Back in Time – This Day in History – April 24

1953: Winston Churchill

By Mick Ferris, Press Association, AP, UPI, calendar.songfacts.com, classicbands.com and thisdayinmusic.com

1061: Halley's Comet heralded an invasion when it appeared over England. A monk spotted it and predicted the destruction of the country.

1704: The Boston News-Letter became the first U.S. newspaper to be published on a regular basis.

1731: Death of novelist Daniel Defoe.

1800: The U.S. Congress established the Library of Congress.

1801: First performance of Joseph Haydn’s oratorio “Die Jahreszeiten”.

1872: Mt Vesuvius erupts in Italy.

1877: Federal troops were ordered out of New Orleans, ending the North’s post-Civil War rule in the South.

1880: Amateur Athletic Association, governing body for men’s athletics in England & Wales, is founded in Oxford.

1888: Eastman Kodak is founded by George Eastman.

1898: Spain declares war after rejecting a US ultimatum to withdraw from Cuba.

1913: The Woolworth Building, designed by architect Cass Gilbert, an early proponent of skyscrapers, opened to the public and its tenants.

1914: The Easter Rising began. Irish republicans armed themselves in rebellion against the British government. Nearly 500 people died --including more than 250 civilians -- during the six-day skirmish, and the British executed 16 rebels.

1915: In what’s considered the start of the Armenian genocide, the Ottoman Empire began rounding up Armenian political and cultural leaders in Constantinople.

1916: Some 1,600 Irish nationalists launched the Easter Rising by seizing several key sites in Dublin. (The rising was put down by British forces five days later.) On the same day, Ernest Shackleton and five men of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition launch a lifeboat from uninhabited Elephant Island in the Southern Ocean to organise a rescue for ice-trapped ship Endurance.

1920: Polish troops attack Ukraine.

1932: In the Free State of Prussia, the Nazi Party gained a plurality of seats in parliamentary elections.

1950: US President Harry Truman denies there are communists in the US government. On the same day, Jordan annexes the West Bank.

1953: Prime Minister Winston Churchill was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. He led Britain during the Second World War, but surprisingly lost the 1945 General Election. He became PM again in 1951. In 1955, he retired as PM but remained in Parliament until 1964. (From Prof. Frank McDonough @FXMC1957)

1954: Billboard magazine featured a headline that read: "Teenagers Demand Music with a Beat - Spur Rhythm and Blues." It was a sign of things to come. Within a year, R&B music by both Black and White artists caught the public's fancy.

1955: Perez Prado was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White'. Known as the 'King of the Mambo' the instrumental was the theme from the film 'Underwater' where Jane Russell can be seen dancing to 'Cherry Pink'.

1957: The Suez Canal was reopened to shipping after being shut for more than five months following a conflict between Egypt, and the trio of Israel, Britain and France.

1957: 16 year old Ricky Nelson releases his first record, "Teenager's Romance", with his cover of Fats Domino's "I'm Walkin'" on the flip side. The disc sold nearly 60,000 copies within three days and eventually went over a million.

1959: After running on Saturday nights on radio for 24 years and TV for the last nine, the final installment of the musical countdown show Your Hit Parade airs on NBC. The final Top Five: Elvis Presley, "I Need Your Love Tonight" (#5), Brook Benton, "It's Just A Matter Of Time" (#4), Ricky Nelson, "Never Be Anyone Else But You" (#3), Dodie Stevens, "Pink Shoe Laces" (#2), and the Fleetwoods at #1 with "Come Softly To Me."

1959: Buddy Holly was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with the Paul Anka song 'It Doesn't Matter Anymore.' A No.1 hit six weeks after Holly's death.

1961: Del Shannon started a four week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Runaway', also a No.1 in the UK. Del was the first person to have a hit with a Beatles song in the US with his version of 'From Me To You.'

1961: Bob Dylan appeared on Harry Belafonte's album 'The Midnight Special' playing harmonica on the title track. Dylan was paid a $50 session fee for this his first ever recording.

1963: 18-year-old Brenda Lee marries 19-year-old Ronnie Shacklett in Nashville, where they raise two daughters together: Jolie and Julie.

1965: Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Game Of Love', a No.2 hit in the UK. Wayne took his name from DJ Fontana the Elvis Presley drummer. Eric Stewart guitarist in the Mindbenders went on join Hotlegs and 10CC.

1965: US TOP 20: Album chart:

1. Soundtrack - Mary Poppins

2. Herman's Hermits - Introducing Herman's Hermits

3. Soundtrack - Goldfinger

4. Roger Miller - The Return Of Roger Miller

5. The Rolling Stones - The Rolling Stones, Now!

6. Bert Kaempfert And His Orchestra - Blue Midnight

7. Nat King Cole - Ramblin' Rose

8. Soundtrack - My Fair Lady

9. The Beatles - Beatles '65

10. The Beach Boys - The Beach Boys Today!

11. Soundtrack - The Sound Of Music

12. The Supremes - Where Did Our Love Go

13. Nat King Cole - L-O-V-E

14. The Righteous Brothers - You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'

15. Dean Martin - Dean Martin Hits Again

16. Gerry And The Pacemakers - Ferry Cross The Mersey

17. John Gary - A Little Bit Of Heaven

18. Hank Williams Jr. - Your Cheatin' Heart

19. Original Cast - Fiddler On The Roof

20. Andy Williams - Dear Heart

***

1967: Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov was killed when his Soyuz 1 spacecraft smashed into the Earth after his parachutes failed to deploy properly during re-entry; he was the first human spaceflight fatality.

1968: The Beatles new company, Apple Records turned down the offer to sign new artist David Bowie. (Apple later signed Mary Hopkin, James Taylor, Badfinger and Billy Preston).

1968: Louis Armstrong was at No.1 in the UK with the single 'What A Wonderful World / Cabaret.' At 69 years of age, it made Armstrong the oldest act ever to score a UK No.1.

1969: Paul McCartney says there is no truth to rumours he is dead. On the same day, British Leyland launches the Austin Maxi.

1970: Gambia becomes a republic within the Commonwealth.

1970: The People’s Republic of China launched its first satellite, which kept transmitting a song, “The East Is Red.”

1974: Death of comedian Bud Abbott aged 78.

1975: Badfinger singer/songwriter/guitarist Pete Ham committed suicide by hanging himself in his garage, aged 27.

1976: Paul and Linda McCartney spent the evening with John Lennon at his New York apartment. While watching Saturday Night Live they considered just turning up at the studio, which was close by, but decided against it.

1977: UK TOP 20 : Singles chart:

1. ABBA - Knowing Me, Knowing You

2. Billy Ocean - Red Light Spells Danger

3. Deniece Williams - Free

4. Stevie Wonder - Sir Duke

5. Berni Flint - I Don't Want To Put A Hold On You

6. Dead End Kids - Have I The Right?

7. Marilyn McCoo And Billy Davis - You Don't Have To Be A Star

8. David Soul - Going In With My Eyes Open

9. Elkie Brooks - Pearl's A Singer

10. Boney M - Sunny

11. Brotherhood Of Man - Oh Boy

12. Tavares - Whodunit

13. Rod Stewart - I Don't Want To Talk About It/First Cut Is The Deepest

14. Rose Royce - I Wanna Get Next To You

15. Brendon - Gimme Some

16. Smokie - Lay Back In The Arms Of Someone

17. Peter Gabriel - Solsbury Hill

18. Showaddywaddy - When

19. Andrew Gold - Lonely Boy

20. Leo Sayer - How Much Love

***

1979: Ray Charles' 'Georgia On My Mind' was proclaimed the state song of Georgia. The music to the song was written in 1930 by Hoagy Carmichael who also recorded a version of the song in New York in the same year. Ray Charles, a native of Georgia, recorded it in 1960 on the album The Genius Hits the Road.

1980: Operation Eagle Claw, the attempt to rescue 52 embassy staff held captive in Tehran, ends with the death of eight servicemen when a helicopter crashed into a transport aircraft.

1983: German endurance racing driver Rolf Stommelen died during a crash at the Riverside International Raceway in California. He was 39.

1986: The duchess of Windsor, Wallis Warfield Simpson, for whom Britain's King Edward VIII gave up his throne, died in Paris at age 89.

1990: The space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying the $1.5 billion Hubble Space Telescope.

1992: David Bowie married Somali born supermodel and actress Iman in Switzerland.

1993: The IRA explodes a 1000kg car bomb in Bishopsgate, London, killing a news photographer and injuring 44 others.

1995: The final bomb linked to the Unabomber exploded inside the Sacramento, California, offices of a lobbying group for the wood products industry, killing chief lobbyist Gilbert B. Murray. (Theodore Kaczynski was later sentenced to four lifetimes in prison for a series of bombings that killed three men and injured 29 others.)

1996: The Palestinian National Council voted to drop its official commitment to the destruction of Israel.

1997: A group of paleontologists announced the discovery of a trove containing a large number of fossilized dinosaurs in northeastern China. 

2003: U.S. forces in Iraq took custody of Tariq Aziz, the former Iraqi deputy prime minister. China shut down a Beijing hospital as the global death toll from SARS surpassed 260.

2004: Cosmetics entrepreneur Estee Lauder dies aged 97.

2005: Pope Benedict XVI formally began his stewardship of the Roman Catholic Church; the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said in his installation homily that as pontiff he would listen to the will of God in governing the world’s 1.1 billion Catholics.

2009: Mexico shut down schools, museums, libraries and state-run theaters across its overcrowded capital in hopes of containing a deadly swine flu outbreak. 

2013: A building that housed clothing factories collapsed in Bangladesh, killing more than 1,000 people.

2014: An Afghan government security guard opened fire on foreign doctors at a Kabul hospital, killing three Americans in the latest of a deadly string of attacks on Western civilians in the capital. The tiny Pacific nation of the Marshall Islands took on the United States and the world’s eight other nuclear-armed nations with an unprecedented lawsuit demanding they meet their obligations toward disarmament and accusing them of “flagrant violations” of international law.

2016: Papa Wemba, the King of Rumba Rock died aged 66 during a show.in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. On the same day, soul singer Billy Paul died from pancreatic cancer aged 81.

2018: Former police officer Joseph DeAngelo was arrested at his home near Sacramento, California, after DNA linked him to crimes attributed to the so-called Golden State Killer; authorities believed he committed 13 murders and more than 50 rapes in the 1970s and 1980s. 

2020: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a warning about serious and potentially life-threatening side effects of chloroquine and its sister drug, hydroxychloroquine, including heart rhythm problems that have been seen in clinical trials. The malaria drugs had been used in clinical trials for treatment of COVID-19.

BIRTHDAYS: 

Shirley MacLaine (Beaty), actress, 87; 

John Williams, guitarist, 80; 

Barbra Streisand, singer/actress/director, 79; 

Tony Visconti, music producer, 77; 

Doug Clifford, drummer (Credence Clearwater Revival), 76; 

Nigel Harrison, bassist (Blondie) 70; 

Jean-Paul Gaultier, fashion designer, 69; 

Stuart Pearce, former footballer, 59; 

Billy Gould, bassist (Faith No More) 58; 

Paul Ryder, bassist (Happy Mondays) 57; 

Djimon Hounsou, actor, 57; 

Patty Schemel, drummer (Hole) 54; 

Aidan Gillen (Murphy), actor, 53; 

Lee Westwood, golfer, 48; 

Sachin Tendulkar, cricketer, 48; 

Gabby Logan, broadcaster, 48; 

Kelly Clarkson, singer, 39; 

Ben Howard, singer/songwriter, 34; 

Jan Vertonghen, Spurs footballer, 34.