This Day in History, May 4th

1494 - Christopher Columbus lands in Jamaica.

1776 - Rhode Island becomes the first American colony to renounce allegiance to King George III.

1814 - Emperor Napoleon I of France arrives at Portoferraio on the island of Elba to begin his exile.

1863 - War of Northern Aggression: Battle of Chancellorsville - The battle ends in dramatic fashion after Stonewall Jackson's troops flanked the Union line, resulting in a Union retreat.

1865 - Abraham Lincoln buried in Springfield, IL, 3 weeks after his assassination.

1904 - Construction begins by the United States on the Panama Canal.

1932 - In Atlanta, GA, mobster Al Capone begins serving an 11 year prison sentence for tax evasion.

1945 - WWII: Surrender of North Germany Army to Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery.

1953 - Ernest Hemingway is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and the Sea.

1964 - The long-running soap opera Another World (one of the soaps i grew up on), which would run until 1999, debuts on NBC.

1970 - Vietnam War - Kent State Shootings: The Ohio National Guard, sent to Kent State University after the ROTC building was burnt down, opens fire on students protesting the US invasion of Cambodia. 4 students are killed and 9 are wounded.

1979 - Margaret Thatcher becomes the first woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

1981 - Donald Eugene Webb is placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List. Webb was on the list longer than any other person, over 25 years. He was removed on March 31, 2007, never located.

1989 - Iran-Contra Affair: Former White House aide Oliver North is convicted of 3 crimes and acquitted of 9 other charges. The convictions were later overturned on appeal.

1998 - A federal judge in Sacramento, California gives "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski 4 life sentences plus 30 years after Kaczynski accepted a plea deal that spared him the death penalty.

2002 - An EAS Airlines BAC 1-11-500 crashes in a suburb of Kano, Nigeria shortly after takeoff, killing more than 148 people.