24 April

1184 BC Traditional date of the fall of Troy.

624       Mellitus (died), English archbishop

1533     William the Silent (born), German son of William I, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg (died 1584)

1558    Mary, Queen of Scots, marries the Dauphin of France, François, at Notre Dame de Paris.

1620    John Graunt (born), English statistician (died 1674)

1704    The first regular newspaper in British Colonial America, the News-Letter, is published in Boston, Massachusetts.

1706    Giovanni Battista Martini (born), Italian pianist (died 1780)

1718     Nathaniel Hone the Elder (born), Irish-English painter (died 1784)

1731     Daniel Defoe (died), English journalist and spy (born 1660)

1743    Edmund Cartwright (born), English clergyman, invented the power loom (died 1823)

1779    Eleazar Wheelock (died), American minister and academic, founded Dartmouth College (born 1711)

1800    The United States Library of Congress is established when President John Adams signs legislation to appropriate $5,000 USD to purchase “such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress”.

1815     Anthony Trollope (born), English author (died 1882)

1877    Russo-Turkish War: Russian Empire declares war on Ottoman Empire.

1878    Jean Crotti (born), Swiss painter (died 1958)

1880    Gideon Sundback (born), Swedish-American engineer and businessman, developed the zipper (died 1954)

1885    American sharpshooter Annie Oakley was hired by Nate Salsbury to be a part of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West.

1887    Denys Finch Hatton (born), English hunter (died 1931)

1889    Lyubov Popova (born), Russian painter (died 1924)

1897    Benjamin Lee Whorf (born), American linguist (died 1941)

1899    Oscar Zariski (born), Russian-American mathematician (died 1986)

1903    José Antonio Primo de Rivera (born), Spanish lawyer and politician, founded the Falange (died 1936)

1904    Willem de Kooning (born), Dutch-American painter (died 1997)

1905    Robert Penn Warren (born), American author and poet (died 1989)

1906    Mimi Smith (born), English nurse and secretary (died 1991)

1906    William Joyce (born), American-English politician and broadcaster (died 1946)

1907    Hersheypark, founded by Milton S. Hershey for the exclusive use of his employees, is opened.

1907    William Sargant (born), English psychiatrist (died 1988)

1913     The Woolworth Building skyscraper in New York City is opened.

1914     Justin Wilson (born), American chef (died 2001)

1916     Ernest Shackleton and five men of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition launch a lifeboat from uninhabited Elephant Island in the Southern Ocean to organise a rescue for the ice-trapped ship Endurance.

1918     First tank-to-tank combat, at Villers-Bretonneux, France, when three British Mark IVs meet three German A7Vs.

1922    Marc-Adélard Tremblay (born), Canadian anthropologist

1922    The first segment of the Imperial Wireless Chain providing wireless telegraphy between Leafield in Oxfordshire, England, and Cairo, Egypt, comes into operation.

1923    In Vienna, the paper Das Ich und das Es (The Ego and the Id) by Sigmund Freud is published, which outlines Freud’s theories of the id, ego, and super-ego.

1924    G. Stanley Hall (died), American psychologist and educator (born 1844)

1930    Jerome Callet (born), American instrument designer, educator, and author

1933    Nazi Germany begins its persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses by shutting down the Watch Tower Society office in Magdeburg.

1934    Shirley MacLaine (born), American actress, singer, and dancer

1936    Jill Ireland (born), English-American actress and author (died 1990)

1938    George Grey Barnard (died), American sculptor (born 1863)

1940    Sue Grafton (born), American author

1941     John Williams (born), Australian-English guitarist

1941     Richard Holbrooke (born), American journalist, banker, and diplomat, 22nd United States Ambassador to the United Nations (died 2010)

1942    Barbra Streisand (born), American singer-songwriter, actress, and producer

1942    Richard M. Daley (born), American politician, 54th Mayor of Chicago

1943    Richard Sterban (born), American singer (The Oak Ridge Boys)

1945    Dick Rivers (born), French singer and actor (Les Chats Sauvages)

1945    Doug Clifford (born), American drummer and songwriter (Creedence Clearwater Revival, Creedence Clearwater Revisited, and Don Harrison Band)

1945    Doug Riley (born), Canadian keyboard player and producer (Dr. Music) (died 2007)

1947    Willa Cather (died), American author (born 1873)

1951     Nigel Harrison (born), English bass player and songwriter (Blondie and Silverhead)

1952    Jean Paul Gaultier (born), French fashion designer

1953    Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

1954    Captain Sensible (born), English singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Damned and Dead Men Walking)

1954    Jack Blades (born), American bass player and songwriter (Night Ranger, Rubicon, Damn Yankees, and Tak Matsumoto Group)

1955    Michael O’Keefe (born), American actor

1957    Boris Williams (born), French-English drummer (The Cure, Thompson Twins, and Babacar)

1957    Suez Crisis: The Suez Canal is reopened following the introduction of UNEF peacekeepers to the region.

1957    The BBC first broadcast The Sky at Night presented by Patrick Moore

1963    Marriage of HRH Princess Alexandra of Kent to the Hon Angus Ogilvy at Westminster Abbey in London.

1964    Cedric the Entertainer (born), American comedian, actor, and producer

1967    Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1 when its parachute fails to open. He is the first human to die during a space mission.

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    Vladimir Komarov (died), Russian pilot, engineer, and astronaut (born 1927)

1968    Mauritius becomes a member state of the United Nations.

1968    Walter Tewksbury (died), American runner (born 1876)

1970    The first Chinese satellite, Dong Fang Hong I, is launched.

1974    Bud Abbott (died), American actor and producer (born 1895)

1975    Pete Ham (died), Welsh singer-songwriter and guitarist (Badfinger) (born 1947)

1980    Eight U.S. servicemen die in Operation Eagle Claw as they attempt to end the Iran hostage crisis.

1983    Rolf Stommelen (died), German race car driver (born 1943)

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

1990    STS-31: The Hubble Space Telescope is launched from the Space Shuttle Discovery.

1993    An IRA bomb devastates the Bishopsgate area of London.

1996    In the United States, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 is passed into law.

1997    Pat Paulsen (died), American comedian and politician (born 1927)

2004   Estée Lauder (died), American businesswoman, co-founded Estée Lauder Companies (born 1906)

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

2013    A building collapses near Dhaka, Bangladesh killing 1,129 people and injuring 2,500 others.

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EO Smith

Interests include biological anthropology, evolution, social behavior, and human behavior. Conducted field research in the Tana River National Primate Reserve, Kenya and on Angaur, Palau, Micronesia, as well as research with captive nonhuman primates at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and the Institute for Primate Research, National Museums of Kenya.
EO Smith
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