Events for April 24
1895 – Joshua Slocum, the first person to sail single-handedly around the world, sets sail from Boston, Massachusetts aboard the sloop "Spray".
2013 – Violence in Bachu County, Kashgar Prefecture, of China's Xinjiang results in death of 21 people.
1914 – The Franck–Hertz experiment, a pillar of quantum mechanics, is presented to the German Physical Society.
1837 – The great fire in Surat city of India caused more than 500 deaths and destruction of more than 9,000 houses.
1990 – STS-31: The Hubble Space Telescope is launched from the Space Shuttle Discovery.
1970 – China launches Dong Fang Hong I, becoming the fifth nation to put an object into orbit using its own booster.
1955 – The Bandung Conference ends: Twenty-nine non-aligned nations of Asia and Africa finish a meeting that condemns colonialism, racism, and the Cold War.
1915 – The arrest of 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Istanbul marks the beginning of the Armenian genocide.
1885 – American sharpshooter Annie Oakley is hired by Nate Salsbury to be a part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West.
2005 – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is inaugurated as the 265th Pope of the Catholic Church taking the name Pope Benedict XVI.
1970 – The Gambia becomes a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations, with Dawda Jawara as its first President.
1918 – World War I: First tank-to-tank combat, during the second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux. Three British Mark IVs meet three German A7Vs.
1967 – Vietnam War: American General William Westmoreland says in a news conference that the enemy had "gained support in the United States that gives him hope that he can win politically that which he cannot win militarily".
1913 – The Woolworth Building, a skyscraper in New York City, is opened.
1800 – The United States Library of Congress is established when President John Adams signs legislation to appropriate $5,000 to purchase "such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress".
1916 – Easter Rising: Irish rebels, led by Patrick Pearse and James Connolly, launch an uprising in Dublin against British rule and proclaim an Irish Republic.
1963 – Marriage of Princess Alexandra of Kent to Angus Ogilvy at Westminster Abbey in London.
1922 – The first segment of the Imperial Wireless Chain providing wireless telegraphy between Leafield in Oxfordshire, England, and Cairo, Egypt, comes into operation.
1704 – The first regular newspaper in British Colonial America, The Boston News-Letter, is published.
2011 – WikiLeaks starts publishing the Guantanamo Bay files leak.
1932 – Benny Rothman leads the mass trespass of Kinder Scout, leading to substantial legal reforms in the United Kingdom.
1953 – Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
1996 – In the United States, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 is passed into law.
1980 – Eight U.S. servicemen die in Operation Eagle Claw as they attempt to end the Iran hostage crisis.
Notable Births & Deaths for April 24
1990 – Jan Veselý, Czech basketball player
2017 – Robert Pirsig, American author and philosopher (b. 1928)
1994 – Jordan Fisher, American singer, dancer, and actor
1991 – Morgan Ciprès, French figure skater
1997 – Eugene Stoner, American engineer, designed the AR-15 rifle (b. 1922)
2006 – Moshe Teitelbaum, Romanian-American rabbi and author (b. 1914)
1996 – Ashleigh Barty, Australian tennis player
1997 – Allan Francovich, American director and producer (b. 1941)
1997 – Veronika Kudermetova, Russian tennis player
1995 – Lodewijk Bruckman, Dutch painter (b. 1903)
1987 – Rein Taaramäe, Estonian cyclist
1987 – Kris Letang, Canadian ice hockey player
2005 – Ezer Weizman, Israeli general and politician, 7th President of Israel (b. 1924)
2014 – Shobha Nagi Reddy, Indian politician (b. 1968)
2004 – José Giovanni, French-Swiss director and producer (b. 1923)
1992 – Jack Quaid, American actor
2002 – Lucien Wercollier, Luxembourgian sculptor (b. 1908)
1989 – David Boudia, American diver
2014 – Tadeusz Różewicz, Polish poet and playwright (b. 1921)
1991 – Sigrid Agren, French-Swedish model
2003 – Nüzhet Gökdoğan, Turkish astronomer and mathematician (b. 1910)
1998 – Ryan Newman, American actress
1994 – Caspar Lee, British-South African Youtuber
2006 – Brian Labone, English footballer (b. 1940)
2015 – Władysław Bartoszewski, Polish journalist and politician, Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1922)
2016 – Tommy Kono, American weightlifter and coach (b. 1930)
1992 – Laura Kenny, English cyclist
1991 – Batuhan Karadeniz, Turkish footballer
2004 – Estée Lauder, American businesswoman, co-founded Estée Lauder Companies (b. 1906)
1989 – Elīna Babkina, Latvian basketball player
2005 – Fei Xiaotong, Chinese sociologist and academic (b. 1910)
1987 – Jan Vertonghen, Belgian international footballer
1997 – Pat Paulsen, American comedian and activist (b. 1927)
1987 – Varun Dhawan, Indian actor
2014 – Sandy Jardine, Scottish footballer and manager (b. 1948)
2001 – Johnny Valentine, American wrestler (b. 1928)
2008 – Jimmy Giuffre, American clarinet player, and saxophonist, and composer (b. 1921)
2014 – Hans Hollein, Austrian architect, designed Haas House (b. 1934)
1993 – Ben Davies, Welsh international footballer
1990 – Kim Tae-ri, South Korean actress
2011 – Sathya Sai Baba, Indian guru and philanthropist (b. 1926)
1989 – Taja Mohorčič, Slovenian tennis player
2001 – Josef Peters, German racing driver (b. 1914)
2022 – Andrew Woolfolk, American saxophonist (b. 1950)
2002 – Olivia Gadecki, Australian tennis player
1999 – Jerry Jeudy, American football player
Quick Start
Our API is incredibly easy to use, check out the code samples below to get started:
Fetch Historical Events
All you need to do is send a request to https://today.zenquotes.io/api/[month]/[day]/[key] in order to generate a JSON array of historical events, including notable births and deaths. API data pulled from WikiPedia.
*[key] not required but recommended.
Sample Requests
https://today.zenquotes.io/api - Generate notable events, births, and deaths for current server time (UTC).
https://today.zenquotes.io/api/1/1 - Generate notable events, births, and deaths for January 1.
https://today.zenquotes.io/api/5/5 - Generate notable events, births, and deaths for May 5.
https://today.zenquotes.io/api/12/25 - Generate notable events, births, and deaths for December 25.
Response
The result data is formatted as a JSON array, grouped by event type.
{ "info":"OnThisDay API", "date":"April_20", "updated":"1615972324",
"data":{
"Events":[
{
"text":"1303 – The Sapienza University of Rome is instituted by a bull of Pope Boniface VIII.[1]",
"html":"<a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/1303\" title=\"1303\">1303</a> – The <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapienza_University_of_Rome\" title=\"Sapienza University of Rome\">Sapienza University of Rome</a> is instituted by a <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_bull\" title=\"Papal bull\">bull</a> of <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Boniface_VIII\" title=\"Pope Boniface VIII\">Pope Boniface VIII</a>."
},
//.. MORE DATA ..//
],
"Births":[
{
"text":"1494 – Johannes Agricola, German theologian and reformer (d. 1566)[8]",
"html":"<a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/1494\" title=\"1494\">1494</a> – <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Agricola\" title=\"Johannes Agricola\">Johannes Agricola</a>, German theologian and reformer (d. 1566)"
},
//.. MORE DATA ..//
],
"Deaths":[
{
"text":"689 – Cædwalla, king of Wessex (b. 659)[21]",
"html":"<a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/689\" title=\"689\">689</a> – <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%A6dwalla_of_Wessex\" title=\"Cædwalla of Wessex\">Cædwalla</a>, king of <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Wessex\" title=\"Wessex\">Wessex</a> (b. 659)" },
//.. MORE DATA ..//
}
]
} }Usage Limits and Attribution
Requests are restricted to 5 per 30 second period, an API key or registered IP is required for unlimited access and to enable Access-Control-Allow-Origin headers. We require that you show attribution with a link back to https://today.zenquotes.io/ when using the free version of this API. Contact support@zenquotes.io to chat with our friendly dev team and get registered.
Historical event data provided by <a href="https://today.zenquotes.io/" target="_blank">ZenQuotes.io</a>