This Day In History

April 17

St. Stephen

1492  Christopher Columbus signed a contract giving him commission to seek a westward ocean passage to Asia.
1524  Giovannida Verrazano discovered New York harbor.
1629  Horses were first imported into the colonies by the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
1704  John Campbell published what eventually became the first successful American newspaper, The Boston News-Letter.
1790  Ben Franklin dies in Philadelphia at the age of 84.
1860  New York required fire escapes to be provided for tenement houses.
1861  The Virginia State Convention voted to secede from the Union.
1941  Igor Sikorsky made the first helicopter (first called heliocopter) flight from Stratford, Connecticut.
1941 After 11 days of fighting, Yugoslavia surrenders to Nazi German forces.  Over 300,000 Yugoslavian officers and soldiers were taken prisoner, but only 200 Germans died in the conquest.
1961  1500 Cuban exiles launch the Bay of Pigs invasion which failed miserably.
1964  Ford Motor Company introduces the Mustang.
1969  Sirhan Sirhan convicted of assassinating US Senator Robert Kennedy.
1970  The official breakup of the Beatles becomes publicly known when Paul McCartney's released his own solo album, "McCartney" on which Paul played all the instruments on this Apple recording.

1837  Financier John Pierpoint (J.P.) Morgan
1894  USSR Premier Nikita Khrushchev
1897  Novelist Thornton Wilder
1918  Actor William Holden (Beedle, Jr.)
1934  Composer Don Kirshner
1934  Jazz Musician Warren Chiasson

1957

1961

1970

1989

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