Title: April 24 Content: == Events == === Up to 1900 === * 1184 BC - Traditional date of the Fall of Troy. * 1558 – Mary, Queen of Scots marries future King Francis II of France. * 1585 - Felice Peretti is elected Pope, becoming Pope Sixtus V. * 1704 - The first regular newspaperin Colonial America, the News-Letter, is published in Boston, Massachusetts. * 1715 - Following defeat in the naval Battle of Fehmarn, Sweden sinks its own flagship, Hedvig Sophia, to prevent Denmark from taking it. * 1800 – The Library of Congress in Washington, DC opens. * 1877 – Russo-Turkish War: Russia declares war on the Ottoman Empire. * 1885 - American sharpshooter Annie Oakley is hired to be part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West. * 1895 - Joshua Slocum sets sail from Boston, Massachusetts on his boat Spray, on his way to becoming the first person to sail single-handedly around the world. * 1898 – The Spanish-American War begins. === 1901 2000 === * 1904 - The Lithuanian press ban ends after over 40 years. * 1907 - Hersheypark, founded by Milton S. Hershey exclusively for his employees, opens. * 1913 – New York City's Woolworth building is opened. * 1914 - The Franck-Hertz Experiment, a pillar of quantum mechanics, is presented to the German Physical Society. * 1915 – The arrest of 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Istanbul marks the beginning of the Armenian Genocide. * 1916 – The Irish Easter Rising begins in Dublin. * 1916 - Ernest Shackleton and five men of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition launch a lifeboat from the uninhabited Elephant Island in the Southern Ocean to organize a rescue for the ice-trapped ship Endurance. * 1922 - The first segment of the Imperial Wireless Chain providing wireless telegraphy between Leafield, Oxfordshire, England and Cairo, Egypt, begins operations. * 1926 - The Treaty of Berlin is signed. Germany and the Soviet Union each pledge neutrality in the event of an attack on the other, for the next five years. * 1933 - Nazi Germany begins with the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses by shutting down the Watch Tower Society in Magdeburg. * 1953 – Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. * 1955 - End of the Bandung Conference in Indonesia: 29 non- aligned Asian and African countries condemn colonialism, racism and the Cold War. * 1957 - Following the Suez Crisis, the Suez Canal is re-opened. * 1957 - The BBC first broadcasts the long-running astronomy TV programme The Sky at Night, presented by Patrick Moore until his death in 2012. * 1964 - The Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen is beheaded. * 1965 - A civil war starts in the Dominican Republic. * 1967 – Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1 when his parachute fails to open. * 1968 – Mauritius joins the UN. * 1970 – The Gambia becomes a republic with Dawda Jawara as its first President. * 1970 - The first Chinese satellite, Dong Fang Hong I, is launched. * 1971 - Soyuz 10 docks with Salyut 1. * 1974 - President of Austria Franz Jonas dies in office aged 74, following a long period of illness. * 1990 – Gruinard Island in Scotland is declared free of Anthrax. * 1990 – STS-31: The Hubble Space Telescope is launched from Space Shuttle Discovery. * 1993 - An Irish Republican Army bomb hits the Bishopsgate area of London. === From 2001 === * 2004 – In Cyprus, a referendum on reunification results in the Turkish population mainly voting yes, but the Greek population mainly voting no, meaning that only Greek Cyprus joins the EU the following week. * 2004 - The United States lifts (ends) economic sanctions on Libya. * 2005 – Josef Alois Ratzinger is officially inaugurated as Pope Benedict XVI. * 2005 – Snuppy, the world's first cloned dog, is born in South Korea. * 2007 – Iceland announces that Norway will take responsibility of its defence in peacetime. * 2013 - 1,127 people are killed when an eight-storey clothing factory building in Dhaka, Bangladesh, collapses. Over 2,500 are injured. * 2016 - The candidates of the traditional political parties are rejected in Austria's Presidential election, with Alexander Van der Bellen and Norbert Hofer advancing to the second round. == Births == === Up to 1900 === *1086 - Ramiro II of Aragon (d. 1157) *1492 - Sabina of Bavaria (d. 1564) *1533 – William I of Orange (d. 1584) *1580 – Vincent de Paul, French saint (d. 1660) *1620 – John Graunt, English statistician (d. 1674) *1706 – Giovanni Battista Martini, Italian musician (d. 1780) *1718 – Nathaniel Hone, Irish-born painter (d. 1784) *1719 - Giuseppe Marc'Antonio Baretti, Italian poet (d. 1789) *1721 - Johann Philipp Kirnberger, German composer and music theorist (d. 1783) *1743 – Edmund Cartwright, British inventor (d. 1823) *1777 - Maria Clementina of Austria (d. 1801) *1787 - Mathieu Orfila, Spanish-French chemist (d. 1853) *1815 – Anthony Trollope, English novelist (d. 1882) *1819 - Klaus Groth, German writer (d. 1899) *1825 - R. M. Ballantyne, Scottish writer (d. 1894) *1829 - James Sheakley, Territorial Governor of Alaska (d. 1917) *1831 - George Nares, British admiral and polar explorer (d. 1915) *1841 - Charles Sprague Sargent, American botanist (d. 1927) *1845 – Carl Spitteler, Swiss writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1924) *1851 - Morgan Earp, American Western figure and brother of Wyatt Earp (d. 1882) *1856 – Henri Philippe Pétain, French soldier and statesman (d. 1951) *1871 - Blanche Ring, American singer (d. 1961) *1876 – Erich Raeder, German naval commander (d. 1960) *1878 – Jean Crotti, Swiss artist (d. 1958) *1879 - Susanna Bokoyni, Hungarian-American centenarian and circus performer (d. 1984) *1880 - Gideon Sundback, Swedish engineer, businessman and developer of the zipper (d. 1954) *1882 – Hugh Dowding, 1st Baron Dowding, Scottish fighter pilot (d. 1970) *1889 – Sir Stafford Cripps, British politician (d. 1952) *1889 – Lyubov Popova, Russian painter (d. 1924) *1896 - Charlie Rivel, Spanish clown (d. 1983) *1896 – Benjamin Whorf, American linguist (d. 1941) *1897 – Manuel Ávila Camacho, President of Mexico (d. 1955) *1899 – Oscar Zariski, Russian-born mathematician (d. 1986) === 1901 1925 === *1903 - José Antonio Primo de Rivera, Spanish lawyer and politician (d. 1936) *1904 – Willem de Kooning, Dutch painter (d. 1997) *1905 – Robert Penn Warren, American poet (d. 1989) *1906 – William Joyce, Irish fascist (d. 1946) *1907 – William Sargant, British psychiatrist (d. 1988) *1908 - Viktor Abakumov, Soviet politician (d. 1954) *1908 – Marceline Day, American actress (d. 2000) *1908 – Jozef Goslawski, Polish sculptor (d. 1963) *1909 – Bernhard Grzimek, German zoologist, naturalist, writer and movie maker (d. 1987) *1913 - Dieter Grau, German-American scientist and engineer (d. 2014) *1914 – William Castle, American movie director and producer (d. 1977) *1916 – Lou Thesz, American professional wrestler (d. 2002) *1919 - Glafcos Clerides, 4th President of Cyprus (d. 2013) *1919 - César Manrique, Spanish artist, architect and conservationist (d. 1992) *1922 - Susanna Agnelli, Italian politician (d. 2009) *1922 – J.D. Cannon, American actor (d. 2005) *1922 - Marc-Adélard Tremblay, Canadian anthropologist (d. 2014) *1923 - Gus Bodnar, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2005) *1924 – Sir Clement Freud, British writer, radio personality, and politician (d. 2009) === 1926 1950 === *1926 – Thorbjörn Fälldin, former Prime Minister of Sweden (d. 2016) *1927 - Frank Lucchesi, American baseball player, coach and manager (d. 2019) *1927 - Josy Barthel, Luxembourgish middle-distance runner (d. 1992) *1928 - Tommy Docherty, Scottish footballer *1929 - Hella Pick, Austrian-British journalist *1929 - Rajkumar, Indian actor (d. 2006) *1930 – Jerome Callet, American musician *1930 – Richard Donner, American movie director and producer *1930 – José Sarney, former President of Brazil *1931 - Bridget Riley, British artist *1933 – Claire Davenport, British actress (d. 2002) *1933 – Helmuth Lohner, Austrian actor (d. 2015) *1934 – Shirley MacLaine, American actress and writer *1935 - Kuaima Riruako, Namibian politician (d. 2014) *1936 – Jill Ireland, British actress (d. 1990) *1936 - Akwasi Afrifa, Ghanaian politician (d. 1979) *1936 - David Crombie, 56th Mayor of Toronto *1937 – Joe Henderson American jazz saxophonist (d. 2001) *1940 – Sue Grafton, American writer (d. 2017) *1940 - Michael Parks, American actor (d. 2017) *1941 - Silvio Moser, Swiss racing driver (d. 1974) *1941 – John Williams, Australian guitarist *1941 – Richard Holbrooke, American diplomat (d. 2010) *1942 – Richard M. Daley, American politician *1942 – Barbra Streisand, American singer, actress, and director *1942 - George Vella, 10th President of Malta *1944 - Tony Visconti, American music producer *1945 – Doug Clifford, American drummer (Creedence Clearwater Revival) *1945 - Dick Rivers, French singer (d. 2019) *1947 - Josep Borrell, Spanish politician, 22nd President of the European Parliament *1947 - Roger D. Kornberg, American chemist *1948 - Paul Cellucci, 69th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 2013) === 1951 1963 === *1951 - Nigel Harrison, English musician and songwriter *1951 – Enda Kenny, Irish Taoiseach *1952 – Jean-Paul Gaultier, French fashion designer *1953 – Eric Bogosian, American actor and writer *1954 – Mumia Abu-Jamal, American journalist, political activist, and death-row inmate *1954 – Captain Sensible, British guitarist (The Damned) *1954 - Jack Blades, American musician *1955 – John de Mol, Dutch media tycoon *1955 - Eamon Gilmore, Irish politician *1957 – David J, British musician *1957 – Boris Williams, British musician (The Cure) *1958 - Brian Paddick, English deputy police officer and politician *1958 - Valery Lantratov, Russian ballet dancer *1958 – Susan Tsvangirai, (d. 2009) wife of Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai *1958 - Steve Wright, British serial killer *1960 – Paula Yates, British television presenter (d. 2000) *1961 - Andrew Murrison, English physician and politician *1962 – Stuart Pearce, English footballer and manager *1962 – Steve Roach, Australian rugby player *1963 – Billy Gould, American musician (Faith No More) === 1964 1976 === *1964 – Cedric the Entertainer, American comedian and actor *1964 – Djimon Hounsou, Benin-born actor *1966 – Alessandro Costacurta, Italian footballer *1967 – Omar Vizquel, Venezuelan baseball player *1968 – Stacy Haiduk, American actress *1968 – Hashim Thaci, Kosovan politician *1968 - Yuji Nakata, Japanese wrestler *1968 – Roxanna Panufnik, British composer *1969 - Eilidh Whiteford, Scottish politician *1971 – Mauro Pawlowski, Belgian guitarist and singer (Evil Superstars and dEUS) *1971 - Alejandro Fernández, Mexican singer *1972 – Chipper Jones, American baseball player *1972 – Jure Košir, Slovenian skier *1972 – Rab Douglas, Scottish footballer *1972 - Adhemar Ferreira de Camargo Neto, Brazilian footballer *1973 – Sachin Tendulkar, Indian cricketer *1973 – Lee Westwood, British golfer *1973 – Gabby Logan, British television presenter *1973 - Eric Snow, American basketball player *1974 – Comedy Dave, British television and radio host *1974 – Joseph Bruce, American rapper (Insane Clown Posse) *1974 – Stephen Wiltshire, British artist *1975 – Sam Doumit, American actress *1975 - Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, wife of Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau *1976 – Steve Finnan, Irish footballer === From 1977 === *1977 – Carlos Beltran, Puerto Rican Major League Baseball player *1977 – Siarhiej Bałachonaŭ, Belarusian writer *1978 – Eric Balfour, American actor *1980 – Austin Nichols, American actor *1980 – Karen Asrian, Armenian chess player (d. 2008) *1980 - Fernando Arce, Mexican footballer *1981 - Taylor Dent, American tennis player *1982 – Kelly Clarkson, American singer *1982 – Shayna Nackoney, Canadian synchronized swimmer *1984 – Tyson Ritter, American singer and bassist (All-American Rejects) *1985 - Joséphine Jobert, French actress and singer *1985 – Kaori Nazuka, Japanese voice actress *1986 - Kellin Quinn, American singer *1987 - Simone Corsi, Italian motorcycle racer *1987 - Ben Howard, British singer-songwriter *1987 - Jan Vertonghen, Belgian footballer *1989 - David Boudia, American diver *1992 - Laura Kenny, English cyclist *1992 - Doc Shaw, American actor, singer, rapper and model *1993 - Laura Gil, American basketball player *1996 - Ashleigh Barty, Australian tennis player *1997 - Lydia Ko, New Zealand golfer *1998 – Ryan Newman, American actress *2005 – Snuppy, cloned dog == Deaths == === Up to 1900 === * 624 - Mellitus, Archbishop of Canterbury * 709 - Wilfrid, English archbishop and saint * 1185 - Emperor Antoku of Japan (b. 1178) * 1342 – Pope Benedict XII (b. 1285) * 1479 - Jorge Manrique, Spanish poet (b. 1440) * 1617 - Concino Concini, Italian-French politician (b. 1575) * 1622 - Fidelis Sigmaringen, German friar and saint (b. 1577) * 1656 - Thomas Fincke, Danish mathematician and physicist (b. 1561) * 1678 - Louis VI, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, German aristocrat (b. 1630) * 1731 – Daniel Defoe, English writer (b. 1660) * 1748 - Anton thor Helle, German-Estonian clergyman and translator (b. 1683) * 1794 - Axel von Fersen the Elder, Swedish statesman and soldier (b. 1719) * 1852 – Vasily Zhukovsky, Russian poet (b. 1783) * 1852 - Leopold, Grand Duke of Baden (b. 1790) * 1884 - Marie Taglioni, Swedish dancer (b. 1804) * 1891 - Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, Prussian field marshal (b. 1800) * 1900 - George Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll, Scottish politician (b. 1823) === 1901 2000 === * 1901 - Arvid Posse, Prime Minister of Sweden (b. 1820) * 1924 - G. Stanley Hall, American psychologist and educator (b. 1844) * 1926 - Sunjong of the Korean Empire (b. 1874) * 1931 - David Kldiashvili, Georgian writer (b. 1862) * 1938 - George Gray Barnard, American sculptor (b. 1863) * 1939 – Louis Trousselier, French cyclist (b. 1881) * 1941 - Karin Boye, Swedish writer (b. 1900) * 1942 - Lucy Maud Montgomery, Canadian novelist (b. 1874) * 1942 - Leonid Kulik, Russian scientist (b. 1882) * 1947 - Willa Cather, American writer (b. 1878) * 1960 – Max von Laue, German physicist (b. 1897) * 1962 - Emilio Prados, Spanish poet (b. 1899) * 1964 – Gerhard Domagk, German doctor, won the 1939 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1895) * 1965 - Louise Dresser, American actress (b. 1878) * 1967 – Vladimir Komarov, Soviet cosmonaut (b. 1927) * 1968 - Walter Tewksbury, American athlete (b. 1876) * 1974 - Franz Jonas, President of Austria (b. 1899) * 1974 – Bud Abbott, American actor and comedian (b. 1895) * 1980 - Alejo Carpentier, Cuban writer (b. 1904) * 1982 - Ville Ritola, Finnish runner (b. 1896) * 1983 – Rolf Stommelen, German racing driver (b. 1943) * 1986 – Wallis Simpson, wife of the former King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom (b. 1896) * 1993 – Oliver Tambo, South African politician (b. 1917) * 1993 - Tran Duc Thao, Vietnamese philosopher (b. 1917) * 1996 - Donald Cammell, Scottish film director (b. 1934) * 1997 - Pat Paulsen, American comedian and politician (b. 1927) === From 2001 === * 2004 – Estée Lauder, American cosmetics entrepreneur (b. 1906) * 2005 – Ezer Weizman, former President of Israel (b. 1924) * 2011 – Sathya Sai Baba, Indian spiritual leader (b. 1926) * 2011 - Marie-France Pisier, French actress (b. 1944) * 2014 - Tadeusz Rozewicz, Polish poet, dramatist and writer (b. 1921) * 2014 - Sandy Jardine, Scottish footballer (b. 1948) * 2014 - Ricardo Bauleo, Argentine actor (b. 1946) * 2014 - Hans Hollein, Austrian architect and designer (b. 1934) * 2014 - Arturo Licata, Sicilian supercentenarian and oldest-living man (b. 1902) * 2014 - Konstantin Orbelyan, Armenian pianist and composer (b. 1928) * 2014 - Shobha Nagi Reddy, Indian politician (b. 1968) * 2015 - Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, Polish politician, writer and Holocaust survivor (b. 1922) * 2015 - Sid Tepper, American songwriter (b. 1918) * 2015 - George C. Young, American lawyer and judge (b. 1916) * 2015 - Rustum Ghazaleh, Syrian military officer (b. 1953) * 2015 - Ismail Hussain, Indian politician (b. 1950) * 2015 - Ken Birch, British footballer (b. 1933) * 2015 - Valentine Lamb, British journalist (b. 1939) * 2015 - Sabeen Mahmud, Pakistani human rights activist (b. 1974) * 2016 - Nina Arkhipova, Russian actress (b. 1921) * 2016 - Robert Dolan, American marine geologist (b. 1929) * 2016 - Manuel de la Torre, American golf instructor (b. 1921) * 2016 - Walter Jackson Freeman III, American biologist, neuroscientist and philosopher (b. 1927) * 2016 - Tommy Kono, American weightlifter (b. 1930) * 2016 - Thinle Lhondup, Nepalese actor (b. 1944) * 2016 - Benjamin Manglona, Northern Marianas politician (b. 1938) * 2016 - Billy Paul, American singer (b. 1934) * 2016 - Klaus Siebert, German biathlete and coach (b. 1955) * 2016 - Papa Wemba, Congolese singer and musician (b. 1949) * 2017 - Benjamin Barber, American political theorist and author (b. 1939) * 2017 - Robert M. Pirsig, American writer and philosopher (b. 1928) * 2017 - Agnes Giebel, German soprano (b. 1921) * 2017 - Don Gordon, American actor (b. 1926) * 2017 - Nicholas Sand, American chemist (b. 1941) * 2017 - Ken Sears, American basketball player (b. 1933) * 2018 - Dinu C. Giurescu, Romanian historian and politician (b. 1927) * 2018 - Paul Gray, Australian singer-songwriter and pianist (b. 1963) * 2018 - Henri Michel, French footballer and coach (b. 1947) * 2018 - Hariton Pushwagner, Norwegian artist (b. 1940) * 2019 - Martin Kilson, American political scientist (b. 1931) * 2019 - Jean-Pierre Marielle, French actor (b. 1932) * 2019 - Sergey Pogorelov, Russian handball player (b. 1974) * 2019 - Dick Rivers, French singer (b. 1945) == Observances == * Democracy Day (Nepal) * Genocide Day (Armenia) * Republic Day (The Gambia) * Latest date for Holy Saturday * Second-latest date for Easter, last occurred on this date in 2011 Category:Days of the year