April 24

## Events 
### Up to 1900 
* 1184 BC &ndash; Traditional date of the Fall of Troy.
* 1558 &ndash; Mary, Queen of Scots marries future King Francis II of France.
* 1585 &ndash; Felice Peretti is elected Pope, becoming Pope Sixtus V.
* 1704 &ndash; The first regular newspaperin Colonial America, the News–Letter, is published in Boston, Massachusetts.
* 1715 &ndash; Following defeat in the naval Battle of Fehmarn, Sweden sinks its own flagship, *Hedvig Sophia*, to prevent Denmark from taking it.
* 1800 &ndash; The Library of Congress in Washington, DC opens.
* 1877 &ndash; Russo-Turkish War: Russia declares war on the Ottoman Empire.
* 1885 &ndash; American sharpshooter Annie Oakley is hired to be part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West.
* 1895 &ndash; 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 &ndash; The Spanish-American War begins.

### 1901 &ndash; 2000 
* 1904 &ndash; The Lithuanian press ban ends after over 40 years.
* 1907 &ndash; Hersheypark, founded by Milton S. Hershey exclusively for his employees, opens.
* 1913 &ndash; New York City's Woolworth building is opened.
* 1914 &ndash; The Franck–Hertz Experiment, a pillar of quantum mechanics, is presented to the German Physical Society.
* 1915 &ndash; The arrest of 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Istanbul marks the beginning of the Armenian Genocide.
* 1916 &ndash; The Irish Easter Rising begins in Dublin.
* 1916 &ndash; 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 &ndash; The first segment of the Imperial Wireless Chain providing wireless telegraphy between Leafield, Oxfordshire, England and Cairo, Egypt, begins operations.
* 1926 &ndash; 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 &ndash; Nazi Germany begins with the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses by shutting down the Watch Tower Society in Magdeburg.
* 1953 &ndash; Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
* 1955 &ndash; End of the Bandung Conference in Indonesia: 29 non–aligned Asian and African countries condemn colonialism, racism and the Cold War.
* 1957 &ndash; Following the Suez Crisis, the Suez Canal is re–opened.
* 1957 &ndash; The BBC first broadcasts the long–running astronomy TV programme The Sky at Night, presented by Patrick Moore until his death in 2012.
* 1964 &ndash; The Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen is beheaded.
* 1965 &ndash; A civil war starts in the Dominican Republic.
* 1967 &ndash; Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1 when his parachute fails to open.
* 1968 &ndash; Mauritius joins the UN.
* 1970 &ndash; The Gambia becomes a republic with Dawda Jawara as its first President.
* 1970 &ndash; The first Chinese satellite, Dong Fang Hong I, is launched.
* 1971 &ndash; Soyuz 10 docks with Salyut 1.
* 1974 &ndash; President of Austria Franz Jonas dies in office aged 74, following a long period of illness.
* 1990 &ndash; Gruinard Island in Scotland is declared free of Anthrax.
* 1990 &ndash; STS–31: The Hubble Space Telescope is launched from Space Shuttle *Discovery*.
* 1993 &ndash; An Irish Republican Army bomb hits the Bishopsgate area of London.

### From 2001 
* 2004 &ndash; 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 &ndash; The United States lifts (ends) economic sanctions on Libya.
* 2005 &ndash; Josef Alois Ratzinger is officially inaugurated as Pope Benedict XVI.
* 2005 &ndash; Snuppy, the world's first cloned dog, is born in South Korea.
* 2007 &ndash; Iceland announces that Norway will take responsibility of its defence in peacetime.
* 2013 &ndash; 1,127 people are killed when an eight–storey clothing factory building in Dhaka, Bangladesh, collapses. Over 2,500 are injured.
* 2016 &ndash; 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 &ndash; Ramiro II of Aragon (d. 1157)
*1492 &ndash; Sabina of Bavaria (d. 1564)
*1533 &ndash; William I of Orange (d. 1584)
*1580 &ndash; Vincent de Paul, French saint (d. 1660)
*1620 &ndash; John Graunt, English statistician (d. 1674)
*1706 &ndash; Giovanni Battista Martini, Italian musician (d. 1780)
*1718 &ndash; Nathaniel Hone, Irish–born painter (d. 1784)
*1719 &ndash; Giuseppe Marc'Antonio Baretti, Italian poet (d. 1789)
*1721 &ndash; Johann Philipp Kirnberger, German composer and music theorist (d. 1783)
*1743 &ndash; Edmund Cartwright, British inventor (d. 1823)
*1777 &ndash; Maria Clementina of Austria (d. 1801)
*1787 &ndash; Mathieu Orfila, Spanish–French chemist (d. 1853)
*1815 &ndash; Anthony Trollope, English novelist (d. 1882)
*1819 &ndash; Klaus Groth, German writer (d. 1899)
*1825 &ndash; R. M. Ballantyne, Scottish writer (d. 1894)
*1829 &ndash; James Sheakley, Territorial Governor of Alaska (d. 1917)
*1831 &ndash; George Nares, British admiral and polar explorer (d. 1915)
*1841 &ndash; Charles Sprague Sargent, American botanist (d. 1927)
*1845 &ndash; Carl Spitteler, Swiss writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1924)
*1851 &ndash; Morgan Earp, American Western figure and brother of Wyatt Earp (d. 1882)
*1856 &ndash; Henri Philippe Pétain, French soldier and statesman (d. 1951)
*1871 &ndash; Blanche Ring, American singer (d. 1961)
*1876 &ndash; Erich Raeder, German naval commander (d. 1960)
*1878 &ndash; Jean Crotti, Swiss artist (d. 1958)
*1879 &ndash; Susanna Bokoyni, Hungarian–American centenarian and circus performer (d. 1984)
*1880 &ndash; Gideon Sundback, Swedish engineer, businessman and developer of the zipper (d. 1954)
*1882 &ndash; Hugh Dowding, 1st Baron Dowding, Scottish fighter pilot (d. 1970)
*1889 &ndash; Sir Stafford Cripps, British politician (d. 1952)
*1889 &ndash; Lyubov Popova, Russian painter (d. 1924)
*1896 &ndash; Charlie Rivel, Spanish clown (d. 1983)
*1896 &ndash; Benjamin Whorf, American linguist (d. 1941)
*1897 &ndash; Manuel Ávila Camacho, President of Mexico (d. 1955)
*1899 &ndash; Oscar Zariski, Russian–born mathematician (d. 1986)

### 1901 &ndash; 1925 
*1903 &ndash; José Antonio Primo de Rivera, Spanish lawyer and politician (d. 1936)
*1904 &ndash; Willem de Kooning, Dutch painter (d. 1997)
*1905 &ndash; Robert Penn Warren, American poet (d. 1989)
*1906 &ndash; William Joyce, Irish fascist (d. 1946)
*1907 &ndash; William Sargant, British psychiatrist (d. 1988)
*1908 &ndash; Viktor Abakumov, Soviet politician (d. 1954)
*1908 &ndash; Marceline Day, American actress (d. 2000)
*1908 &ndash; Jozef Goslawski, Polish sculptor (d. 1963)
*1909 &ndash; Bernhard Grzimek, German zoologist, naturalist, writer and movie maker (d. 1987)
*1913 &ndash; Dieter Grau, German–American scientist and engineer (d. 2014)
*1914 &ndash; William Castle, American movie director and producer (d. 1977)
*1916 &ndash; Lou Thesz, American professional wrestler (d. 2002)
*1919 &ndash; Glafcos Clerides, 4th President of Cyprus (d. 2013)
*1919 &ndash; César Manrique, Spanish artist, architect and conservationist (d. 1992)
*1922 &ndash; Susanna Agnelli, Italian politician (d. 2009)
*1922 &ndash; J.D. Cannon, American actor (d. 2005)
*1922 &ndash; Marc-Adélard Tremblay, Canadian anthropologist (d. 2014)
*1923 &ndash; Gus Bodnar, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2005)
*1924 &ndash; Sir Clement Freud, British writer, radio personality, and politician (d. 2009)

### 1926 &ndash; 1950 
*1926 &ndash; Thorbjörn Fälldin, former Prime Minister of Sweden (d. 2016)
*1927 &ndash; Frank Lucchesi, American baseball player, coach and manager (d. 2019)
*1927 &ndash; Josy Barthel, Luxembourgish middle–distance runner (d. 1992)
*1928 &ndash; Tommy Docherty, Scottish footballer
*1929 &ndash; Hella Pick, Austrian–British journalist
*1929 &ndash; Rajkumar, Indian actor (d. 2006)
*1930 &ndash; Jerome Callet, American musician
*1930 &ndash; Richard Donner, American movie director and producer
*1930 &ndash; José Sarney, former President of Brazil
*1931 &ndash; Bridget Riley, British artist
*1933 &ndash; Claire Davenport, British actress (d. 2002)
*1933 &ndash; Helmuth Lohner, Austrian actor (d. 2015)
*1934 &ndash; Shirley MacLaine, American actress and writer
*1935 &ndash; Kuaima Riruako, Namibian politician (d. 2014)
*1936 &ndash; Jill Ireland, British actress (d. 1990)
*1936 &ndash; Akwasi Afrifa, Ghanaian politician  (d. 1979)
*1936 &ndash; David Crombie, 56th Mayor of Toronto
*1937 &ndash; Joe Henderson American jazz saxophonist (d. 2001)
*1940 &ndash; Sue Grafton, American writer (d. 2017)
*1940 &ndash; Michael Parks, American actor (d. 2017)
*1941 &ndash; Silvio Moser, Swiss racing driver (d. 1974)
*1941 &ndash; John Williams, Australian guitarist
*1941 &ndash; Richard Holbrooke, American diplomat (d. 2010)
*1942 &ndash; Richard M. Daley, American politician
*1942 &ndash; Barbra Streisand, American singer, actress, and director
*1942 &ndash; George Vella, 10th President of Malta
*1944 &ndash; Tony Visconti, American music producer
*1945 &ndash; Doug Clifford, American drummer (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
*1945 &ndash; Dick Rivers, French singer (d. 2019)
*1947 &ndash; Josep Borrell, Spanish politician, 22nd President of the European Parliament
*1947 &ndash; Roger D. Kornberg, American chemist
*1948 &ndash; Paul Cellucci, 69th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 2013)

### 1951 &ndash; 1963 
*1951 &ndash; Nigel Harrison, English musician and songwriter
*1951 &ndash; Enda Kenny, Irish Taoiseach
*1952 &ndash; Jean-Paul Gaultier, French fashion designer
*1953 &ndash; Eric Bogosian, American actor and writer
*1954 &ndash; Mumia Abu-Jamal, American journalist, political activist, and death–row inmate
*1954 &ndash; Captain Sensible, British guitarist (The Damned)
*1954 &ndash; Jack Blades, American musician
*1955 &ndash; John de Mol, Dutch media tycoon
*1955 &ndash; Eamon Gilmore, Irish politician
*1957 &ndash; David J, British musician
*1957 &ndash; Boris Williams, British musician (The Cure)
*1958 &ndash; Brian Paddick, English deputy police officer and politician
*1958 &ndash; Valery Lantratov, Russian ballet dancer
*1958 &ndash; Susan Tsvangirai, (d. 2009) wife of Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
*1958 &ndash; Steve Wright, British serial killer
*1960 &ndash; Paula Yates, British television presenter (d. 2000)
*1961 &ndash; Andrew Murrison, English physician and politician
*1962 &ndash; Stuart Pearce, English footballer and manager
*1962 &ndash; Steve Roach, Australian rugby player
*1963 &ndash; Billy Gould, American musician (Faith No More)

### 1964 &ndash; 1976 
*1964 &ndash; Cedric the Entertainer, American comedian and actor
*1964 &ndash; Djimon Hounsou, Benin–born actor
*1966 &ndash; Alessandro Costacurta, Italian footballer
*1967 &ndash; Omar Vizquel, Venezuelan baseball player
*1968 &ndash; Stacy Haiduk, American actress
*1968 &ndash; Hashim Thaci, Kosovan politician
*1968 &ndash; Yuji Nakata, Japanese wrestler
*1968 &ndash; Roxanna Panufnik, British composer
*1969 &ndash; Eilidh Whiteford, Scottish politician
*1971 &ndash; Mauro Pawlowski, Belgian guitarist and singer (Evil Superstars and dEUS)
*1971 &ndash; Alejandro Fernández, Mexican singer
*1972 &ndash; Chipper Jones, American baseball player
*1972 &ndash; Jure Košir, Slovenian skier
*1972 &ndash; Rab Douglas, Scottish footballer
*1972 &ndash; Adhemar Ferreira de Camargo Neto, Brazilian footballer
*1973 &ndash; Sachin Tendulkar, Indian cricketer
*1973 &ndash; Lee Westwood, British golfer
*1973 &ndash; Gabby Logan, British television presenter
*1973 &ndash; Eric Snow, American basketball player
*1974 &ndash; Comedy Dave, British television and radio host
*1974 &ndash; Joseph Bruce, American rapper (Insane Clown Posse)
*1974 &ndash; Stephen Wiltshire, British artist
*1975 &ndash; Sam Doumit, American actress
*1975 &ndash; Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, wife of Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau 
*1976 &ndash; Steve Finnan, Irish footballer

### From 1977 
*1977 &ndash; Carlos Beltran, Puerto Rican Major League Baseball player
*1977 &ndash; Siarhiej Bałachonaŭ, Belarusian writer
*1978 &ndash; Eric Balfour, American actor
*1980 &ndash; Austin Nichols, American actor
*1980 &ndash; Karen Asrian, Armenian chess player (d. 2008)
*1980 &ndash; Fernando Arce, Mexican footballer
*1981 &ndash; Taylor Dent, American tennis player
*1982 &ndash; Kelly Clarkson, American singer
*1982 &ndash; Shayna Nackoney, Canadian synchronized swimmer
*1984 &ndash; Tyson Ritter, American singer and bassist (All-American Rejects)
*1985 &ndash; Joséphine Jobert, French actress and singer
*1985 &ndash; Kaori Nazuka, Japanese voice actress
*1986 &ndash; Kellin Quinn, American singer
*1987 &ndash; Simone Corsi, Italian motorcycle racer
*1987 &ndash; Ben Howard, British singer-songwriter
*1987 &ndash; Jan Vertonghen, Belgian footballer
*1989 &ndash; David Boudia, American diver
*1992 &ndash; Laura Kenny, English cyclist
*1992 &ndash; Doc Shaw, American actor, singer, rapper and model
*1993 &ndash; Laura Gil, American basketball player
*1996 &ndash; Ashleigh Barty, Australian tennis player
*1997 &ndash; Lydia Ko, New Zealand golfer
*1998 &ndash; Ryan Whitney (actress), American actress
*2005 &ndash; Snuppy, cloned dog

## Deaths 
### Up to 1900 
* 624 &ndash; Mellitus, Archbishop of Canterbury
* 709 &ndash; Wilfrid, English archbishop and saint
* 1185 &ndash; Emperor Antoku of Japan (b. 1178)
* 1342 &ndash; Pope Benedict XII (b. 1285)
* 1479 &ndash; Jorge Manrique, Spanish poet (b. 1440)
* 1617 &ndash; Concino Concini, Italian–French politician (b. 1575)
* 1622 &ndash; Fidelis Sigmaringen, German friar and saint (b. 1577)
* 1656 &ndash; Thomas Fincke, Danish mathematician and physicist (b. 1561)
* 1678 &ndash; Louis VI, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, German aristocrat (b. 1630)
* 1731 &ndash; Daniel Defoe, English writer (b. 1660)
* 1748 &ndash; Anton thor Helle, German–Estonian clergyman and translator (b. 1683)
* 1794 &ndash; Axel von Fersen the Elder, Swedish statesman and soldier (b. 1719)
* 1852 &ndash; Vasily Zhukovsky, Russian poet (b. 1783)
* 1852 &ndash; Leopold, Grand Duke of Baden (b. 1790)
* 1884 &ndash; Marie Taglioni, Swedish dancer (b. 1804)
* 1891 &ndash; Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, Prussian field marshal (b. 1800)
* 1900 &ndash; George Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll, Scottish politician (b. 1823)

### 1901 &ndash; 2000 
* 1901 &ndash; Arvid Posse, Prime Minister of Sweden (b. 1820)
* 1924 &ndash; G. Stanley Hall, American psychologist and educator (b. 1844)
* 1926 &ndash; Sunjong of the Korean Empire (b. 1874)
* 1931 &ndash; David Kldiashvili, Georgian writer (b. 1862)
* 1938 &ndash; George Gray Barnard, American sculptor (b. 1863)
* 1939 &ndash; Louis Trousselier, French cyclist (b. 1881)
* 1941 &ndash; Karin Boye, Swedish writer (b. 1900)
* 1942 &ndash; Lucy Maud Montgomery, Canadian novelist (b. 1874)
* 1942 &ndash; Leonid Kulik, Russian scientist (b. 1882)
* 1947 &ndash; Willa Cather, American writer (b. 1878)
* 1960 &ndash; Max von Laue, German physicist (b. 1897)
* 1962 &ndash; Emilio Prados, Spanish poet (b. 1899)
* 1964 &ndash; Gerhard Domagk, German  doctor,  won the 1939 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine  (b. 1895)
* 1965 &ndash; Louise Dresser, American actress (b. 1878)
* 1967 &ndash; Vladimir Komarov, Soviet cosmonaut (b. 1927)
* 1968 &ndash; Walter Tewksbury, American athlete (b. 1876)
* 1974 &ndash; Franz Jonas, President of Austria (b. 1899)
* 1974 &ndash; Bud Abbott, American actor and comedian (b. 1895)
* 1980 &ndash; Alejo Carpentier, Cuban writer (b. 1904)
* 1982 &ndash; Ville Ritola, Finnish runner (b. 1896)
* 1983 &ndash; Rolf Stommelen, German racing driver (b. 1943)
* 1986 &ndash; Wallis Simpson, wife of the former King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom (b. 1896)
* 1993 &ndash; Oliver Tambo, South African politician (b. 1917)
* 1993 &ndash; Tran Duc Thao, Vietnamese philosopher (b. 1917)
* 1996 &ndash; Donald Cammell, Scottish film director (b. 1934)
* 1997 &ndash; Pat Paulsen, American comedian and politician (b. 1927)

### From 2001 
* 2004 &ndash; Estée Lauder, American cosmetics entrepreneur (b. 1906)
* 2005 &ndash; Ezer Weizman, former President of Israel (b. 1924)
* 2011 &ndash; Sathya Sai Baba, Indian spiritual leader (b. 1926)
* 2011 &ndash; Marie-France Pisier, French actress (b. 1944)
* 2014 &ndash; Tadeusz Rozewicz, Polish poet, dramatist and writer (b. 1921)
* 2014 &ndash; Sandy Jardine, Scottish footballer (b. 1948)
* 2014 &ndash; Ricardo Bauleo, Argentine actor (b. 1946)
* 2014 &ndash; Hans Hollein, Austrian architect and designer (b. 1934)
* 2014 &ndash; Arturo Licata, Sicilian supercentenarian and oldest–living man (b. 1902)
* 2014 &ndash; Konstantin Orbelyan, Armenian pianist and composer (b. 1928)
* 2014 &ndash; Shobha Nagi Reddy, Indian politician (b. 1968)
* 2015 &ndash; Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, Polish politician, writer and Holocaust survivor (b. 1922)
* 2015 &ndash; Sid Tepper, American songwriter (b. 1918)
* 2015 &ndash; George C. Young, American lawyer and judge (b. 1916)
* 2015 &ndash; Rustum Ghazaleh, Syrian military officer (b. 1953)
* 2015 &ndash; Ismail Hussain, Indian politician (b. 1950)
* 2015 &ndash; Ken Birch, British footballer (b. 1933)
* 2015 &ndash; Valentine Lamb, British journalist (b. 1939)
* 2015 &ndash; Sabeen Mahmud, Pakistani human rights activist (b. 1974)
* 2016 &ndash; Nina Arkhipova, Russian actress (b. 1921)
* 2016 &ndash; Robert Dolan, American marine geologist (b. 1929)
* 2016 &ndash; Manuel de la Torre, American golf instructor (b. 1921)
* 2016 &ndash; Walter Jackson Freeman III, American biologist, neuroscientist and philosopher (b. 1927)
* 2016 &ndash; Tommy Kono, American weightlifter (b. 1930)
* 2016 &ndash; Thinle Lhondup, Nepalese actor (b. 1944)
* 2016 &ndash; Benjamin Manglona, Northern Marianas politician (b. 1938)
* 2016 &ndash; Billy Paul, American singer (b. 1934)
* 2016 &ndash; Klaus Siebert, German biathlete and coach (b. 1955)
* 2016 &ndash; Papa Wemba, Congolese singer and musician (b. 1949)
* 2017 &ndash; Benjamin Barber, American political theorist and author (b. 1939)
* 2017 &ndash; Robert M. Pirsig, American writer and philosopher (b. 1928)
* 2017 &ndash; Agnes Giebel, German soprano (b. 1921)
* 2017 &ndash; Don Gordon, American actor (b. 1926)
* 2017 &ndash; Nicholas Sand, American chemist (b. 1941)
* 2017 &ndash; Ken Sears, American basketball player (b. 1933)
* 2018 &ndash; Dinu C. Giurescu, Romanian historian and politician (b. 1927)
* 2018 &ndash; Paul Gray, Australian singer-songwriter and pianist (b. 1963)
* 2018 &ndash; Henri Michel, French footballer and coach (b. 1947)
* 2018 &ndash; Hariton Pushwagner, Norwegian artist (b. 1940)
* 2019 &ndash; Martin Kilson, American political scientist (b. 1931)
* 2019 &ndash; Jean-Pierre Marielle, French actor (b. 1932)
* 2019 &ndash; Sergey Pogorelov, Russian handball player (b. 1974)
* 2019 &ndash; 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