June 24

From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.

[edit] Events

• 1128 - Battle of São Mamede, near Guimarães. Portuguese forces led by Afonso I beat 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.
• 1314 - End of the Battle of Bannockburn. Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce beat Edward II of England. Scotland regains its independence.
• 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.
• 1441 - Eton College founded.
• 1497 - John Cabot lands on North America in Newfoundland; first European discovery of the region since the Vikings.
• 1497 - Cornish traitors Michael An Gof and Thomas Flamank executed at Tyburn, London
• 1509 - Henry VIII crowned King of England.
• 1534 - Jacques Cartier makes the European discovery of Prince Edward Island.
• 1535 - The Anabaptist state of Münster is conquered and disbanded.
• 1597 - The first Dutch voyage to the East Indies reaches Bantam (on Java).
• 1604 - Edward De Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford dies. Leading candidate for true authorship of the Shakespeare canon.
• 1662 - Dutch attempt but fail to capture Macao.
• 1664 - The colony of New Jersey is founded.
• 1692 - Kingston, Jamaica founded.
• 1793 - First republican constitution in France adopted.
• 1812 - Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon's invasion of Russia begins.
• 1821 - Battle of Carabobo : Venezuela gains total independence from Spain.
• 1859 - Battle of Solferino (Battle of the Three Sovereigns). Sardinia and France defeat Austria in northern Italy.
• 1861 - Tennessee becomes the 11th and last state to secede from the US.
• 1880 - First performance of O Canada, the song that would become the national anthem of Canada, at the Congrès national des Canadiens-Français.
• 1894 - The IOC decides to hold the Olympic Games every four years.
• 1901 - First exhibition of Pablo Picasso's work opens.
• 1902 - King Edward VII of the United Kingdom develops appendicitis, delaying his coronation.
• 1910 - Japan invades Korea.
• 1913 - Greece and Serbia annul their alliance with Bulgaria.
• 1913 - Joseph Cook becomes the 6th Prime Minister of Australia.
• 1916 - Mary Pickford becomes first film star to get million dollar contract.
• 1918 - First airmail service in Canada from Montreal to Toronto.
• 1918 - The giant cannon Big Bertha begins bombardments on Paris
• 1932 - A military coup ends the absolute power of the king of Siam (Thailand).
• 1940 - France and Italy sign an armistice.
• 1941 - Government of briefly independent Lithuania conducts its first meeting under prime minister Juozas Ambrazevičius
• 1945 - The U.S.S.R. capture the Free Republic of Schwarzenberg.
• 1946 - Georges Bidault becomes Prime Minister of France
• 1947 - First known sighting of UFOs: Kenneth Arnold, flying over Washington, USA, notices nine luminous disks in the form of saucers.
• 1948 - Start of the Berlin Blockade. The Soviet Union makes overland travel between the West with West Berlin impossible.
• 1957 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules that obsecnity is not protected by the First Amendment.
• 1963 - Zanzibar is granted internal self-government by the UK.
• 1974 - The UPC label is used for the first time to ring up purchases at a supermarket.
• 1975 - An Eastern Airlines Boeing 727 crashes at John F. Kennedy Airport, New York. 113 people die.
• 1981 - For what would be the world's longest single-span suspension bridge for 17 years, the Humber Bridge, connecting Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, opens.
• 1983 - Sally Ride, first female American astronaut, returns to earth.
• 1983 - Yasser Arafat banned from Damascus.
• 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.
• 1996 - Michael Johnson breaks the world record in the 200 metres with a time of 19.66 seconds
• 1999 - The guitar with which Eric Clapton recorded Layla is sold at auction for the astounding price of $497,500.

[edit] Births

• 1542 - St. John of the Cross, Spanish Carmelite friar and poet (died 1591)
• 1777 - John Ross, naval officer and explorer (died 1856)
• 1795 - Ernst Heinrich Weber, anatomist and physiologist (died 1878)
• 1803 - George James Webb, composer (died 1887)
• 1804 - Willard Richards, American religious leader (died 1854)
• 1813 - Henry Ward Beecher, American clergyman and reformer (died 1887)
• 1826 - George Goyder, surveyor-general of South Australia (died 1898)
• 1842 - Ambrose Bierce, author
• 1850 - Horatio Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, original Order of Merit member (died 1916)
• 1882 - Carl Diem, sports scientist (died 1962)
• 1883 - Victor Franz Hess, American physicist (died 1964)
• 1888 - Gerrit Rietveld, Dutch architect (died 1964)
• 1895 - Jack Dempsey, boxer (died 1983)
• 1901 - Harry Partch, composer (died 1974)
• 1906 - Pierre Fournier, French cellist (died 1986)
• 1908 - Hugo Distler, German composer (died 1942)
• 1908 - Guru Gopinath Indian classical dancer (d 1987)
• 1909 - David Rose, composer, musician (died 1990)
• 1911 - Juan Manuel Fangio, Argentine race car driver (died 1995)
• 1914 - Robert Aickman, author (died 1981)
• 1915 - Fred Hoyle, cosmologist and science fiction author (died 2001)
• 1922 - Tata Giacobetti, Italian singer and lyricist (Quartetto Cetra)
• 1928 - Wolfgang Altenburg, German general
• 1930 - Claude Chabrol, film director
• 1931 - Billy Casper, golfer
• 1942 - Mick Fleetwood, musician (Fleetwood Mac)
• 1942 - Michele Lee, actress
• 1944 - Jeff Beck, guitarist (Yardbirds)
• 1944 - Chris Wood, musician (died 1983)
• 1945 - Colin Blunstone, musician (The Zombies)
• 1945 - George Pataki, Governor of New York
• 1946 - Ellison Onizuka, astronaut (died 1986)
• 1949 - Betty Jackson, fashion designer born in Lancashire
• 1953 - Garry Shider, musician (P Funk)
• 1956 - Joe Penny, actor
• 1960 - Trisha Meili, author
• 1967 - Richard Kruspe-Bernstein, guitarist (Rammstein)
• 1969 - Sissel Kyrkjebø, Norwegian singer
• 1970 - Glenn Medeiros, Hawaiian singer and songwriter
• 1978 - Erno "Emppu" Vuorinen, guitarist (Nightwish)
• 1981 - Siddharth Nair, cartoonist and writer
• 1985 - Matthew Dezendorf, programmer, actor, and composer
• 1986 - Solange Knowles, actress and singer

[edit] Deaths

• 1398 - Hongwu Emperor of China, founder of the Ming Dynasty (born 1328)
• 1439 - Frederick IV of Austria - Regent of Tyrol and Further Austria
• 1519 - Lucrezia Borgia, duchess of Ferrara (born 1480)
• 1604 - Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, hereditary Lord Great Chamberlain of England
• 1908 - Grover Cleveland, President of the United States (heart failure)
• 1909 - Sarah Orne Jewett, American writer (born 1849)
• 1922 - Walther Rathenau, German Minister of Foreign Affairs (born 1867, assassinated)
• 1947 - Emil Seidel, American politician and Mayor of Milwaukee
• 1953 - George Herbert Walker, grandfather of US President George H. W. Bush
• 1981 - Terry Fox, marathon runner
• 1987 - Jackie Gleason, actor, musician
• 1993 - Archie Williams, American athlete
• 2000 - Vera Atkins, Special Operations Executive intelligence officer
• 2002 - Pierre Werner, Prime Minister of Luxembourg
• 2003 - Maynard Jackson, Mayor of Atlanta
• 2003 - Leon Uris, author
• 2004 - Ifigeneia Giannopoulou, Greek songwriter (born 1957)