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 April 24, 1800, Congress approved a bill establishing the Library of Congress.
On this date
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.
1877 — Federal troops were ordered out of New Orleans, ending the North’s post-Civil War rule in the South.
1915 — In what’s considered the start of the Armenian genocide, the Ottoman Empire began rounding up Armenian political and cultural leaders in Constantinople.
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.)
1932 — In the Free State of Prussia, the Nazi Party gained a plurality of seats in parliamentary elections.
1947 — Novelist Willa Cather died in New York at age 73.
1953 — British statesman Winston Churchill was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
1962 — The Massachusetts Institute of Technology achieved the first satellite relay of a television signal, using NASA’s Echo 1 balloon satellite to bounce a video image from Camp Parks, California, to Westford, Massachusetts.
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.
1970 — The People’s Republic of China launched its first satellite, which kept transmitting a song, “The East Is Red.”
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.
1990 — The space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying the $1.5 billion Hubble Space Telescope.
One year ago
Two inmates received lethal injections on the same gurney about three hours apart as Arkansas completed the nation’s first double execution since 2000, just days after the state ended a nearly 12-year hiatus on administering capital punishment.
Today’s Birthdays
Movie director-producer Richard Donner is 88. Actress Shirley MacLaine is 84. Actress-singer-director Barbra Streisand is 76. Former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley is 76. Country singer Richard Sterban (The Oak Ridge Boys) is 75. Rock musician Doug Clifford (Creedence Clearwater Revival) is 73. Rock singer-musician Rob Hyman is 68. Actor Glenn Morshower is 59. Rock musician Billy Gould is 55. Actor-comedian Cedric the Entertainer is 54. Actor Djimon Hounsou is 54. Rock musician Patty Schemel is 51. Actress Stacy Haiduk is 50. Rock musician Aaron Comess (Spin Doctors) is 50. Actor Aidan Gillen is 50. Actress Melinda Clarke is 49. Actor Rory McCann is 49. Latin pop singer Alejandro Fernandez is 47. Country-rock musician Brad Morgan (Drive-By Truckers) is 47. Rock musician Brian Marshall (Creed; Alter Bridge) is 45. Actor Derek Luke is 44. Actor-producer Thad Luckinbill is 43. Actor Eric Balfour is 41. Actor Austin Nichols is 38. Actress Sasha Barrese is 37. Contemporary Christian musician Jasen Rauch (Red) is 37. Singer Kelly Clarkson is 36.