1493 | Pope Alexander VI issued “Inter caetera,” granting most of what was to become southeastern America to Spain.
1776 | Rhode Island declared its independence from Britain.
1780 | The American Academy of Arts & Sciences was founded in Boston, with James Bowdoin, John, and Samuel Adams as members.
1790 | Founder Matthew Tilghman died.
1796 | Educator Horace Mann was born.
1796 | Historian William H. Prescott was born.
1820 | POTUS: First Lady Julia Gardiner Tyler was born.
1826 | Painter Frederick Edwin Church was born.
1846 | Michigan outlawed the death penalty.
1864 | Civil War: General Grant’s Union Army of the Potomac attacked Lee’s forces at the Rapidan River.
1873 | Educator and author William Holmes McGuffey died.
1886 | Haymarket labor riot in Chicago, Illinois.
1893 | Cowboy Bill Pickett invented bulldogging.
1904 | Construction of the Panama Canal begins by the United States (after the French failed).
1932 | Outlaw Al Capone entered Atlanta Penitentiary, convicted of income tax evasion.
1941 | Columnist George Will was born.
1942 | WWII: The Battle of Coral Sea began.
1953 | Ernest Hemingway was awarded a Pulitzer Prize.
1956 | Author David Guterson was born.
1958 | Artist Keith Haring was born.
1959 | Musician Randy Travis was born.
1961 | Civil Rights: Thirteen activists boarded buses, launching the “Freedom Rides.”
1964 | Richard Hofstadter was awarded a Pulitzer Prize.
1970 | The Kent State University Shootings.
1975 | Comedian Moe Howard died.
1977 | Civil Rights: US Catholic bishops rescind automatic excommunications for divorced and remarried Catholics.
1979 | Entertainer Lance Bass was born.
1998 | “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski was sentenced to life in prison.
2012 | Musician Adam Yauch died.
2018 | Poet Bobbie Louise Hawkins died.