Today:
1492: Spain and Christopher Columbus sign the Capitulations of Santa Fe, outlining the terms for his voyage to the Indies.
1521: The trial of Martin Luther begins at the Diet of Worms, where he is asked to renounce his religious writings.
1524: Giovanni da Verrazzano reaches the area of present-day New York Harbor, becoming the first European to do so.
1790: Benjamin Franklin, an American statesman, inventor, and a key figure in the founding of the United States, dies in Philadelphia.
1861: During the American Civil War, the state of Virginia votes to secede from the Union.
1907: Ellis Island processes 11,747 immigrants, the highest number of people to pass through the center in a single day.
1961: The Bay of Pigs invasion begins as a group of CIA-trained Cuban exiles lands in Cuba in an attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro.
1964: Jerrie Mock arrives in Columbus, Ohio, completing the first solo flight around the world by a woman.
1970: The Apollo 13 spacecraft returns safely to Earth with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean after a mechanical failure aborted its lunar landing mission.
1975: The Cambodian Civil War ends as the Khmer Rouge captures the capital city of Phnom Penh.