June 24

June 24 is the 175th day of the year (176th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 190 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

Up to 1900

• 79 – Titus becomes Roman Emperor after the previous day's death of his father, Vespasian.
• 109 – Roman Emperor Trajan inaugurates the Aqua Traiana, an aqueduct that channels water from Lake Bracciano, 40 kilometers northwest of Rome.
• 972 – Battle of Cedynia: First documented victory of Polish forces takes place.
• 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.
• 1230 – The Siege of Jaén starts in the context of the Spanish Recoquista.
• 1314 – End of the Battle of Bannockburn. Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce beat Edward II of England. Scotland regains its independence.
• 1340 – Hundred Years' War: Battle of Sluys – The French fleet is almost destroyed by the English fleet commanded personally by King Edward III of England.
• 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 is founded.
• 1497 – John Cabot lands on North America in Newfoundland; first European discovery of the region since the Vikings.
• 1497 – Cornish rebels Michael An Gof and Thomas Flamank are executed at Tyburn, London
• 1509 – Henry VIII is 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.
• 1571 – Miguel Lopez de Legazpi founds Manila.
• 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.
• 1622 – Battle of Macau: The Dutch fail in an attempt to capture Macau.
• 1662 – The Dutch attempt but fail to capture Macao.
• 1664 – The colony of New Jersey is founded.
• 1692 – Kingston, Jamaica is founded.
• 1779 – American Revolutionary War: The Great Siege of Gibraltar begins.
• 1793 – First republican constitution in France adopted.
• 1812 – Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon's invasion of Russia begins.
• 1813 – Battle of Beaver Dams: A British and Indian combined force defeats the United States Army.
• 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 – 2000

• 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 movie 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).
• 1938 – Pieces of meteor, estimated to have weighed 450 metric tons when it explodes in the Earth's atmosphere, lands near Chicora, Pennsylvania.
• 1939 – Siam is renamed Thailand for the first time, by Prime Minister Plaek Pibulsonggram.
• 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 obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment.
• 1963 – Zanzibar is granted internal self-government by the UK.
• 1967 – The UK's worst caving disaster kills 6 people at Mossdale Caverns.
• 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.
• 1982 – British Airways flight 9 flies into volcanic ash erupting from Mount Galunggung in Indonesia, causing all four of its engines to fail.
• 1982 – Jean-Loup Chrétien becomes the first French person to go into space.
• 1983 – Sally Ride, first female American astronaut, returns to earth.
• 1983 – Yasser Arafat banned from Damascus.
• 1989 – Jiang Zemin becomes the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China.
• 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.
• 1995 – South Africa wins the Rugby Union World Cup in front of its home crowd. Nelson Mandela famously hands the trophy to team captain Francois Pienaar.
• 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.

From 2001

• 2002 – The Igandu train disaster in Tanzania kills 281 people.
• 2003 – Air France's last Concorde flight takes place.
• 2004 – In the state of New York, capital punishment is declared unconstitutional.
• 2005 – Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is elected to his first term as President of Iran.
• 2007 – Before becoming Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (on June 27) Gordon Brown succeeds Tony Blair as leader of the Labour Party.
• 2010 – Julia Gillard becomes the first female Prime Minister of Australia, succeeding Kevin Rudd.
• 2010 – The longest match in the history of professional tennis ends at Wimbledon, after two days. John Isner beats Nicolas Mahut 70–68 in the deciding set.
• 2012 – Lonesome George, the last-known surviving Pinta Island tortoise, dies in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, aged around 100. His sub–species is therefore considered to be extinct.
• 2012 – Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood is declared the winner of the previous week's Presidential election in Egypt.
• 2014 – Albania officially becomes an EU candidate country.
• 2014 – Uruguayan footballer Luis Suárez is involved in a biting controversy at the 2014 FIFA World Cup when cameras show him biting Italy's Giorgio Chiellini during a match. He is suspended from competitive games for four months.
• 2016 – David Cameron announces his intention to resign as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after 51.9% of British voters decided to leave the European Union in a referendum.
• 2017 – 15 people are killed and 93 are missing after a landslide hits Xinmo village in Sichuan, People's Republic of China.

Births

Up to 1800

• 1244 – Henry I, Landgrave of Hesse (died 1308)
• 1293 – Joan the Lame, Queen of France (died 1348)
• 1314 – Philippa of Hainaut, Queen Consort of Edward III of England (died 1369)
• 1343 – Joan of Valois, Queen of Navarre (died 1373)
• 1386 – John of Capistrano, Italian saint (died 1456)
• 1413 – John IV, Marquess of Montferrat (died 1464)
• 1485 – Johannes Bugenhagen, German reformer (died 1558)
• 1519 – Theodore Beza, French theologian and reformer (died 1605)
• 1532 – Edzard II, Count of East Frisia (died 1599)
• 1532 – William IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (died 1592)
• 1532 – Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester (died 1588)
• 1535 – Joan of Spain, Spanish-born Queen Consort of Portugal (died 1573)
• 1542 – Saint John of the Cross, Spanish Carmelite friar and poet (died 1591)
• 1661 – Hachisuka Tsunanori, Japanese daimyo (died 1730)
• 1694 – Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui, Swiss theorist (died 1748)
• 1704 – Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d'Argens, French aristocrat (died 1771)
• 1740 – Juan Ignacio Molina, Chilean naturalist (died 1829)
• 1755 – Anarchasis Clats, Prussian-born French revolutionary (died 1794)
• 1767 – Jean-Baptiste Benoit Eyries, French geographer, author and translator (died 1846)
• 1770 – Albrecht Berblinger, German inventor (died 1829)
• 1774 – Antonio González de Balcarce, Argentine military commander (died 1819)
• 1777 – John Ross, naval officer and explorer (died 1856)
• 1782 – Juan Larrea, Argentine politician and merchant (died 1847)
• 1784 – Juan Antonio Lavalleja, Uruguayan revolutionary and political figure (died 1853)
• 1795 – Ernst Heinrich Weber, anatomist and physiologist (died 1878)

1801 – 1900

• 1803 – George James Webb, composer (died 1887)
• 1804 – Willard Richards, American religious leader (died 1854)
• 1811 – John Archibald Campbell, American jurist (died 1889)
• 1813 – Henry Ward Beecher, American clergyman and reformer (died 1887)
• 1818 – Charles Alexander, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar–Eisenach (died 1901)
• 1821 – Guillermo Rawson, Argentine politician (died 1890)
• 1825 – Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna of Russia (died 1844)
• 1826 – George Goyder, surveyor-general of South Australia (died 1898)
• 1833 – Gustaf Akerhielm, Prime Minister of Sweden (died 1900)
• 1838 – Jan Matejko, Polish painter (died 1893)
• 1842 – Ambrose Bierce, American writer (died 1914)
• 1850 – Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener, British general, original Order of Merit member (died 1916)
• 1852 – Victor Adler, Austrian politician (died 1918)
• 1860 – Mercedes of Orléans, Queen of Spain (died 1878)
• 1869 – Prince George of Greece and Denmark (died 1957)
• 1869 – Caroline Furness, American astronomer (died 1936)
• 1880 – Oswald Veblen, American mathematician (died 1960)
• 1882 – Carl Diem, German sports scientist and Olympic official (died 1962)
• 1883 – Victor Franz Hess, Austrian-born American physicist (died 1964)
• 1883 – Frank Venner, American runner (died 1966)
• 1884 – Frank Waller, American athlete (died 1941)
• 1888 – Gerrit Rietveld, Dutch architect (died 1964)
• 1893 – Roy O. Disney, American businessman (died 1971)
• 1895 – Jack Dempsey, American boxer (died 1983)
• 1898 – Karl Selter, Estonian politician (died 1958)

1901 – 1925

• 1901 – Harry Partch, composer (died 1974)
• 1906 – Pierre Fournier, French cellist (died 1986)
• 1907 – Arseny Tarkovsky, Russian poet (died 1989)
• 1908 – Hugo Distler, German composer (died 1942)
• 1908 – Guru Gopinath Indian classical dancer (died 1987)
• 1908 – Alfons Rebane, Estonian colonel (died 1976)
• 1909 – Jean Deslauriers, Canadian conductor, violinist and composer (died 1978)
• 1909 – William Penney, English mathematician (died 1991)
• 1909 – David Rose, composer, musician (died 1990)
• 1911 – Juan Manuel Fangio, Argentine race car driver (died 1995)
• 1911 – Ernesto Sabato, Argentine writer and physicist (died 2011)
• 1912 – Mary Wesley, British writer (died 2002)
• 1913 – Gustaaf Detoor, Belgian cyclist (died 2002)
• 1914 – Robert Aickman, writer (died 1981)
• 1915 – Fred Hoyle, cosmologist and science fiction writer (died 2001)
• 1916 – William B. Saxbe, 70th United States Attorney General (died 2010)
• 1917 – David Easton, Canadian political scientist (died 2014)
• 1919 – Al Molinaro, American actor (died 2015)
• 1922 – Tata Giacobetti, Italian singer and lyricist (Quartetto Cetra) (died 1988)
• 1922 – Jack Carter, American comedian and actor (died 2015)
• 1923 – Margaret Olley, Australian artist (died 2011)
• 1923 – Marc Riboud, French photographer
• 1923 – Cesare Romiti, Italian businessman and economist
• 1923 – Yves Bonnefoy, French poet (died 2016)
• 1924 – Thelma Rogers, English actress (died 2000)

1926 – 1950

• 1926 – Walter Hirrlinger, German politician (died 2018)
• 1927 – Martin Lewis Perl, American physicist (died 2014)
• 1927 – James B. Edwards, American politician, 110th Governor of South Carolina and 3rd United States Secretary of Energy (died 2014)
• 1928 – M. S. Viswanathan, Indian film score composer (died 2015)
• 1928 – Yvan Delporte, Belgian comics writer (died 2007)
• 1928 – Wolfgang Altenburg, German general
• 1929 – Carolyn S. Shoemaker, American astronomer
• 1930 – Claude Chabrol, French movie director (died 2010)
• 1930 – Dave Creighton, Canadian ice hockey player (died 2017)
• 1931 – Billy Casper, American golfer (died 2015)
• 1933 – Sam Jones, American basketball player
• 1937 – Anita Desai, American novelist
• 1938 – Lawrence Block, American writer
• 1938 – Albufaz Elchibey, former President of Azerbaijan
• 1940 – Vittorio Storaro, Italian cinematographer
• 1940 – Augusto Fantozzi, Italian lawyer and politician (died 2019)
• 1941 – Charles Whitman, American murderer (died 1966)
• 1942 – Colin Groves, Australian primatologist (died 2017)
• 1942 – Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, former President of Chile
• 1942 – Michele Lee, actress
• 1944 – Jeff Beck, British guitarist (Yardbirds)
• 1944 – Chris Wood, British musician (died 1983)
• 1945 – Colin Blunstone, American musician (The Zombies)
• 1945 – George Pataki, former Governor of New York
• 1945 – Betty Stöve, Dutch tennis player
• 1946 – Ellison Onizuka, American astronaut (died 1986)
• 1946 – Robert Reich, American politician and political commentator
• 1947 – Clarissa Dickson Wright, English cookery writer and broadcaster (died 2014)
• 1947 – Mick Fleetwood, British musician (Fleetwood Mac)
• 1949 – Betty Jackson, English fashion designer (born in Lancashire)
• 1949 – John Illsey, English guitarist (Dire Straits)
• 1949 – Brigitte Mohnhaupt, German militant, member of the Red Army Faction
• 1950 – Jan Kulczyk, Polish businessman (d. 2015)
• 1950 – Wilfried, Austrian singer and actor (d. 2017)
• 1950 – Moshe Ya'alon, Israeli politician

1951 – 1975

• 1951 – Ivar Formo, Norwegian cross-country skier (died 2006)
• 1951 – Raelene Boyle, Australian athlete
• 1951 – Simon Rouse, English actor
• 1952 – Dianna Melrose, English diplomat
• 1953 – William E. Moerner, American chemist and physicist
• 1953 – Garry Shider, musician (P Funk)
• 1954 – Mark Edmondson, Australian tennis player
• 1956 – Owen Paterson, British politician
• 1956 – Joe Penny, American actor
• 1957 – Astro, English rapper (UB40)
• 1957 – Mark Parkinson, 45th Governor of Kansas
• 1958 – Jean Charest, Quebec politician
• 1959 – Andy McCluskey, British singer, songwriter and musician
• 1960 – Elish Angiolini, Scottish judge
• 1960 – Trisha Meili, writer
• 1961 – Iain Glen, Scottish actor
• 1961 – Bernie Nicholls, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1963 – Mike Wieringo, American comic book artist (died 2007)
• 1963 – Preki, Serbian-American footballer
• 1966 – Adrienne Shelly, American actress (died 2006)
• 1966 – Milena Bertolini, Italian footballer and coach
• 1967 – Richard Kruspe-Bernstein, German guitarist (Rammstein)
• 1967 – Sherry Stringfield, American actress
• 1969 – Nicodemo Gentile, Italian lawyer
• 1969 – Sissel Kyrkjebø, Norwegian singer
• 1970 – Glenn Medeiros, Hawaiian singer and songwriter
• 1971 – Ji Jin-hee, South Korean actor
• 1971 – Christopher Showerman, American actor
• 1972 – Robbie McEwen, Australian cyclist
• 1973 – Alexander Beyer, German actor
• 1973 – Jere Lehtinen, Finnish ice hockey player
• 1974 – Chris Guccione, American baseball player and umpire
• 1975 – Marek Malik, Czech ice hockey player
• 1975 – Federico Pucciarello, Argentine-Italian rugby player

From 1976

• 1977 – Dimos Dikoudis, Greek basketball player
• 1978 – Luis García, Spanish footballer
• 1978 – Shunsuke Nakamura, Japanese footballer
• 1978 – Juan Román Riquelme, Argentine footballer
• 1978 – Erno "Emppu" Vuorinen, Finnish guitarist (Nightwish)
• 1979 – Petra Nemcova, Czech model
• 1979 – Dafydd Jones, Welsh rugby player
• 1980 – Cicinho, Brazilian footballer
• 1980 – Minka Kelly, American actress
• 1980 – John Bryant Davila, American actor
• 1981 – Siddharth Nair, cartoonist and writer
• 1982 – Kevin Nolan, English footballer
• 1982 – Christian Montero, Costa Rican footballer
• 1982 – Jarret Stoll, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1983 – Rebecca Cooke, English swimmer
• 1985 – Diego Alves, Brazilian footballer
• 1986 – Stuart Broad, English cricketer
• 1986 – Solange Knowles, American actress and singer
• 1987 – LiSA, Japanese singer and musician
• 1987 – Lionel Messi, Argentine footballer
• 1988 – Micah Richards, English footballer
• 1991 – Rie Kitahara, Japanese actress and singer (AKB48)
• 1992 – David Alaba, Austrian footballer
• 1992 – Raven Goodwin, American actress
• 1992 – Stuart Hogg, Scottish rugby player
• 1992 – Sam Morrison, Welsh cyclist
• 1993 – Piero Barone, Italian singer (Il Volo)
• 1993 – Beanie Feldstein, American actress

Deaths

Up to 1950

• 238 – Maximius Thrax, Roman Emperor (born 173)
• 803 – Higbald, Bishop of Lindisfarne
• 1195 – Albert I, Margrave of Meissen (born 1158)
• 1314 – Gilbert de Clare, 8th Earl of Gloucester (born 1291)
• 1314 – Robert de Clifford, 1st Baron de Clifford (born 1274)
• 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)
• 1520 – Hosokawa Sumimoto, Japanese samurai commander (born 1489)
• 1564 – Rani Durgavati, Indian queen (born 1524)
• 1604 – Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, hereditary Lord Great Chamberlain of England (born 1550)
• 1637 – Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc, French astronomer (born 1580)
• 1766 – Adrien Maurice de Noailles, French soldier and politician (born 1678)
• 1803 – Matthew Thornton, signer of the US Declaration of Independence (born 1714)
• 1817 – Thomas McKean, American lawyer and politician (born 1769)
• 1835 – Andreas Vokos Miaoulis, Greek admiral and politician (born 1769)
• 1882 – Joachim Raff, German-Swiss composer (born 1822)
• 1894 – Marie François Sadi Carnot, French statesman (born 1837)
• 1908 – Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th President of the United States (born 1837)
• 1909 – Sarah Orne Jewett, American writer (born 1849)
• 1922 – Walther Rathenau, German Minister of Foreign Affairs (born 1867, assassinated)
• 1931 – Otto Mears, Russian-American businessman (born 1840)
• 1931 – Xiang Zhongfa, Chinese Communist politician (born 1880)
• 1935 – Carlos Gardel, Argentine singer-songwriter (born 1890)
• 1947 – Emil Seidel, American politician and Mayor of Milwaukee (born 1864)

From 1951

• 1953 – George Herbert Walker, grandfather of US President George H. W. Bush (born 1875)
• 1968 – Tony Hancock, British comedian (born 1924)
• 1984 – Clarence Campbell, Canadian president of the National Hockey League (born 1905)
• 1987 – Jackie Gleason, American actor and musician (born 1916)
• 1988 – Marta Abba, Italian actress (b. 1900)
• 1989 – Hibari Misora, Japanese singer and actress (born 1937)
• 1993 – Archie Williams, American sprinter (b. 1915)
• 2000 – Vera Atkins, Special Operations Executive intelligence officer (born 1908)
• 2000 – Rodrigo Bueno, Argentine singer-songwriter (born 1973)
• 2002 – Pierre Werner, Prime Minister of Luxembourg (born 1913)
• 2004 – Ifigeneia Giannopoulou, Greek songwriter (born 1957)
• 2007 – Nancy Benoit, American professional wrestler (born 1964)
• 2007 – Chris Benoit, Canadian professional wrestler (born 1967)
• 2007 – Hans Sturm, German footballer (born 1935)
• 2007 – Natasja Saad, Danish reggae and dance hall artist (born 1924)
• 2009 – Roméo LeBlanc, Governor-General of Canada (born 1927)
• 2012 – Lonesome George, Ecuadorean Pinta Island tortoise (born around 1912)
• 2012 – Heino Kruus, Estonian basketball player (born 1926)
• 2012 – Miki Roqué, Spanish footballer (born 1988)
• 2013 – Mick Aston, British archaeologist (born 1946)
• 2013 – Emilio Colombo, former Prime Minister of Italy (born 1920)
• 2013 – William Hathaway, American politician (born 1924)
• 2014 – Ramón José Velásquez, former Acting President of Venezuela (born 1916)
• 2014 – Eli Wallach, American actor (born 1915)
• 2015 – Walter Browne, Australian-American chess player (born 1939)
• 2015 – Mario Biaggi, American politician (born 1917)
• 2015 – Marva Collins, American educator (born 1936)
• 2016 – Bernie Worrell, American musician (born 1944)
• 2017 – Mats Johansson, Swedish journalist (born 1951)
• 2017 – Parker Lee McDonald, American jurist (born 1924)
• 2017 – Maria Mutagamba, Ugandan economist and politician (born 1952)
• 2017 – Nils Nilsson, Swedish ice hockey player (born 1936)
• 2018 – Frank Heart, American computer engineer (born 1929)
• 2018 – Constance Adams, American architect and explorer (born 1964)
• 2018 – Stanley Anderson, American actor (born 1939)
• 2018 – Darryl N. Johnson, American politician (born 1938)
• 2018 – Josip Pirmajer, Slovenian footballer and manager (born 1944)
• 2019 – Jeff Austin, American musician and singer (born 1974)
• 2019 – Billy Drago, American actor (born 1946)
• 2019 – Steve Dunleavy, Australian-born American journalist (born 1938)
• 2019 – Jónas Gómez Gallo, Chilean businessman and politician (born 1923)
• 2019 – José Huerta, Peruvian politician (born 1948)
• 2019 – Yekaterina Mikhailovna-Demina, Russian military doctor (born 1925)
• 2019 – Jörg Stübner, German footballer (born 1965)

Observances

• Discovery Day (Newfoundland and Labrador)
• National Day of Quebec
• Saint John's Day, day of midsummer celebrations in the Northern Hemisphere
• Flag Day (Estonia, Finland)