Today is Easter Sunday, April 24, the 114th day of 2011. There are 251 days left in the year.

Today’s highlight:

On April 24, 1961, in the wake of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, the White House issued a statement saying that President John F. Kennedy “bears sole responsibility for the events of the past few days.”

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 1898, Spain declared war on the United States. (The United States responded in kind the next day.)

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 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 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.

Today’s birthdays: Film and drama critic Stanley Kauffmann is 95. Movie director-producer Richard Donner is 81. Actress Shirley MacLaine is 77. Author Sue Grafton is 71. Actor-singer Michael Parks is 71. Actress-singer-director Barbra Streisand is 69. Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley is 69. Country singer Richard Sterban (The Oak Ridge Boys) is 68. Rock musician Doug Clifford (Creedence Clearwater Revival) is 66. Rock singer-musician Rob Hyman is 61. Actor-playwright Eric Bogosian is 58. Actor-comedian Cedric the Entertainer is 47. Actor Djimon Hounsou is 47. Rock musician Patty Schemel is 44. Actor Derek Luke is 37. Actor Eric Balfour is 34. Actor Austin Nichols is 31. Singer Kelly Clarkson is 29. Rock singer-musician Tyson Ritter (The All-American Rejects) is 27.

Thought for Today: “The door to the past is a strange door. It swings open and things pass through it, but they pass in one direction only. No man can return across that threshold, though he can look down still and see the green light waver in the water weeds.”

— Loren Eiseley, American anthropologist (1907-1977)

Associated Press