Today in History – April 24
.c The Associated Press
Today is Saturday, April 24, the 115th day of 2004. 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:
In 1792, the national anthem of France, “La Marseillaise,” was
composed by Captain Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle.
In 1877, federal troops were ordered out of New Orleans, ending the
North’s post-Civil War rule in the South.
In 1898, Spain declared war on the United States after rejecting
America’s ultimatum to withdraw from Cuba.
In 1915, the Ottoman Turkish Empire began the brutal mass deportation
of Armenians during World War I.
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 several days later.)
In 1953, British statesman Winston Churchill was knighted by Queen
Elizabeth II.
In 1962, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology achieved the first
satellite relay of a television signal, between Camp Parks, Calif.,
and Westford, Mass.
In 1968, leftist students at Columbia University in New York began a
week-long occupation of several campus buildings.
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 abortive attempt to free the
American hostages in Iran, a mission that resulted in the deaths of
eight U.S. servicemen.
Ten years ago: Bosnian Serbs, threatened with NATO air strikes,
grudgingly gave up their three-week assault on Gorazde, burning houses
and blowing up a water treatment plant as they withdrew.
Five years ago: On the second day of a NATO summit, the alliance ran
into objections from Russia and questions among its own members about
enforcing an oil embargo against Yugoslavia by searching ships at
sea. President Clinton urged Americans to be patient with the bombing
strategy in the meantime.
One year ago: 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 Red Lion, Pa., a
14-year-old boy shot and killed his school principal inside a crowded
junior high cafeteria, then killed himself.
Today’s Birthdays: Critic Stanley Kauffmann is 88. Actor J.D. Cannon
is 82. Actress Shirley MacLaine is 70. Author Sue Grafton is 64.
Actress-singer-director Barbra Streisand is 62. Chicago Mayor Richard
M. Daley is 62. Country singer Richard Sterban (The Oak Ridge Boys) is
61. Rock musician Doug Clifford (Creedence Clearwater Revival) is
59. Actor-playwright Eric Bogosian is 51. Actor Michael O’Keefe is
49. Rock musician David J (Bauhaus) is 47. Rock musician Billy Gould
is 41. Actor-comedian Cedric the Entertainer is 40. Actor Djimon
Hounsou is 40. Rock musician Patty Schemel is 37. Rock musician Aaron
Comess (Spin Doctors) is 36. Actor Derek Luke is 30. Country singer
Rebecca Lynn Howard is 25. Singer Kelly Clarkson (“American Idol”)
is 22.
Thought for Today: “I know of no method to secure the repeal of bad
or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution.” –
Ulysses S. Grant, U.S. President (1822-1885).
04/12/04 12:15 EDT