TODAY IN HISTORY

On April 16, 1789, President-elect George Washington left Mount Vernon, Virginia, for his inauguration in New York.

In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia.

In 1867, aviation pioneer Wilbur Wright was born in Millville, Indiana.

In 1912, American aviator Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly across the English Channel, leaving Dover, England, and arriving near Calais, France, in 59 minutes.

In 1962, Bob Dylan debuted his song “Blowin’ in the Wind” at Gerde’s Folk City in New York.

In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” a response to a group of local clergymen who had criticized King for leading street protests.

In 1977, Alex Haley, author of the best-seller “Roots,” visited the Gambian village of Juffure, where, he believed, his ancestor Kunte Kinte was captured as a slave in 1767.

In 1996, Britain’s Prince Andrew and his wife, Sarah, the Duchess of York, announced they were in the process of divorcing.