TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS TUESDAY, APRIL 24, the 114th day of 2018. There are 251 days left in the year. TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1800, Congress approved a bill establishing the Library of Congress.

In 1792, Capt. Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle began composing “War Song for the Rhine Army,” later known as “La Marseillaise”, the national anthem of France.

In 1877, federal troops were ordered out of New Orleans, ending the North’s post-Civil War rule in the South.

In 1915, in what’s considered the start of the Armenian genocide, the Ottoman Empire began rounding up Armenian political and cultural leaders in Constantinople.

In 1916, some 1,600 Irish nationalists launched the Easter Rising by seizing several key sites in Dublin. (The rising was put down by British forces five days later.)

In 1932, in the Free State of Prussia, the Nazi Party gained a plurality of seats in parliamentary elections.

In 1947, novelist Willa Cather died in New York at age 73.

In 1967, Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov was killed when his Soyuz 1 spacecraft smashed into the Earth after his parachutes failed to deploy properly during re-entry; he was the first human spaceflight fatality.

In 1970, the People’s Republic of China launched its first satellite, which kept transmitting a song, “The East Is Red.”

In 1980, the United States launched an unsuccessful attempt to free the American hostages in Iran, a mission that resulted in the deaths of eight U.S. servicemen.

In 1990, the space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., carrying the $1.5 billion Hubble Space Telescope.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Movie director-producer Richard Donner is 88. Actress Shirley MacLaine is 84. Actress-singer-director Barbra Streisand and former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley are 76. Actorplaywright Eric Bogosian is 65. Actorcomedian Cedric the Entertainer and actor Djimon Hounsou are 54. Rock musician Patty Schemel is 51. Actress Stacy Haiduk, rock musician Aaron Comess (Spin Doctors) and actor Aidan Gillen are 50. Country singer Danny Gokey, actress Reagan Gomez and actor Austin Nichols are 38. Singer Kelly Clarkson is 36. Rock singer-musician Tyson Ritter (The AllAmerican Rejects) is 34. Actors Joe Keery, Jack Quaid and Doc Shaw are 26. Golfer Lydia Ko is 21.

— Associated Press