Historical timeline for April 24

A mass stabbing at a school in Nantes, France, leaves one person dead and three others wounded.

A building collapses near Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing 1,134 people and injuring about 2,500 others.

Violence in Bachu County, Kashgar Prefecture, of China's Xinjiang results in death of 21 people.

WikiLeaks starts publishing the Guantanamo Bay files leak.

Bombings in the Egyptian resort city of Dahab kill 23 people and injure about 80.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is inaugurated as the 265th Pope of the Catholic Church taking the name Pope Benedict XVI.

The United States lifts economic sanctions imposed on Libya 18 years previously, as a reward for its cooperation in eliminating weapons of mass destruction.

In the United States, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 is passed into law.

A Douglas DC-3 ditches in Botany Bay after takeoff from Sydney Airport. All 25 people on board survive.

An IRA bomb devastates the Bishopsgate area of London.

Gruinard Island, Scotland, is officially declared free of the anthrax disease after 48 years of quarantine.

STS-31: The Hubble Space Telescope is launched from the Space Shuttle Discovery.

Eight U.S. servicemen die in Operation Eagle Claw as they attempt to end the Iran hostage crisis.

China launches Dong Fang Hong I, becoming the fifth nation to put an object into orbit using its own booster.

The Gambia becomes a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations, with Dawda Jawara as its first President.

Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1 when its parachute fails to open. He is the first human to die during a space mission.

Vietnam War: American General William Westmoreland says in a news conference that the enemy had "gained support in the United States that gives him hope that he can win politically that which he cannot win militarily".

Civil war breaks out in the Dominican Republic when Colonel Francisco Caamaño overthrows the triumvirate that had been in power since the coup d'état against Juan Bosch.

Marriage of Princess Alexandra of Kent to Angus Ogilvy at Westminster Abbey in London.

Suez Crisis: The Suez Canal is reopened following the introduction of UNEF peacekeepers to the region.