Today in History

April 24

1898 - Spain declares war on US for rejecting ultimatum to withdraw from Cuba.

1908 - Auto racing legend Ralph DePalma makes his debut in New York.

1913 - Woolworth Building opens in New York City. It was the world’s tallest building.

1915 - The Ottomans begin a military campaign which claims the lives of over a million Armenians.

1953 - British statesman Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

1965 - President Sukarno orders the seizure of all foreign-owned property in Indonesia.

1967 - Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov is killed when parachute straps of his spacecraft get entangled.

1968 - Mauritius becomes a member of the United Nations. 1970 - China launches its first satellite.

1971 - Soviet cosmonauts link up with unmanned satellite prior to attempt to build world’s first orbiting space laboratory.

1986 - Duchess of Windsor dies age 89.

1990 - The US space shuttle Discovery takes the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit.

1992 - The Peshawar Accord is signed in Afghanistan. The peace and power sharing agreement establishes the post-communist Islamic State of Afghanistan.

1993 - Oliver Tambo, South African politician and anti-apartheid activist, dies.

1995 - UAE Cabinet approves the anti-drug law.

2003 - A filling station for hydrogen-powered vehicles, the first in the world, is opened in Iceland.

2006 - Three bombings hit an Egyptian beach resort in Sinai and killing at least 21 people.

2009 - Mexico shuts down schools, museums, libraries and theatres across the capital to contain a swine flu outbreak.

2011 - Indian guru Sri Satya Sai Baba dies in hospital in Puttaparthi, India.

2014 - UAE and Argentina sign a Memorandum of Cooperation in the field of peaceful nuclear energy.

2016 - Brightpoint Royal Women’s Hospital opens in Abu Dhabi.