Today in History

Published 10:38 pm Friday, April 23, 2010

Today is Saturday, April 24, the 114th day of 2010. There are 251 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

On April 24, 1898, Spain declared war on the United States after rejecting America’s ultimatum to withdraw from Cuba. (The United States responded in kind the next day.)

ON THIS DATE

In 1792, the national anthem of France, “La Marseillaise,” was composed by Captain Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle.

In 1800, Congress approved a bill establishing the Library of Congress.

In 1877, federal troops were ordered out of New Orleans, ending the North’s post-Civil War rule in the South.

In 1915, the Ottoman Empire rounded up Armenian political and cultural leaders in Constantinople at the start of what many scholars regard as the first genocide of the 20th century in which an estimated 1.5 million Armenians died.

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 almost a week later.)

In 1953, British statesman Winston Churchill was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

In 1960, rioting erupted in Biloxi, Miss. after black protesters staging a “wade-in” at a whites-only beach were attacked by a crowd of hostile whites.

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 unsuccessful attempt to free the American hostages in Iran, a mission that resulted in the deaths of eight U.S. servicemen.

In 1990, the space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., carrying the $1.5 billion Hubble Space Telescope.

Associated Press