Todayâs Highlight in History: On May 4, 1961, the first group of âFreedom Ridersâ left Washington, D.C. to challenge racial segregation on interstate buses and in bus terminals. - Advertisement - In 1626, Dutch explorer Peter Minuit landed on present-day Manhattan Island. In 1776, Rhode Island declared its freedom from England, two months before the Declaration of Independence was adopted. In 1886, at Haymarket Square in Chicago, a labor demonstration for an 8-hour work day turned into a deadly riot when a bomb exploded. In 1932, mobster Al Capone, convicted of income-tax evasion, entered the federal penitentiary in Atlanta. (Capone was later transferred to Alcatraz Island.)