April 24
1519 - Envoys of Montezuma II attended the first Easter mass in Central America.
1547 - Charles V's troops defeated the Protestant League of Schmalkalden at the battle of Muhlburg.
1558 - Mary, Queen of Scotland, married the French dauphin, Francis.
1800 - The Library of Congress was established with a $5,000 allocation.
1805 - The U.S. Marines attacked and captured the town of Derna in Tripoli.
1833 - A patent was granted for first soda fountain.
1877 - Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire.
1877 - In the U.S., federal troops were ordered out of New Orleans. This was the end to the North's post-Civil War rule in the South.
1884 - Otto von Bismarck cabled Cape Town that South Africa was now a German colony.
1889 - The Edison General Electric Company was organized.
1897 - William Price became the first to be named White House news reporter.
1898 - Spain declared war on the U.S., rejecting America's ultimatum for Spain to withdraw from Cuba.
1915 - During World War I, the Ottoman Turkish Empire began the mass deportation of Armenians.
1916 - Irish nationalist launched the Easter Rebellion against British occupation forces. They were overtaken several days later.
1944 - The first B-29 arrived in China, over the Hump of the Himalayas.
1952 - Raymond Burr made his TV acting debut on the "Gruen Guild Playhouse" in an episode titled, "The Tiger."
1953 - Winston Churchill was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
1955 - "X-Minus One," a science fiction show, was first heard for the first time on NBC radio.
1961 - Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers struck out 18 batters becoming the first major-league pitcher to do so on two different occasions.
1961 - U.S. President Kennedy accepted "sole responsibility" following Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.
1962 - MIT sent a TV signal by satellite for the first time.
1967 - Soviet astronaut Vladimir Komarov died when his craft crashed with a tangled parachute.
1967 - The newest Greek regime banned miniskirts.
1970 - The People's Republic of China launched its first satellite.
1973 - Albert Sabin reported that herpesviruses were factors in nine kinds of cancer.
1974 - David Bowie released "Diamond Dogs."
1989 - Thousands of students began striking in Beijing.
1990 - The space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral, FL. It was carrying the $1.5 billion Hubble Space Telescope.
1997 - The U.S. Senate ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention. The global treaty banned the development, production, storage and use of chemical weapons.
2000 - ABC-TV aired the TV movie "The Three Stooges."
2003 - A U.S. official reported the North Korea had claimed to have nuclear weapons.
2015 - The Nasdaq Composite closed at a record high of 5092.09.
2015 - The S&P closed at a record high of 2117.69.
