This Day in History
1493: Pope Alexander VI defines the spheres of Spanish and Portuguese possessions in the New World by drawing the Line of Demarcation.
1494: Christopher Columbus reaches Jamaica.
1776: Rhode Island becomes the first colony to officially abandon allegiance to Great Britain.
1886: Following bitter labor unrest, a riot and bombing occur in Chicago's Haymarket Square, leaving 7 police and 4 workers dead.
1961: Militant students joined James Farmer of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) to conduct "Freedom Rides" on public transportation in the South.
1970: At Ohio's Kent State University, 4 students are shot and killed by the National Guard during a protest against the Vietnam War.
1989: Former National Security Adviser Oliver North is convicted on 3 of 12 charges related to the Iran-Contra affair . (The decision was later reversed.)
2000: The National Park Service starts a "prescribed burn" in New Mexico which devours 50,000 acres, destroys 400 homes, and comes within 300 yards of a plutonium storage facility at Los Alamos.
Today's Birthdays
1772: Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus, publisher and encyclopedia editor (Dortmund, Germany; died 1823)
1796: Horace Mann, educator/author (Franklin, MA; died 1859)
1825: Thomas Henry Huxley, biologist and defender of Darwin's theory of evolution (Ealing, Middlesex, England; died 1895)
1881: Aleksandr Kerensky, revolutionary leader (Simbirsk, Russia; died 1970)
1889: Francis Joseph Spellman, archbishop of New York (Whitman, MA; died 1967)
1928: Maynard Ferguson, bandleader (Verdun, Quebec, Canada). Hosni Mubarak, Egyptian president (Kafr-el Meselha, Egypt)
1929: Audrey Hepburn, actress (near Brussels, Belgium; died 1993)
1930: Roberta Peters, opera singer (New York, NY)
1937: Ron Carter, jazz musician (Royal Oak Township, MI)
1940: Robin Cook, author (New York, NY)
1941: George Will, journalist/columnist/author (Champaign, IL)
1942: Nicholas Ashford, singer/songwriter (Fairfield, SC)
1946: Gary Bauer, political activist (Covington, KY)
1956: David Guterson, author (Seattle, WA)
1959: Randy Travis, country singer (Marshville, NC)
1979: Lance Bass, singer and member of 'N Sync (Mississippi)
