Today in History

On April 17, 1492, Spain's King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella agreed to finance Christopher Columbus' voyage to seek out a westward ocean passage to Asia.

In 1524 Giovanni da Verrazzano reached presentday New York Harbor.

In 1790 Benjamin Franklin died in Philadelphia; he was 84.

In 1861 the Virginia State Convention voted to secede from the Union.

In 1885 writer Isak Dinesen was born in Rungsted, Denmark. In 1894 Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev was born in Kalinovka, Ukraine. In 1897 novelist and playwright Thornton Wilder was born in Madison, Wis.

In 1941 Yugoslavia surrendered to Germany in World War II.

In 1961 about 1,500 CIA trained Cuban exiles launched the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro.

In 1964 Ford Motor Co. introduced the Mustang.

In 1969 Sirhan Sirhan was convicted of first-degree murder in the assassination of Sen. Robert Kennedy (D-N.Y.). Also in 1969 Czechoslovak Communist Party Chairman Alexander Dubcek was deposed. l

In 1970 the astronauts of Apollo 13 splashed down safely in the Pacific, four days after a ruptured oxygen tank crippled their spacecraft.

In 1975 Phnom Penh fell to communist Khmer Rouge insurgents, ending Cambodia's five-year war.

In 1982 Queen Elizabeth II proclaimed a new constitution for Canada, giving that nation independence from Britain.

In 1991 the Dow Jones industrial average closed above 3,000 for the first time.

In 1997 former Israeli president Chaim Herzog died in Tel Aviv; he was 78.

In 1998 Linda McCartney, wife of musician Paul McCartney, died in Tucson, Ariz.; she was 56.