On This Day in History: April 24

Halley's Comet makes a close appearance, before the Battle of Hastings in 1066, around April 24, 1066. The event is believed to have been captured on the Bayeux Tapestry, an embroidered cloth depicting the events leading to the Norman conquest of England in 1066. The comet was visible for over a month and was interpreted by contemporaries as a bad omen for King Harold II and a good omen for William of Normandy. Expand +

Li Zicheng's rebel forces captures Beijing, on April 24, 1644, marking the effective end of the Ming dynasty as the last emperor, the Chongzhen Emperor, commits suicide. The fall of Beijing opened the path for the Manchu-led Qing dynasty to eventually take control of China.

The Library of Congress is established in Washington, D.C., on April 24, 1800, with an initial appropriation of $5,000 for books. President John Adams signed the law which included a removal of the government from Philadelphia to Washington and funds to establish an apartment for President Adams and his family.

The Armenian Genocide by the Ottoman Empire began on April 24, 1915. The systematic campaign of extermination against its Armenian population. It resulted in the deaths of an estimated 664,000 to 1.5 million people by 1923. Orchestrated by the Young Turk government, the campaign included massacres, forced labor, and death marches into the desert.

The "Easter Rising" begins in Ireland against British rule began on Easter Monday, April 24, 1916, as Members of the Irish Citizen Army and Irish Volunteers seized strategic points in Dublin. It was quickly suppressed by the British Army but it eventually  paved the way to Ireland's independence in 1922. More

Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov is killed on April 24, 1967, when the Soyuz 1 spacecraft became entangled in its main parachute at an altitude of several miles and fell back to Earth.

"Eagle Claw". the military operation on April 24, 1980, to rescue the 66 American hostages held in Tehran, ended with eight U.S. servicemen dead and no hostages rescued, after a mid-air collision at a remote Iranian desert site. More