TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS SATURDAY, APRIL 24, the 114th day of 2021. There are 251 days left in the year. TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date 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 1800, Congress approved a bill establishing the Library of Congress. 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 1960, rioting erupted in Biloxi, Mississippi, after Black protesters staging a “wade-in” at a whites-only beach were attacked by a crowd of hostile whites. In 1974, comedian Bud Abbott, 78, died in Woodland Hills, California. In 2003, U.S. forces in Iraq took custody of Tariq Aziz, the former Iraqi deputy prime minister. China shut down a Beijing hospital as the global death toll from SARS surpassed 260. In 2005, Pope Benedict XVI formally began his stewardship of the Roman Catholic Church; the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said in his installation homily that, as pontiff, he would listen to the will of God in governing the world’s 1.1 billion Catholics. In 2009, Mexico shut down schools, museums, libraries and state-run theaters across its overcrowded capital in hopes of containing a deadly swine flu outbreak. In 2013, in Bangladesh, a shoddily constructed eight-story commercial building housing garment factories collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people. In 2019, avowed racist John William King was executed in Texas for the 1998 slaying of James Byrd Jr., who was chained to the back of a truck and dragged along a road outside Jasper, Texas; prosecutors said Byrd was targeted because he was Black. TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Movie directorproducer Richard Donner is 91. Actor Shirley MacLaine is 87. Actor-singer-director Barbra Streisand and former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley are 79. Country singer Richard Sterban (The Oak Ridge Boys) is 78. Rock musician Doug Clifford (Creedence Clearwater Revival) is 76. R&B singer Ann Peebles is 74. Former Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny is 70. Actor-playwright Eric Bogosian is 68. Rock singer-musician Jack Blades (Night Ranger) is 67. Actor Michael O’Keefe is 66. Rock musician David J (Bauhaus) is 64. Actor Glenn Morshower is 62. Rock musician Billy Gould is 58. Actor-comedian Cedric the Entertainer and actor Djimon Hounsou are 57. Rock musician Patty Schemel is 54. Actors Stacy Haiduk and Aidan Gillen, and rock musician Aaron Comess (Spin Doctors) are 53. Actors Melinda Clarke and Rory McCann are 52. Latin pop singer Alejandro Fernandez and country-rock musician Brad Morgan (Drive-By Truckers) are 50. Rock musician Brian Marshall (Creed; Alter Bridge) is 48. Actor Derek Luke is 47. Actor-producer Thad Luckinbill is 46. Actors Eric Balfour and Rebecca Mader are 44. Country singer Rebecca Lynn Howard is 42. Country singer Danny Gokey, and actors Reagan Gomez and Austin Nichols are 41. Actor Sasha Barrese and contemporary Christian musician Jasen Rauch (Red) are 40. Singer Kelly Clarkson is 39. Country singer Carly Pearce is 31.