GOOD MORNING – TODAY IS FRIDAY, April 24, the 114th day of 2015 with 251 to follow. Sunrise in the Boston area is @ 5:50 and sunset is @ 7:34. The moon is waxing. The morning stars are stars are Mercury, Neptune & Saturn. The evening stars are Jupiter, Mars, Uranus & Venus.
ON THIS DAY IN: 1558 – Mary, Queen of Scotland, married the French dauphin, Francis II.
1704 – The first regularly issued American newspaper, “the Boston News Letter,” started publication.
1792 – The national anthem of France, “La Marseillaise,” was composed by Captain Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle.
1800 – The Library of Congress was established. President John Adams approved the appropriation of $5,000 for the purchase of “such books as may be necessary for the use of congress.”
1833 – A patent was granted for first soda fountain to Jacob Ebert of Cadiz, Ohio and George Dulty of Wheeling, West Virginia .
1898 – Spain declared war on the United States, rejecting the U.S. ultimatum to withdraw fromCuba.
1915 – The Ottoman Turkish Empire began a mass deportation of Armenians during World War I.
1916 – The Irish Republican Brotherhood or Sinn Fein, Irish nationalists led by Patrick Pearse, launched the so-called Easter Rebellion, an armed uprising against British rule.
1953 – Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
1961 – President John F. Kennedy accepted “sole responsibility” for the failed invasion of Cubaat the Bay of Pigs.
1962 – MIT executed the first satellite relay of a TV signal.
1970 – China launched its first satellite.
1980 – An ill-fated military operation to rescue the 52 American hostages held in Tehran ended with eight U.S. servicemen dead and no hostages rescued.
1981 – The IBM Personal Computer was introduced.
1990 – The space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying the $1.5 billion Hubble Space Telescope.
2004 – The United States lifts economic sanctions imposed on Libya for its cooperation in eliminating weapons of mass destruction.
2005 – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is inaugurated as the 265th Pope of the Roman Catholic Churchtaking the name Pope Benedict XVI.