April 24th in History

1184 BC - Traditional date of the fall of Troy.

1558 - Mary, Queen of Scots, marries the Dauphin of France, François (later François II) , at Notre Dame de Paris.

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

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

1916 - Easter Rising: The Irish Republican Brotherhood led by nationalists Patrick Pearse, James Connolly, and Joseph Plunkett starts a rebellion in Ireland.

1926 - The Treaty of Berlin is signed. Germany and the Soviet Union each pledge neutrality in the event of an attack on the other by a third party for the next five years.


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

1953 - Sir Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

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

1965 - Civil war breaks out in the Dominican Republic when Colonel Francisco Caamaño, overthrows the triumvirate that had been in power since the coup d'état against Juan Bosch.

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

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

1993 - An IRA bomb devastates the Bishopsgate area of London.


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

2005 - Snuppy, the world's first cloned dog, is born in South Korea.

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



Famous Birthdays


1533 - William I of Orange

1581 - St. Vincent de Paul

1743 - Edmund Cartwright, clergyman and inventor of the power loom

1880 - Gideon Sundbäck, engineer and businessman, developed the zipper

1897 - Manuel Ávila Camacho, 45th President of Mexico


1919 - Glafcos Clerides, 4th President of Cyprus

1930 - José Sarney, President of Brazil

1936 - Jill Ireland, actress

1951 - Enda Kenny, Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of Ireland

1955 - Eamon Gilmore, Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister) of Ireland

1959 - Glenn Morshower, actor

1962 - Steve Roach, rugby player

1969 - Melinda Clarke, actress

1980 - Austin Nichols, actor

1983 - HRH Princess Iman bint Al Hussein

1994 - Austin Rogers, actor