On this date...

Henry Knox

In 1649, the Maryland Toleration Act, which provided for freedom of worship for all Christians, was passed by the Maryland assembly.

In 1776, in New York, Washington found a city uneasy and divided. Though British warships have recently withdrawn, the threat remains close, with William Tryon, the former royal governor of New York, directing Loyalist activity from offshore. Washington’s army fills the streets, but it is raw, regionally divided, and only partly fit for duty. The city is far from secure.

In 1776, from Norwich, Henry Knox, chief of artillery of the Continental Army, reports delays in moving cannon to NY.

In 1789, John Adams became the first US vice president, nine days before George Washington's presidential inauguration.

In 1832, Abraham Lincoln (23) assembled with his New Salem neighbors for the Black Hawk War on the Western frontier.

In 1836, the Texian militia launched a surprise assault on the numerically superior Mexican army on the fields of San Jacinto. The brief battle effectively ended the war for independence and established Texas as an independent republic.

In 1855, the first train crossed the first bridge over the Mississippi River, connecting Rock Island, Illinois, and Davenport, Iowa

In 1865, a train carrying the coffin of assassinated President Abraham Lincoln left Washington, D.C., on its way to Springfield, Illinois, where he would be buried on May 4.

In 1895, Woodville Latham and his sons, Otway and Gray, demonstrated their “Panopticon,” the first movie projector developed in the United States.

In 1898, the United States Navy began a blockade of Cuban ports. When the U.S. Congress issued a declaration of war on April 25, it declared that a state of war had existed from that date.

In 1930, A fire at an Ohio prison killed 320 inmates, some of whom burned to death when they were not unlocked from their cells. It is one of the worst prison disasters in American history.

In 1943, President Roosevelt announced that several Doolittle pilots were executed by the Japanese.

In 1954, A Senate subcommittee convened a 2-day hearing on whether comic books cause juvenile delinquency. To avoid regulation, the industry launched the Comics Code Authority, whose seal of approval will adorn comic covers until 2011.

In 1966, a bar crawl in New York’s West Village led to an important early moment in the gay liberation movement. In what will be dubbed the “Sip-In,” Dick Leitsch, Craig Rodwell, and John Timmons publicly identify themselves as gay and demand to be served anyway, challenging the unofficial but widespread practice of banning gay customers from bars.

In 1967, General Motors (GM) celebrated the manufacture of its 100 millionth American-made car. At the time, GM was the world’s largest automaker.

In 1977, Annie, a popular musical based on the newspaper comic strip Little Orphan Annie, first opened on Broadway.

In 1980, Rosie Ruiz, age 26, finished first in the women’s division of the Boston Marathon with a time of 2:31:56. She was rewarded with a medal, a laurel wreath, and a silver bowl; however, eight days later Ruiz was stripped of her victory after race officials learned she jumped into the race about a mile before the finish line.

In 1986, in a much-hyped special aired this day, television personality Geraldo Rivera blasted open the walled-off space in a Chicago hotel that gangster Al Capone had used as his headquarters in the 1920s.

In 1987, the Senate panel investigating the Iran-Contra affair voted to grant limited immunity to President Reagan’s former national security adviser, Rear Adm. John M. Poindexter.

In 1989, George W. Bush and Edward W. Rose became joint CEOs of the Texas Rangers

In 1992, Robert Alton Harris became the first person executed by the state of California in 25 years as he was put to death in the gas chamber for the 1978 murder of two teenage boys.

In 1995, the FBI arrested former soldier Timothy McVeigh at an Oklahoma jail where he had spent two days on minor traffic and weapons charges; he was charged in connection with the Oklahoma City bombing two days earlier, in which over 200 people were killed by a truck bomb that exploded in front of a Federal building.

In 2011, Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., announced he would step down amid a developing ethics probe while insisting he'd done nothing wrong.