This Day in History – April 24, 2011

1061 Halley’s Comet sparks English monk to predict country’ll be destroyed 1704 “Boston News-Letter”, 1st successful newspaper in US, is established 1519 Envoys of Montezuma II attended the first Easter mass in Central America. 1800 Library of Congress is established with $5,000 allocation 1833 Patent granted for 1st soda fountain to Jacob Evert & George Dulty 1863 Skirmish at Okolona/Birmingham MS (Grierson’s Raid) 1865 Fire alarm & police telegraph system put into operation (San Francisco) 1872 Volcano Vesuvius erupts 1877 Last federal occupying troops withdraw from south (New Orleans) 1888 Eastman Kodak forms 1897 1st reporter, William Price (Washington Star), is assigned to White House 1898 Spain declares war on US rejecting ultimatum to withdraw from Cuba 1908 Mr & Mrs Jacob Murdock become the 1st to travel across the US by car, they leave Los Angeles in a Packard & arrive in NYC in 32 days-5 hours-25 minutes 1923 Colonel Jacob Schick patents Schick shavers 1925 88ºF highest temperature ever recorded in Cleveland OH in April 1928 Fathometer, which measures underwater depth, patented 1929 1st non-stop England to India flight takes-off 1950 President Harry Truman denies there are communists in US government 1953 Winston Churchill knighted by Queen Elizabeth II 1961 JFK accepts “sole responsibility” following Bay of Pigs 1969 Paul McCartney says there is no truth to the rumours he is dead 1974 NFL grants franchise to Tampa Bay Bucaneers 1974 Dutch women hockey team becomes world champion 1980 US military operation to save 52 hostages in Iran, fails, 8 die 1981 Bill Shoemaker wins his 8000th race, 2000 more than any other jockey 1981 San Antonio blocks 20 Golden State shots to set NBA reg game record 1981 IBM-PC computer introduced 1981 US ends grain embargo against USSR 1987 Howard Stern holds a free speech rally at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza NYC 1989 Massachusetts declares today “New Kids on the Block Day” 1992 Vinson Pike fined £1000 for distributing obscene computer pictures 1995 Court orders Darryl Strawberry to pay back $350,000 in taxes 1995 Dow Jones Index hits record 4303.98 1996 Highest scoring baseball game in 17 years – Twins 24, Tigers 11 1997 The U.S. Senate ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention. The global treaty banned the development, production, storage and use of chemical weapons. 2003 A U.S. official reported the North Korea had claimed to have nuclear weapons.]]]]> ]]>