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List of May 24 Historical Events and Facts

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  • 1218: The Fifth Crusade leaves Acre for Egypt.
  • 1276: Magnus LadulÂs is crowned King of Sweden in Uppsala Cathedral.
  • 1487: The ten-year-old Lambert Simnel is crowned in Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland with the name of Edward VI in a bid to threaten King Henry VII’s reign.
  • 1595: Nomenclator of Leiden University Library appears, the first printed catalog of an institutional library.
  • 1621: The Protestant Union is formally dissolved.
  • 1626: Peter Minuit buys Manhattan.
  • 1689: The English Parliament passes the Act of Toleration protecting Protestants.

    • Roman Catholics are intentionally excluded.

  • 1738: John Wesley is converted, essentially launching the Methodist movement; the day is celebrated annually by Methodists as Aldersgate Day.
  • 1798: The Irish Rebellion of 1798 led by the United Irishmen against British rule begins.
  • 1822: Battle of Pichincha: Antonio JosÈ de Sucre secures the independence of the Presidency of Quito.
  • 1830: Mary Had a Little Lamb by Sarah Josepha Hale is published.
  • 1830: The first revenue trains in the United States begin service on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad between Baltimore, Maryland and Ellicott’s Mills, Maryland.
  • 1832: The First Kingdom of Greece is declared in the London Conference.
  • 1844: Samuel Morse sends the message “What hath God wrought” from the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the United States Capitol to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, Maryland to inaugurate the first telegraph line.
  • 1846: Mexican-American War: General Zachary Taylor captures Monterrey.
  • 1856: John Brown and his men murder five slavery supporters at Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas.
  • 1861: American Civil War: Union troops occupy Alexandria, Virginia.
  • 1883: The Brooklyn Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic after 14 years of construction.
  • 1895: Henry Irving becomes the first person from the theatre to be knighted.
  • 1900: Second Boer War: The United Kingdom annexes the Orange Free State.
  • 1901: Seventy-eight miners die in the Caerphilly pit disaster in South Wales.
  • 1915: World War I: Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary.
  • 1921: The trial of Sacco and Vanzetti opens.
  • 1930: Amy Johnson lands in Darwin, Northern Territory, becoming the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia .
  • 1935: The first night game in Major League Baseball history is played in Cincinnati, Ohio, with the Cincinnati Reds beating the Philadelphia Phillies 2-1 at Crosley Field.
  • 1940: Igor Sikorsky performs the first successful single-rotor helicopter flight.
  • 1941: World War II: In the Battle of the Atlantic, the German Battleship Bismarck sinks the then pride of the Royal Navy, HMS Hood, killing all but three crewmen.
  • 1943: Holocaust: Josef Mengele becomes chief medical officer of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
  • 1956: Conclusion of the Sixth Buddhist Council on Vesak Day, marking the 2,500 year anniversary after the Lord Buddha’s Parinibbana.
  • 1956: The first Eurovision Song Contest is held in Lugano, Switzerland
  • 1958: United Press International is formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service.
  • 1960: Following the 1960 Valdivia earthquake, the largest ever recorded earthquake, Cordun Caulle begins to erupt.
  • 1961: American civil rights movement: Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi for “disturbing the peace” after disembarking from their bus.
  • 1961: Cyprus enters the Council of Europe.
  • 1962: Project Mercury: American astronaut Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule.
  • 1967: Egypt imposes a blockade and siege of the Red Sea coast of Israel.
  • 1968: FLQ separatists bomb the U.S. consulate in Quebec City.
  • 1970: The drilling of the Kola Superdeep Borehole begins in the Soviet Union.
  • 1973: Earl Jellicoe resigns as Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Lords.
  • 1976: The London to Washington, D.C. Concorde service begins.
  • 1976: The Judgement of Paris takes place in France, launching California as a worldwide force in the production of quality wine.
  • 1980: The International Court of Justice calls for the release of United States embassy hostages in Tehran, Iran.

    • The hostages would not be freed until the following January.

  • 1982: Liberation of Khorramshahr: Iranians recapture of the port city of Khorramshahr from the Iraqis during the Iran/Iraq War.
  • 1988: Section 28 of the United Kingdom’s Local Government Act 1988, a controversial amendment stating that a local authority cannot intentionally promote homosexuality, is enacted.
  • 1989: Sonia Sutcliffe, wife of the Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, is awarded £600,000 in damages after winning a libel action against Private Eye.
  • 1990: A car carrying American Earth First! activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney explodes in Oakland, California, critically injuring both.
  • 1991: Eritrea gains its independence from Ethiopia.
  • 1991: Israel conducts Operation Solomon, evacuating Ethiopian Jews to Israel.
  • 1992: The last Thai dictator, General Suchinda Kraprayoon, resigns following pro-democracy protests.
  • 1994: Four men convicted of bombing the World Trade Center in New York in 1993 are each sentenced to 240 years in prison.
  • 2000: Israeli troops withdraw from southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation.
  • 2001: Mountain climbing: 15-year-old Sherpa Temba Tsheri becomes the youngest person to climb to the top of Mount Everest.
  • 2001: The Versailles wedding hall disaster in Jerusalem, Israel, kills 23 and injures over 200 in Israel’s worst-ever civil disaster.
  • 2002: Russia and the United States sign the Moscow Treaty.
  • 2004: Communications in North Korea: North Korea bans mobile phones.
  • 2006: An Inconvenient Truth, a documentary film about former United States Vice President Al Gore’s campaign to educate citizens about global warming, is released.

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