June 24

Events

Pre-1600

* 1312 BC – Mursili II launches a campaign against the Kingdom of Azzi-Hayasa.
* 109 – Roman emperor Trajan inaugurates the Aqua Traiana, an aqueduct that channels water from Lake Bracciano, northwest of Rome.
* 474 – Julius Nepos forces Roman usurper Glycerius to abdicate the throne and proclaims himself Emperor of the Western Roman Empire.
* 637 – The Battle of Moira is fought between the High King of Ireland and the Kings of Ulster and Dál Riata. It is claimed to be the largest battle in the history of Ireland.
* 843 – The Vikings sack the French city of Nantes.
* 972 – Battle of Cedynia, the first documented victory of Polish forces, takes place.
* 1128 – Battle of São Mamede, near Guimarães: Forces led by Afonso I defeat forces led by his mother Teresa of León and her lover Fernando Pérez de Traba.
* 1230 – The Siege of Jaén begins, in the context of the Spanish Reconquista.
* 1314 – First War of Scottish Independence: The Battle of Bannockburn concludes with a decisive victory by Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce.
*1340 – Hundred Years' War: Battle of Sluys: The French fleet is almost completely destroyed by the English fleet commanded in person by King Edward III.
*1374 – A sudden outbreak of St. John's Dance causes people in the streets of Aachen, Germany, to experience hallucinations and begin to jump and twitch uncontrollably until they collapse from exhaustion.
* 1497 – John Cabot lands in North America at Newfoundland leading the first European exploration of the region since the Vikings.
* 1509 – Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon are crowned King and Queen of England.
* 1535 – The Anabaptist state of Münster is conquered and disbanded.
* 1540 – English King Henry VIII commands his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, to leave the court.
* 1571 – Miguel López de Legazpi founds Manila, the capital of the Philippines.
* 1593 – The Dutch city of Geertruidenberg held by the Spanish, capitulates to a besieging Dutch and English army led by Maurice of Nassau.

1601–1900

* 1604 – Samuel de Champlain discovers the mouth of the Saint John River, site of Reversing Falls and the present-day city of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.
* 1622 – Battle of Macau: The Dutch make a failed attempt to capture Macau.
* 1663 – The Spanish garrison of Évora capitulates, following the Portuguese victory at the Battle of Ameixial.
* 1717 – The Premier Grand Lodge of England is founded in London, the first Masonic Grand Lodge in the world (now the United Grand Lodge of England).
* 1762 – Battle of Wilhelmsthal: The British-Hanoverian army of Ferdinand of Brunswick defeats French forces in Westphalia.
* 1779 – American Revolutionary War: The Great Siege of Gibraltar begins.
* 1793 – The first Republican constitution in France is adopted.
*1812 – Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon's Grande Armée crosses the Neman river beginning the invasion of Russia.
* 1813 – Battle of Beaver Dams: A British and Indian combined force defeats the United States Army.
* 1821 – Battle of Carabobo: Decisive battle in the war of independence of Venezuela from Spain.
* 1859 – Battle of Solferino (Battle of the Three Sovereigns): Sardinia and France defeat Austria in Solferino, northern Italy.
* 1866 – Battle of Custoza: An Austrian army defeats the Italian army during the Austro-Prussian War.
* 1880 – First performance of ''O Canada'' at the Congrès national des Canadiens-Français. The song would later become the national anthem of Canada.
* 1894 – Marie François Sadi Carnot, President of France, is assassinated by Sante Geronimo Caserio.

1901–present

* 1913 – Greece and Serbia annul their alliance with Bulgaria.
* 1916 – Mary Pickford becomes the first female film star to sign a million-dollar contract.
* 1918 – First airmail service in Canada from Montreal to Toronto.
*1922 – The American Professional Football Association is renamed the National Football League.
* 1932 – A bloodless revolution instigated by the People's Party ends the absolute power of King Prajadhipok of Siam (now Thailand).
* 1938 – Pieces of a meteorite land near Chicora, Pennsylvania. The meteorite is estimated to have weighed 450 metric tons when it hit the Earth's atmosphere and exploded.
* 1939 – Siam is renamed Thailand by Plaek Phibunsongkhram, the country's third prime minister.
* 1940 – World War II: Operation Collar, the first British Commando raid on occupied France, by No 11 Independent Company.
* 1943 – US military police attempt to arrest a black soldier in Bamber Bridge, England, sparking the Battle of Bamber Bridge mutiny that leaves one dead and seven wounded.
* 1947 – Kenneth Arnold makes the first widely reported UFO sighting near Mount Rainier, Washington.
* 1948 – Cold War: Start of the Berlin Blockade: The Soviet Union makes overland travel between West Germany and West Berlin impossible.
* 1949 – The first television western, ''Hopalong Cassidy'', starring William Boyd, is aired on NBC.
* 1950 – Apartheid: In South Africa, the Group Areas Act is passed, formally segregating races.
* 1954 – First Indochina War: Battle of Mang Yang Pass: Viet Minh troops belonging to the 803rd Regiment ambush G.M. 100 of France in An Khê.
* 1957 – In ''Roth v. United States'', the U.S. Supreme Court rules that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment.
* 1960 – Assassination attempt of Venezuelan President Rómulo Betancourt.
* 1963 – The United Kingdom grants Zanzibar internal self-government.
* 1973 – The UpStairs Lounge arson attack takes place at a gay bar located on the second floor of the three-story building at 141 Chartres Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. Thirty-two people die as a result of fire or smoke inhalation.
* 1975 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 66 encounters severe wind shear and crashes on final approach to New York's JFK Airport killing 113 of the 124 passengers on board, making it the deadliest U.S. plane crash at the time. This accident led to decades of research into downburst and microburst phenomena and their effects on aircraft.
* 1981 – The Humber Bridge opens to traffic, connecting Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. It remained the world's longest bridge span for 17 years.
* 1982 – "The Jakarta Incident": British Airways Flight 9 flies into a cloud of volcanic ash thrown up by the eruption of Mount Galunggung, resulting in the failure of all four engines.
* 1989 – Jiang Zemin succeeds Zhao Ziyang to become the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre.
*1995 – Rugby World Cup: South Africa defeats New Zealand and Nelson Mandela presents Francois Pienaar with the Webb Ellis Cup in an iconic post-apartheid moment.
* 2002 – The Igandu train disaster in Tanzania kills 281, the worst train accident in African history.
* 2004 – In New York, capital punishment is declared unconstitutional.
*2010 – At Wimbledon, John Isner of the United States defeats Nicolas Mahut of France, in the longest match in professional tennis history.
* 2010 – Julia Gillard assumes office as the first female Prime Minister of Australia.
*2012 – Death of Lonesome George, the last known individual of Chelonoidis nigra abingdonii, a subspecies of the Galápagos tortoise.
*2013 – Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is found guilty of abusing his power and engaging in sex with an underage prostitute, and is sentenced to seven years in prison.
*2021 – The Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside, Florida suffers a sudden partial collapse, killing 98 people inside.
*2022 – In ''Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization'', the U.S. Supreme Court rules that a pregnant woman's liberty to choose to have an abortion is not protected by the U.S. Constitution, overturning the court's prior decisions in ''Roe v. Wade'' (1973) and '' Planned Parenthood v. Casey'' (1992).

Births

Pre-1600

*1210 – Count Floris IV of Holland (d. 1234)
* 1244 – Henry I, Landgrave of Hesse (d. 1308)
* 1254 – Floris V, Count of Holland (d. 1296)
*1257 – Robert de Vere, 6th Earl of Oxford, English nobleman (probable; d. 1331)
* 1314 – Philippa of Hainault Queen of England (d. 1369)
* 1322 – Joanna, Duchess of Brabant (d. 1406)
* 1343 – Joan of Valois, Queen of Navarre (d. 1373)
* 1360 – Nuno Álvares Pereira, Portuguese general
* 1386 – John of Capistrano, Italian priest and saint (d. 1456)
* 1465 – Isabella del Balzo, Queen Consort of Naples (d. 1533)
* 1485 – Johannes Bugenhagen, Polish-German priest and reformer (d. 1558)
* 1485 – Elizabeth of Denmark, Electress of Brandenburg (d. 1555)
* 1499 – Johannes Brenz, German theologian and the Protestant Reformer (d. 1570)
* 1519 – Theodore Beza, French theologian and scholar (d. 1605)
* 1532 – Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, English politician (d. 1588)
* 1532 – William IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (d. 1573)
* 1535 – Joanna of Austria, Princess of Portugal (d. 1573)
* 1546 – Robert Persons, English Jesuit priest, insurrectionist, and author (d. 1610)
*1587 – William Arnold, English-American settler (d. 1675)

1601–1900

* 1614 – John Belasyse, 1st Baron Belasyse
* 1616 – Ferdinand Bol, Dutch painter, etcher and draftsman, student of Rembrandt (d. 1680)
* 1661 – Hachisuka Tsunanori, Japanese daimyō (d. 1730)
* 1663 – Jean Baptiste Massillon, French bishop (d. 1742)
* 1687 – Johann Albrecht Bengel, German-Lutheran clergyman and scholar (d. 1757)
* 1694 – Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui, Swiss author and theorist (d. 1748)
* 1704 – Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d'Argens, French philosopher and author (d. 1771)
* 1753 – William Hull, American general and politician, 1st Governor of Michigan Territory (d. 1825)
* 1755 – Anacharsis Cloots, Prussian-French activist (d. 1794)
* 1767 – Jean-Baptiste Benoît Eyriès, French geographer and author (d. 1846)
* 1771 – Éleuthère Irénée du Pont, French chemist and businessman, founded DuPont (d. 1834)
* 1774 – Antonio González de Balcarce, Argentinian commander and politician, 5th Supreme Director of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata (d. 1819)
* 1774 – François-Nicolas-Benoît Haxo, French general and engineer (d. 1838)
* 1777 – John Ross, Scottish commander and explorer (d. 1856)
* 1782 – Juan Larrea, Argentinian captain and politician (d. 1847)
* 1783 – Johann Heinrich von Thünen, German economist and geographer (d. 1850)
* 1784 – Juan Antonio Lavalleja, Uruguayan general and politician, President of Uruguay (d. 1853)
* 1788 – Thomas Blanchard, American inventor (d. 1864)
* 1795 – Ernst Heinrich Weber, German physician and psychologist (d. 1878)
* 1797 – John Hughes, Irish-American archbishop (d. 1864)
* 1797 – Paweł Edmund Strzelecki, Polish geologist and explorer (d. 1873)
*1804 – Stephan Endlicher, Austrian botanist, numismatist, and sinologist (d. 1849)
* 1804 – Willard Richards, American religious leader (d. 1854)
* 1811 – John Archibald Campbell, American lawyer and jurist (d. 1889)
* 1813 – Henry Ward Beecher, American minister and reformer (d. 1887)
* 1813 – Francis Boott, American composer (d. 1904)
* 1821 – Guillermo Rawson, Argentinian physician and politician (d. 1890)
* 1826 – George Goyder, English-Australian surveyor (d. 1898)
* 1835 – Johannes Wislicenus, German chemist and academic (d. 1902)
* 1838 – Jan Matejko, Polish painter (d. 1893)
* 1839 – Gustavus Franklin Swift, American businessman (d. 1903)
* 1842 – Ambrose Bierce, American short story writer, essayist, and journalist (d. 1914)
*1846 – Samuel Johnson, Nigerian priest and historian (d. 1901)
* 1850 – Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener, Irish field marshal and politician, Governor-General of Sudan (d. 1916)
* 1852 – Friedrich Loeffler, German bacteriologist and academic (d. 1915)
*1854 – Eleanor Norcross, American painter (d. 1923)
* 1856 – Henry Chapman Mercer, American archaeologist and author (d. 1930)
* 1858 – Hastings Rashdall, English historian, philosopher, and theologian (d. 1924)
* 1865 – Robert Henri, American painter and educator (d. 1929)
* 1867 – Ruth Randall Edström, American educator and activist (d. 1944)
* 1869 – Prince George of Greece and Denmark (d. 1957)
*1872 – Frank Crowninshield, American journalist and art and theatre critic (d. 1947)
* 1875 – Forrest Reid, Irish novelist, literary critic and translator (d. 1947)
* 1880 – Oswald Veblen, American mathematician and academic (g. 1960)
* 1880 – João Cândido Felisberto, Brazilian revolutionary and sailor (d. 1969)
* 1881 – George Shiels, Irish-Canadian author, poet, and playwright (d. 1949)
* 1882 – Athanase David, Canadian lawyer and politician (d. 1953)
* 1882 – Carl Diem, German businessman (d. 1962)
*1883 – Victor Francis Hess, Austrian-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1964)
* 1883 – Fritz Löhner-Beda, Austrian librettist, lyricist and writer (d.1942)
* 1883 – Jean Metzinger, French artist (d. 1956)
* 1883 – Arthur L. Newton, American runner (d. 1956)
* 1883 – Frank Verner, American runner (d. 1966)
* 1884 – Frank Waller, American runner (d. 1941)
* 1885 – Olaf Holtedahl, Norwegian geologist (d. 1975)
* 1888 – Gerrit Rietveld, Dutch architect, designed the Rietveld Schröder House (d. 1964)
* 1893 – Roy O. Disney, American businessman, co-founded The Walt Disney Company (d. 1971)
* 1895 – Jack Dempsey, American boxer and soldier (d. 1983)
* 1898 – Armin Öpik, Estonian-Australian paleontologist and geologist (d. 1983)
* 1898 – Karl Selter, Estonian politician, 14th Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia (d. 1958)
* 1900 – Wilhelm Cauer, German mathematician and engineer (d. 1945)

1901–present

* 1901 – Marcel Mule, French saxophonist (d. 2001)
* 1901 – Harry Partch, American composer and theorist (d. 1974)
* 1901 – Chuck Taylor, American basketball player and salesman (d. 1969)
* 1904 – Phil Harris, American singer-songwriter and actor (d. 1995)
* 1905 – Fred Alderman, American sprinter (d. 1998)
* 1906 – Pierre Fournier, French cellist and educator (d. 1986)
* 1906 – Willard Maas, American poet and educator (d. 1971)
* 1907 – Arseny Tarkovsky, Russian poet and translator (d. 1989)
* 1908 – Hugo Distler, German organist, composer, and conductor (d. 1942)
* 1908 – Alfons Rebane, Estonian colonel (d. 1976)
* 1909 – Jean Deslauriers, Canadian violinist, composer, and conductor (d. 1978)
* 1909 – William Penney, Baron Penney, English mathematician and physicist (d. 1991)
* 1909 – Betty Cavanna, American author (d. 2001)
* 1911 – Juan Manuel Fangio, Argentinian race car driver (d. 1995)
* 1911 – Ernesto Sabato, Argentinian physicist and academic (d. 2011)
* 1911 – Portia White, Canadian opera singer (d. 1968)
* 1912 – Brian Johnston, English sportscaster and author (d. 1994)
* 1912 – Mary Wesley, English author (d. 2002)
* 1913 – Gustaaf Deloor, Belgian cyclist and soldier (d. 2002)
* 1914 – Jan Karski, Polish-American activist and academic (d. 2000)
* 1914 – Pearl Witherington, French secret agent (d. 2008)
*1915 – Fred Hoyle, English astronomer and author (d. 2001)
* 1916 – William B. Saxbe, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 70th United States Attorney General (d. 2010)
* 1916 – Saloua Raouda Choucair, Lebanese painter and sculptor (d. 2017)
* 1917 – David Easton, Canadian-American political scientist and academic (d. 2014)
* 1917 – Lucy Jarvis, American television producer (d. 2020)
* 1917 – Ramblin' Tommy Scott, American singer and guitarist (d. 2013)
* 1917 – Joan Clarke, English cryptanalyst and numismatist (d. 1996)
* 1918 – Mildred Ladner Thompson, American journalist and author (d. 2013)
* 1918 – Yong Nyuk Lin, Singaporean businessman and politician, Singaporean Minister for Education (d. 2012)
* 1919 – Al Molinaro, American actor (d. 2015)
* 1921 – Gerhard Sommer, German soldier (d. 2019)
*1922 – Jack Carter, American actor and comedian (d. 2015)
* 1922 – John Postgate, English microbiologist, author, and academic (d. 2014)
* 1922 – Richard Timberlake, American economist (d.2020)
* 1923 – Margaret Olley, Australian painter and philanthropist (d. 2011)
* 1924 – Kurt Furgler, Swiss politician, 70th President of the Swiss Confederation (d. 2008)
* 1924 – Archie Roy, Scottish astronomer and academic (d. 2012)
* 1924 – Yoshito Takamine, American politician (d. 2015)
*1925 – Ogden Reid, American politician (d. 2019)
* 1927 – Fernand Dumont

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