THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 2014

Today is Thursday, April 24, the 114th day of 2014. There are 251 days left in the year.

1061 ― Halley's Comet sparks English monk to predict country will be destroyed

1833 ― Patent granted for first soda fountain to Jacob Evert and George Dulty

1871 ― Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Aida" is produced (Cairo)

1915 ― Massacre of Armenians by Turks (Armenian Martyrs Day)

1950 ― President Harry Truman denies there are communists in U.S. government

1953 ― Winston Churchill knighted by Queen Elizabeth II

1955 ― Conference of Bandung against colonialism/for self determination ends

1970 ― People's Republic of China launches its first satellite transmitting song "East is Red"

1980 ― U.S. military operation to save 52 hostages in Iran, fails, eight die

1995 ― Package bomb, linked to Unabomber, blows up killing Gilbert B. Murray