It's Pigs-in-a-Blanket Day! Today is Monday, April 24, 2017 the 144th day of the year with 251 days remaining.
- Sunrise: 6:41am
- Sunset: 7:41pm
...giving us 13 hours and 32 minutes of daylight. 97% of the waning moon will be visible, rising at 7:24pm.
Tides at the Golden Gate
- High: 12:14pm
- Low: 5:49am/5:52pm
Special international celebrations or commemorations today…
- Armenian Genocide Memorial Day - Armenia
- National Concord Day - Niger
It’s also…
- Parental Alienation Day
- Red Hat Society Day
- National Pigs-in-a-Blanket Day
On this day in…
1519 - Envoys of Montezuma II attended the first Easter mass in Central America.
1547 - Charles V's troops defeated the Protestant League of Schmalkalden at the battle of Muhlburg.
1558 - Mary, Queen of Scotland, married the French dauphin, Francis.
1800 - The Library of Congress was established with a $5,000 allocation.
1805 - The U.S. Marines attacked and captured the town of Derna in Tripoli.
1833 - A patent was granted for first soda fountain.
1877 - Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire.
1877 - In the U.S., federal troops were ordered out of New Orleans. This was the end to the North's post-Civil War rule in the South.
1884 - Otto von Bismarck cabled Cape Town that South Africa was now a German colony.
1889 - The Edison General Electric Company was organized.
1897 - William Price became the first to be named White House news reporter.
1898 - Spain declared war on the U.S., rejecting America's ultimatum for Spain to withdraw from Cuba.
1915 - During World War I, the Ottoman Turkish Empire began the mass deportation of Armenians.
1916 - Irish nationalist launched the Easter Rebellion against British occupation forces. They were overtaken several days later.
1944 - The first B-29 arrived in China, over the Hump of the Himalayas.
1953 - Winston Churchill was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
1961 - Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers struck out 18 batters becoming the first major-league pitcher to do so on two different occasions.
1961 -US President John F. Kennedy accepted "sole responsibility" following Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.
1962 - MIT sent a TV signal by satellite for the first time.
1967 - Soviet astronaut Vladimir Komarov died when his craft crashed with a tangled parachute.
1967 - The newest Greek regime banned miniskirts.
1970 - The People's Republic of China launched its first satellite.
1973 - Albert Sabin reported that herpes viruses were factors in nine kinds of cancer.
1989 - Thousands of students began striking in Beijing.
1990 - The space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral, FL. It was carrying the $1.5 billion Hubble Space Telescope.
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.
2015 - The Nasdaq Composite closed at a record high of 5092.09.
2015 - The S&P closed at a record high of 2117.69.
Today’s birthday celebrants include (or included)...
- John Graunt 1620
- Edmund Cartwright 1743
- Robert Bailey Thomas 1766
- George Bascom 1836
- Henri Philippe Petain 1856
- Robert Penn Warren 1905
- Jack E. Leonard 1911
- Aaron Bell 1922
- J.D. Cannon 1922
- Johnny Griffin 1928 - Saxophonist known as "Little Giant"
- Freddy Scott 1933
- Shirley Boone 1934
- Shirley MacLaine 1934 - Actress
- Jill Ireland 1936
- Joe Henderson 1937
- Sue Grafton 1940 - Author
- Barbra Streisand 1942 - Singer
- Richard Sterban 1943 - Singer (The Oak Ridge Boys)
- Bob Lunn 1945
- Robert Knight 1945
- Doug Clifford 1945 - Musician (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
- Glenn Cornick 1947
- Eric Bogosian 1953 - Actor
- Vince Ferragamo 1954
- Raymond Ian Burns 1954 - Known as Captain Sensible, musician (Damned)
- Michael O'Keefe 1955
- David J. 1957 - Musician (Bauhaus, Love and Rockets)
- Boris Williams 1958 - Musician (Cure)
- Glenn Morshower 1959 - Actor ("24")
- Billy Gould 1963 - Musician (Faith No More)
- Paul Ryder 1964 - Musician (Happy Mondays)
- Djimon Hounsou 1964 - Actor
- Cedric the Entertainer 1964 - Actor, comedian
- Patty Schemel 1967 - Musician (Hole)
- Omar Vizquel 1967 - Baseball player
- Aaron Comess 1968 - Musician (Spin Doctors)
- Chipper Jones 1972 - Baseball player
- Brian Aubrey Marshall 1973 - Musician (Creed)
- Eric Balfour 1977 - Actor
- Carlos Beltran 1977 - Baseball player
- Rebecca Mader 1977 - Actress ("All My Children", "Lost", "Justice")
- Kelly Clarkson (Kelly Brianne Clarkson) 1983 - Singer
