Today in History.....April 17

On this day in …

* 1861, the Virginia State Convention voted to secede from the Union

* 1875, "Snooker" -- a variation of pool -- invented by Sir Neville Chamberlain

* 1924, Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Co merge to form MGM

* 1939, Stalin signs British-France-Russian anti-Nazi pact

* 1941, Yugoslavia surrendered to Germany in World War II

* 1961, about 1,500 CIA-trained Cuban exiles launched the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in a failed attempt to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro

* 1964, Ford Motor Co. unveiled its new Mustang model at the New York World's Fair

* 1969, a jury in Los Angeles convicted Sirhan Sirhan of assassinating Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. ALSO: Czechoslovak Communist Party chairman Alexander Dubcek was deposed

* 1970, the astronauts of Apollo 13 splashed down safely in the Pacific, four days after a ruptured oxygen tank crippled their spacecraft

* 1986, the bodies of American librarian Peter Kilburn and two Britons were found near Beirut; the three hostages had been slain in apparent retaliation for the U.S. raid on Libya. ALSO: At London's Heathrow Airport, a bomb was discovered in a bag carried by an Irish woman about to board an El Al jetliner; she had been tricked into carrying the bomb by her Jordanian boyfriend, a practitopner of that "religion of peace". IBM produces first megabit-chip

* 1996, seeking to calm Pacific security jitters, President Clinton and Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto signed a joint declaration establishing new U.S.-Japan ties for a "stable and prosperous" Asia. Also: A jury in Los Angeles opted to spare Erik and Lyle Menendez the death penalty, recommending that the brothers instead serve life in prison without parole for gunning down their wealthy parentsff

* 2001, by a nearly 2-1 margin, Mississippi residents voted to keep the Confederate emblem on their state flag. ALSO: San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds became the 17th major leaguer ever to reach 500 career home runs