April 24

Historic Events

2025

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

2013

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

2013

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

2011

WikiLeaks starts publishing the Guantanamo Bay files leak. ›

2006

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

2005

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

2004

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

1996

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

1994

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

1993

An IRA bomb devastates the Bishopsgate area of London. ›

1990

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

1990

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

1980

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

1970

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

1970

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

1967

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

1967

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". ›

1965

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. ›

1963

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

1957

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

1955

The Bandung Conference ends: Twenty-nine non-aligned nations of Asia and Africa finish a meeting that condemns colonialism, racism, and the Cold War. ›

1953

Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. ›

1944

World War II: The SBS launches a raid against the garrison of Santorini in Greece. ›

1933

Nazi Germany begins its persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses by shutting down the Watch Tower Society office in Magdeburg. ›

1932

Benny Rothman leads the mass trespass of Kinder Scout, leading to substantial legal reforms in the United Kingdom. ›

1926

The Treaty of Berlin is signed. Germany and the Soviet Union each pledge neutrality in the event of an attack on the other by a third party for the next five years. ›

1924

Thorvald Stauning becomes premier of Denmark (first term). ›

1922

The first segment of the Imperial Wireless Chain providing wireless telegraphy between Leafield in Oxfordshire, England, and Cairo, Egypt, comes into operation. ›

1918

World War I: First tank-to-tank combat, during the second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux. Three British Mark IVs meet three German A7Vs. ›

1916

Easter Rising: Irish rebels, led by Patrick Pearse and James Connolly, launch an uprising in Dublin against British rule and proclaim an Irish Republic. ›

1916

Ernest Shackleton and five men of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition launch a lifeboat from uninhabited Elephant Island in the Southern Ocean to organise a rescue for the crew of the sunken Endurance. ›

1915

The arrest of 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Istanbul marks the beginning of the Armenian genocide. ›

1914

The Franck–Hertz experiment, a pillar of quantum mechanics, is presented to the German Physical Society. ›

1913

The Woolworth Building, a skyscraper in New York City, is opened. ›

1895

Joshua Slocum, the first person to sail single-handedly around the world, sets sail from Boston, Massachusetts aboard the sloop Spray. ›

1885

American sharpshooter Annie Oakley is hired by Nate Salsbury to be a part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West. ›

1877

Russo-Turkish War: The Russian Empire declares war on the Ottoman Empire. ›

1837

The great fire in Surat, India causes more than 500 deaths and destruction of more than 9,000 houses. ›

1800

The United States Library of Congress is established when President John Adams signs legislation to appropriate $5,000 to purchase "such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress". ›

1793

French revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat is acquitted by the Revolutionary Tribunal of charges brought by the Girondin in Paris. ›

1704

The first regular newspaper in British Colonial America, The Boston News-Letter, is published. ›

1558

Mary, Queen of Scots, marries the Dauphin of France, François, at Notre-Dame de Paris. ›

1547

Battle of Mühlberg. Duke of Alba, commanding Spanish-Imperial forces of Charles I of Spain, defeats the troops of Schmalkaldic League. ›

934

Abbasid Caliph Al-Qahir is deposed and blinded. His nephew al-Radi succeeds him as caliph. ›

858

Consecration of Pope Nicholas I following the death of Pope Benedict III earlier that month. ›

1183 BC

Traditional reckoning of the Fall of Troy marking the end of the legendary Trojan War, given by chief librarian of the Library of Alexandria Eratosthenes, among others. ›

1479 BC

Thutmose III ascends to the throne of Egypt, although power effectively shifts to Hatshepsut (according to the Low Chronology of the 18th dynasty). ›