Todayâs Highlight in History: On April 17, 1970, Apollo 13 astronauts James A. Lovell, Fred W. Haise and Jack Swigert splashed down safely in the Pacific, four days after a ruptured oxygen tank crippled their spacecraft while en route to the moon. On this date: In 1492, a contract was signed by Christopher Columbus and a representative of Spainâs King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, giving Columbus a commission to seek a westward ocean passage to Asia. In 1895, the Treaty of Shimonoseki ended the first Sino-Japanese War. In 1905, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Lochner v. New York, struck down, 5-4, a New York State law limiting the number of hours that bakers could be made to work. (This ruling was effectively overturned in 1937 by the high courtâs West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish decision.)