Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date

1792

The French national anthem, ''La Marseillaise,'' was composed by Capt. Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle.

1877

Federal troops were ordered out of New Orleans, ending the North's post-Civil War rule in the South.

1898

Spain declared war on the United States after rejecting America's ultimatum to withdraw from Cuba.

1915

The Ottoman Turkish Empire began the brutal mass deportation of Armenians during World War I.

1916

Some 1,600 Irish nationalists launched the Easter uprising by seizing several key sites in Dublin. The rising was put down by British forces several days later.

1953

British statesman Winston Churchill was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.

1968

Leftist students at Columbia University in New York City began a weeklong occupation of several campus buildings.

1980

The United States launched an abortive attempt to free the American hostages in Iran, a mission that resulted in the deaths of eight U.S. servicemen. President Carter announces the failed mission to the American people.

1990

The space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., carrying the $1.5 billion Hubble Space Telescope. The telescope is shown bellow held by Discovery's robot arm.

1996

The main assembly of the Palestine Liberation Organization voted to revoke clauses in its charter that called for an armed struggle to destroy Israel.

1986

Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor, for whom King Edward VIII gave up the British throne, died in Paris at age 89.