In 1496, Christopher Columbus concluded his second visit to the New World as he left Hispniola for Spain.
In 1629, England's King Charles I dissolved parliament. He would not call it back for 11 years.
In 1785, Thomas Jefferson was appointed minister to France, succeeding Benjamin Franklin.
In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell made the first telephone call, telling his assistant in an adjoining room in Boston, "Mr. Watson, come here, I want you."
-- part contents for background part 16
----- text -----
Playwright David Rabe (1940)
Newpaper columnist Bob Greene (1947)
Britain's Prince Edward (1964)
-- part contents for background part 17
----- text -----
"History is more of less bunk. It's tradition. We don't want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker's damn is the history we make today."