1492 - King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella
of Spain issued an edict expelling Jews who were unwilling to convert to Christianity.
1776 - Abigail Adams wrote to her husband
John that women were "determined to foment a rebellion" if the new Declaration
of Independence failed to guarantee their rights.
1870 - In Perth Amboy, NJ, Thomas P.
Munday became the first black to vote in the U.S.
1880 - Wabash, Indiana, became the first town
to be completely illuminated with electric light.
1889 - The Eiffel Tower in Paris officially
opened.
1900 - The W.E. Roach Company was the
first automobile company to put an advertisement in a national magazine. The
magazine was the "Saturday Evening Post".
1900 - In France, the National Assembly
passed a law reducing the workday for women and children to 11 hours.
1901 - In Russia, the Czar lashed out
at Socialist-Revolutionaries with the arrests of 72 people and the seizing
of two printing presses.
1917 - The U.S. purchased and took
possession of the Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25 million.
1918 - For the first time in the U.S.
Daylight Savings Time went into effect.
1923 - In New York City, the first
U.S. dance marathon was held. Alma Cummings set a new world record of 27 hours.
1932 - The Ford Motor Co. debuted its
V-8 engine.
1933 - The U.S. Congress authorized
the Civilian Conservation Corps to relieve rampant unemployment.
1933 - The "Soperton News" in Georgia
became the first newspaper to publish using a pine pulp paper.
1939 - Britain and France agreed to
support Poland if Germany threatened invasion.
1940 - La Guardia airport in New York
officially opened to the public.
1943 - "Oklahoma!" by Rodgers and Hammerstein
debuted on Broadway. The original title was "Away We Go".
1945 - "The Glass Menagerie" by Tennessee
Williams opened on Broadway.
1946 - Monarchists won the elections
in Greece.
1948 - The Soviets in Germany began
controlling the Western trains headed toward Berlin.
1949 - Winston Churchill declared that
the A-bomb was the only thing that kept the U.S.S.R. from taking over Europe.
1949 - Newfoundland entered the Canadian
confederation as its 10th province.
1958 - Chuck Berry 's "Johnny B. Goode"
was released.
1959 - The Dalai Lama began exile by
crossing the border into India where he was granted political asylum.
1966 - An estimated 200,000 anti-war
demonstrators march in New York City.
1967 - U.S. President Lyndon Johnson
signed the Consular Treaty, the first bi-lateral pact with the Soviet Union
since the Bolshevik Revolution.
1967 - Jimi Hendrix began his first
British tour with Cat Stevens.
1968 -
President Johnson
announced he would not seek re-election and simultaneously ordered
suspension of American bombing of North Vietnam.
1971 -
Lt. William Calley was
sentenced to life imprisonment for his part in the deaths of 22 Vietnamese
civilians in what was called the "My Lai" massacre.
1976 - The New Jersey Supreme Court
ruled that Karen Anne Quinlan could be disconnected from a respirator. Quinlan
remained comatose until 1985 when she died.
1980 - U.S. President Carter deregulates
the banking industry.
1987 - HBO (Home Box Office) earned
its first Oscar for "Down and Out in America".
1991 - Albania offered a multi-party
election for the first time in 50 years. Incumbent President Ramiz Alia won.
1991 - Iraqi forces recaptured the
northern city of Kirkuk from Kurdish guerillas.
1993 - Brandon Lee was killed accidentally
while filming a movie.
1994 - "Nature" magazine announced
that a complete skull of Australppithecus afarensis had been found in Ethiopia.
The finding is of humankind's earliest ancestor.
1995 - A Romanian passenger jet
crashes near Bucharest shortly after departing for Brussels, killing all
58 people on board; singer Tejana Selena, 23, is shot to death in Corpus
Christi, Texas, by the founder of her fan club. Yolanda Saldivar is
convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
1996 - After launching an
all-night retaliatory assault on suspected guerrilla hideouts in southern
Lebanon, Israel appeals to the United States and Syria to help avert an
escalation of the fighting.
1999 - Three U.S. soldiers
patrolling the border in Macedonia are abducted by Yugoslav troops while
expulsions of civilians go on in Kosovo, and NATO aircraft bomb
Yugoslavia. They are released May 2; Four New York City police officers
are charged with murder for killing Amadou Diallo, an unarmed African
immigrant, in a hail of bullets. The officers are later acquitted.
2000 - Japan's Mount Usu
volcano erupts forcing 16,000 people to evacuate the country's
northernmost island.
2001 -
Serbian police and
security forces attempted to arrest former President Slobodan Milosevic at
his home in Belgrade. Supporters massed at the compound prevented entry by
government forces, sparking a stand-off that lasted until the next day,
when Milosevic was taken into custody peacefully.
2002 - Premier Hun
Sen approves of a plan to resettle in the United States more than 900
Vietnamese refugees who fled to Cambodia in 2001, after Vietnam cracked
down on demonstrations by ethnic minorities for land rights and religious
freedom.
Aries
is the first Sign of the Zodiac, and that 's pretty much how those born under
this Sign see themselves: first. Aries are the leaders of the pack, first in
line to get things going. Whether or not everything gets done is another question
altogether, for Ariess far prefer to initiate than to complete. Do you have
a project needing a kick-start? Call an Aries, by all means. The leadership
displayed by Aries is most impressive, so don 't be surprised if they can rally
the troops against seemingly insurmountable odds -- they have that kind of personal
magnetism. Aries don 't shy away from new ground, either. Those born under this
Sign are often called the pioneers of the Zodiac, and it 's their fearless trek
into the unknown which often wins the day. Aries are a bundle of energy and
dynamism and the Pied Piper of their people. The dawning of a new day, and all
its possibilities, is pure bliss to an Aries…
