May 24

May 24 is the 144th day of the year (145th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 221 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

• 1218 – The Fifth Crusade leaves Acre for Egypt.
• 1276 – Magnus Ladulås is crowned King of Sweden in Uppsala Cathedral.
• 1487 – The ten-year-old Lambert Simnel is crowned in Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland with the name of Edward VI in a bid to threaten King Henry VII's reign.
• 1595 – Nomenclator of Leiden University Library appears, the first printed catalog of an institutional library.
• 1621 – The Protestant Union is formally dissolved.
• 1626 – Peter Minuit buys Manhattan.
• 1689 – The English Parliament passes the Act of Toleration protecting Protestants. Roman Catholics are intentionally excluded.
• 1738 – John Wesley is converted, essentially launching the Methodist movement; the day is celebrated annually by Methodists as Aldersgate Day.
• 1798 – The Irish Rebellion of 1798 led by the United Irishmen against British rule begins.
• 1822 – Battle of Pichincha: Antonio José de Sucre secures the independence of the Presidency of Quito.
• 1830 – Mary Had a Little Lamb by Sarah Josepha Hale is published.
• 1830 – The first revenue trains in the United States begin service on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad between Baltimore, Maryland and Ellicott's Mills, Maryland.
• 1832 – The First Kingdom of Greece is declared in the London Conference.
• 1844 – Samuel Morse sends the message "What hath God wrought" (a Bible quotation, Numbers 23:23) from the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the United States Capitol to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, Maryland to inaugurate the first telegraph line.
• 1846 – Mexican-American War: General Zachary Taylor captures Monterrey.
• 1856 – John Brown and his men murder five slavery supporters at Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas.
• 1861 – American Civil War: Union troops occupy Alexandria, Virginia.
• 1883 – The Brooklyn Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic after 14 years of construction.
• 1895 – Henry Irving becomes the first person from the theatre to be knighted.
• 1900 – Second Boer War: The United Kingdom annexes the Orange Free State.
• 1901 – Seventy-eight miners die in the Caerphilly pit disaster in South Wales.
• 1915 – World War I: Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary.
• 1921 – The trial of Sacco and Vanzetti opens.
• 1930 – Amy 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).
• 1935 – The 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.
• 1940 – Igor Sikorsky performs the first successful single-rotor helicopter flight.
• 1941 – World War II: In the Battle of the Atlantic, the German Battleship Bismarck sinks the then pride of the Royal Navy, HMS Hood, killing all but three crewmen.
• 1943 – Holocaust: Josef Mengele becomes chief medical officer of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
• 1956 – Conclusion of the Sixth Buddhist Council on Vesak Day, marking the 2,500 year anniversary after the Lord Buddha's Parinibbāna.
• 1956 – The first Eurovision Song Contest is held in Lugano, Switzerland
• 1958 – United Press International is formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service.
• 1960 – Following the 1960 Valdivia earthquake, the largest ever recorded earthquake, Cordón Caulle begins to erupt.
• 1961 – American civil rights movement: Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi for "disturbing the peace" after disembarking from their bus.
• 1961 – Cyprus enters the Council of Europe.
• 1962 – Project Mercury: American astronaut Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule.
• 1967 – Egypt imposes a blockade and siege of the Red Sea coast of Israel.
• 1968 – FLQ separatists bomb the U.S. consulate in Quebec City.
• 1970 – The drilling of the Kola Superdeep Borehole begins in the Soviet Union.
• 1973 – Earl Jellicoe resigns as Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Lords.
• 1976 – The London to Washington, D.C. Concorde service begins.
• 1980 – The International Court of Justice calls for the release of United States embassy hostages in Tehran, Iran. The hostages would not be freed until the following January.
• 1982 – Liberation of Khorramshahr: Iranians recapture of the port city of Khorramshahr from the Iraqis during the Iran–Iraq War.
• 1988 – Section 28 of the United Kingdom's Local Government Act 1988, a controversial amendment stating that a local authority cannot intentionally promote homosexuality, is enacted.
• 1989 – Sonia Sutcliffe, wife of the Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, is awarded £600,000 in damages (later reduced to £60,000 on appeal) after winning a libel action against Private Eye.
• 1990 – A car carrying American Earth First! activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney explodes in Oakland, California, critically injuring both.
• 1991 – Eritrea gains its independence from Ethiopia.
• 1991 – Israel conducts Operation Solomon, evacuating Ethiopian Jews to Israel.
• 1992 – The last Thai dictator, General Suchinda Kraprayoon, resigns following pro-democracy protests.
• 1994 – Four men convicted of bombing the World Trade Center in New York in 1993 are each sentenced to 240 years in prison.
• 2000 – Israeli troops withdraw from southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation.
• 2001 – Mountain climbing: 15-year-old Sherpa Temba Tsheri becomes the youngest person to climb to the top of Mount Everest.
• 2001 – The Versailles wedding hall disaster in Jerusalem, Israel, kills 23 and injures over 200 in Israel's worst-ever civil disaster.
• 2002 – Russia and the United States sign the Moscow Treaty.
• 2004 – Communications in North Korea: North Korea bans mobile phones.
• 2006 – An Inconvenient Truth, a documentary film about former United States Vice President Al Gore's campaign to educate citizens about global warming, is released.

Births

• 15 BC – Julius Caesar Germanicus, Roman commander (d. 19)
• 1494 – Pontormo, Italian painter (d. 1557)
• 1522 – John Jewel, English Bishop of Salisbury (d. 1571)
• 1544 – William Gilbert, English natural philosopher (d. 1603)
• 1616 – John Maitland, Duke of Lauderdale (d. 1682)
• 1671 – Gian Gastone de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1737)
• 1686 – Gabriel Fahrenheit, German inventor and thermometer maker (d. 1736)
• 1689 – Daniel Finch, 8th Earl of Winchilsea, English politician (d. 1769)
• 1743 – Jean-Paul Marat, French revolutionary (d. 1793)
• 1794 – William Whewell, English scientist and philosopher (d. 1866)
• 1803 – Alexander von Nordmann, Finnish zoologist (d. 1866)
• 1810 – Charles Clark, 24th Governor of Mississippi (d. 1877)
• 1810 – Abraham Geiger, German rabbi and scholar (d. 1874)
• 1816 – Emanuel Leutze, German-born painter (d. 1868)
• 1819 – Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom (d. 1901)
• 1830 – Alexei Savrasov, Russian painter (d. 1897)
• 1836 – Joseph Rowntree, British social reformer (d. 1925)
• 1854 – John Riley Banister, American law officer and cowboy (d. 1918)
• 1855 – Arthur Wing Pinero, English playwright (d. 1934)
• 1863 – George Grey Barnard, American sculptor (d. 1938)
• 1868 – Charlie Taylor, American mechanic, associate with the Wright brothers (d. 1956)
• 1870 – Benjamin Cardozo, American jurist (d. 1938)
• 1870 – Jan Christiaan Smuts, Prime Minister of South Africa (d. 1950)
• 1874 – Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine (d. 1878)
• 1878 – Lillian Moller Gilbreth, American engineer (d. 1972)
• 1879 – H. B. Reese, American inventor of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and founder of H. B. Reese Candy Co. (d. 1956)
• 1885 – Susan Sutherland Isaacs, English educational psychologist (d. 1948)
• 1886 – Paul Paray, French conductor and composer (d. 1979)
• 1887 – Edward "Mick" Mannock, Irish World War I pilot (d. 1918)
• 1891 – William F. Albright, American archeologist and Biblical scholar (d. 1971)
• 1895 – Samuel Irving Newhouse, American publisher (d. 1979)
• 1899 – Suzanne Lenglen, French tennis player (d. 1938)
• 1899 – Henri Michaux, French poet (d. 1984)
• 1900 – Lionel Conacher, Canadian athlete and politician (d. 1954)
• 1900 – Eduardo De Filippo, Italian actor and screenwriter (d. 1984)
• 1901 – José Nasazzi, Uruguayan footballer (d. 1968)
• 1903 – Milo Burcham, American aviator (d. 1944)
• 1905 – Michail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov, Russian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1984)
• 1908 – Sam Giancana, American gangster (d. 1975)
• 1909 – Wilbur Mills, U.S. House of Representative from Arkansas (d. 1992)
• 1911 – Barbara West, English survivor of the Titanic sinking (d. 2007)
• 1914 – Lilli Palmer, German-born actress (d. 1986)
• 1914 – Giuseppe Valdengo, Italian baritone (d. 2007)
• 1916 – Roden Cutler, Australian diplomat (d. 2002)
• 1923 – Siobhán McKenna, Irish actress (d. 1986)
• 1925 – Mai Zetterling, Swedish-born entertainer (d. 1994)
• 1926 – Stanley Baxter, Scottish actor
• 1928 – William Trevor, Irish writer
• 1930 – Hans-Martin Linde, German conductor
• 1931 – Michael Lonsdale, French actor
• 1932 – Arnold Wesker, English dramatist
• 1933 – Aharon Lichtenstein, French-born American Orthodox Jewish rabbi and rosh yeshiva
• 1934 – Jane Byrne, 50th Mayor of Chicago
• 1934 – Barry Rose, English choir-trainer and organist
• 1935 – Joan Micklin Silver, American director
• 1936 – Harold Budd, American composer and poet
• 1937 – Archie Shepp, American jazz saxophonist
• 1937 – Roger Peterson, pilot who drove the plane on The Day the Music Died (d. 1959)
• 1938 – Tommy Chong, Canadian-born actor and comedian
• 1938 – David Viscott, American psychiatrist (d. 1996)
• 1940 – Joseph Brodsky, Russian-born poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1996)
• 1941 – Bob Dylan, American singer and songwriter
• 1941 – George Lakoff, American linguist and political activist
• 1942 – Ali Bacher, South African cricketer and administrator
• 1943 – Gary Burghoff, American actor
• 1944 – Patti LaBelle, American R&B singer, songwriter and actress
• 1945 – Priscilla Presley, American actress
• 1946 – Irena Szewińska, Russian-born Polish sprinter
• 1947 – Martin Winterkorn, German automotive executive (Volkswagen Group)
• 1949 – Jim Broadbent, English actor
• 1949 – Sybil Danning, Austrian actress
• 1949 – Tomaž Pisanski, Slovenian mathematician
• 1950 – Larry Seidlin, American judge
• 1953 – Alfred Molina, London-born Spanish-Italian actor
• 1953 – Nell Campbell, American actress, singer
• 1955 – Rosanne Cash, American singer
• 1955 – David Leonard, American guitarist, singer and songwriter
• 1956 – Michael Jackson, Northern Irish clergyman
• 1956 – Richard B. Bernstein, American constitutional and legal historian
• 1956 – Larry Blackmon, American singer (Cameo)
• 1959 – Pelle Lindbergh, Swedish hockey player (d. 1985)
• 1960 – Kristin Scott Thomas, English actress
• 1960 – Guy Fletcher, British keyboardist (Dire Straits)
• 1960 – Doug Jones, American actor
• 1962 – Gene Anthony Ray, American actor (d. 2003)
• 1962 – Héctor Camacho, Puerto Rican boxer
• 1963 – Ivan Capelli, Italian racing driver
• 1963 – Michael Chabon, American author
• 1963 – Joe Dumars, American basketball player
• 1963 – Kathy Leander, Swiss singer
• 1963 – Rich Rodriguez, American football coach
• 1964 – Adrian Moorhouse, British swimmer
• 1964 – Pat Verbeek, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1965 – John C. Reilly, American actor
• 1965 – Shinichiro Watanabe, Japanese anime director
• 1966 – Eric Cantona, French footballer
• 1966 – Ricky Craven, American NASCAR driver
• 1966 – Russell Kun, Nauruan politician
• 1967 – Carlos Hernández, Venezuelan baseball player
• 1967 – Eric Close, American actor
• 1967 – Steve McDonald, American bassist (Redd Kross)
• 1967 – Bruno Putzulu, French actor
• 1968 – Mo Willems, American author and screenwriter
• 1969 – Rich Robinson, American musician (Black Crowes)
• 1970 – Tommy Page, American singer
• 1971 – Kris Draper, Canadian ice hockey player (Detroit Red Wings)
• 1972 – Greg Berlanti, American television writer and producer
• 1972 – Joanna Wiśniewska, Polish discus thrower
• 1973 – Bartolo Colón, Dominican baseball player
• 1973 – Dermot O'Leary, English television presenter
• 1973 – Ruslana, Ukrainian singer
• 1973 – Vladimír Šmicer, Czech footballer
• 1974 – Will Sasso, Canadian actor and comedian
• 1974 – Masahide Kobayashi, Japanese baseball player
• 1974 – Sébastien Foucan, French actor and free-runner
• 1975 – Marc Gagnon, Canadian short track speed skater
• 1975 – Yannis Goumas, Greek footballer
• 1975 – Maria Lawson, British singer
• 1976 – Alessandro Cortini, Italian multi-instrumentalist (Nine Inch Nails)
• 1976 – Catherine Cox, Australian netballer
• 1976 – Bob Maesen, Belgian flatwater canoer
• 1977 – Kym Valentine, Australian actress
• 1978 – Brian Ching, American footballer
• 1978 – Bryan Greenberg, American actor
• 1978 – Brad Penny, American baseball player
• 1978 – Johan Holmqvist, Swedish hockey player
• 1978 – Elijah Burke, American wrestler
• 1979 – Tracy McGrady, American basketball player
• 1979 – Frank Mir, American UFC fighter
• 1979 – Kareem McKenzie, American football player
• 1980 – Cecilia Cheung, Hong Kong actress and singer
• 1981 – Marketa Janska, Czech model
• 1982 – Issah Ahmed, Ghana football player
• 1982 – DaMarcus Beasley, American footballer
• 1983 – Woo Seung-yeon, South Korean model and actress (d. 2009)
• 1983 – Alan Lastufka, American author, musician and artist
• 1984 – Sarah Hagan, American actress
• 1984 – Brodney Pool, American football player
• 1984 – Ryan Wieber, American visual effects compositor and amateur filmmaker
• 1985 – Tim Bridgman, British racing driver
• 1986 – Jordan Metcalfe, English actor
• 1986 – Mark Ballas, American professional dancer
• 1987 – Guillaume Latendresse, Canadian hockey player
• 1988 – Monica Lin Brown, American soldier
• 1988 – Billy Gilman, American singer
• 1989 – Adel Taarabt, Moroccan footballer
• 1990 – Joey Logano, American race car driver
• 1991 – Erika Umeda, Japanese singer
• 1992 – Travis T. Flory, American actor
• 1993 – Oliver Davis, American actor
• 1995 – Prince Joseph Wenzel of Liechtenstein

Deaths

• 1153 – King David I of Scotland (b. 1084)
• 1351 – Abu al-Hasan 'Ali, Sultan of Morocco (b. c. 1297)
• 1408 – Taejo of Joseon, ruler of Korea (b. 1335)
• 1425 – Murdoch Stewart, 2nd Duke of Albany, Scottish politician (b. 1362)
• 1456 – Ambroise de Loré, French military commander (b. 1396)
• 1543 – Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish astronomer (b. 1473)
• 1612 – Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, English statesman (b. 1563)
• 1627 – Luis de Góngora, Spanish poet (b. 1561)
• 1632 – Robert Hues, English mathematician and geographer (b. 1553)
• 1725 – Jonathan Wild, English criminal (b. 1682)
• 1734 – Georg Ernst Stahl, German physician and chemist (b. 1660)
• 1792 – George Brydges Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney, British naval officer (b. 1718)
• 1806 – John Campbell, 5th Duke of Argyll, British field marshal (b. 1723)
• 1843 – Sylvestre François Lacroix, French mathematician (b. 1765)
• 1861 – Elmer E. Ellsworth, American Civil War officer (b. 1837)
• 1872 – Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, German painter (b. 1794)
• 1876 – Georgi Benkovski, Bulgarian revolutionary (b. 1843)
• 1879 – William Lloyd Garrison, American abolitionist and publisher (b. 1805)
• 1881 – Samuel Palmer, English artist (b. 1805)
• 1883 – Abd al-Qadir al-Jaza'iri, Algerian leader (b. 1808)
• 1908 – Old Tom Morris, Scottish golfer (b. 1821)
• 1915 – Private John Condon, English World War I soldier (b. 1896)
• 1919 – Amado Nervo, Mexican poet (b. 1870)
• 1941 – Lancelot Holland, British admiral (b. 1887)
• 1945 – Robert Ritter von Greim, German field marshal (b. 1892)
• 1947 – Charles Ferdinand Ramuz, Swiss writer (b. 1878)
• 1948 – Jacques Feyder, Belgian director and screenwriter (b. 1885)
• 1949 – Aleksey Shchusev, Russian architect (b. 1873)
• 1950 – Archibald Wavell, British Field Marshal (b. 1883)
• 1959 – John Foster Dulles, American, 52nd United States Secretary of State (b. 1888)
• 1960 – Avraham Arnon, Israeli educator and a recipient of the Israel Prize (b. 1887)
• 1963 – Elmore James, American blues guitarist, singer and songwriter (b. 1918)
• 1969 – Willy Ley, German-born rocket scientist (b. 1906)
• 1972 – Ismail Yasin, Egyptian comedian and actor (b. 1915)
• 1974 – Duke Ellington, American composer and musician (b. 1899)
• 1984 – Vincent J. McMahon, American pro wrestling promoter (b. 1914)
• 1991 – Gene Clark, American singer and songwriter (The Byrds) (b. 1944)
• 1991 – Miriam di San Servolo, Italian actress (b. 1912)
• 1992 – Hitoshi Ogawa, Japanese racing driver (b. 1956)
• 1995 – Harold Wilson, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1964-1970, 1974-1976 (b. 1916)
• 1996 – Joseph Mitchell, American journalist (b. 1908)
• 1996 – Enrique Álvarez Félix, Mexican actor (b. 1934)
• 1997 – Edward Mulhare, Irish actor (b. 1923)
• 2000 – Kurt Schork, American reporter (b. 1947)
• 2000 – Majrooh Sultanpuri, Indian poet and lyricist (b. 1919)
• 2002 – Wallace Markfield, American writer (b. 1926)
• 2003 – Rachel Kempson, English actress (b. 1910)
• 2004 – Henry Ries, American photographer (b. 1917)
• 2004 – Milton Shulman, Canadian author and critic (b. 1913)
• 2004 – Edward Wagenknecht, American literary critic (b. 1900)
• 2005 – Carl Amery, German writer (b. 1922)
• 2005 – Arthur Haulot, Belgian journalist (b. 1913)
• 2005 – Vivian Liberto, first wife of Johnny Cash (b. 1934)
• 2006 – Henry Bumstead, American art director (b. 1915)
• 2006 – Michał Życzkowski, Polish technician (b. 1930)
• 2006 – Jesus Ledesma Aguilar, Mexican convicted killer (b. 1963)
• 2007 – Bill Johnston, Australian cricketer (b. 1922)
• 2008 – Dick Martin, American comedian (b. 1922)
• 2008 – Rob Knox, British actor (b. 1989)
• 2009 – Jay Bennett, American guitarist and singer-songwriter (Wilco) (b. 1963)
• 2010 – Ray Alan, English ventriloquist & television entertainer (b. 1930)
• 2010 – Virendra Bhatia, Indian politician (b. 1947)
• 2010 – Tapen Chatterjee, Bengali actor from India (b. 1937)
• 2010 – Raymond V. Haysbert, African-American business executive and civil rights leader (b. 1920)
• 2010 – Anneliese Rothenberger, German operatic lyric soprano (b. 1926)
• 2010 – Morrie Martin, Former Major League Baseball (b. 1922)
• 2010 – Petr Muk, Czech composer, musician, performer, and singer (b. 1965)
• 2010 – Paul Gray, American bassist (Slipknot) (b. 1972)

Holidays and observances

• Aldersgate Day (Methodism)
• Battle of Pichincha Day (Ecuador)
• Bermuda Day (Bermuda)
• Christian Feast Day
  • Sarah (celebrated by the Romani people of Camargue)
  • Vincent of Lérins
  • May 24 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Commonwealth Day (Belize)
• Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Eritrea from Ethiopia in 1993.
• Lubiri Memorial Day (Buganda)
• Victoria Day; celebrated on Monday on or before May 24. (Canada)
  • National Patriots Day or Journée nationale des patriotes. (Quebec)
• Saints Cyril and Methodius Day (Eastern Orthodox Church) and its related observance:
  • Bulgarian Education and Culture and Slavonic Literature Day (Bulgaria)
  • Saints Cyril and Methodius, Slavonic Enlighteners' Day (Republic of Macedonia)

External links

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada