1496

Christopher Columbus concluded his second visit to the Western Hemisphere as he left Hispaniola for Spain.

1864

President Abraham Lincoln assigned Ulysses S. Grant to the command of the Armies of the United States.

1876

Alexander Graham Bell’s assistant, Thomas Watson, heard Bell say over his experimental telephone: “Mr. Watson — come here — I want to see you” from the next room of Bell’s Boston laboratory.

1969

James Earl Ray pleaded guilty in Memphis, Tennessee, to assassinating civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.