On this day …
May 4, 2017
- In 1493, Pope Alexander VI divided the New World between Spain and Portugal.
- In 1626, Dutch explorer Peter Minuit arrived at New Netherland (present-day Manhattan).
- In 1776, Rhode Island became the first American colony to renounce allegiance to King George III.
- In 1904, the United States began its construction of the Panama Canal.
- In 1953, Ernest Hemingway was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Old Man and the Sea.
- In 1959, the inaugural Grammy Awards ceremony was held.
- In 1970, four unarmed students were killed and nine others were wounded by members of the Ohio National Guard during Vietnam War protests at Kent State University.
- In 1979, Margaret Thatcher became the first female prime minister of the United Kingdom.
- In 1998, a federal judge in Sacramento, Calif., sentenced Theodore Kaczynski, the “Unabomber,” to four life sentences plus 30 years for his crimes.
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