Today, April 24: The Hubble Space Telescope launched into space

In 1800, the US Congress created the Library of Congress.

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

In 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.

In 1957, the Suez Canal was reopened to navigation after being closed for more than five months following a conflict between Egypt and the trio Israel, Britain and France.

File photo by Jim Hampshire/US Navy

In 1980, Operation Eagle Claw, the attempted rescue of 52 embassy personnel held captive in Tehran, ended in the death of eight servicemen when a helicopter crashed into a transport plane.

In 1983, German endurance racing driver Rolf Stommelen died in an accident at Riverside International Raceway in California. He was 39 years old.

In 1986, the Duchess of Windsor, Wallis Warfield Simpson, for whom King Edward VIII of Great Britain renounced his throne, died in Paris at the age of 89.

In 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched into space from Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard the space shuttle Discovery.

In 1996, the Palestinian National Council voted to drop its official commitment to the destruction of Israel.

In 2005, Benedict XVI was installed in Rome as the 265th Roman Catholic pope.

In 2013, a building that housed garment factories collapsed in Bangladesh, killing more than 1,000 people.

In 2020, the United States Food and Drug Administration issued a warning about the serious and life-threatening side effects of chloroquine and its sister drug, hydroxychloroquine, including heart rhythm problems that have been seen during ‘clinical tests. The malaria drugs had been used in clinical trials for the treatment of COVID-19.

UPI file photo