On this date in...

1895...The design for the modern one-star flag of Puerto Rico is unveiled at a meeting of the Puerto Rican Revolutionary Committee, a revolutionary independence group, at a meeting in the Chelsea section of Manhattan. For 50 years it is illegal to display the flag in Puerto Rico, but the design is officially adopted when the commonwealth establishes its own constitution in 1952.

1917...Mother Cabrini, an Italian immigrant known for her work with poor and sick New Yorkers, dies at age 67. She later becomes the first American citizen to be canonized.

1984...Bernhard Goetz, a white self-employed electronics repairman from Queens, shoots four black teens on the No. 2 train in Manhattan, claiming that they had tried to rob him. The "Subway Vigilante" case sparks a national debate about crime and race, as Goetz is later acquitted of all attempted murder charges but serves eight months in prison for carrying an unlicensed weapon.