Today in History: Massachusetts Institute of Technology sends TV signal for the 1st time

The following are some of the major events to have occurred on April 24:

1877 - Russo-Turkish War, 1877-78: Russia declares war on the Ottoman Empire

1898 - Spanish–American War: Spain declares war after rejecting US ultimatum to withdraw from Cuba

1916 – The Easter Rising, an insurrection aimed at setting up an Irish Republic, began in Dublin.

1926 – Russo-German Treaty signed.

1939 – Robert Menzies became Australian prime minister, succeeding Joseph Lyons who died earlier in the month.

1962 - Massachusetts Institute of Technology sends TV signal by satellite for 1st time: California to Massachusetts

1975 – Three people died when Baader-Meinhof urban guerrillas attacked the German embassy in Stockholm.

1986 – The Duchess of Windsor died. Her romance with King Edward VIII led to his abdication in 1936.

1993 – A huge IRA bomb exploded in Bishopsgate in the heart of London’s financial district, killing one person and injuring over 40.

1996 – Russian President Boris Yeltsin met Chinese President Jiang Zemin at the start of a visit to Beijing both leaders hailed as signalling a new spring between the giant neighbours.

2001 – Junichiro Koizumi wins stunning victory for presidency of Japan’s governing party, becoming prime minister.

2003 - Officials of North Korea informed U.S. diplomats that it had nuclear weapons and was making bomb-grade plutonium.

2003 – Tareq Aziz, former Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq and No. 43 on a U.S. list of 55 most-wanted Saddam aides, gave himself up in Baghdad.

2003 – A court in South Africa convicted Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and her broker Addy Moolman on 43 counts of fraud and 25 of theft in connection with a bogus bank loan scandal. The next day she was sentenced to five years in jail with one year suspended.

2005 - Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger), successor to John Paul II, formally assumed his position as the new leader of the Roman Catholic Church during a mass in St. Peter's Square in Vatican City.

2007 – First humanoid robot capable of lifting a box weight 30 kg (66 pounds) and dragging a mannequin weight 66 kg (145 pounds) is demonstrated by Tokyo University.

(Reuters)