Monday 24th of April 1533

Prince of Orange Willem de Zwijger aka William the Silent is born in Dillenburger Schloss, Oranienstadt Dillenburg, Hessen, Germany.

     

Tuesday 24th of April 1731

Trader, writer, journalist, pamphleteer and spy Daniel Defoe known for his novel Robinson Crusoe dies of lethargy at the age of 71 in London, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Tuesday 24th of April 1787

Chemist Mathieu Joseph Bonaventure Orfila known for founding the science of toxicology is born as Mateu Josep Bonaventura Orfila i Rotger in Mahón, Menorca, Spain.

Thursday 24th of April 1856

General Philippe Henri Benoni Omer Joseph Pétain is born in Cauchy-à-la-Tour, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France.

Friday 24th of April 1874

27-year-old Outlaw, gang leader, bank robber, train robber and murderer Jesse Woodson James marries 29-year-old Zerelda Mimms in Kearney, Missouri, United States.

Friday 24th of April 1896

Victim of Louise Masset Manfred Louis Masset is born in London, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Friday 24th of April 1903

Founder of the Falange Española José Antonio Primo de Rivera is born in Madrid, Área metropolitana de Madrid, Spain.

Sunday 24th of April 1904

Abstract expressionist painter Willem de Kooning is born in Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands.

Monday 24th of April 1922

Presumed murderer Colin Campbell Ross aka the Gun Alley Murderer is executed by hanging at the age of 30 in Melbourne Gaol, Russell Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Ross was executed in a particularly gruesome manner. Authorities had decided to experiment with a four-stranded rope rather than the usual three-stranded European hemp. The four-stranded rope did not run freely through the noose and Ross did not die immediately because his spinal cord was fractured, not severed. Although his windpipe was torn and obstructed by his destroyed larynx the condemned man continued with rasping breaths and convulsed on the rope. Three times Ross bent his knees and flexed his arms before succumbing, slowly strangled to death by asphyxiation.

Wednesday 24th of April 1929

Mass murderer Vernon Elwood Booher is executed by hanging at the age of 23 in Alberta Provincial Gaol, Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, Canada.

Booher killed his mother Rose Eunice on 8 July 1928 because she did not like his girlfriend and he killed his brother Fred and farm hands Gabriel Grombey and Wasyl Rozak because they were witnesses to the murder of his mother.

Tuesday 24th of April 1934

Actress Shirley MacLaine is born as Shirley MacLean Beaty in Richmond, Virginia, United States.

Friday 24th of April 1942

Start of the trial against 28-year-old Serial killer Gordon Frederick Cummins aka The Blackout Ripper in Old Bailey Criminal Court, London, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Cummins' trial had to be restarted with new jury on 27 April due to a legal technicality.

Friday 24th of April 1942

Singer-songwriter and actress Barbra Streisand is born as Barbara Joan Streisand in New York, Brooklyn, New York, United States.

Friday 24th of April 1964

23-year-old Helen Catherine Barthelemy is asphyxiated by unidentified serial killer Jack the Stripper in 199 Boston Manor Road, London, Brentford, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Monday 24th of April 1967

Test pilot, aerospace engineer and cosmonaut Vladimir Mikhaylovich Komarov known for becoming the first human to die in a space flight dies from from multiple blunt-force injuries sustained in his Soyuz 1 space craft at the age of 40 in Karabutak, Orenburg Oblast, Russia.

Komarov became the first human to die in a space flight.

Tuesday 24th of April 1973

25-year-old Serial killer Edmund Emil Kemper aka The Co-ed Killer calls the police from a phone booth to confess killing his mother and her friend the day before in Pueblo, Colorado, United States.

Wednesday 24th of April 1974

Comedian and actor Bud William Alexander Abbott known from Abbott and Costello dies of cancer at the age of 77 in Woodland Hills, California, United States.

Thursday 24th of April 1975

die Rote Armee Fraktion aka Baader-Meinhof Gruppe Kommando Holger Meins featuring several members of the Sozialistisches Patienten Kollektiv take 13 hostages with the goal of forcing the release of other RAF members from prison in Germany in West German Embassy, Stockholm, Södermanland, Sweden.

The Kommando consisted of six members: Karl-Heinz Dellwo, Siegfried Hausner, Hanna-Elise Krabbe, Bernhard Rössner, Lutz Taufer and Ulrich Wessel. Hostage military attaché Andreas Baron von Mirbach was marched out on to the landing and shot dead. Economic attaché Hillegaart was made to stand at a window, and was then shot three times. Minutes before Swedish police were to storm the building Ulrich Wessel dropped a grenade which killed him and detonated a TNT cache. The remaining hostages as well as the other RAF members all suffered severe burns. Siegfried Hausner was flown back to Stammheim Prison in West Germany where he died of his wounds on 5 May.

Monday 24th of April 1978

Unidentified serial killer the Zodiac Killer writes an ‘I am back’-letter to The San Francisco Chronicle in San Francisco, California, United States.

Tuesday 24th of April 1984

45-year-old Serial killer Robert Christian Hansen aka The Aviation Hunter is taken on a flight to locate some of his victims’ bodies in Anchorage, Alaska, United States.

Three days later Hansen located seven bodies, all near the Knik River.

Monday 24th of April 1995

President of the timber industry lobbying group Gilbert Murray is killed opening a package-bomb from 53-year-old Mathematician and serial bomber Theodore John 'Ted' Kaczynski aka The Unabomber in California Forestry Association, 1215 K St #1830, Sacramento, California, United States.

Bomb #16 was addressed to previous president William Dennison who had retired.

Thursday 24th of April 1997

Murderer John Ashley Brown is executed by lethal injection at the age of 35 in Louisiana State Penitentiary, Angola, Louisiana, United States.

According to Warden Burl Cain in The Farm, Brown's last words were "Wow!"

Friday 24th of April 1998

Murderer Lesley Lee Gosch is executed by lethal injection at the age of 43 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Tuesday 24th of April 2001

Excavations for an underground railway line in Centraal Station, Astridplein, Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium.

Thursday 24th of April 2003

Murderer Gary Leon Brown is executed by lethal injection at the age of 45 in Holman Correctional Facility, Ross Road, Atmore, Alabama, United States.

Brown requested no last meal, eating only an ice cream sandwich from a vending machine.

Sunday 24th of April 2005

The world's first cloned dog Snuppy is born in Seoul National University, Seoul, Seoul National Capital Area, South Korea.

Snuppy was created using a cell from an ear from an adult Afghan hound and involved 123 surrogate mothers of which only three produced pups. Snuppy being the sole survivor. Snuppy was named as a portmanteau of the initials of the Seoul National University (SNU) and the word 'puppy'.

Tuesday 24th of April 2007

Murderer James J. Filiaggi is executed by lethal injection at the age of 42 in Ohio State Penitentiary, Columbus, Ohio, United States.

Filiaggi's last meal request was for steak, potato and cheese pirogies, a baked potato, dinner rolls, fresh vegetables, strawberry cheesecake and milk. After the meal was delivered Filiaggi asked for extra sour cream. That request also was granted. He also asked for a toothpick but was told there weren't any. Later he asked for a soda, changed his mind and asked for a cup of iced water. Later he asked for a cup of coffee.

Wednesday 24th of April 2013

1.129 die in Rana Plaza building collapse in Rana Plaza, Savar, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Approximately 2.515 injured people were rescued from the building alive.

Monday 24th of April 2017

Murderer Jack Harold Jones is executed by lethal injection at the age of 52 in Cummins Unit, Varner, Arkansas, United States.

Jones' last meal request was for three pieces of fried chicken, potato logs with tartar sauce, beef jerky bites, three Butterfinger bars, a chocolate milkshake with Butterfinger bits and fruit punch. Jones' last words were "I forgive my executioners; somebody has to do it". Three hours later Marcel Williams was also exceuted.

Monday 24th of April 2017

Murderer Marcel Wayne Williams is executed by lethal injection at the age of 47 in Cummins Unit, Varner, Arkansas, United States.

Williams‘ last meal request was for three pieces of fried chicken, banana pudding, nachos with chili cheese and jalapeno, and potato logs with ketchup.