This Day In History for April 2

1917, President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress to declare war against Germany, saying, "The world must be made safe for democracy." (Congress declared war four days later.)

On this date:

In 1513, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon landed in present-day Florida.

In 1792, Congress passed the Coinage Act, which authorized establishment of the U.S. Mint.

In 1860, the first Italian Parliament met at Turin.

In 1865, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and most of his Cabinet fled the Confederate capital of Richmond, Va., because of advancing Union forces.

In 1932, aviator Charles A. Lindbergh and John F. Condon went to a cemetery in The Bronx, N.Y., where Condon turned over $50,000 to a man in exchange for Lindbergh's kidnapped son. (The child, who was not returned, was found dead the following month.)

In 1956, the soap operas "As the World Turns" and "The Edge of Night" premiered on CBS television.

In 1982, several thousand troops from Argentina seized the disputed Falkland Islands, located in the south Atlantic, from Britain. (Britain seized the islands back the following June.)