Today In History

Today is Friday, April 17, the 107th day of 2015. There are 258 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

In 1492, a contract was signed by Christopher Columbus and a representative of Spain’s King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, giving Columbus a commission to seek a westward ocean passage to Asia.

ON THIS DATE

1861: The Virginia State Convention voted to secede from the Union.

1905: The U.S. Supreme Court, in Lochner v. New York, struck down, 5-4, a New York State law limiting the number of hours that bakers could be made to work. (This ruling was effectively overturned in 1937 by the high court’s West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish decision.)

1924: The motion picture studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was founded, the result of a merger of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and the Louis B. Mayer Co.

1937: Daffy Duck made his debut in the Warner Bros. animated cartoon “Porky’s Duck Hunt,” directed by Tex Avery.

1961: Some 1,500 CIA-trained Cuban exiles launched the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in an attempt to topple Fidel Castro, whose forces crushed the incursion by the third day.

1964: Ford Motor Co. unveiled the Mustang at the New York World’s Fair.

1970: Apollo 13 astronauts James A. Lovell, Fred W. Haise and Jack Swigert splashed down safely in the Pacific, four days after a ruptured oxygen tank crippled their spacecraft while en route to the moon.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Actor David Bradley is 73. Composer-musician Jan Hammer is 67. Actress Olivia Hussey is 64. Rock singer-musician Pete Shelley (Buzzcocks) is 60. Actor Sean Bean is 56. Former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason is 54. Actor Joel Murray is 53. Rock singer Maynard James Keenan is 51. Actress Lela Rochon is 51. Actor Henry Ian Cusick is 48. Actress Kimberly Elise is 48. Rapper-actor Redman is 45. Actress Jennifer Garner is 43. Country musician Craig Anderson (Heartland) is 42. Singer Victoria Adams Beckham is 41. Actress-singer Lindsay Korman is 37. Actress Rooney Mara is 30. Actress Jacqueline MacInnes Wood is 28. Actor Paulie Litt is 20. Actress Dee Dee Davis is 19.