Wikipedia defines history as the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. It came from the Greek word ‘historia’ – which means ‘inquiry, knowledge acquired by investigation’.
Did you know? There are many who claim Herodotus, a fifth century BC Greek historian, as the “father of history”.
This website utilizes pages from Wikipedia to extract historical events from 3761 BC up to the present. There are 105,060 records in the database that include events, births and deaths of popular individuals. The present day Gregorian calendar was adopted to show dates of interest.
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What are the important events that happened on April 24? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.
April 24: Facts & Myths About This Day
April 24 is the 115th day of the year 2024 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 251 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Wednesday.
Under the Julian calendar, this day is April 11, 2024 – a Wednesday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?
When this day started, 28,565,280 minutes has elapsed since midnight of January 1, 1970 – the Unix epoch.
Strange as it may, if we name this day after a polygon then it will be called ‘hectadecapentagon’ day.
Taurus is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Diamond is the modern birthstone for this month. Opal is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.
According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 280 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.
The ancient Maya civilization believes that the end of the world will happen on December 21, 2012. There are now 4,142 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.
Are you not curious to find out some fun facts about your birthday? Find out ‘who shares my birthday’ and what was the number one song on your day of birth. (Sponsored link)
April 24 Historical Events
- 1800 –The United States Library of Congress is established when President John Adams signs legislation to appropriate $5,000 USD to purchase “such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress”.
- 1907 –Al Ahly was founded.
- 1913 –The Woolworth Building skyscraper in New York City is opened.
- 1965 –Civil war breaks out in the Dominican Republic when Colonel Francisco Caamaño, overthrows the triumvirate that had been in power since the coup d'état against Juan Bosch.
- 1967 –Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1 when its parachute fails to open. He is the first human to die during a space mission.
Who were born on April 24?
- 1934 –Shirley MacLaine, American actor and author
- 1945 –Dick Rivers, French singer and actor
- 1945 –Robert Knight, American singer
- 1955 –John de Mol, Dutch media businessman
- 1959 –Paula Yates, British television presenter (d. 2000)
Who died on April 24?
- 624 –Mellitus, Archbishop of Canterbury
- 1731 –Daniel Defoe, English writer (b. 1660)
- 1794 –Axel von Fersen the Elder, Swedish statesman and soldier; father of Axel von Fersen the Younger (b. 1719)
- 1980 –Alejo Carpentier, Cuban writer (b. 1904)
- 2000 –William Moore, English actor (b. 1916)
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