Source: HistoryNet.com
1626: Indigenous People in America sell Manhattan Island for $24 in cloth and buttons.
1715: A French manufacturer debuts the first folding umbrella.
1795: Thousands of rioters enter jails in Lyons, France, and massacre 99 Jacobin prisoners.
1927: A balloon soars over 40,000 feet for the first time.
1930: Mahatma Gandhi is arrested by the British.
1942: The United States begins food rationing.
1958: Canadian comedians Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster make their first of a record 67 appearances on TV's Ed Sullivan Show.
1961: Thirteen civil rights activists, dubbed Freedom Riders, begin a bus trip through the South.
1970: Ohio National Guardsmen open fire on student protesters at Kent State University, killing four and wounding nine others.
2012: Royal Canadian Mint produces its final penny; the penny was withdrawn from circulation Feb. 4, 2013.