On May 4, 1626, Dutch explorer Peter Minuit landed on present-day Manhattan Island.

In 1886, at Haymarket Square in Chicago, a labor demonstration for an eight-hour work day turned into a riot when a bomb exploded.

In 1904, the United States took over construction of the Panama Canal.

In 1932, mobster Al Capone, convicted of income-tax evasion, entered the federal penitentiary in Atlanta. (Capone was later transferred to Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay.)

In 1945, during World War II, German forces in the Netherlands, Denmark and northwest Germany agreed to surrender.

In 1946, a two-day riot at Alcatraz prison in San Francisco Bay ended, the violence having claimed five lives.

In 1961, a group of "Freedom Riders" left Washington, D.C., for New Orleans to challenge racial segregation on interstate buses and in bus terminals.

In 1979, Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher became Britain's first female prime minister as the Tories ousted the incumbent Labour government in parliamentary elections.