John F. Kennedy Jr., son of the late President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, listens to a question from the audience during a panel discussion entitled "The Medicare Debate: Then and Now" at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Mass., in this April 29, 1997 photo. Before his death two weeks ago Kennedy had, in recent years, shown an increased interest in the Kennedy School's Institute of Politics and was bringing new vigor to the Institute, which was founded by family and friends of his father's in 1966 to get young people interested in public service. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)

Today is Sunday, April 24, the 114th day of 2022. There are 251 days left in the year.

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Today’s Highlight in History

On April 24, 1962, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology achieved the first satellite relay of a television signal, between Camp Parks, California, and Westford, Massachusetts.

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President Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, along with the four living former Presidents and their wives, attend the funeral service of former President Richard Nixon in Yorba Linda, California, Wednesday, April 27, 1994. From left are: the Clintons, George and Barbara Bush, Ronald and Nancy Reagan, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, and Gerald and Betty Ford. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook)

On this date

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 1961, in the wake of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, the White House issued a statement saying that President John F. Kennedy “bears sole responsibility for the events of the past few days.”

In this 1986 aerial view of the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine shows damage from an explosion and fire in reactor four on April 26, 1986 that sent large amounts of radioactive material into the atmosphere. only three Tass photographers were allowed in -- Volodymyr Repik, Igor Kostin and Valery Zufarov. Two later died of radiation-related illnesses and Kostin suffered from the effects for decades before dying in a car accident in 2015. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion was only about 60 miles from photographer Efrem Lukatsky's home, but he didn’t learn about it until the next morning from a neighbor. Only a few photographers were allowed to cover the destroyed reactor and desperate cleanup efforts, and all of them paid for it with their health. I went a few months later, and have returned dozens of times. (AP Photo/Volodymyr Repik)

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 re-entry; he was the first human spaceflight fatality.

In 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 1990, the space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying the $1.5 billion Hubble Space Telescope.

In 1995, the final bomb linked to the Unabomber exploded inside the Sacramento, California, offices of a lobbying group for the wood products industry, killing chief lobbyist Gilbert B. Murray. (Theodore Kaczynski was later sentenced to four lifetimes in prison for a series of bombings that killed three men and injured 29 others.)

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 2013, in Bangladesh, a shoddily constructed eight-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.

In 2020, the Food and Drug Administration issued an alert about the dangers of using a malaria drug that President Donald Trump had repeatedly promoted for coronavirus patients. The parent company of Lysol and another disinfectant warned that its products should not be used as an internal treatment for the coronavirus, a day after Trump wondered aloud about that prospect during a White House briefing.

Ten years ago: President Barack Obama went after the college vote, telling students at the University of North Carolina that he and first lady Michelle Obama had “been in your shoes” and didn’t pay off their student loans until eight years earlier. Republican Mitt Romney swept primaries in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, Pennsylvania and New York.

Five years ago: Two inmates received lethal injections on the same gurney about three hours apart as Arkansas completed the nation’s first double execution since 2000, just days after the state ended a nearly 12-year hiatus on administering capital punishment. Astronaut Peggy Whitson broke the U.S. record for most time in space and talked up Mars during a congratulatory call from President Donald Trump to the International Space Station.

One year ago: Flames engulfed the intensive care unit of a Baghdad hospital for coronavirus patients, claiming more than 80 lives and leaving more than 100 others injured. The United States formally declared that the systematic killing and deportation of more than a million Armenians by Ottoman Empire forces in the early 20th century was “genocide,” a term that the White House had avoided using for decades for fear of alienating ally Turkey.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Shirley MacLaine is 88. Actor-singer-director Barbra Streisand is 80. Former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley is 80. Country singer Richard Sterban (The Oak Ridge Boys) is 79. Rock musician Doug Clifford (Creedence Clearwater Revival) is 77. R&B singer Ann Peebles is 75. Former Irish Taoiseach (TEE’-shuk) Enda Kenny is 71. Actor-playwright Eric Bogosian is 69. Rock singer-musician Jack Blades (Night Ranger) is 68. Actor Michael O’Keefe is 67. Rock musician David J (Bauhaus) is 65. Actor Glenn Morshower is 63. Rock musician Billy Gould is 59. Actor-comedian Cedric the Entertainer is 58. Actor Djimon Hounsou (JEYE’-mihn OHN’-soo) is 58. Rock musician Patty Schemel is 55. Actor Stacy Haiduk is 54. Rock musician Aaron Comess (Spin Doctors) is 54. Actor Aidan Gillen is 54. Actor Melinda Clarke is 53. Actor Rory McCann is 53. Latin pop singer Alejandro Fernandez is 51. Country-rock musician Brad Morgan (Drive-By Truckers) is 51. Rock musician Brian Marshall (Creed; Alter Bridge) is 49. Actor Derek Luke is 48. Actor-producer Thad Luckinbill is 47. Actor Eric Balfour is 45. Actor Rebecca Mader is 45. Country singer Rebecca Lynn Howard is 43. Country singer Danny Gokey is 42. Actor Reagan Gomez is 42. Actor Austin Nichols is 42. Actor Sasha Barrese is 41. Contemporary Christian musician Jasen Rauch (Red) is 41. Singer Kelly Clarkson is 40. Rock singer-musician Tyson Ritter (The All-American Rejects) is 38. Country singer Carly Pearce is 32. Actor Joe Keery is 30. Actor Jack Quaid is 30. Actor Doc Shaw is 30. Actor Jordan Fisher is 28. Golfer Lydia Ko is 25.

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APRIL 25

On April 25, 1945, during World War II, U.S. and Soviet forces linked up on the Elbe (EL’-beh) River, a meeting that dramatized the collapse of Nazi Germany’s defenses.

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APRIL 26

On April 26, 1986, an explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine caused radioactive fallout to begin spewing into the atmosphere. (Dozens of people were killed in the immediate aftermath of the disaster while the long-term death toll from radiation poisoning is believed to number in the thousands.)

In 1865, John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, was surrounded by federal troops near Port Royal, Virginia, and killed.

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APRIL 27

On April 27, 1994, former President Richard M. Nixon was remembered at an outdoor funeral service attended by all five of his successors at the Nixon presidential library in Yorba Linda, California.

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APRIL 28

On April 28, 1994, former CIA official Aldrich Ames, who had passed U.S. secrets to the Soviet Union and then Russia, pleaded guilty to espionage and tax evasion, and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

In 1788, Maryland became the seventh state to ratify the Constitution of the United States.

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APRIL 29

On April 29, 1946, 28 former Japanese officials went on trial in Tokyo as war criminals; seven ended up being sentenced to death.

In 1967, Aretha Franklin’s cover of Otis Redding’s “Respect” was released as a single by Atlantic Records.

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APRIL 30

On April 30, 1945, as Soviet troops approached his Berlin bunker, Adolf Hitler took his own life along with that of his wife of one day, Eva Braun.

In 1789, George Washington took the oath of office in New York as the first president of the United States.