April 24 is the 114th day of the year (115th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 251 days remaining until the end of the year.
Holidays
- Christian feast day:
- Earliest day on which Arbor Day (United States) can fall, while April 30 is the latest; celebrated on the last Friday in April. (United States)
- Earliest day on which Turkmen Racing Horse Festival can fall, while April 30 is the latest; celebrated on the last Sunday in April. (Turkmenistan)
- Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day (Armenia)
- Concord Day (Niger)
- Children’s Day (Zambia)
- Democracy Day (Nepal)
- Fashion Revolution Day
- Flag Day (Ireland)
- International Sculpture Day
- Kapyong Day (Australia)
- National Panchayati Raj Day (India)
- Republic Day (The Gambia)
- World Day for Laboratory Animals
History
In 1479 BC, Thutmose III ascends to the throne of Egypt, although power effectively shifts to Hatshepsut (according to the Low Chronology of the 18th Dynasty).
In 1183 BC, Traditional date of the fall of Troy.
In 455, Pope Leo decrees Easter to be this day for the year.
In 858, St Nicholas I begins his reign as Catholic Pope. Succeeds Benedict III.
In 1061, Halley’s Comet heralded an invasion when it appeared over England. A monk spotted it and predicted the destruction of the country.
In 1519, Envoys of Montezuma II attend the first Easter Mass in Central America
In 1547, Battle of Mühlberg. Duke of Alba, commanding Spanish-Imperial forces of Charles I of Spain, defeats the troops of Schmalkaldic League.
In 1558, Mary, Queen of Scots, marries the Dauphin of France, François, at Notre Dame de Paris.
In 1649, The Toleration Act, providing religious freedom for all Christians, is passed in Maryland.
In 1704, The first regular newspaper in British Colonial America, The Boston News-Letter, is published in the American colonies.
In 1731, Daniel Defoe, English journalist and spy (b. 1660) died on 24 April 1731, probably while in hiding from his creditors. He was born Daniel Foe, was an English trader, writer, journalist, pamphleteer, and spy, now most famous for his novel Robinson Crusoe. Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, as he helped to popularise the form in Britain, and, along with others such as Samuel Richardson, is among the founders of the English novel. A prolific and versatile writer, he wrote more than 500 books, pamphlets and journals on various topics (including politics, crime, religion, marriage, psychology and the supernatural). He was also a pioneer of economic journalism. He was probably born in the parish of St. Giles Cripplegate, London. Defoe later added the aristocratic-sounding “De” to his name and on occasion claimed descent from the family of De Beau Faux. His birthdate and birthplace are uncertain: sources offer dates of anywhere between 1659 to 1662; considered most likely to be 1660. His father, James Foe, was a prosperous tallow chandler and a member of the Butchers’ Company. In Defoe’s early life he experienced firsthand some of the most unusual occurrences in English history: in 1665, 70,000 were killed by the Great Plague of London and the Great Fire of London (1666) left standing only Defoe’s and two other houses in his neighborhood. In 1667, when he was probably about 7, a Dutch fleet sailed up the Medway via the River Thames and attacked Chatham. His mother Annie had died by the time he was about 10.
In 1792, the national anthem of France, “La Marseillaise,” was composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle , an officer stationed in Strasbourg, after the declaration of war by France against Austria, and was originally titled “Chant de guerre pour l’Armée du Rhin” (“War Song for the Rhine Army”). It was composed at the request by the mayor of Strasbourg.
In 1800, as an idea goes, this one was small caliber, just one of many administrative details that Congress had before it in the spring of 1800 as it prepared to move to a new capital city. The seed of the idea that would become the Library of Congress lay in the fact that while there were sufficient libraries in Philadelphia, where the U.S. government had resided for a decade, there were none in Washington, where the government would soon be. That the library would grow into a pre-eminent world institution was beyond imagination. On April 24, 1800, President John Adams approved an appropriation of $5,000 to purchase “such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress.” Books, mostly on history, economics and law, were ordered from London.
In 1806, The soda fountain began in Europe, but achieved its greatest success in the U.S. Benjamin Silliman, a Yale chemistry professor, was among the first to introduce soda water to America. Silliman purchased a Nooth apparatus and began selling mineral waters in New Haven, Connecticut. Sales were brisk, so he built a bigger apparatus, opened a pump room, and took in three partners. This partnership opened soda fountains in New York City and Baltimore, Maryland. At roughly the same time, other businessmen opened fountains in NYC and Philadelphia. Although Silliman’s business eventually failed, he played an important role in popularizing soda water I’ll have a lime Rickey, please … and a cherry Coke … an egg cream … and shakes and sodas all around, OK?
In 1867, The 1867 Manhattan earthquake struck Riley County, Kansas, in the United States on April 24. The strongest earthquake to originate in the state, it measured 5.1 on a seismic scale based on reports of how strongly it was felt in the area. Its epicenter was near the town of Manhattan. On the Mercalli intensity scale, its maximum perceived intensity was VII, “very strong”. There were reports of minor damage in Kansas, Iowa, and Missouri, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It was felt as far away as Indiana and Illinois, and perhaps Ohio, though the latter reports have been questioned. Manhattan is near the Nemaha Ridge, a long anticlinestructure that is bounded by several faults. A 2016 hazard map from the U.S. Geological Survey estimated a 1% or lower risk for a major earthquake in Kansas for the following year, though the nearby Humboldt Fault Zone continues to pose a threat to the city, and scientists from the agency think an earthquake of magnitude 7.0 remains possible.
In 1877, Federal troops moved out of New Orleans, ending the North’s military occupation of the South following the Civil War.
In 1877, Russo-Turkish War: Russian Empire declares war on Ottoman Empire.
In 1884, National Medical Association of Black physicians organizes (Atlanta).
In 1885, American sharpshooter Annie Oakley is hired by Nate Salsbury to be a part of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West.
In 1886, Oil was discovered in the Middle East. The first well to come in was on the Egyptian shore of the Red Sea.
In 1888, Eastman Kodak formed. In 1913, the Woolworth Building opened in N.Y.
In 1891, Start of Sherlock Holmes adventure “Final Problem”.
In 1895, Joshua Slocum, the first person to sail single-handedly around the world, sets sail from Boston, Massachusetts aboard the sloop “Spray”.
In 1897, The first reporter for the Washington Star, William W. Price, was assigned to the White House. He was one of the first journalists to cover the White House on a full-time basis and the first to write a column devoted to the White House. He was the first president of the White House Correspondents’ Association. He was responsible for the creation of the White House Press Room.
In 1898, US fleet under commodore Dewey sails from Hong Kong to Philippines. Spain declared war on the United States after rejecting America’s ultimatum to withdraw from Cuba.
In 1904, The Lithuanian press ban is lifted after almost 40 years.
In 1906, James Wood Bush (c. 1844 – 1906) died of heart failure at Kealia, Kauai. He was an American Union Navy sailor of British and Native Hawaiian descent. He was among a group of more than one hundred Native Hawaiian and Hawaii-born combatants in the Civil War, at a time when the Kingdom of Hawaii was still an independent nation. Enlisting in the Union Navy in 1864, Bush served as a sailor aboard the USS Vandalia (depiction shown) and the captured Confederate vessel USS Beauregard, which maintained the blockade of the ports of the Confederacy. He was discharged from service in 1865 after an injury, which developed into a chronic condition in later life. Returning to Hawaii in 1877, he worked as a government tax collector and road supervisor for the island of Kauai, where he settled down. After the annexation of Hawaii to the United States, Bush was recognized for his military service, and in 1905 was granted a government pension for the injuries he received in the Navy
In 1907, Hersheypark, founded by Milton S. Hershey for the exclusive use of his employees, is opened.
In 1908, Mr & Mrs Jacob Murdock become the first to travel across the US by car, they leave LA in a Packard & arrive in NYC in 32 days, 5 hours, and 25 minutes.
In 1913, The Woolworth Building skyscraper in New York City is opened.
In 1914, The Franck–Hertz experiment, a pillar of quantum mechanics, is presented to the German Physical Society.
In 1915, The arrest of 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Istanbul marks the beginning of the Armenian Genocide.
In 1916, Some 1,600 Irish nationalists launched the Easter Rising by seizing several key points in Dublin, including the General Post Office, and proclaiming the establishment of an Irish Republic. (The rising was put down by British forces several days later.)
In 1916, Easter Rising: Irish republicans, led by Patrick Pearse and James Connolly, launch an uprising against British rule in Ireland, and proclaim an Irish Republic. It is the first armed action of the Irish revolutionary period.
In 1916, Ernest Shackleton and five men of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition launch a lifeboat from uninhabited Elephant Island in the Southern Ocean to organise a rescue for the crew of the sunken Endurance.
In 1918, First tank-to-tank combat, at Villers-Bretonneux, France, when three British Mark IVs meet three German A7Vs.
In 1922, The first segment of the Imperial Wireless Chain providing wireless telegraphy between Leafield in Oxfordshire, England, and Cairo, Egypt, comes into operation.
In 1923, In Vienna, the paper Das Ich und das Es (The Ego and the Id) by Sigmund Freud is published, which outlines Freud’s theories of the id, ego, and super-ego.
In 1926, The Treaty of Berlin is signed. Germany and the Soviet Union each pledge neutrality in the event of an attack on the other by a third party for the next five years.
In 1932, Benny Rothman leads the mass trespass of Kinder Scout, leading to substantial legal reforms in the United Kingdom.
In 1933, Nazi Germany begins its persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses by shutting down the Watch Tower Society office in Magdeburg.
In 1941, British army begins evacuation of Greece.
In 1944, World War II: The SBS launches a raid against the garrison of Santorini in Greece.
In 1944, the United Negro College Fund incorporated.
In 1950, President Truman denied there were communists in the U.S. government.
In 1950, The state of Jordan was formed by the union of Jordanian-occupied Palestine and the Kingdom of Transjordan.
In 1953, Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
In 1955, The Bandung Conference ends: Twenty-nine non-aligned nations of Asia and Africa finish a meeting that condemns colonialism, racism, and the Cold War.
In 1957, Suez Crisis: The Suez Canal is reopened following the introduction of UNEF peacekeepers to the region.
In 1957, The BBC first broadcast The Sky at Night presented by Patrick Moore
In 1961, President Kennedy accepted “sole responsibility” for the abortive Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.
In 1961, Vasa, which sunk on her maiden voyage in 1628, is raised.
In 1962, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology achieved the first satellite relay of a television signal, between Camp Parks, California, and Westford, Massachusetts.
In 1962, Claiming that JOSEF STALIN’s 1936 constitution was outdated, Soviet Premier KHRUSHCHEV calls for major revisions in the Soviet System, including curbs on the secret police.
In 1963, Marriage of HRH Princess Alexandra of Kent to the Hon Angus Ogilvy at Westminster Abbey in London.
In 1965, Civil war breaks out in the Dominican Republic when Colonel Francisco Caamaño, overthrows the triumvirate that had been in power since the coup d’état against Juan Bosch.
In 1967, The first death of a human during a space mission happened when cosmonaut Vladmir Komarov was killed when parachute straps of his spacecraft tangled up during a landing attempt and plunged four miles to earth. America would lose seven of their own in the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion in 1986.
In 1967, Vietnam War: American General William Westmoreland says in a news conference that the enemy had “gained support in the United States that gives him hope that he can win politically that which he cannot win militarily.”
In 1968, leftist students at Columbia University in New York City began a weeklong occupation of several campus buildings.
In 1968, Mauritius becomes a member state of the United Nations.
In 1969, US B-52 drops 3,000 ton bombs at Cambodian boundary. (It wasn’t enough)
In 1970, The first Chinese satellite, Dong Fang Hong I, is launched.
In 1974, Bud Abbott, American comedian and producer (b. 1895) dies of cancer. He as an American actor, producer, and comedian. He is best remembered as the straight man of the comedy team of Abbott and Costello, with Lou Costello.
Abbott crossed paths with Lou Costello in burlesque a few times in the early 1930s when Abbott was producing and performing in Minsky’s Burlesque shows and Costello was a rising comic. They first worked together in 1935 at the Eltinge Theater on 42nd Street, after an illness sidelined Costello’s regular partner. They formally teamed up in 1936, and went on to perform together in burlesque, vaudeville, minstrel shows, and stage shows.
In 1938, they received national exposure as regulars on the Kate Smith Hour radio show, which led to roles in a Broadway musical, The Streets of Paris. In 1940, Universal signed the team for their first film, One Night in the Tropics. Despite having minor roles, Abbott and Costello stole the film with several classic routines, including an abbreviated version of “Who’s On First?“
During World War II, Abbott and Costello were among the most popular and highest-paid stars in the world. Between 1940 and 1956 they made 36 films and earned a percentage of the profits on each. They were popular on radio throughout the 1940s, first on NBC from 1942 to 1947, and from 1947 to 1949 on ABC. In the 1950s, they introduced their comedy to live television on The Colgate Comedy Hour, and launched their own half-hour series,The Abbott and Costello Show.
Abbott was very supportive of his relatives. Norman and Betty Abbott, the children of Bud’s older sister, Olive, started their careers working behind the scenes on Abbott and Costello films. Betty became Blake Edwards‘ longtime script supervisor, and Norman directed many television sitcoms, including the Jack Benny Show and Sanford and Son.
In 1980, Eight U.S. servicemen die in Operation Eagle Claw as they attempt to end the Iran hostage crisis.
In 1981, President Reagan lifts the grain embargo on the Soviet Union.
In 1981, THE FIRST PERSONAL COMPUTER Introduced on this date by IBM
In 1983, Austria’s governing Socialists lost their absolute majority in Parliament during national elections, prompting Chancellor Bruno Kreisky to announce he would resign after 13 years in office.
In 1985, the 69th annual Pulitzer Prizes were announced, with the fiction award going to Alison Lurie’s “Foreign Affairs,” the drama award to Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s “Sunday in the Park with George” and the journalism public service award to The Fort Worth Star-Telegram. (I have seen this play… I gave it 2 stars)
In 1987, A brave new world of genetic engineering began when genetically-altered bacteria — designed to prevent frost damage — were sprayed on a California strawberry field. It was the first approved open-air test of designer gene life forms. Since then, hundreds of designer gene life forms have been approved for testing or even for sale as food.
In 1989, President Bush led a memorial service at the Norfolk Naval Station in Virginia for the 47 sailors killed in a gun-turret explosion aboard the USS Iowa.
In 1989, Richard M. Daley was inaugurated as the 45th mayor of Chicago.
In 1990, STS-31: The Hubble Space Telescope is launched from the Space Shuttle Discovery.
In 1990, Junk bond king Michael Milken avoided trial on insider trading and racketeering charges by pleading guilty to six less serious felony violations…agreeing to pay fines and penalties totaling 600-million dollars.
In 1990, East and West Germany agreed on July 2nd as the date for economic union, a prelude to full political unification.
In 1990, Gruinard Island, Scotland, is officially declared free of the anthrax disease after 48 years of quarantine.
In 1991, Freddie Stowers, a black World War I corporal, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor to become the first black to receive the highest medal for valor in combat.
In 1992, President Bush and Democratic challenger Bill Clinton made long-distance appeals to Hispanic-Americans in back-to-back appearances via satellite hookups before the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
In 1995, a package bomb linked to the Unabomber exploded inside the Sacramento, Calif., offices of a lobbying group for the wood products industry, killing chief lobbyist Gilbert B. Murray.
In 1996, the Palestinian National Council voted to drop its official commitment to the destruction of Israel.
In 1996, In the United States, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 is passed into law.
In 1997, The prosecution and defense presented opening statements in the Oklahoma City bombing trial of Timothy McVeigh.
In 1998, After a month of confrontation, Russian lawmakers caved in to President Boris Yeltsin, approving acting prime minister Sergei Kiriyenko (SEHR’-gay keer-ee-YEN’-koh), 35, as premier despite doubts about his relative youth and inexperience. (Kiriyenko was fired just four months later.)
In 2000, Concerned about the disappearance of a laptop computer with highly sensitive documents, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright announced a five-point plan to help guard against such lapses in the future.
In 2000, a teen-age gunman opened fire at Washington’s National Zoo, wounding seven children.
In 2004, The United States lifts economic sanctions imposed on Libya 18 years previously, as a reward for its cooperation in eliminating weapons of mass destruction.
In 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is inaugurated as the 265th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church taking the name Pope Benedict XVI.
In 2005, Snuppy becomes world’s first cloned dog. Snuppy died in May 2015 at the age of 10.
In 2011, WikiLeaks starts publishing the Guantanamo Bay files leak.
In 2013, A building collapses near Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing 1,129 people and injuring 2,500 others.
In 2013, Violence in Bachu County, Kashgar Prefecture, of China‘s Xinjiang results in death of 21 people.
In 2015, 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide commemorated.