"The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., is the world's largest library and perhaps the greatest collection of stored knowledge in history. It contains 140 million items, including maps, photographs, films, and recordings, on 650 miles of bookshelves. About 10,000 items are added every workday.
Congress established the library on April 24, 1800, when President John Adams signed a bill appropriating $5,000 for 'the purchase of such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress' after it moved to Washington, the new capital city. The first books, ordered from London, arrived in 1801. The original collection consisted of 740 volumes and 3 maps.
The first collection was destroyed during the War of 1812 when the British burned the Capitol. Thomas Jefferson offered to replace it by selling Congress his personal library, one of the finest in the country. In 1815 Congress appropriated $23,950 to buy his 6,487 books. The Jefferson collection became the core of the Library of Congress.
The library serves as the research arm of Congress and the 'storehouse of the national memory.' Unlike many other national libraries, its collection is not for scholars only. Anyone over high school age may use it. It also makes available, via the Internet, millions of files containing digitized versions of its collections. A library of the people, it has become a symbol of American's faith in the Power of Learning."
Other years of note...
April 24,
1704 - The Boston News-Letter, the first continuously published newspaper in British North America, is published.
1898 - Spain declares war on the United States in what becomes known as the Spanish-American War.
1980 - An attempt to rescue American hostages in Iran fails; eight soldiers die when a helicopter and transport plane collide in the desert.
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Bennet, William J., Cribb, John T.E.. The American Patriot's Almanac: Daily Readings on America. 2008. Nashville, Tennessee, Thomas Nelson, Inc. p. 131.
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