May 24Birthdays & History

On this day: May 24 in history

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

1. 919The nobles of Franconia and Saxony elect Henry the Fowler at the Imperial Diet in Fritzlar as king of the East Frankish Kingdom.Europe
2. 1218The Fifth Crusade leaves Acre for Egypt.Middle East
3. 1276Magnus Ladulås is crowned King of Sweden in Uppsala Cathedral.Europe
4. 1487The ten-year-old Lambert Simnel is crowned in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, Ireland, with the name of Edward VI in a bid to threaten King Henry VII's reign.Europe
5. 1567Erik XIV of Sweden and his guards murder five incarcerated Swedish nobles.Europe
6. 1595Nomenclator of Leiden University Library appears, the first printed catalog of an institutional library.Europe
7. 1607Jamestown, the first permanent English colony in North America, is founded.EuropeNorth America
8. 1621The Protestant Union is formally dissolved.Europe
9. 1626Peter Minuit buys Manhattan.North America
10. 1667The French Royal Army crosses the border into the Spanish Netherlands, starting the War of Devolution opposing France to the Spanish Empire and the Triple Alliance.Europe
11. 1683The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England, opens as the world's first university museum.Europe
12. 1689The English Parliament passes the Act of Toleration protecting dissenting Protestants but excluding Roman Catholics.Europe
13. 1738John Wesley is converted, essentially launching the Methodist movement; the day is celebrated annually by Methodists as Aldersgate Day and a church service is generally held on the preceding Sunday.Europe
14. 1798The Irish Rebellion of 1798 led by the United Irishmen against British rule begins.Europe
15. 1813South American independence leader Simón Bolívar enters Mérida, leading the invasion of Venezuela, and is proclaimed El Libertador ("The Liberator").Latin AmericaNorth America
16. 1822Battle of Pichincha: Antonio José de Sucre secures the independence of the Presidency of Quito.Latin America
17. 1832The First Kingdom of Greece is declared in the London Conference.Europe
18. 1844Samuel Morse sends the message "What hath God wrought" (a biblical quotation, Numbers 23:23) from a committee room in the United States Capitol to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, Maryland, to inaugurate a commercial telegraph line between Baltimore and Washington D.C.North America
19. 1856John Brown and his men kill five slavery supporters at Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas.North America
20. 1861American Civil War: Union troops occupy Alexandria, Virginia, with Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth becoming the first Union officer to be killed during the war.North America
21. 1873Patrick Francis Healy becomes the first black president of a predominantly white university in the United States.North America
22. 1883The Brooklyn Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic after 14 years of construction.North America
23. 1900Second Boer War: The United Kingdom annexes the Orange Free State.AfricaEurope
24. 1930Amy Johnson lands in Darwin, Northern Territory, becoming the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia (she left on May 5 for the 11,000 mile flight).EuropeOceania
25. 1935The 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.North America
26. 1940Acting on the orders of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, NKVD agent Iosif Grigulevich orchestrates an unsuccessful assassination attempt on exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky in Coyoacán, Mexico.EuropeLatin America
27. 1940Igor Sikorsky performs the first successful single-rotor helicopter flight.North America
28. 1941World War II: Battle of the Atlantic: In the Battle of the Denmark Strait, the German battleship Bismarck sinks the pride of the Royal Navy, HMS Hood, killing all but three crewmen.Europe
29. 1944Congress of Përmet occurs which establishes a provisional government in Albania in areas under partisan control, the first independent Albanian government since 1939. In honor of this the national emblem of Albania inscribed this date from 1946 until 1992.North AmericaEurope
30. 1944Börse Berlin building burns down after being hit in an air raid during World War II.Europe
31. 1948Arab–Israeli War: Egypt captures the Israeli kibbutz of Yad Mordechai, but the five-day effort gives Israeli forces time to prepare enough to stop the Egyptian advance a week later.Middle East
32. 1956The first Eurovision Song Contest is held in Lugano, Switzerland.Europe
33. 1958United Press International is formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service.North America
34. 1960Following the 1960 Valdivia earthquake, the largest ever recorded earthquake, Cordón Caulle begins to erupt.Latin America
35. 1961American civil rights movement: Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, for "disturbing the peace" after disembarking from their bus.North America
36. 1962Project Mercury: American astronaut Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule.North America
37. 1967Egypt imposes a blockade and siege of the Red Sea coast of Israel.Middle East
38. 1967Belle de Jour, directed by Luis Buñuel, is released.Europe
39. 1976The Judgment of Paris takes place in France, launching California as a worldwide force in the production of quality wine.EuropeNorth America
40. 1981Ecuadorian president Jaime Roldós Aguilera, his wife, and his presidential committee die in an aircraft accident while travelling from Quito to Zapotillo minutes after the president gave a famous speech regarding the 24 de mayo anniversary of the Battle of Pichincha.Latin America
41. 1982Liberation of Khorramshahr: Iranians recapture the port city of Khorramshahr from the Iraqis during the Iran–Iraq War.Middle East
42. 1988Section 28 of the United Kingdom's Local Government Act 1988, a controversial amendment stating that a local authority cannot intentionally promote homosexuality, is enacted.Europe
43. 1991Israel conducts Operation Solomon, evacuating Ethiopian Jews to Israel.Middle EastAfrica
44. 1992The ethnic cleansing in Kozarac, Bosnia and Herzegovina begins when Serbian militia and police forces enter the town.Europe
45. 1992The last Thai dictator, General Suchinda Kraprayoon, resigns following pro-democracy protests.Asia
46. 1993Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo and five other people are assassinated in a shootout at Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla Guadalajara International Airport in Mexico.EuropeLatin America
47. 1993Eritrea gains its independence from Ethiopia.Africa
48. 1994Four men are convicted of bombing the World Trade Center in New York in 1993; each one is sentenced to 240 years in prison.North America
49. 1995While attempting to return to Leeds Bradford Airport in the United Kingdom, Knight Air Flight 816 crashes in Dunkeswick, North Yorkshire, killing all 12 people on board.Europe
50. 1999The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands indicts Slobodan Milošević and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo.Europe
51. 2000Israeli troops withdraw from southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation.Middle East
52. 2002Russia and the United States sign the Moscow Treaty.EuropeNorth America
53. 2014At least three people are killed in a shooting at Brussels' Jewish Museum of Belgium.Europe
54. 2014A 6.4 magnitude earthquake occurs in the Aegean Sea between Greece and Turkey, injuring 324 people.EuropeMiddle East
55. 2019Twenty-two students die in a fire in Surat (India).Asia
56. 2019Under pressure over her handling of Brexit, British Prime Minister Theresa May announces her resignation as Leader of the Conservative Party, effective as of June 7.Europe
57. 2022A mass shooting occurs at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, United States, resulting in the deaths of 21 people, including 19 children.North America
58. 2026A suicide bombing targeting a shuttle train in Quetta, Balochistan, killed at least 48 people and injured 98 others.Asia

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