TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT 1961

A white mob attacked a busload of Freedom Riders in Montgomery, Alabama, prompting the federal government to send in U.S. marshals to restore order.

ALSO ON THIS DATE 1506

Explorer Christopher Columbus died in Spain.

1873

Levi Strauss and tailor Jacob Davis received a U.S. patent for men’s work pants made with copper rivets.

1899

Taxi driver Jacob German was pulled over and arrested by a police officer riding a bicycle for speeding down Manhattan’s Lexington Avenue in his electric car at 12miles an hour at a time when the speed limit was 8 mph; it was the first recorded speeding arrest in U.S. history.

1927

Charles Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field on Long Island, New York, aboard the Spirit of St. Louis on his historic solo flight to France.

1932

Amelia Earhart took off from Newfoundland to become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.

1939

Regular trans-Atlantic mail service began as a Pan American Airways plane, the Yankee Clipper, took off from Port Washington, New York, bound for Marseille, France.

1956

The United States exploded the first airborne hydrogen bomb over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.

1959

Nearly 5,000JapaneseAmericans had their U.S. citizenships restored after choosing to renounce them during World War II.

1985

Radio Marti, operated by the U.S. government, began broadcasting; Cuba responded by attempting to jam its signal.