Friday, April 24, 1998
Today's events
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The 1998 American Lung Association/American
Thoracic Society International Conference is to begin in Chicago.
The 1998 National Elementary Chess Championships will be held in Peoria, Illinois.
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On the horizon
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On Saturday, April 25, Pope John Paul II plans to fast in solidarity with famine victims in North Korea.
Sunday, April 26, is the 12th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident.
On Monday, April 27, the American Women in Radio and Television annual awards ceremony is held in New York.
On Tuesday, April 28, oral arguments in convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh's appeal are scheduled to start.
On Wednesday, April 29, a hearing for the boys accused in the Jonesboro, Arkansas, school shootings will be held.
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On this day
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In 1533, William the Silent, prince of Orange, was born. He led the revolt against Spanish rule and helped create an autonomous Netherlands.
In 1547, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V defeated the Protestants at Muehlberg, near Leipzig, Germany.
In 1558, Mary Queen of Scots, aged 16, married the dauphin of France, the future Francois II.
In 1704, the Boston News-Letter, one of the earliest newspapers in the American colonies, was first published.
In 1731, Daniel Defoe, British journalist and author of "Robinson Crusoe," died.
In 1800, the U.S. Congress voted to establish a Library of Congress.
In 1815, Anthony Trollope, English novelist, was born; he was best known for the Barchester novels, a series of books set in the fictional English county of Barsetshire.
In 1856, Philippe Petain, French statesman, was born. A national hero after his victory at Verdun in World War I, he was later discredited as a Nazi collaborator for heading the Vichy government in World War II.
In 1882, Lord Dowding, British air force commander who directed the 1940 Battle of Britain, was born.
In 1898, Spain declared war on the United States after receiving an ultimatum to withdraw from Cuba.
In 1905, Robert Penn Warren, U.S. poet and novelist ("All The King's Men"), was born.
In 1906, William Joyce, U.S.-born British Nazi collaborator during World War II, was born. He broadcast German propaganda to Britain, where he earned the derisive nickname "Lord Haw-Haw," and was later hanged for treason.
In 1916, the Easter Rising in Dublin, an insurrection aimed at setting up an Irish Republic, began.
In 1921, the Tyrol region of central Europe voted for union with Germany.
In 1932, in German elections, the Nazis made gains in Prussia, Bavaria, Wurttemberg and Hamburg.
In 1945, American forces liberated Dachau concentration camp.
In 1950, the state of Jordan was formed by the union of Jordanian-occupied Palestine and the Kingdom of Transjordan.
In 1955, the Bandung Conference, organized by five Asian states, ended. It condemned colonialism in both the West and the Soviet Union.
In 1965, the body of murdered Portuguese opposition leader Humberto Delgado was found in Spain.
In 1965, the Indonesian government formally took control of all foreign companies in the country.
In 1967, Vladimir Komarov, the first Russian to fly in the Soyuz craft, was killed when he crash-landed in Russia after his 17th orbit of Earth.
In 1970, The Gambia was proclaimed a republic within the British Commonwealth.
In 1970, China launched its first satellite into orbit.
In 1975, three people died when Baader-Meinhof terrorists attacked the German embassy in Stockholm.
In 1986, the Duchess of Windsor (Wallis Warfield) died. As Wallis Simpson, her romance with King Edward VIII led to his abdication in 1936.
In 1990, East and West Germany agreed on July 2 as the date for economic union, a prelude to full political unification.
In 1990, Michael Milken, former junk bond chief at the defunct Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc., pleaded guilty to six felony charges, settling a massive criminal racketeering and securities fraud suit brought by the U.S. government.
In 1991, Kurdish rebel leaders reached an agreement in principle with Saddam Hussein on greater autonomy.
In 1992, guerrilla leaders in Afghanistan agreed on a 50-member council to take power in Kabul.
In 1993, a huge IRA bomb exploded in the heart of London's financial district, killing one person.
In 1995, A U.N. tribunal named Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and two of his senior aides as war crimes suspects.
In 1996, the Palestinian parliament-in-exile voted to amend clauses in the PLO charter which call for Israel's destruction.
In 1996, Russian President Boris Yeltsin met Chinese President Jiang Zemin at the start of a visit to Beijing hailed by both sides as signaling a new relationship between them.
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Newslink
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Nearly 200 years ago, the U.S. Congress voted to establish a Library of Congress. Today, the massive collection of documents and other archives is accessible on the Web.
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Notable
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Today is Armenian Genocide Memorial Day in Armenia.
It is National Day in Niger.
It is Carnival in the Virgin Islands.
Actress Shirley MacLaine ("Terms of Endearment") is 64.
Singer Barbra Streisand ("Funny Girl") is 56.
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Sources: Associated Press,
Chase's Calendar of Events 1998, J.P. Morgan
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