On this day in History - Jun 24
- 0972 - Battle of Cedynia, the first documented victory of Polish forces.
- 1128 - Battle of São Mamede near Guimarães. Portuguese forces led by Afonso I (D. Afonso Henriiques) defeat his mother D.Teresa and D.Fernão Peres de Trava. After this battle, the future king calls himself "Prince of Portugal", the first step towards "official independence" in 1143.
- 1158 - Portugueses tomam Alcácer do Sal dos mouros.
- 1244 - Henry I of Hesse was born (d. 1308).
- 1288 - Casamento do rei português D. Dinis com D. Isabel, a Rainha Santa.
- 1314 - End of the Battle of Bannockburn. Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce defeat Edward II of England. Scotland regains its independence.
- 1340 - Hundred Years' War: Battle of Sluys The French fleet was almost totally destroyed by the English Fleet commanded in person by Edward III of England.
- 1343 - Jeanne de Valois, Queen of Navarre was born (d. 1473).
- 1374 - A sudden outbreak of St. John's Dance causes people in the streets of Aix-la-Chapelle, Prussia, to experience hallucinations and begin to jump and twitch uncontrollably until they collapse from exhaustion.
- 1386 - Giovanni da Capistrano was born (d. 1456). Italian saint.
- 1398 - Hongwu Emperor of China dies (b. 1328). Founder of the Ming Dynasty.
- 1441 - Eton College founded.
- 1485 - Johannes Bugenhagen was born (d. 1558). German reformer.
- 1497 - John Cabot lands on North America in Newfoundland; first European discovery of the region since the Vikings.
- 1509 - Henry VIII crowned King of England.
- 1519 - Theodore Beza was born (d. 1605). French theologian.
- 1519 - Lucrezia Borgia dies (b. 1480). Duchess of Ferrara.
- 1520 - Hosokawa Sumimoto dies (b. 1489). Japanese samurai commander.
- 1533 - Robert Dudley was born (d. 1588). Earl of Leicester.
- 1534 - Jacques Cartier makes the European discovery of Prince Edward Island.
- 1535 - The Anabaptist state of Münster is conquered and disbanded.
- 1535 - Joan of Spain was born (d. 1573). Queen consort of Portugal.
- 1542 - St. John of the Cross was born (d. 1591). Spanish Carmelite friar and poet.
- 1546 - Robert Parsons was born (d. 1610). English Jesuit priest.
- 1571 - Miguel Lopez de Legazpi founded Manila, the capital of the Republic of the Philippines.
- 1604 - Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford dies. Leading candidate for true authorship of the Shakespeare canon.
- 1637 - Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc dies (b. 1580). French astronomer.
- 1643 - John Hampden dies (b. 1595). English politician.
- 1662 - Dutch attempt but fail to capture Macao.
- 1663 - Jean Baptiste Massillon was born (d. 1742). French churchman
- 1664 - The colony of New Jersey is founded.
- 1675 - King Philip's War begins. In colonial New England, King Philip's War begins when a band of Wampanoag warriors raid the border settlement of Swansee, Massachusetts, and massacre the English colonists there.
- 1687 - Johann Albrecht Bengel was born (d. 1757). German scholar.
- 1692 - Kingston, Jamaica is founded.
- 1694 - Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui was born (d. 1748). Swiss publicist.
- 1704 - Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d'Argens was born (d. 1771). French writer.
- 1717 - The Grand Lodge of England, the first Freemasonic Grand Lodge (now the United Grand Lodge of England), is founded in London, England.
- 1757 - D. José da Câmara dies (4th Count of Ribeira Grande - Portugal)
- 1766 - Adrien-Maurice, 3rd duc de Noailles dies (b. 1678). French soldier.
- 1774 - François Nicolas Benoît, Baron Haxo was born (d. 1838). French general.
- 1777 - John Ross was born (d. 1856). Naval officer and explorer.
- 1778 - Pieter Burmann the Younger dies (b. 1714). Dutch philologist.
- 1783 - Johann Heinrich von Thünen was born (d. 22 Sep 1850). German agriculturalist best known for his work on the relationship of the costs of commodity transportation to the location of production
- 1793 - First republican constitution in France adopted.
- 1794 - Bowdoin College is founded.
- 1795 - Ernst Heinrich Weber was born (d. 26 Jan 1878). German anatomist and physiologist.
- 1803 - George James Webb was born (d. 1887). English-born composer.
- 1804 - Willard Richards was born (d. 1854). American religious leader.
- 1804 - Stephan Endlicher was born (d. 28 Mar 1849). Austrian botanist who formulated a major system of plant classification.
- 1811 - John Archibald Campbell was born (d. 1889). Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
- 1813 - Battle of Beaver Dams : A British, and Indian joint force defeat the U.S Army.
- 1813 - Henry Ward Beecher was born (d. 1887). American clergyman and reformer.
- 1819 - Nasce em Londres a futura rainha Vitória.
- 1825 - Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna of Russia was born (d. 1844).
- 1826 - George Goyder was born. (d. 1898). Surveyor-general of South Australia.
- 1833 - Desembarque das tropas constitucionais, comandadas pelo duque da Terceira no Algarve, na praia da Alagoa. Atravessando o Alentejo, chegarão a Lisboa em 24 de Julho.
- 1835 - Johannes Wislicenus was born (d. 5 Dec 1902). German chemist whose pioneering work led to the recognition of the importance of the spatial arrangement of atoms within a molecule
- 1836 - Karl Heinrich Ferdinand Rosenbusch was born (d. 20 Jan 1914). German geologist who laid the foundations of the science of microscopic petrography (the study of rocks in thin section, based on the optical properties of constituent mineral grains).
- 1839 - Gustavus Swift was born (d. 29 Mar 1903). American manufacturer and inventor of the first refrigerated railroad cars. These improved his handling of the supply of beef from western states to the Chicago meat company of which he was a partner.
- 1842 - Ambrose Bierce was born (d. 1914). American author.
- 1850 - Horatio Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener of Khartoum was born (d. 1916). Original Order of Merit member.
- 1852 - Friedrich August Johannes Löffler was born (d. 9 Abr 1915). German bacteriologist who discovered the organism that causes diphtheria, Corynebacterium diphtheriae, (1884) which had first been observed by the German physiologist Theodor Klebs in the throats of diphtheria patients (the organism became known as the Klebs-Löffler bacillus).
- 1856 - Henry Chapman Mercer was (d. 9 Mar 1930). American archaeologist, collector, and tilemaker.
- 1860 - Mercedes of Orleans was born (d. 1878). Queen of Spain.
- 1861 - Tennessee becomes the 11th and last state to secede from the US.
- 1875 - Henri Labrouste dies. Franch architect.
- 1880 - First performance of O Canada, the song that would become the national anthem of Canada, at the Congrès national des Canadiens-Français.
- 1880 - Oswald Veblen was born (d. 10 Aug 1960). American mathematician who made important contributions to differential geometry and early topology.
- 1882 - Carl Diem was born (d. 1962). German Olympic official.
- 1882 - Athanase David was born (d. 1953). French Canadian politician and businessman.
- 1883 - Victor Franz Hess was born (d. 17 Dec 1964). Austrian-born physicist who was a joint recipient (with Carl D. Anderson of the United States) of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1936 for his discovery of cosmic rays, high-energy radiation originating in outer space.
- 1886 - George Shiels was born (d. 1949). Northern Irish dramatist.
- 1888 - Gerrit Rietveld was born (d. 1964). Dutch architect.
- 1893 - Roy O. Disney was born (d. 1971). A founder of the Walt Disney Company.
- 1894 - The IOC decides to hold the Olympic Games every four years.
- 1894 - Marie Francois Sadi Carnot (b. 1834) assassinated by Sante Geronimo Caserio.
- 1895 - Jack Dempsey was born im Manassa, CO (d. 1983). American boxer who won the heavyweight championship six times.
- 1897 - Daniel K. Ludwig was born (d. 1992). American shipping magnate.
- 1900 - Wilhelm Cauer was born (d. 1945). German mathematician.
- 1901 - Harry Partch was born (d. 1974). American composer.
- 1901 - First exhibition of Pablo Picasso's work opens. The first major exhibition of Pablo Picasso's artwork opens at a gallery on Paris' rue Lafitte, a street known for its prestigious art galleries.
- 1902 - King Edward VII of the United Kingdom develops appendicitis, delaying his coronation.
- 1904 - Phil Harris was born (d. 1995). American singer, songwriter and comedian.
- 1906 - Pierre Fournier was born (d. 1986). French cellist.
- 1907 - Arseny Tarkovsky was born (d. 1989). Russian poet.
- 1908 - Alfons Rebane was born (d. 1976). Estonian military officer.
- 1908 - Hugo Distler was born (d. 1942). German composer.
- 1908 - Guru Gopinath was born (d. 1987). Indian classical dancer.
- 1908 - Grover Cleveland dies (b. 1837). President of the United States.
- 1909 - Sarah Orne Jewett dies (b. 1849). American writer.
- 1909 - William Penney (Baron Penney of East Hendred) was born. British nuclear physicist who led Britain's development of the atomic bomb.
- 1911 - Juan Manuel Fangio was born (d. 1995). Argentine Formula one 5 time World Champion
- 1911 - Ernesto Sábato was born. Argentinian writer
- 1912 - Brian Johnston was born (d. 1994). British cricket commentator.
- 1913 - Joseph Cook becomes the 6th Prime Minister of Australia.
- 1914 - Pearl Witherington was born. British WW II secret agent
- 1914 - Robert Aickman was born (d. 1981). Author.
- 1915 - Fred Hoyle was born (d. 20 Aug 2001). English mathematician and astronomer, best known as the foremost proponent and defender of the steady-state theory of the universe. "A Different Approach to Cosmology"
- 1916 - Mary Pickford becomes first film star to get million dollar contract.
- 1916 - Battle of the Somme begins with a week long artillery bombardment on the German Line.
- 1918 - The giant cannon Big Bertha begins bombardments on Paris
- 1922 - Walther Rathenau dies assassinated (b. 1867). German Minister of Foreign Affairs.
- 1922 - Tata Giacobetti was born. Italian singer and lyricist (Quartetto Cetra)
- 1924 - Kurt Furgler was born. Member of the Swiss Federal Council
- 1926 - Os jornais portugueses passaram a estar sujeitos à apreciação da Comissão de Censura
- 1927 - Martin Lewis Perl was born. American physicist who received the 1995 Nobel Prize for Physics for discovering a subatomic particle that he named the tau, a massive lepton with a negative charge.
- 1928 - With declining business, the Great Gorge and International Railway begins using one-person crews on trolley operations in Canada
- 1928 - Wolfgang Altenburg was born. German general
- 1930 - Claude Chabrol was born. French film director.
- 1930 - William B. Ziff, Jr. was born (d. 2006). American publishing executive.
- 1931 - Billy Casper was born. American golfer.
- 1934 - Jean-Pierre Ferland was born. Québec singer.
- 1935 - Terry Riley was born. American composer.
- 1935 - Carlos Gardel dies (airplane crash) (b. 1890). Argentine singer / Morre, na cidade de Medellin - Colombia, no auge da carreira e da fama, Carlos Gardel (Charles Romuald Gardés), grande músico e cantor do tango.
- 1935 - Pete Hamill was born. American journalist.
- 1938 - Lawrence Block was born. Acclaimed contemporary American crime writer
- 1941 - Government of briefly independent Lithuania conducts it's first meeting under prime minister Juozas Ambrazevičius.
- 1941 - Julia Kristeva was born. Bulgarian-French philosopher, psychoanalyst, and novelist
- 1942 - Mick Fleetwood was born. Musician (Fleetwood Mac)
- 1942 - Michele Lee was born. American actress
- 1944 - Arthur Brown was born. English musician
- 1944 - Chris Wood was born (d. 1983). Musician.
- 1945 - Moscow Victory Parade
- 1945 - The U.S.S.R. capture the Free Republic of Schwarzenberg.
- 1945 - Colin Blunstone was born. English musician (The Zombies).
- 1945 - George Pataki was born. American politician.
- 1945 - Wayne Cashman was born. Canadian ice hockey player.
- 1946 - Georges Bidault becomes Prime Minister of France.
- 1946 - David Collenette was born. Canadian politician
- 1946 - Ellison Onizuka was born (d. 1986). American astronaut.
- 1946 - Robert Reich was born. American politician and political commentator.
- 1946 - Louise Whitfield Carnegie dies (b. 1857). American philanthropist.
- 1947 - First known sighting of UFOs: Kenneth Arnold, flying over Washington, notices nine luminous disks in the form of saucers.
- 1947 - Mick Fleetwood was born. English musician (Fleetwood Mac)
- 1947 - Emil Seidel dies (b. 1864). Mayor of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
- 1948 - Patrick Moraz was born. Swiss keyboard player (Yes)
- 1947 - Emil Seidel dies. American politician and Mayor of Milwaukee.
- 1948 - Start of the Berlin Blockade. The Soviet Union makes overland travel between the West with West Berlin impossible.
- 1949 - Betty Jackson was born. British fashion designer.
- 1949 - John Illsley was born. English bassist (Dire Straits).
- 1950 - Mercedes Lackey was born. American author.
- 1950 - Nancy Allen was born. American actress.
- 1950 - FIFA World Championship begins in Brazil.
- 1951 - David Rodigan was born. Radio DJ/actor
- 1952 - Stephen Pusey was born. British-born artist
- 1953 - Ivo Lill was born. Estonian artist
- 1953 - Garry Shider was born. Musician (P Funk).
- 1953 - George Herbert Walker dies. Grandfather of President George H. W. Bush.
- 1955 - Betty Lago was born in Rio de Janeiro. Brazilian actress.
- 1955 - Gurumayi Chidvilasananda was born. Guru of Siddha Yoga
- 1955 - Betsy Randle was born. American actress
- 1956 - Joe Penny was born. English actor.
- 1957 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules that obsecnity is not protected by the First Amendment.
- 1958 - Jean Charest was born. Premier of Québec.
- 1958 - John Tortorella was born. American ice hockey coach.
- 1960 - Trisha Meili was born. The "Central Park Jogger".
- 1960 - Karin Pilsäter was born. Swedish politician.
- 1961 - Dennis Danell was born. American musician (Social Distortion).
- 1961 - Iain Glen was born. Scottish actor
- 1961 - Bernie Nicholls was born. Canadian ice hockey player
- 1961 - Curt Smith was born. English musician and songwriter (Tears for Fears)
- 1963 - Anatoly Borisovich Jurkin was born. Russian writer.
- 1963 - Preki was born. Serbian-born American soccer player.
- 1963 - Mike Wieringo was born (d. 2007). American comic book artist.
- 1964 - Gary Suter was born. American ice hockey player.
- 1965 - Uwe Krupp was born. German ice hockey player.
- 1966 - Hope Sandoval was born. American singer-songwriter.
- 1966 - Adrienne Shelly was born (d. 2006). American actress, director and screenwriter.
- 1967 - Bill Huard was born. Canadian ice hockey player.
- 1967 - Richard Kruspe-Bernstein was born. German musician (Rammstein)
- 1967 - Janez Lapajne was born. Slovenian film director.
- 1967 - Scott Oden was born. American writer.
- 1967 - Sherry Stringfield was born. American actress.
- 1968 - Tony Hancock dies (b. 1924). British comedian.
- 1969 - Sissel Kyrkjebø was born. Norwegian singer.
- 1970 - Glenn Medeiros was born. American singer
- 1971 - Christopher Showerman was born. American actor.
- 1972 - Robbie McEwen was born. Australian cyclist.
- 1972 - Denis Zvegelj was born. Slovenian rower.
- 1973 - Alexander Beyer was born. German actor.
- 1973 - Ji Jin Hee was born. South Korean actor
- 1974 - The UPC label is used for the first time to ring up purchases at a supermarket.
- 1977 - André-Gilles Fortin dies (b. 1943). Canadian politician.
- 1978 - Erno "Emppu" Vuorinen was born. Guitarist (Nightwish).
- 1978 - Luis García was born. Spanish footballer
- 1978 - Pantelis Kafes was born. Greek footballer
- 1978 - Shunsuke Nakamura was born. Japanese footballer
- 1978 - Ariel Pink was born. American musician
- 1978 - Juan Román Riquelme was born. Argentine footballer
- 1978 - Robert Charroux dies (b. 1909). French writer.
- 1979 - Petra Němcová was born. Czechoslovakian-born supermodel.
- 1979 - Craig Shergold was born. British internet folklore subject.
- 1980 - Cicinho was born. Brazilian footballer.
- 1981 - What would be the world's longest single-span suspension bridge for 17 years, the Humber Bridge opens, connecting Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.
- 1982 - British Airways Flight 9, sometimes referred to as the Jakarta incident, flew into a cloud of volcanic ash thrown up by the eruption of Mount Galunggung, resulting in the failure of all four engines.
- 1983 - Space Shuttle program: STS-7 Mission Sally Ride, first female American astronaut, returns to earth.
- 1983 - Yasir Arafat banned from Damascus.
- 1983 - Sally Ride, first female American astronaut, returns to earth.
- 1984 - Clarence Campbell dies (b. 1905). Canadian NHL president.
- 1985 - STS-51-G Space Shuttle Discovery completed its mission, best remembered for having Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the first Arab and first Muslim in space, as a Payload Specialist.
- 1986 - Solange Knowles was born. American actress and singer.
- 1987 - Arturo Lupoli was born. Italian footballer.
- 1987 - Lionel Messi was born. Argentine footballer.
- 1987 - Jackie Gleason dies (b. 1916). American actor and musician.
- 1991 - Bridge of S. João is inaugurated in Porto. The author of project was Edgar Cardoso Cardoso.
- 1991 - Rufino Tamayo dies (b. 1899). Mexican painter.
- 1993 - Yale computer science professor Dr. David Gelernter loses the sight in one eye, the hearing in one ear, and part of his right hand after receiving a mailbomb from the Unabomber.
- 1993 - Archie Williams dies (b. 1915). American athlete.
- 1994 - A United States Air Force B-52 aircraft crashes at Fairchild Air Force Base, killing all four members of its crew.
- 1995 - South Africa defeats New Zealand in the 1995 Rugby World Cup. The 1995 World cup was the first major sporting event in South Africa after Apartheid.
- 1996 - Michael Johnson breaks the world record in the 200 metres with a time of 19.66 seconds
- 1997 - Don Hutson dies (b. 1913). American athlete.
- 1997 - Brian Keith dies (b. 1921). American actor.
- 1999 - The guitar with which Eric Clapton recorded Layla is sold at auction for the astounding price of $497,500.
- 2000 - David Tomlinson dies (b. 1917). English actor.
- 2000 - Vera Atkins dies (b. 1908). Romanian-born British Special Operations Executive intelligence officer
- 2002 - The Igandu train disaster in Tanzania kills 281, the worst train accident in African history.
- 2002 - Pierre Werner dies (b. 1913). Prime Minister of Luxembourg
- 2003 - Richard Pough dies (b. 19 Apr 1904). American ecologist who was founding president of the Nature Conservancy (1950), one of the nation's largest environmental organizations.
- 2003 - Vladimir Garin dies (b. 1987). Russian actor.
- 2004 - Habib Dodo, the general secretary of the Communist Youth of Côte d'Ivoire is assassinated by pro-government forces.
- 2004 - In New York, Capital punishment was declared unconstitutional.
- 2004 - Ifigeneia Giannopoulou dies (b. 1957). Greek songwriter.
- 2005 - Second turn of Presidential elections in Iran.
- 2005 - Paul Winchell dies (b. 1922). American voice actor and ventriloquist.
- 2005 - Hakham Yedidia Shofet dies (b. 1908). Former chief rabbi of Iran.
- 2006 - Patsy Ramsey dies (b. 1956). Mother of JonBenét Ramsey.
- 2007 - The Angora Fire starts near South Lake Tahoe, California destroying 200+ structures in its first 48 hours.
- 2007 - Byron Baer dies (b. 1929). American politician.
- 2007 - Chris Benoit dies (b. 1967). Canadian professional wrestler.
- 2007 - Derek Dougan dies (b. 1938). Northern Irish footballer.
- 2007 - Natasja Saad dies (b. 1974). Danish reggae and dancehall artist.
- Roman Catholic Church - Feast of Saint John the Baptist, patron of farriers
- Original Midsummer's Eve in Finland and Sweden, although the official holiday is now moved to the nearest Friday.
- One of the four Irish Quarter days in the Irish Calendar.
- Fête nationale du Québec, also called St-Jean-Baptiste Day
- Bannockburn Day in Scotland (see 1314 above)
- Bahá'í Faith - Feast of Rahmat (Mercy) - First day of the sixth month of the Bahá'í Calendar
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