On this date

1626 — Dutch explorer Peter Minuit landed on present-day Manhattan Island. 1776 — Rhode Island declared its freedom from England, two months before the Declaration of Independence was adopted. 1830 — The Edward Bulwer-Lytton novel “Paul Clifford,” with its famous opening, “It was a dark and stormy night ...,” was first published in London. 1886 — At Haymarket Square in Chicago, a labor demonstration for an eight-hour work day turned into a deadly riot when a bomb exploded. 1919 — The comic strip character Harold Teen made his debut in the Sunday edition of the Chicago Tribune in “The Love Life of Harold Teen” by Carl Ed. 1932 — Mobster Al Capone, convicted of income-tax evasion, entered the federal penitentiary in Atlanta. (Capone was later transferred to Alcatraz Island.) 1942 — The Battle of the Coral Sea, the first naval clash fought entirely with carrier aircraft, began in the Pacific during World War II. (The outcome was considered a tactical victory for Japan, but ultimately a strategic one for the Allies.) 1959 — The first Grammy Awards ceremony was held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. 1961 — The first group of “Freedom Riders” left Washington, D.C., to challenge racial segregation on interstate buses and in bus terminals. 1970 — Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire during an anti-war protest at Kent State University, killing four students and wounding nine others. 1998 — Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski was given four life sentences plus 30 years by a federal judge in Sacramento, California, under a plea agreement that spared him the death penalty.