AP Photo |
|
| 1969 |
U.S.
and South Vietnamese forces captured Apbia Mountain, referred
to as Hamburger Hill by the Americans, following one of the
bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War. |
| 1970 |
Some
100,000 people demonstrated in New York's Wall Street district
in support of U.S. policy in Vietnam and Cambodia. |
| 1989 |
Comedian
Gilda Radner died in Los Angeles at age 42. |
| 1993 |
An
estimated 93 million people tuned in for the final first-run
episode of ''Cheers'' on NBC-TV. |
| 1995 |
President
Clinton announced that the two-block stretch of Pennsylvania
Avenue in front of the White House would be permanently closed
to traffic as a security measure. |
| 1996 |
The
Supreme Court struck down a Colorado measure banning laws that
protect homosexuals from discrimination. |
| 2002 |
East
Timor became the world's newest nation. |
| 2002 |
Paleontologist
and author Stephen Jay Gould died in New York at age 60. |
