1846 – The State of Michigan ends death penalty.
1878 – Thomas Edison’s Phonograph shown for 1st time at Grand Opera House.
1904 – Construction begins by the United States on the Panama Canal.
1916 – At request of US, Germany curtails its submarine warfare.
1932 – Al Capone enters Atlanta Penitentiary convicted of income tax evasion.
1942 – Food 1st rationed in US.
1953 – Pulitzer Prize for Literature awarded to Ernest Hemingway for “The Old Man & The Sea”
1957 – Alan Freed hosts “Rock n’ Roll Show” 1st prime-time network rock show.
1959 – First Grammy Awards: Perry Como & Ella Fitzgerald win.
1965 – Willie Mays 512th HR breaks Mel Ott’s 511th NL record.
1974 – 100th Kentucky Derby: Puerto Rican jockey Angel Cordero, Jr. wins aboard Cannonade for first of 3 Derby victories.
1977 – US Catholic bishops rescind automatic excommunications for divorced and remarried Catholics (receiving communion still outlawed if the previous marriages were not annulled by Church tribunals)
1988 – PEPCON chemical plant in Henderson, Nevada explodes killing 2 and injuring 372 causing damage within 10-mile radius.
1991 – US politician Mo Udall, Representative for Arizona (1961-91), resigns due to Parkinson disease.
1992 – US Army and Marine Corps forces arrive in Los Angeles to end rioting following the acquittal of four police officers over the beating of Rodney King.
1998 – A federal judge in Sacramento, California, gives “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski four life sentences plus 30 years after Kaczynski accepts a plea agreement sparing him from the death penalty.
2002 – Barry Bonds hits his 400th home run as an SF Giant, in a 3-0 win over Cincinnati. Bonds is first player with 400 homers for one team and 100 with another (Pirates)
2008 – Seth MacFarlane reaches an agreement worth $100 million with FOX to keep “Family Guy” and “American Dad” on television until 2012, making MacFarlane the world’s highest paid television writer.
2015 – Golden State Warrior Stephen Curry is named MVP for the 2014-15 NBA season.
2020 – World leaders pledge $8 billion to research treatments and a vaccine for COVID-19, with the US and Russia not taking part.
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