May 24

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

Table of contents

1 Events
2 Births
3 Deaths
4 Holidays and Observances

Events

1153 - Malcolm IV becomes King of Scotland
1487 - Imposter Lambert Simnel is crowned as "King Edward VI" at Dublin
1626 - Peter Minuit buys Manhattan
1689 - The Act of Toleration passes the English Parliament protecting Protestants (Roman Catholics are intentionally excluded).
1738 - The Methodist Church is established
1787 - The United States Constitutional Convention is convened after a quorum of delegates arrives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1798 - Irish nationalists rebel against British occupation forces believing that French troops were going to invade Ireland.
1810 - Argentina beings its revolt against Spain
1822 - Battle of Pichincha: Simón Bolívar secures the independence of Quito.
1844 - First electrical telegram sent by Samuel F. B. Morse from Baltimore, Maryland to Washington, D.C, saying "What hath God wrought?".
1846 - Mexican-American War: General Zachary Taylor captures Monterrey, Mexico
1861 - American Civil War: Union troops occupy Alexandria, Virginia
1883 - The Brooklyn Bridge is opened to traffic after 14 years of construction.
1895 - Henry Irving becomes the first personage from the theater to be knighted
1895 - Playright Oscar Wilde is convicted on a morals charge in London and is sentenced to prison
1899 - The first public parking garage in the United States is opened in Boston, Massachusetts
1900 - Boer War: The United Kingdom annexes the Orange Free State
1915 - World War I: Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary
1930 - Amy Johnson lands in Darwin, Australia becoming the first woman to fly from England to Australia (she left on May 5 for the 11,000 mile flight).
1935 - Babe Ruth, in a Boston Braves uniform, hits the 714th and final home run of his career
1939 - The Cocoanuts, the first film to star the Marx Brothers, opens
1940 - Igor Sikorsky performs the first successful single-rotor helicopter flight.
1941 - World War II: In the North Atlantic, the German battleship Bismarck sinks the HMS Hood killing all but three crewman on what was the pride of the Royal Navy.
1943 - Holocaust: Josef Mengele becomes chief medical officer in Auschwitz concentration camp.
1956 - In Lugano, Switzerland the first Eurovision Song Contest is held.
1958 - United Press International is formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service
1961 - American civil rights movement: Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi for "disturbing the peace" after disembarking from their bus.
1962 - Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule.
1968 - Students set fire to the Paris bourse
1968 - The Gateway Arch, in St. Louis, Missouri, is dedicated
1974 - After a nine year run, the Dean Martin Show airs for the last time.
1976 - Washington, DC Concorde service begins.
1980 - The International Court of Justice calls for the release of United States embassy hostages in Tehran.
1988 - Section 28 is passed as law by Parliament in the United Kingdom.
1993 - Eritrea gains its independence from Ethiopia.
1993 - Microsoft unveils Windows NT
2001 - Mountain climbing: 15-year-old Sherpa Temba Tsheri becomes the youngest person to climb to the top of Mount Everest.

Births

1544 - William Gilbert (+ 1603)
1616 - John Maitland, Duke of Lauderdale, (+ 1682)
1619 - Philips Wouwerman, painter (+ 1668)
1650 - John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough
1743 - Jean-Paul Marat, writer (+ 1793)
1794 - William Whewell, philosopher (+ 1866)
1810 - Abraham Geiger, rabbi and scholar (+ 1874)
1811 - Charles Clark, Governor of Mississippi
1816 - Emanuel Leutze, painter of Washington Crossing the Delaware (+ 1868)
1819 - Queen Victoria (+ 1901)
1831 - Richard Hoffman, pianist
1855 - Arthur Wing Pinero, painter (+ 1934)
1858 - Johan C Braakensiek, political cartoonist
1863 - George Grey Barnard, American sculptor
1866 - Armando Frid (+ 1990)
1870 - Jan Christian Smuts (+ 1950)
1878 - Lillian Moller Gilbreth, mother of modern management (+ 1972)
1886 - Paul Paray, conductor, composer (+ 1979)
1889 - Igor Sikorsky, inventor, flight pioneer (+ 1972)
1891 - William F. Albright, American archeologist and Biblical scholar
1893 - Walter Baade, astronomer
1899 - Suzanne Lenglen, French tennis player
1905 - Zdenek Blazek, composer (+ 1988)
1909 - Wilbur Mills, United States politician
1910 - Nils-Eric Fougstedt (+ 1961)
1912 - Joan Hammond, soprano
1913 - Willi Daume, Olympic organizer (+ 1996)
1914 - Lilli Palmer, actress (+ 1986)
1917 - John Robert Russell, Duke of Bedford (+ 2002)
1922 or 1923 - Siobhan McKenna, actress (+ 1986)
1925 - Mai Zetterling, entertainer (+ 1994)
1928 - Stanley Baxter, actor
1928 - William Trevor, writer
1930 - Hans-Martin Linde, conductor
1934 - Jane Byrne, former mayor of Chicago, Illinois
1935 - Joan Micklin Silver, director, writer
1936 - Harold Budd, musician
1938 - Tommy Chong, actor, comedian
1940 - Joseph Brodsky, poet
1941 - Bob Dylan (aka Robert Allen Zimmerman)
1942 - Derek Quinn, musician
1943 - Gary Burghoff, actor
1944 - Arthur Brown, musician
1944 - Patti LaBelle, singer
1944 - Frank Oz, puppeteer, writer, producer, actor, director
1945 - Priscilla Presley, actress
1946 - Irena Kirszenstein-Szewinska, Polish athlete
1949 - Jim Broadbent, actor
1953 - Alfred Molina, actor
1955 - Rosanne Cash, singer
1960 - Kristin Scott Thomas, actress
1962 - Bev Lidyoff, volleyball player
1965 - John C. Reilly, actor
1966 - Eric Cantona, French footballerer
1967 - Heavy D, rap musician, actor
1979 - Tracy McGrady, basketball player
1988 - Billy Gilman, singer

Deaths

(not all cross-checked)

1153 - King David I of Scotland
1543 - Nicolas Copernicus, astronomer
1612 - Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, 1st Viscount Cranborne
1848 - Annette von Droste-Hülshoff
1879 - William Lloyd Garrison, ist, writer, publisher
1883 - Abdel Kadir, Algerian leader
1903 - Marcel Renault, automobile racer
1924 - Victor Herbert, operetta composer
1950 - Archibald Wavell, general
1959 - John Foster Dulles, United States Secretary of State
1963 - Elmore James, writer
1969 - Willy Ley, rocket scientist
1974 - Duke Ellington, composer, musician
1981 - George Jessel, vaudevillian
1995 - Harold Wilson, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
1997 - Edward Mulhare, actor
2003 - Lady Rachel Kempson, actress

Holidays and Observances

Clear Rain Day, in the Mansfield and Trinity areas of Hawick, Scotland, is celebrated on this day (and the weekend preceding it). It is rumoured that two people found some unknown power and were able to use it on many things, mental and physical, on this night, and it also rained when it was clear (hence the name).

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