This day in history

[April 24, 2009]  (AP)  Today is Friday, April 24, the 114th day of 2009. There are 251 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On April 24, 1898, Spain declared war on the United States after rejecting America's ultimatum to withdraw from Cuba. (The United States responded in kind the next day.)

On this date:

In 1792, the national anthem of France, "La Marseillaise," was composed by Capt. Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle.

In 1800, Congress approved a bill establishing the Library of Congress.

In 1877, federal troops were ordered out of New Orleans, ending the North's post-Civil War rule in the South.

In 1915, the Ottoman Empire rounded up Armenian political and cultural leaders in Constantinople at the start of what many scholars regard as the first genocide of the 20th century in which an estimated 1.5 million Armenians died.

In 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 almost a week later.)

In 1953, British statesman Winston Churchill was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

In 1962, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology achieved the first satellite relay of a television signal, between Camp Parks, Calif., and Westford, Mass.

In 1970, the People's Republic of China launched its first satellite, which kept transmitting a song, "The East is Red."

In 1980, the United States launched an unsuccessful attempt to free the American hostages in Iran, a mission that resulted in the deaths of eight U.S. servicemen.

In 1990, the space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., carrying the $1.5 billion Hubble Space Telescope.

Ten years ago: On the second day of a NATO summit, the alliance ran into objections from Russia and questions among its own members about enforcing an oil embargo against Yugoslavia by searching ships at sea. President Bill Clinton urged Americans to be patient with the bombing strategy in the meantime.

Five years ago: Suicide boat bombers attacked Iraqi oil facilities in the Persian Gulf, killing three Americans and disabling Iraq's biggest terminal for more than 24 hours. A U.N. plan to reunify the war-divided island of Cyprus collapsed when Greek Cypriots rejected the proposal in one referendum and Turkish Cypriots endorsed it in another. In Los Angeles, Vitali Klitschko stopped Corrie Sanders late in the eighth round to win the WBC heavyweight title vacated by the retirement of Lennox Lewis. Cosmetics queen Estee Lauder died in New York at 97.

One year ago: The White House accused North Korea of assisting Syria's secret nuclear program, saying a Syrian nuclear reactor destroyed by Israel in 2007 was not intended for "peaceful purposes."

Today's birthdays: Film and drama critic Stanley Kauffmann is 93. Movie director-producer Richard Donner is 79. Actress Shirley MacLaine is 75. Author Sue Grafton is 69. Actor-singer Michael Parks is 69. Actress-singer-director Barbra Streisand is 67. Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley is 67. Country singer Richard Sterban (The Oak Ridge Boys) is 66. Rock musician Doug Clifford (Creedence Clearwater Revival) is 64. Rock singer-musician Rob Hyman is 59. Actor-playwright Eric Bogosian is 56. Actor Michael O'Keefe is 54. Rock musician David J (Bauhaus) is 52. Actor Glenn Morshower is 50. Rock musician Billy Gould is 46. Actor-comedian Cedric the Entertainer is 45. Actor Djimon Hounsou is 45. Rock musician Patty Schemel is 42. Rock musician Aaron Comess (Spin Doctors) is 41. Actress Melinda Clarke is 40. Latin pop singer Alejandro Fernandez is 38. Country-rock musician Brad Morgan (Drive-By Truckers) is 38. Actor Derek Luke is 35. Actor Eric Balfour is 32. Country singer Rebecca Lynn Howard is 30. Singer Kelly Clarkson is 27. Rock singer-musician Tyson Ritter (The All-American Rejects) is 25.

Thought for today: "To change and to improve are two different things." -- German proverb

[Associated Press]

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