This week in history

On April 25, 1719, Daniel Defoe’s fictional work “The Life and Strange Adventures of Robinson Crusoe” is published. The book is based on the experiences of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish sailor who spent four years on a small island off the coast of South America in the early 1700s.

•On April 24, 1800, President John Adams approves legislation to appropriate $5,000 to establish the Library of Congress. The first library catalog, dated April 1802, listed 964 volumes and nine maps.