On April 21, 1649, the Maryland Toleration Act, which provided for freedom of worship for all Christians, was passed by the Maryland assembly.
In 1789 John Adams was sworn in as the first vice president of the United States.
In 1836, with the battle cry of “Remember the Alamo,” Texans led by Gen. Sam Houston defeated a Mexican army at San Jacinto, assuring Texas’ independence.
In 1838 naturalist and author John Muir was born in Dunbar, Scotland. (After coming to the U.S. in 1849, he became a noted conservationist who fought for establishment of national parks.)
In 1910 Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as author Mark Twain, died in Redding, Conn.; he was 74.
In 1918 Baron Manfred von Richthofen, the German ace known as the “Red Baron,” was killed in action during World War I.
In 1926 Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor, who would become Queen Elizabeth II, was born in London.
In 1955 the Jerome Lawrence-Robert Lee play “Inherit the Wind,” loosely based on the Scopes trial of 1925, opened in New York.
In 1966 Pvt. Milton Olive III was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for valor in the Vietnam War; the Chicagoan had fallen on a live grenade to save his comrades.
In 1986 a vault in Chicago’s Lexington Hotel that was linked to Al Capone was opened during a live TV special hosted by Geraldo Rivera; aside from a few bottles and a sign, the vault was empty.
In 1995 the FBI arrested former soldier Timothy McVeigh at an Oklahoma jail where he had spent two days on minor traffic and weapons charges; he was charged in connection with the Oklahoma City bombing two days earlier.
In 2001 the Los Angeles Xtreme beat the San Francisco Demons 38-6 in the first — and last — XFL championship game.
In 2003 jazz singer and civil-rights activist Nina Simone died in Carry-le-Rouet, France; she was 70.
In 2007 American billionaire Charles Simonyi returned to Earth from a dream voyage to the International Space Station, riding a Russian capsule to a soft landing in Kazakhstan.
