On April 24, 1533, William I, founder and the first stadholder (chief magistrate) of the Dutch Republic, was born in Dillenburg, Germany.
In 1766 Robert Thomas, founder of the Farmer’s Almanac, was born in Grafton, Mass. (His first almanac was published in 1793.)
In 1792 Claude de Lisle, a young French military officer, wrote the words and music to the “Marseillaise,” which would become his country’s national anthem.
In 1800 the Library of Congress was established with a fund of $5,000. In January 1815 Congress accepted Thomas Jefferson’s offer of his private collection of books. His collection became the foundation of the Library of Congress. (This item as published has been corrected in this text.)
In 1877 federal troops were ordered out of New Orleans, ending the Reconstruction of the South.
In 1898 Spain declared war on the U.S. after rejecting America’s ultimatum to withdraw from Cuba.
In 1915 the Turkish government began a massacre of its Armenian population, allegedly resulting in the deaths of 1.5 million people.
In 1916 about 1,600 Irish nationalists in Dublin began the Easter Rebellion, an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow British rule.
In 1934 actress Shirley MacLaine was born in Richmond, Va.
In 1942 Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley was born.
In 1962 Massachusetts Institute of Technology accomplished the first satellite relay of a television signal, between Camp Parks, Calif., and Westford, Mass.
In 1970 China launched its first satellite.
In 1973 Japan bowed to political opposition and rejected an invitation from President Richard Nixon to have Emperor Hirohito visit the U.S.
In 1978 the U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal for review of the bank-robbery conviction of Patricia Hearst.
In 1980 Rep. John Anderson (R-Ill.) withdrew from the race for the Republican presidential nomination and announced he was running as an independent.
In 1984 an earthquake shook San Francisco, injuring 30 people and causing $10 million in damage.
In 1986 the American-born Duchess of Windsor, the twice-divorced former Wallis Warfield Simpson, for whom England’s King Edward VIII gave up his throne, died in Paris at age 89.
In 1993 the Irish Republican Army claimed responsibility for a bomb that exploded in London’s financial district, killing one man and injuring 45 other people. (A 500-year-old church was destroyed and many buildings were damaged.)
