July 24Birthdays & History

On this day: July 24 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 1132Battle of Nocera between Ranulf II of Alife and Roger II of Sicily.Europe
2. 1148Louis VII of France lays siege to Damascus during the Second Crusade.EuropeMiddle East
3. 1304Wars of Scottish Independence: Fall of Stirling Castle: King Edward I of England takes the stronghold using the War Wolf.Europe
4. 1411Battle of Harlaw, one of the bloodiest battles in Scotland, takes place.Europe
5. 1412Behnam Hadloyo becomes Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Mardin.Middle East
6. 1487Citizens of Leeuwarden, Netherlands, strike against a ban on foreign beer.Europe
7. 1534French explorer Jacques Cartier plants a cross on the Gaspé Peninsula and takes possession of the territory in the name of Francis I of France.Europe
8. 1567Mary, Queen of Scots, is forced to abdicate and be replaced by her one-year-old son James VI.Europe
9. 1701Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac founds the trading post at Fort Pontchartrain, which later becomes the city of Detroit.North America
10. 1712War of the Spanish Succession: The French under Marshal Villars win a decisive victory over Eugene of Savoy at Denain.Europe
11. 1847After 17 months of travel, Brigham Young leads 148 Mormon pioneers into Salt Lake Valley, resulting in the establishment of Salt Lake City.North America
12. 1847Richard March Hoe, American inventor, patents the rotary-type printing press.North America
13. 1864American Civil War: Battle of Kernstown: Confederate General Jubal Early defeats Union troops led by General George Crook in an effort to keep them out of the Shenandoah Valley.North America
14. 1866Reconstruction: Tennessee becomes the first U.S. state to be readmitted to Congress following the American Civil War.North America
15. 1901O. Henry is released from prison in Columbus, Ohio, after serving three years for embezzlement from a bank.North America
16. 1910The Ottoman Empire captures the city of Shkodër, putting down the Albanian Revolt of 1910.Middle EastEurope
17. 1911Hiram Bingham III re-discovers Machu Picchu, "the Lost City of the Incas".Latin America
18. 1915The passenger ship SS Eastland capsizes while tied to a dock in the Chicago River. A total of 844 passengers and crew are killed in the largest loss of life disaster from a single shipwreck on the Great Lakes.North America
19. 1922The draft of the British Mandate of Palestine is formally confirmed by the Council of the League of Nations; it came into effect on 26 September 1923.EuropeMiddle East
20. 1923The Treaty of Lausanne, settling the boundaries of modern Turkey, is signed in Switzerland by Greece, Bulgaria and other countries that fought in World War I.Middle EastEurope
21. 1924Themistoklis Sofoulis becomes Prime Minister of Greece.Europe
22. 1927The Menin Gate war memorial is unveiled at Ypres.Europe
23. 1929The Kellogg–Briand Pact, renouncing war as an instrument of foreign policy, goes into effect (it is first signed in Paris on August 27, 1928, by most leading world powers).Europe
24. 1935The Dust Bowl heat wave reaches its peak, sending temperatures to 109 °F (43 °C) in Chicago and 104 °F (40 °C) in Milwaukee.North America
25. 1943World War II: Operation Gomorrah begins: British and Canadian aeroplanes bomb Hamburg by night, and American planes bomb the city by day. By the end of the operation in November, 9,000 tons of explosives will have killed more than 30,000 people and destroyed 280,000 buildings.EuropeNorth America
26. 1950Cape Canaveral Air Force Station begins operations with the launch of a Bumper rocket.North America
27. 1959At the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow, U.S. vice president Richard Nixon and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev have a "Kitchen Debate".North AmericaEurope
28. 1963The ship Bluenose II is launched in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. The schooner is a major Canadian symbol.North America
29. 1966Michael Pelkey makes the first BASE jump from El Capitan along with Brian Schubert. Both came out with broken bones. BASE jumping has now been banned from El Cap.North America
30. 1967During an official state visit to Canada, French President Charles de Gaulle declares to a crowd of over 100,000 in Montreal: Vive le Québec libre! ("Long live free Quebec!"); the statement angered the Canadian government and many Anglophone Canadians.North AmericaEurope
31. 1969Apollo program: Apollo 11 splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean.World
32. 1974Watergate scandal: The United States Supreme Court unanimously rules that President Richard Nixon does not have the authority to withhold subpoenaed White House tapes and they order him to surrender the tapes to the Watergate special prosecutor.North America
33. 1977End of a four-day-long Libyan–Egyptian War.AfricaMiddle East
34. 1980The Quietly Confident Quartet of Australia wins the men's 4 x 100 metre medley relay at the Moscow Olympics, the only time the United States has not won the swimming event at Olympic level.OceaniaEuropeNorth America
35. 1982Heavy rain causes a mudslide that destroys a bridge at Nagasaki, Japan, killing 299.Asia
36. 1983George Brett, playing for the Kansas City Royals against the New York Yankees, has a game-winning home run nullified in the "Pine Tar Incident".North America
37. 1983The Black July anti-Tamil riots begin in Sri Lanka, killing between 400 and 3,000. Black July is generally regarded as the beginning of the Sri Lankan Civil War.Asia
38. 1987Hulda Crooks, at 91 years of age, climbs Mt. Fuji. Crooks became the oldest person to climb Japan's highest peak.Asia
39. 1987US supertanker SS Bridgeton collides with mines laid by IRGC, causing a 43-square-meter dent in the body of the oil tanker.North America
40. 1998Russell Eugene Weston Jr. bursts into the United States Capitol and opens fire, killing two police officers. He is later ruled to be incompetent to stand trial.North America
41. 1999Air Fiji flight 121 crashes while en route to Nadi, Fiji, killing all 17 people on board.Oceania
42. 2001The Bandaranaike Airport attack is carried out by 14 Tamil Tiger commandos, resulting in military and civilian casualties and destroyed aircraft.Asia
43. 2009Aria Air Flight 1525 crashes at Mashhad International Airport, killing 16.Middle East
44. 2012Syrian civil war: The People's Protection Units (YPG) capture the city of Girkê Legê.Middle East
45. 2013Santiago de Compostela derailment: A high-speed train derails in Spain rounding a curve with an 80 km/h (50 mph) speed limit at 190 km/h (120 mph), killing 78 passengers.Latin AmericaEurope
46. 2014Air Algérie Flight 5017 loses contact with air traffic controllers 50 minutes after takeoff. It was travelling between Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso and Algiers. The wreckage is later found in Mali. All 116 people on board are killed.Africa
47. 2019Boris Johnson becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after defeating Jeremy Hunt in a leadership contest, succeeding Theresa May.Europe
48. 2024A Saurya Airlines Bombardier CRJ200 crashes during takeoff from Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, killing 18.Asia
49. 2025Angara Airlines Flight 2311 crashes on approach to Tynda Airport, killing all 48 people on board.Europe

Source: Wikipedia "July 24" / CC BY-SA 4.0