April 24
day of the year
April 24 is the 114th day of the year (115th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 251 days remaining until the end of the year.
Events change
Up to 1900 change
- 1184 BC - Traditional date of the Fall of Troy.
- 1558 – Mary, Queen of Scots marries future King Francis II of France.
- 1585 - Felice Peretti is elected Pope, becoming Pope Sixtus V.
- 1704 - The first regular newspaperin Colonial America, the News-Letter, is published in Boston, Massachusetts.
- 1715 - Following defeat in the naval Battle of Fehmarn, Sweden sinks its own flagship, Hedvig Sophia, to prevent Denmark from taking it.
- 1800 – The Library of Congress in Washington, DC opens.
- 1877 – Russo-Turkish War: Russia declares war on the Ottoman Empire.
- 1885 - American sharpshooter Annie Oakley is hired to be part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West.
- 1895 - Joshua Slocum sets sail from Boston, Massachusetts on his boat Spray, on his way to becoming the first person to sail single-handedly around the world.
- 1898 – The Spanish-American War begins.
1901 – 2000 change
- 1904 - The Lithuanian press ban ends after over 40 years.
- 1907 - Hersheypark, founded by Milton S. Hershey exclusively for his employees, opens.
- 1913 – New York City's Woolworth building is opened.
- 1914 - The Franck-Hertz Experiment, a pillar of quantum mechanics, is presented to the German Physical Society.
- 1915 – The arrest of 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Istanbul marks the beginning of the Armenian Genocide.
- 1916 – The Irish Easter Rising begins in Dublin.
- 1916 - Ernest Shackleton and five men of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition launch a lifeboat from the uninhabited Elephant Island in the Southern Ocean to organize a rescue for the ice-trapped ship Endurance.
- 1922 - The first segment of the Imperial Wireless Chain providing wireless telegraphy between Leafield, Oxfordshire, England and Cairo, Egypt, begins operations.
- 1926 - The Treaty of Berlin is signed. Germany and the Soviet Union each pledge neutrality in the event of an attack on the other, for the next five years.
- 1933 - Nazi Germany begins with the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses by shutting down the Watch Tower Society in Magdeburg.
- 1953 – Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
- 1955 - End of the Bandung Conference in Indonesia: 29 non-aligned Asian and African countries condemn colonialism, racism and the Cold War.
- 1957 - Following the Suez Crisis, the Suez Canal is re-opened.
- 1957 - The BBC first broadcasts the long-running astronomy TV programme The Sky at Night, presented by Patrick Moore until his death in 2012.
- 1964 - The Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen is beheaded.
- 1965 - A civil war starts in the Dominican Republic.
- 1967 – Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1 when his parachute fails to open.
- 1968 – Mauritius joins the UN.
- 1970 – The Gambia becomes a republic with Dawda Jawara as its first President.
- 1970 - The first Chinese satellite, Dong Fang Hong I, is launched.
- 1971 - Soyuz 10 docks with Salyut 1.
- 1974 - President of Austria Franz Jonas dies in office aged 74, following a long period of illness.
- 1990 – Gruinard Island in Scotland is declared free of Anthrax.
- 1990 – STS-31: The Hubble Space Telescope is launched from Space Shuttle Discovery.
- 1993 - An Irish Republican Army bomb hits the Bishopsgate area of London.
From 2001 change
- 2004 – In Cyprus, a referendum on reunification results in the Turkish population mainly voting yes, but the Greek population mainly voting no, meaning that only Greek Cyprus joins the EU the following week.
- 2004 - The United States lifts (ends) economic sanctions on Libya.
- 2005 – Josef Alois Ratzinger is officially inaugurated as Pope Benedict XVI.
- 2005 – Snuppy, the world's first cloned dog, is born in South Korea.
- 2007 – Iceland announces that Norway will take responsibility of its defence in peacetime.
- 2013 - 1,127 people are killed when an eight-storey clothing factory building in Dhaka, Bangladesh, collapses. Over 2,500 are injured.
- 2016 - The candidates of the traditional political parties are rejected in Austria's Presidential election, with Alexander Van der Bellen and Norbert Hofer advancing to the second round.
Births change
Up to 1900 change
- 1086 - Ramiro II of Aragon (d. 1157)
- 1492 - Sabina of Bavaria (d. 1564)
- 1533 – William I of Orange (d. 1584)
- 1580 – Vincent de Paul, French saint (d. 1660)
- 1620 – John Graunt, English statistician (d. 1674)
- 1706 – Giovanni Battista Martini, Italian musician (d. 1780)
- 1718 – Nathaniel Hone, Irish-born painter (d. 1784)
- 1719 - Giuseppe Marc'Antonio Baretti, Italian poet (d. 1789)
- 1721 - Johann Philipp Kirnberger, German composer and music theorist (d. 1783)
- 1743 – Edmund Cartwright, British inventor (d. 1823)
- 1777 - Maria Clementina of Austria (d. 1801)
- 1787 - Mathieu Orfila, Spanish-French chemist (d. 1853)
- 1815 – Anthony Trollope, English novelist (d. 1882)
- 1819 - Klaus Groth, German writer (d. 1899)
- 1825 - R. M. Ballantyne, Scottish writer (d. 1894)
- 1829 - James Sheakley, Territorial Governor of Alaska (d. 1917)
- 1831 - George Nares, British admiral and polar explorer (d. 1915)
- 1841 - Charles Sprague Sargent, American botanist (d. 1927)
- 1845 – Carl Spitteler, Swiss writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1924)
- 1851 - Morgan Earp, American Western figure and brother of Wyatt Earp (d. 1882)
- 1856 – Henri Philippe Pétain, French soldier and statesman (d. 1951)
- 1871 - Blanche Ring, American singer (d. 1961)
- 1876 – Erich Raeder, German naval commander (d. 1960)
- 1878 – Jean Crotti, Swiss artist (d. 1958)
- 1879 - Susanna Bokoyni, Hungarian-American centenarian and circus performer (d. 1984)
- 1880 - Gideon Sundback, Swedish engineer, businessman and developer of the zipper (d. 1954)
- 1882 – Hugh Dowding, 1st Baron Dowding, Scottish fighter pilot (d. 1970)
- 1889 – Sir Stafford Cripps, British politician (d. 1952)
- 1889 – Lyubov Popova, Russian painter (d. 1924)
- 1896 - Charlie Rivel, Spanish clown (d. 1983)
- 1896 – Benjamin Whorf, American linguist (d. 1941)
- 1897 – Manuel Ávila Camacho, President of Mexico (d. 1955)
- 1899 – Oscar Zariski, Russian-born mathematician (d. 1986)
1901 – 1925 change
- 1903 - José Antonio Primo de Rivera, Spanish lawyer and politician (d. 1936)
- 1904 – Willem de Kooning, Dutch painter (d. 1997)
- 1905 – Robert Penn Warren, American poet (d. 1989)
- 1906 – William Joyce, Irish fascist (d. 1946)
- 1907 – William Sargant, British psychiatrist (d. 1988)
- 1908 - Viktor Abakumov, Soviet politician (d. 1954)
- 1908 – Marceline Day, American actress (d. 2000)
- 1908 – Jozef Goslawski, Polish sculptor (d. 1963)
- 1909 – Bernhard Grzimek, German zoologist, naturalist, writer and movie maker (d. 1987)
- 1913 - Dieter Grau, German-American scientist and engineer (d. 2014)
- 1914 – William Castle, American movie director and producer (d. 1977)
- 1916 – Lou Thesz, American professional wrestler (d. 2002)
- 1919 - Glafcos Clerides, 4th President of Cyprus (d. 2013)
- 1919 - César Manrique, Spanish artist, architect and conservationist (d. 1992)
- 1922 - Susanna Agnelli, Italian politician (d. 2009)
- 1922 – J.D. Cannon, American actor (d. 2005)
- 1922 - Marc-Adélard Tremblay, Canadian anthropologist (d. 2014)
- 1923 - Gus Bodnar, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2005)
- 1924 – Sir Clement Freud, British writer, radio personality, and politician (d. 2009)
1926 – 1950 change
- 1926 – Thorbjörn Fälldin, former Prime Minister of Sweden (d. 2016)
- 1927 - Frank Lucchesi, American baseball player, coach and manager (d. 2019)
- 1927 - Josy Barthel, Luxembourgish middle-distance runner (d. 1992)
- 1928 - Tommy Docherty, Scottish footballer
- 1929 - Hella Pick, Austrian-British journalist
- 1929 - Rajkumar, Indian actor (d. 2006)
- 1930 – Jerome Callet, American musician
- 1930 – Richard Donner, American movie director and producer
- 1930 – José Sarney, former President of Brazil
- 1931 - Bridget Riley, British artist
- 1933 – Claire Davenport, British actress (d. 2002)
- 1933 – Helmuth Lohner, Austrian actor (d. 2015)
- 1934 – Shirley MacLaine, American actress and writer
- 1935 - Kuaima Riruako, Namibian politician (d. 2014)
- 1936 – Jill Ireland, British actress (d. 1990)
- 1936 - Akwasi Afrifa, Ghanaian politician (d. 1979)
- 1936 - David Crombie, 56th Mayor of Toronto
- 1937 – Joe Henderson American jazz saxophonist (d. 2001)
- 1940 – Sue Grafton, American writer (d. 2017)
- 1940 - Michael Parks, American actor (d. 2017)
- 1941 - Silvio Moser, Swiss racing driver (d. 1974)
- 1941 – John Williams, Australian guitarist
- 1941 – Richard Holbrooke, American diplomat (d. 2010)
- 1942 – Richard M. Daley, American politician
- 1942 – Barbra Streisand, American singer, actress, and director
- 1942 - George Vella, 10th President of Malta
- 1944 - Tony Visconti, American music producer
- 1945 – Doug Clifford, American drummer (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
- 1945 - Dick Rivers, French singer (d. 2019)
- 1947 - Josep Borrell, Spanish politician, 22nd President of the European Parliament
- 1947 - Roger D. Kornberg, American chemist
- 1948 - Paul Cellucci, 69th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 2013)
1951 – 1963 change
- 1951 - Nigel Harrison, English musician and songwriter
- 1951 – Enda Kenny, Irish Taoiseach
- 1952 – Jean-Paul Gaultier, French fashion designer
- 1953 – Eric Bogosian, American actor and writer
- 1954 – Mumia Abu-Jamal, American journalist, political activist, and death-row inmate
- 1954 – Captain Sensible, British guitarist (The Damned)
- 1954 - Jack Blades, American musician
- 1955 – John de Mol, Dutch media tycoon
- 1955 - Eamon Gilmore, Irish politician
- 1957 – David J, British musician
- 1957 – Boris Williams, British musician (The Cure)
- 1958 - Brian Paddick, English deputy police officer and politician
- 1958 - Valery Lantratov, Russian ballet dancer
- 1958 – Susan Tsvangirai, (d. 2009) wife of Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
- 1958 - Steve Wright, British serial killer
- 1960 – Paula Yates, British television presenter (d. 2000)
- 1961 - Andrew Murrison, English physician and politician
- 1962 – Stuart Pearce, English footballer and manager
- 1962 – Steve Roach, Australian rugby player
- 1963 – Billy Gould, American musician (Faith No More)
1964 – 1976 change
- 1964 – Cedric the Entertainer, American comedian and actor
- 1964 – Djimon Hounsou, Benin-born actor
- 1966 – Alessandro Costacurta, Italian footballer
- 1967 – Omar Vizquel, Venezuelan baseball player
- 1968 – Stacy Haiduk, American actress
- 1968 – Hashim Thaci, Kosovan politician
- 1968 - Yuji Nakata, Japanese wrestler
- 1968 – Roxanna Panufnik, British composer
- 1969 - Eilidh Whiteford, Scottish politician
- 1971 – Mauro Pawlowski, Belgian guitarist and singer (Evil Superstars and dEUS)
- 1971 - Alejandro Fernández, Mexican singer
- 1972 – Chipper Jones, American baseball player
- 1972 – Jure Košir, Slovenian skier
- 1972 – Rab Douglas, Scottish footballer
- 1972 - Adhemar Ferreira de Camargo Neto, Brazilian footballer
- 1973 – Sachin Tendulkar, Indian cricketer
- 1973 – Lee Westwood, British golfer
- 1973 – Gabby Logan, British television presenter
- 1973 - Eric Snow, American basketball player
- 1974 – Comedy Dave, British television and radio host
- 1974 – Joseph Bruce, American rapper (Insane Clown Posse)
- 1974 – Stephen Wiltshire, British artist
- 1975 – Sam Doumit, American actress
- 1975 - Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, wife of Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau
- 1976 – Steve Finnan, Irish footballer
From 1977 change
- 1977 – Carlos Beltran, Puerto Rican Major League Baseball player
- 1977 – Siarhiej Bałachonaŭ, Belarusian writer
- 1978 – Eric Balfour, American actor
- 1980 – Austin Nichols, American actor
- 1980 – Karen Asrian, Armenian chess player (d. 2008)
- 1980 - Fernando Arce, Mexican footballer
- 1981 - Taylor Dent, American tennis player
- 1982 – Kelly Clarkson, American singer
- 1982 – Shayna Nackoney, Canadian synchronized swimmer
- 1984 – Tyson Ritter, American singer and bassist (All-American Rejects)
- 1985 - Joséphine Jobert, French actress and singer
- 1985 – Kaori Nazuka, Japanese voice actress
- 1986 - Kellin Quinn, American singer
- 1987 - Simone Corsi, Italian motorcycle racer
- 1987 - Ben Howard, British singer-songwriter
- 1987 - Jan Vertonghen, Belgian footballer
- 1989 - David Boudia, American diver
- 1992 - Laura Kenny, English cyclist
- 1992 - Doc Shaw, American actor, singer, rapper and model
- 1993 - Laura Gil, American basketball player
- 1996 - Ashleigh Barty, Australian tennis player
- 1997 - Lydia Ko, New Zealand golfer
- 1998 – Ryan Newman, American actress
- 2005 – Snuppy, cloned dog
Deaths change
Up to 1900 change
- 624 - Mellitus, Archbishop of Canterbury
- 709 - Wilfrid, English archbishop and saint
- 1185 - Emperor Antoku of Japan (b. 1178)
- 1342 – Pope Benedict XII (b. 1285)
- 1479 - Jorge Manrique, Spanish poet (b. 1440)
- 1617 - Concino Concini, Italian-French politician (b. 1575)
- 1622 - Fidelis Sigmaringen, German friar and saint (b. 1577)
- 1656 - Thomas Fincke, Danish mathematician and physicist (b. 1561)
- 1678 - Louis VI, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, German aristocrat (b. 1630)
- 1731 – Daniel Defoe, English writer (b. 1660)
- 1748 - Anton thor Helle, German-Estonian clergyman and translator (b. 1683)
- 1794 - Axel von Fersen the Elder, Swedish statesman and soldier (b. 1719)
- 1852 – Vasily Zhukovsky, Russian poet (b. 1783)
- 1852 - Leopold, Grand Duke of Baden (b. 1790)
- 1884 - Marie Taglioni, Swedish dancer (b. 1804)
- 1891 - Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, Prussian field marshal (b. 1800)
- 1900 - George Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll, Scottish politician (b. 1823)
1901 – 2000 change
- 1901 - Arvid Posse, Prime Minister of Sweden (b. 1820)
- 1924 - G. Stanley Hall, American psychologist and educator (b. 1844)
- 1926 - Sunjong of the Korean Empire (b. 1874)
- 1931 - David Kldiashvili, Georgian writer (b. 1862)
- 1938 - George Gray Barnard, American sculptor (b. 1863)
- 1939 – Louis Trousselier, French cyclist (b. 1881)
- 1941 - Karin Boye, Swedish writer (b. 1900)
- 1942 - Lucy Maud Montgomery, Canadian novelist (b. 1874)
- 1942 - Leonid Kulik, Russian scientist (b. 1882)
- 1947 - Willa Cather, American writer (b. 1878)
- 1960 – Max von Laue, German physicist (b. 1897)
- 1962 - Emilio Prados, Spanish poet (b. 1899)
- 1964 – Gerhard Domagk, German doctor, won the 1939 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1895)
- 1965 - Louise Dresser, American actress (b. 1878)
- 1967 – Vladimir Komarov, Soviet cosmonaut (b. 1927)
- 1968 - Walter Tewksbury, American athlete (b. 1876)
- 1974 - Franz Jonas, President of Austria (b. 1899)
- 1974 – Bud Abbott, American actor and comedian (b. 1895)
- 1980 - Alejo Carpentier, Cuban writer (b. 1904)
- 1982 - Ville Ritola, Finnish runner (b. 1896)
- 1983 – Rolf Stommelen, German racing driver (b. 1943)
- 1986 – Wallis Simpson, wife of the former King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom (b. 1896)
- 1993 – Oliver Tambo, South African politician (b. 1917)
- 1993 - Tran Duc Thao, Vietnamese philosopher (b. 1917)
- 1996 - Donald Cammell, Scottish film director (b. 1934)
- 1997 - Pat Paulsen, American comedian and politician (b. 1927)
From 2001 change
- 2004 – Estée Lauder, American cosmetics entrepreneur (b. 1906)
- 2005 – Ezer Weizman, former President of Israel (b. 1924)
- 2011 – Sathya Sai Baba, Indian spiritual leader (b. 1926)
- 2011 - Marie-France Pisier, French actress (b. 1944)
- 2014 - Tadeusz Rozewicz, Polish poet, dramatist and writer (b. 1921)
- 2014 - Sandy Jardine, Scottish footballer (b. 1948)
- 2014 - Ricardo Bauleo, Argentine actor (b. 1946)
- 2014 - Hans Hollein, Austrian architect and designer (b. 1934)
- 2014 - Arturo Licata, Sicilian supercentenarian and oldest-living man (b. 1902)
- 2014 - Konstantin Orbelyan, Armenian pianist and composer (b. 1928)
- 2014 - Shobha Nagi Reddy, Indian politician (b. 1968)
- 2015 - Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, Polish politician, writer and Holocaust survivor (b. 1922)
- 2015 - Sid Tepper, American songwriter (b. 1918)
- 2015 - George C. Young, American lawyer and judge (b. 1916)
- 2015 - Rustum Ghazaleh, Syrian military officer (b. 1953)
- 2015 - Ismail Hussain, Indian politician (b. 1950)
- 2015 - Ken Birch, British footballer (b. 1933)
- 2015 - Valentine Lamb, British journalist (b. 1939)
- 2015 - Sabeen Mahmud, Pakistani human rights activist (b. 1974)
- 2016 - Nina Arkhipova, Russian actress (b. 1921)
- 2016 - Robert Dolan, American marine geologist (b. 1929)
- 2016 - Manuel de la Torre, American golf instructor (b. 1921)
- 2016 - Walter Jackson Freeman III, American biologist, neuroscientist and philosopher (b. 1927)
- 2016 - Tommy Kono, American weightlifter (b. 1930)
- 2016 - Thinle Lhondup, Nepalese actor (b. 1944)
- 2016 - Benjamin Manglona, Northern Marianas politician (b. 1938)
- 2016 - Billy Paul, American singer (b. 1934)
- 2016 - Klaus Siebert, German biathlete and coach (b. 1955)
- 2016 - Papa Wemba, Congolese singer and musician (b. 1949)
- 2017 - Benjamin Barber, American political theorist and author (b. 1939)
- 2017 - Robert M. Pirsig, American writer and philosopher (b. 1928)
- 2017 - Agnes Giebel, German soprano (b. 1921)
- 2017 - Don Gordon, American actor (b. 1926)
- 2017 - Nicholas Sand, American chemist (b. 1941)
- 2017 - Ken Sears, American basketball player (b. 1933)
- 2018 - Dinu C. Giurescu, Romanian historian and politician (b. 1927)
- 2018 - Paul Gray, Australian singer-songwriter and pianist (b. 1963)
- 2018 - Henri Michel, French footballer and coach (b. 1947)
- 2018 - Hariton Pushwagner, Norwegian artist (b. 1940)
- 2019 - Martin Kilson, American political scientist (b. 1931)
- 2019 - Jean-Pierre Marielle, French actor (b. 1932)
- 2019 - Sergey Pogorelov, Russian handball player (b. 1974)
- 2019 - Dick Rivers, French singer (b. 1945)
Observances change
- Democracy Day (Nepal)
- Genocide Day (Armenia)
- Republic Day (The Gambia)
- Latest date for Holy Saturday
- Second-latest date for Easter, last occurred on this date in 2011