What happened on April 24 ?

Deaths

624 - Mellitus, third Archbishop of Canterbury

709 - Wilfrid, English archbishop and saint

1338 - Marquis Theodore I of Montferrat (b. 1291)

1342 - Pope Benedict XII (b. 1285)

1656 - Thomas Fincke, Danish mathematician and physicist (b. 1561)

1731 - Daniel Defoe, English writer (b. 1660)

1736 - Prince Eugene of Savoy, French-born Austrian general (b. 1663)

1779 - Eleazar Wheelock, American founder of Dartmouth College (b. 1711)

1852 - Vasily Zhukovsky, Russian poet (b. 1783)

1891 - Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, Prussian field marshal (b. 1800)

1924 - G. Stanley Hall, American psychologist (b. 1844)

1938 - George Grey Barnard, American sculptor (b. 1863)

1942 - Karin Boye, Swedish author (b. 1900)

1942 - Lucy Maude Montgomery, Canadian author (b. 1874)

1944 - William Stephens, U.S. political figure (b. 1859)

1947 - Willa Cather, American writer (b. 1873)

1947 - Hans Biebow, German war criminal (b. 1902)

1960 - Max von Laue, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1879)

1964 - Gerhard Domagk, German bacteriologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (declined) (b. 1895)

1965 - Louise Dresser, American actress (b. 1878)

1967 - Vladimir Komarov, cosmonaut (b. 1927)

1974 - Bud Abbott, American actor and comedian (b. 1895)

1980 - Alejo Carpentier, Cuban writer (b. 1904)

1982 - Ville Ritola, Finnish athlete (b. 1896)

1986 - Wallis Simpson, American wife of Edward, Duke of Windsor (b. 1896)

1993 - Oliver Tambo, South African activist and politician (b. 1917)

1997 - Pat Paulsen, American comedian and politician (b. 1927)

1997 - Eugene Stoner, American engineer and weapons designer (b. 1922)

2001 - Al Hibbler, American singer (b. 1915)

2005 - Ezer Weizman, President of Israel (b. 1924)

2005 - Fei Xiaotong, Chinese sociologist (b. 1910)

2006 - Steve Stavro, Canadian businessman and sports team owner (b. 1927)

2006 - Moshe Teitelbaum, Hassidic rabbi (b. 1914)

2006 - Brian Labone, English footballer (b. 1940)