On April 24, 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 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, in what’s considered the start of the Armenian genocide, the Ottoman Empire began rounding up Armenian political and cultural leaders in Constantinople.

In 1960, rioting erupted in Biloxi, Mississippi, after Black protesters staging a “wade-in” at a whites-only beach were attacked by a crowd of hostile whites.

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

In 1967, Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov was killed when his Soyuz 1 spacecraft smashed into the Earth after his parachutes failed to deploy properly during reentry; he was the first human spaceflight fatality.

In 1974, comedian Bud Abbott, 78, died in Woodland Hills, California.

In 2003, U.S. forces in Iraq took custody of Tariq Aziz, the former Iraqi deputy prime minister. China shut down a Beijing hospital as the global death toll from SARS surpassed 260.

In 2005, Pope Benedict XVI formally began his stewardship of the Roman Catholic Church; the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said in his installation homily that as pontiff he would listen to the will of God in governing the world’s 1.1 billion Catholics.

In 2009, Mexico shut down schools, museums, libraries and state-run theaters across its overcrowded capital in hopes of containing a deadly swine flu outbreak.

In 2013, in Bangladesh, a shoddily constructed 8-story commercial building housing garment factories collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people.

In 2019, avowed racist John William King was executed in Texas for the 1998 slaying of James Byrd Jr., who was chained to the back of a truck and dragged along a road outside Jasper, Texas; prosecutors said Byrd was targeted because he was Black.

Today’s Birthdays: Movie director-producer Richard Donner is 91. Actor Shirley MacLaine is 87. Actor-singer-director Barbra Streisand is 79. R&B singer Ann Peebles is 74. Actor Michael O’Keefe is 66. Rock musician David J (Bauhaus) is 64. Actor Glenn Morshower is 62. Rock musician Billy Gould is 58. Actor-comedian Cedric the Entertainer is 57. Actor Stacy Haiduk is 53. Latin pop singer Alejandro Fernandez is 50. Country-rock musician Brad Morgan (Drive-By Truckers) is 50. Rock musician Brian Marshall (Creed; Alter Bridge) is 48. Actor Derek Luke is 47. Actor-producer Thad Luckinbill is 46. Actor Eric Balfour is 44. Actor Rebecca Mader is 44. Country singer Rebecca Lynn Howard is 42. Country singer Danny Gokey is 41. Actor Reagan Gomez is 41.