April 24......

April 24 is the 114th (115th in leap years) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 251 days remaining in the year on this date.

Best Liberal Quote of the Day: On Crime "The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons." — Fyodor Dostoevsky

Stupidest Quote from the Right for the Day: On Hate & Intolerance "When I, or people like me, are running the country, you'd better flee, because we will find you, we will try you, and we'll execute you." — Randall Terry, speaking about doctors who perform abortions

{Disclaimer: I have attempted to give credit to the many different sources that I get entries. Any failure to do so is unintentional. Any statement enclosed by brackets like these are the opinion of the blogger, A Proud Liberal.}

EVENTS

● 1479 BC - Thutmose III ascends to the throne of Egypt, although power effectively shifts to Hatshepsut (according to the Low Chronology of the 18th Dynasty).

● 1184 BC - Greeks enter Troy using the Trojan Horse (traditional).

● 387 Augustine of Hippo, 32, was baptized on this Eve of Easter. He told the story of his Christian conversion from a profligate life in his "Confessions," written between 397-401.

● 858 Nicolas I succeeds Benedict III as Catholic Pope

● 1061 - Halley's Comet sparks English monk to predict country'll be destroyed

● 1185 - Battle at Danoura Yoshitsune Minamoto's fleet beats imperial fleet

● 1288 - Jews of Yroyes France are accused of ritual murder

● 1311 - General Malik Kafur returns to Delhi after campaign in South India

● 1364 - Pope Urbabus V names John V van Virneburg as bishop of Utrecht

● 1519 - Envoys of Montezuma II attended the first Easter mass in Central America. {They will soon become the newest sacrifice in Christian expansion.}

● 1524 - Duke of Bourbon drives Admiral Bonnivet out of Milan

● 1547 - Battle of Mühlberg Emperor Karel V vs ruler Johan F the Brave

● 1570 - Battles between Spanish troops & followers of sultan Suleiman

● 1576 - Birth of St. Vincent de Paul, French Catholic priest. He founded several religious orders during his lifetime, including the Lazarists (or Vincentians) in 1625.

● 1596 - Pacificatie of Ireland drawn

● 1704 - The first regular newspaper in the United States, the Boston, Massachusetts New-Letter, is published.

● 1731 - Daniel Defoe dies. English novelist, pamphleteer, journalist, author of Robinson Crusoe. Along with Samuel Richardson, considered founder of the English novel. An intelligence agent for the Tories, then the Whigs, in his days regarded as an unscrupulous, diabolical journalist.

● 1762 - Russia & Prussia signs peace treaty

● 1800 - The United States Library of Congress is established when President John Adams signs legislation to appropriate $5,000 to purchase "such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress". {Of course, members of Congress in those times were actually capable of reading, especially the legislation they were voting on.}

● 1805 - The U.S. Marines attacked and captured the town of Derna in Tripoli.

● 1812 - Two Luddite teenage girls lead a successful mob attack on a mill in Bolton, England.

● 1833 - Patent granted for 1st soda fountain to Jacob Evert & George Dulty

● 1862 - American Civil War: A flotilla commanded by Union Admiral David Farragut passes two Confederate forts on the Mississippi River on its way to capture New Orleans, Louisiana.

● 1863 - The Keyesville Massacre: a massacre of 53 Native American men from the Tehachapi tribe in Keyesville, California.

● 1863 - Skirmish at Okolona/Birmingham MS (Grierson's Raid)

● 1865 - Fire alarm & police telegraph system put into operation (San Francisco)

● 1867 - Black demonstrators stage ride-ins on Richmond VA streetcars

● 1870 - At the Vatican I Ecumenical Council, the dogmatic constitution "Dei filius" was published. Explaining the relationship between faith and reason, it declared that God could be known by human thought processes.

● 1871 - Communards burn Paris City Hall (Hotel de Ville) and many other buildings in their retreat, in revenge before their defeat.

● 1872 - Volcano Vesuvius erupts

● 1877 - Last federal occupying troops withdraw from south (New Orleans)

● 1877 - Russo-Turkish War, 1877–1878: Russia declares war on Ottoman Empire.

● 1884 - Otto von Bismarck cables Cape Town that South Africa was now a German colony.

● 1897 - 1st reporter, William Price (Washington Star), is assigned to White House

● 1898 - Spain declares war on US rejecting ultimatum to withdraw from Cuba

● 1898 - US fleet under commodore Dewey sails from Hong Kong to Philippines

● 1899 - Transvaal British Uitlanders ask Queen Victoria for aid

● 1900 - Passing of Andrew Halliday, cable car pioneer

● 1905 - Robert Penn Warren, an American writer and first poet laureate of the United States, was born.

● 1908 - Mr. & Mrs. Jacob Murdock become the 1st to travel across the US by car, they leave Los Angeles in a Packard & arrive in NYC in 32 days-5 hours-25 minutes

● 1910 - German Catholic youth movement Quickborn forms

● 1913 - The skyscraper Woolworth Building in New York City was opened.

● 1915 - The Armenian Genocide starts with the deportation and murder of the Ottoman Armenian intellectuals. (Armenian Martyrs Day)

● 1915 - German army fires chloroform gas in Ieper

● 1916 - Easter Rising begins: The Irish Republican Brotherhood led by nationalists Patrick Pearse, James Connolly, and Joseph Plunkett start a rebellion in Ireland. They were overtaken several days later.

● 1920 - British Mandate over Palestine goes into effect (lasts 28 years)

● 1920 - Polish troops attack Ukraine

● 1920 - Death of Eliza P. Hewitt, 69, American Presbyterian S.S. teacher and hymnwriter. Many of her verses are still sung today, including "More About Jesus," Sing the Wondrous Love of Jesus" and "Sunshine in My Soul."

● 1921 - 1st municipal elections for men & women in Belgium

● 1923 - Colonel Jacob Schick patents Schick shavers

● 1923 - General harbor strike begins in New York NY

● 1925 - 88ºF highest temperature ever recorded in Cleveland OH in April

● 1928 - Fathometer, which measures underwater depth, patented

● 1929 - 1st non-stop England to India flight takes-off

● 1929 - Thorvald Stauning becomes premier of Denmark

● 1932 - Mass trespass for right to access countryside, Kinder Scout, Peak District, Britain.

● 1932 - German national election (NSDAP 36.3% in Prussia)

● 1941 - Dutch Prince Bernhard becomes an RAF pilot

● 1941 - World War II: Operation Demon – The United Kingdom begins evacuating Greece.

● 1942 - Luftwaffe bombs Exeter

● 1944 - 1st Boeing B-29 arrives in China "over the Hump"

● 1944 - RAF bombs Munich

● 1944 - In deciding the legal case "United States v. Ballard," the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the general principle that "the truth of religious claims is not for secular authority to determine."

● 1948 - The Berlin airlift began to relieve the surrounded city.

● 1950 - Independent republic of South Molukkas declared

● 1950 - President Harry Truman denies there are communists in US government

● 1953 - Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.

● 1954 - Birth of jailed African-American journalist and activist Mumia Abu-Jamal.

● 1954 - British crackdown on Kenya rebels; Security forces round up more than 10,000 men in the biggest anti-Mau Mau operation since the state of emergency was declared in Kenya 18 months ago. {Today we would call these rebels insurgents.}

● 1954 - 1st American, civilian pilot, P R Holden, wounded in Indochina

● 1954 - Australia & USSR break diplomatic relations

● 1955 - Gaullists lose elections in France

● 1955 - Bandung Conference ends: Twenty-nine non-aligned nations of Asia and Africa finish a meeting that condemned colonialism, racism, and the Cold War.

● 1960 - Heavy earthquake strikes South Persia, 500 killed

● 1961 - JFK accepts "sole responsibility" following Bay of Pigs

● 1961 - The Vasa, which sunk on her maiden voyage in 1628, is raised

● 1962 - Pres. Kennedy authorized high-altitude testing of nuclear weapons, to determine whether missile-borne warheads could be used to black out military communications. Dr. James Van Allen hailed the new tests as a "magnificent experiment" that would add to humankind's knowledge of the universe. {I met Dr. Van Allen during a stint at the University of Iowa, he was someone that loved the thrill of discovery and would lose sight of what we now call collateral effects.}

● 1962 - 1st Lockheed A-12 is taxi tested

● 1962 - The Massachusetts Institute of Technology achieved the first satellite relay of a television signal, between Camp Parks, Calif., and Westford, Mass.

● 1963 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 1964 - Mexico becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.

● 1965 - Twenty thousand U.S. Marines invade Dominican Republic.

● 1965 - Civil war breaks out in the Dominican Republic when civilians lead by some members of the armed forces, including Colonel Francisco Caamaño, overthrow the triumvirate that was in power since the coup d'état on Juan Bosch, who was legally elected president in 1963.

● 1967 - Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1, when the parachute fails to open. He was the first human to die during a space mission. {Publicly admitted anyway.}

● 1967 - Vietnam War: American General William Westmoreland says in a news conference that the enemy had "gained support in the United States that gives him hope that he can win politically that which he cannot win militarily."

● 1967 - The newest Greek regime banned miniskirts.

● 1968 - Mauritius becomes a member state of the United Nations.

● 1968 - Leftist students at Columbia University in New York City began a weeklong occupation of several campus buildings.

● 1968 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR

● 1969 - General Lin Piao succeeds Mao, is seriously wounded

● 1969 - Lebanese army in battle with Palestinians

● 1969 - US B-52's drop 3,000 ton bombs at Cambodian boundary

● 1970 - People's Rebublic of China launches its 1st satellite transmitting song "East is Red"

● 1970 - Senegal adopts constitution

● 1970 - The Gambia becomes a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations, with Dawda Jawara as the first President.

● 1971 - Largest ever (over 1,000,000) demonstration opposing U.S. war in Southeast Asia. Washington, D.C. 150,000 march at a simultaneous rally in San Francisco.

● 1971 - Soyuz 10 returns to Earth

● 1973 - Albert Sabin reported that herpes viruses were factors in nine kinds of cancer.

● 1975 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 1975 - The Baader-Meinhof Gang blow up the West German embassy in Stockholm.

● 1979 - Rhodesian bishop Muzorewa wins general election

● 1980 - Eight Americans killed and 5 wounded in an ill-fated attempt to rescue U.S. citizens being held hostage at the U.S. embassy in Teheran, Iran. The hostages were subsequently moved and split up to deter another similar attempt.

● 1981 - The first IBM PC is introduced.

● 1981 - US ends grain embargo against USSR

● 1982 - First Briton dies in Falklands campaign; A crewman of a Sea King helicopter on its way to the Falklands Islands is missing and presumed dead after the aircraft crashed.

● 1982 - 150 Khomeini followers assault student dormitory in West Germany

● 1983 - International demonstrations against the plight of laboratory animals.

● 1983 - Austrian socialist party loses parliamentary election

● 1987 - In Palm Bay, FL, a gunman opened fire in a mall. He killed six and wounded 10.

● 1989 - Tens of thousands of students strike in Beijing China

● 1990 - Michael Milken plead guilty to six felonies and agreed to pay a $600 million penalty. He was later sentenced to ten years in prison. Milken had sold junk-bonds in the 1980s.

● 1990 - West & East Germany agree to merge currency & economies on July 1st

● 1990 - STS-31: The space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., carrying the $1.5 billion Hubble Space Telescope.

● 1990 - Gruinard Island, Scotland, is officially declared free of anthrax after 48 years of quarantine.

● 1991 - Freddie Stowers is awarded the posthumous Medal of Honor for which he had been recommended in 1918.

● 1992 - Vinson Pike fined £1000 for distributing obscene computer pictures

● 1993 - The 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act came into force establishing Panchayati Raj system in India.

● 1993 - IRA bomb devastates City of London; A massive bomb rips through the heart of the City of London, killing one and injuring more than 40.

● 1994 - Bomb attack in center of Johannesburg, 9 killed

● 1995 - Package bomb, linked to Unabomber, blows up killing Gilbert B Murray

● 1996 - The main assembly of the Palestine Liberation Organization voted to revoke clauses in its charter that called for an armed struggle to destroy Israel.

● 1996 - Pres. Clinton signs the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, vastly expanding police powers and restricting defendants' rights to appeals and habeas corpus. {Shrub never felt it far enough in denying rights.}

● 1997 - The U.S. Senate ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention. The global treaty banned the development, production, storage and use of chemical weapons.

● 1999 - Tens of thousands march in Philadelphia and San Francisco for freedom of imprisoned and condemned African-American activist Mumia Abu-Jamal.

● 2003 - A U.S. official reported the North Korea had claimed to have nuclear weapons.

● 2004 - US lifts economic sanctions imposed on Libya, 18 years previously as a reward for its cooperation in eliminating weapons of mass destruction.

● 2005 - Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is installled as the 265th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church taking the name Pope Benedict XVI.

● 2006 - King Gyanendra of Nepal gives into the demands of protesters and restores the parliament that he dissolved in 2002.

BIRTHS

● 1533 - William I of Orange (d. 1584)

● 1580(81? NYT) - Vincent de Paul, French saint (d. 1660)

● 1706 - Giovanni Battista Martini, Italian musician (d. 1780)

● 1718 - Nathaniel Hone, Irish-born painter (d. 1784)

● 1743 - Edmund Cartwright, British inventor (d. 1823)

● 1766 - Robert Bailey Thomas, American publisher of "Old Farmer's Almanac" (d. 1846)

● 1815 - Anthony Trollope, English novelist (d. 1882)

● 1845 - Carl Spitteler, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1924)

● 1856 - Henri Philippe Pétain, French soldier and statesman (d. 1951)

● 1874 - John R. Pope, American architect; designed the National Gallery of Art (d. 1937)

● 1876 - Erich Raeder, German naval commander (d. 1960)

● 1876 - Ioannis Georgiadis, Greek fencer (d. 1960)

● 1878 - Jean Crotti, Swiss artist (d. 1958)

● 1882 - Hugh Dowding, Scottish fighter pilot (d. 1970)

● 1887 - Denys Finch Hatton, English big-game hunter (d. 1931)

● 1889 - Stafford Cripps, British politician (d. 1952)

● 1889 - Lyubov Popova, Russian painter (d. 1924)

● 1896 - Benjamin Whorf, American linguist (d. 1941)

● 1897 - Manuel Ávila Camacho, President of Mexico (d. 1955)

● 1899 - Oscar Zariski, Russian-born mathematician (d. 1986)

● 1903 - José Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of the Falange (d. 1936)

● 1904 - Willem de Kooning, Dutch-born American painter (d. 1997)

● 1905 - Robert Penn Warren, American poet (d. 1989)

● 1906 - William Joyce, Irish fascist, English propagandist for Germany during World War II (aka Lord Haw Haw) (d. 1946)

● 1907 - William Sargant, British psychiatrist (d. 1988)

● 1908 - Marceline Day, American actress (d. 2000)

● 1914 - William Castle, American film director and producer (d. 1977)

● 1916 - Lou Thesz, American professional wrestler (d. 2002)

● 1922 - J.D. Cannon, American actor (d. 2005)

● 1924 - Sir Clement Freud, British writer, radio personality, and politician

● 1926 - Thorbjörn Fälldin, Prime Minister of Sweden

● 1929 - Dr.Rajkumar, Kannada actor

● 1930 - Jerome Callet, American musician

● 1930 - Richard Donner, American film director and producer ("Lethal Weapon" films)

● 1933 - Claire Davenport, British actress (d. 2002)

● 1933 - Helmuth Lohner, Austrian actor

● 1934 - Shirley MacLaine, American actress and author

● 1936 - Jill Ireland, British actress (d. 1990)

● 1937 - Joe Henderson, American jazz saxophonist (d. 2001)

● 1940 - Michael Parks, Actor

● 1940 - Sue Grafton, American author

● 1941 - John Williams, Australian guitarist

● 1942 - Richard M. Daley, American politician

● 1942 - Barbra Streisand, American singer/actress

● 1943 - Richard Sterban, Country singer (The Oak Ridge Boys)

● 1945 - Doug Clifford, American drummer (Creedence Clearwater Revival)

● 1952 - Jean-Paul Gaultier, French fashion designer

● 1953 - Eric Bogosian, American actor and writer (Law and Order: Criminal Intent)

● 1954 - Mumia Abu-Jamal, American death-row inmate

● 1954 - Captain Sensible, British guitarist (The Damned)

● 1955 - Michael O'Keefe, Actor

● 1955 - John de Mol, Dutch media tycoon

● 1957 - David J, British musician (Bauhaus)

● 1957 - Boris Williams, British musician (The Cure)

● 1958 - Valery Lantratov, Russian ballet dancer

● 1958 - Brian Paddick, British police commander

● 1960 - Paula Yates, British television presenter (d. 2000)

● 1962 - Stuart Pearce, English footballer and manager

● 1962 - Steve Roach, Australian rugby player

● 1963 - Billy Gould, American musician (Faith No More)

● 1963 - Mano Solo, French singer

● 1963 - Tõnu Trubetsky, Estonian musician (Vennaskond), anarchist

● 1964 - Cedric the Entertainer, American comedian and actor

● 1964 - Djimon Hounsou, Beninese actor

● 1965 - Son Chang Min, South Korean actor

● 1966 - Alessandro Costacurta, Italian footballer

● 1967 - Patty Schemel, Rock musician (Hole)

● 1967 - Omar Vizquel, Baseball player

● 1968 - Aaron Comess, Rock musician (Spin Doctors)

● 1968 - Stacy Haiduk, American actress

● 1968 - Hashim Thaci, Kosovan politician

● 1968 - Yuji Nagata, Japanese professional wrestler

● 1969 - Melinda Clarke, American actress

● 1969 - Elias Atmatsidis, Greek footballer

● 1971 - Alejandro Fernandez, Singer

● 1971 - Mauro Pawlowski, Belgian guitarist and singer (Evil Superstars and dEUS)

● 1971 - Aaron Austin, American pornographic actor

● 1972 - Chipper Jones, baseball player

● 1972 - Jure Košir, Slovenian skier

● 1972 - Rab Douglas, Scottish footballer

● 1973 - Sachin Tendulkar, Indian cricketer

● 1974 - Derek Luke, Actor

● 1974 - Dave Vitty, aka Comedy Dave, British television host

● 1974 - Kristie Krabe, American stage actress

● 1974 - Joseph Bruce, American rapper (Insane Clown Posse)

● 1975 - Sam Doumit, American actress

● 1976 - Steve Finnan, Irish footballer

● 1977 - Carlos Beltran, Puerto Rican Major League Baseball player

● 1977 - Siarhiej Bałachonaŭ, Belarusian writer

● 1978(77? NYT) - Eric Balfour, American actor ("24")

● 1978 - Kim Hyun-ju, Korean actress

● 1979 - Rebecca Lynn Howard, Country singer

● 1980 - Austin Nichols, American actor

● 1982 - Kelly Clarkson, American singer ("American Idol")

● 1982 - Shayna Nackoney, Canadian synchronized swimmer

● 1984 - Tyson Ritter, American singer and bassist (All-American Rejects)

● 1985 - Kaori Nazuka, Japanese voice actress

DEATHS

● 624 - Mellitus, third Archbishop of Canterbury

● 709 - Wilfrid, English archbishop and saint

● 1338 - Marquis Theodore I of Montferrat (b. 1291)

● 1342 - Pope Benedict XII (b. 1285)

● 1622 - Fidelis of Sigmaringen, Swiss friar, martyr, and saint (b. 1577)

● 1656 - Thomas Fincke, Danish mathematician and physicist (b. 1561)

● 1731 - Daniel Defoe, English writer (b. 1660)

● 1736 - Prince Eugene of Savoy, French-born Austrian general (b. 1663)

● 1779 - Eleazar Wheelock, American founder of Dartmouth College (b. 1711)

● 1852 - Vasily Zhukovsky, Russian poet (b. 1783)

● 1891 - Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, Prussian field marshal (b. 1800)

● 1924 - G. Stanley Hall, American psychologist (b. 1844)

● 1938 - George Grey Barnard, American sculptor (b. 1863)

● 1939 - Louis Trousselier, French cyclist (b. 1881)

● 1942 - Karin Boye, Swedish author (b. 1900)

● 1942 - Lucy Maud Montgomery, Canadian author (b. 1874)

● 1944 - William Stephens, U.S. political figure (b. 1859)

● 1947 - Willa Cather, American writer (b. 1873)

● 1947 - Hans Biebow, German war criminal (b. 1902)

● 1960 - Max von Laue, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1879)

● 1964 - Gerhard Domagk, German bacteriologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (declined) (b. 1895)

● 1965 - Louise Dresser, American actress (b. 1878)

● 1967 - Vladimir Komarov, cosmonaut (b. 1927)

● 1974 - Bud Abbott, American actor and comedian (b. 1895)

● 1980 - Alejo Carpentier, Cuban writer (b. 1904)

● 1982 - Ville Ritola, Finnish athlete (b. 1896)

● 1986 - Wallis Simpson, American wife of Edward, Duke of Windsor (b. 1896)

● 1993 - Oliver Tambo, South African activist and politician (b. 1917)

● 1997 - Pat Paulsen, American comedian and politician (b. 1927)

● 1997 - Eugene Stoner, American engineer and weapons designer (b. 1922)

● 2001 - Al Hibbler, American singer (b. 1915)

● 2001 - Leon Sullivan, African-American civil rights leader and pastor (b. 1922)

● 2004 - Estée Lauder, American cosmetics entrepreneur (b. 1906)

● 2005 - Ezer Weizman, President of Israel (b. 1924)

● 2005 - Fei Xiaotong, Chinese sociologist (b. 1910)

● 2006 - Steve Stavro, Canadian businessman and sports team owner (b. 1927)

● 2006 - Moshe Teitelbaum, Hassidic rabbi (b. 1914)

● 2006 - Brian Labone, English footballer (b. 1940)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● St. Alexander (died 178)
● St. Deodatus
● St. Diarmaid
● St. Dyfnan
● St. Egbert of Northumbria
● St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen
● St. Honorius of Brescia
● St. Maria-Euphrasia Pelletier (d. 1868)
● St. Mellitus of Canterbury
● St. Sabas
● St. William Firmatus

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for April 11 (Civil Date: April 24)
● Hieromartyr Antipas, Bishop of Pergamus, disciple of St. John the Theologian.
● St. Pharmuthius, anchorite of Egypt.
● Martyrs Processus and Martinian of Rome.
● St. John, disciple of St. Gregory of the Decapolis.
● St. James, abbot of Zhelaznoborov, and his fellow ascetic St. James.
● Saints Euthymius and Chariton, abbots of Syanzhemsk (Vologda).
● St. Barsanuphius, Bishop of Tver.
● St. Callinicus of Cernica, Bishop of Rimnicului in Rumania.
● Appearance of the Most Holy Theotokos at Pochaev (the Footprint).

● Republic Day in The Gambia (1970).

● Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day. (1915)

● These Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
● Alabama, Florida, Mississippi: Confederate Memorial Day (1868) - (Monday)
● US-Utah: Arbor Day-plant a tree (1872) - (Friday)

IN FICTION

● 1891 - Start of Sherlock Holmes adventure "Final Problem"


Click on this LINK to see original Wikipedia list with many having links with details.

Additional facts taken from:

On this day in the New York Times

The BBC’s Take on the day

On This Day Website

Geov Parrish's this Day in Radical History, things that happened on this day that you never had to memorize in school.

Scope Systems Any Day Website

Roman Catholic Saint of the Day

Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar

Quotes of the Day taken from The Best Liberal Quotes Ever: Why the Left Is Right Compiled by William P. Martin ©2004

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