On this date in...

1691...After days of fighting and bloodshed between two colonial factions, British Colonel Henry Sloughter becomes Governor of the City of New York. His rival, Jacob Leisler, is charged with treason and hanged, but is later cleared of wrongdoing.

1899...Martha Place of Brooklyn becomes the first woman in New York State to be put to death in the electric chair. She is executed at Sing Sing prison for the murder of her stepdaughter.

1988...The Tony award-winning play "M. Butterfly" opens on Broadway. It closes two years later after 777 performances.

Today's New Yorker birthdays include comedian Carl Reiner, born in the Bronx in 1922; and director Spike Lee, born in 1957.