This Day in History

By The Associated Press,
Today is Tuesday, April 24, the 114th day of 2001. 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 Capt. Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle.
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 uprising was put down by British forces several days later.)
In 1953, British statesman Winston Churchill was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
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 repeatedly transmitted 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.
In 1986, Wallis, the Duchess of Windsor, for whom King Edward VIII had given up the British throne, died in Paris at age 89.
In 1990, the space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., carrying the .5 billion Hubble Space Telescope.
Ten years ago: A Kurdish rebel leader announced the guerrillas had reached an agreement in principle with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to end the Kurds’ two-week rebellion.
Five years ago: The main assembly of the Palestine Liberation Organization voted to revoke clauses in its charter that called for an armed struggle to destroy Israel. Negotiators for Congress and the White House agreed on a permanent budget for fiscal year 1996.
One year ago: Concerned about the disappearance of a laptop computer with highly sensitive documents, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright announced a five-point plan to help guard against such lapses in the future. A teen-age gunman opened fire at Washington’s National Zoo, wounding seven children.
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