Historical Events on 24 Jun

Historical Events on 24 Jun

1128 - Battle of São Mamede, near Guimarães:Portuguese forces led by Alfonso I defeat 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 1
1314 - First War of Scottish Independence: The Battle of Bannockburn concludes with a decisive victory of the Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce. Scotland regains its independence in the aftermath of this battle.
1340 - Hundred Years' War: Battle of Sluys: The French fleet is almost destroyed by the English Fleet commanded in person by Edward III of England.
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.
1441 - Eton College is founded.
1497 - Cornish traitors Michael An Gof and Thomas Flamank are executed at Tyburn, London.
1497 - John Cabot lands on North America in Newfoundland; 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.
1571 - Manila, the capital of the Republic of the Philippines, is founded by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi.
1597 - The first Dutch voyage to the East Indies reaches Bantam (on Java).
1662 - The Dutch attempt but fail to capture Macau.
1664 - The colony of New Jersey is founded.
1692 - Kingston, Jamaica is founded.
1717 - The Grand Lodge of England, the first Freemasonic Grand Lodge (now the United Grand Lodge of England), is founded in London, England.
1748 - The Kingswood School is opened by John Wesley and his brother Charles Wesley in Bristol. The school later moved to Bath.
1793 - The first republican constitution in France is adopted.
1794 - Bowdoin College is founded.
1812 - Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon's Grande Armée crosses the Neman River beginning his invasion of Russia.
1813 - Battle of Beaver Dams : A British, and Indian joint force defeat the U.S Army.
1821 - The Battle of Carabobo takes place. It is the 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.
1880 - First performance of O Canada, the song that would become the national anthem of Canada, at the Congrès national des Canadiens-Français.
1894 - Marie Francois Sadi Carnot is assassinated by Sante Geronimo Caserio.
1901 - First exhibition of Pablo Picasso's work opens.
1902 - King Edward VII develops appendicitis, delaying his coronation.
1913 - Greece and Serbia annul their alliance with Bulgaria.
1916 - Mary Pickford becomes the first female film star to get a million dollar contract.
1916 - World War I: The Battle of the Somme begins with a week long artillery bombardment on the German Line.
1918 - First airmail service in Canada from Montreal to Toronto.
1928 - With declining business, the Great Gorge and International Railway begins using one-person crews on trolley operations in Canada.
1932 - A military coup ends the absolute power of the king of Siam (Thailand).
1938 - A 450 metric ton meteorite strikes the earth in an empty field near Chicora, Pennsylvania.
1940 - France and Italy sign an armistice.
1945 - The Moscow Victory Parade takes place.
1947 - Kenneth Arnold makes the first widely reported UFO sighting near Mount Rainier, Washington.
1948 - Start of the Berlin Blockade. The Soviet Union makes overland travel between the West with West Berlin impossible.
1949 - The first Television Western, Hopalong Cassidy, is aired on NBC starring William Boyd.
1957 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment in Roth v. United States.
1963 - Zanzibar is granted internal self-government by the United Kingdom.
1975 - An Eastern Air Lines Boeing 727 crashes at John F. Kennedy Airport, New York. 113 people die.
1981 - The Humber Bridge is opened to traffic, connecting Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. It would be the world's longest single-span suspension bridge for 17 years.
1982 - British Airways Flight 9, sometimes referred to as the Jakarta incident, flew into a cloud of volcanic ash thrown up by the eruption of Mount Galunggung, resulting in the failure of all four engines.
1983 - Space Shuttle program: STS-7: Sally Ride, the first female American astronaut, returns to earth.
1985 - STS-51-G Space Shuttle Discovery completed its mission, best remembered for having Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the first Arab and first Muslim in space, as a Payload Specialist.
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.
1994 - A United States Air Force B-52 aircraft crashes at Fairchild Air Force Base, killing all four members of its crew.
1995 - South Africa defeats New Zealand in the 1995 Rugby World Cup. The 1995 World cup is the first major sporting event in South Africa after Apartheid.
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.
2007 - The Angora Fire starts near South Lake Tahoe, California destroying 200+ structures in its first 48 hours.
972 - Battle of Cedynia, the first documented victory of Polish forces, takes place.