24 November

Events

• 1639 - Jeremiah Horrocks observes the transit of Venus.
• 1642 - Abel Tasman becomes the first European to discover the island Van Diemen's Land (later renamed Tasmania).
• 1859 - British naturalist Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of Species, a book which argues that organisms gradually evolve through natural selection (it immediately sold out its initial print run).
• 1863 - American Civil War: Battle of Lookout Mountain - Near Chattanooga, Tennessee, Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant capture Lookout Mountain and begin to break the Confederate siege of the city led by General Braxton Bragg.
• 1904 - The first successful caterpillar track is made (it would later revolutionize construction vehicles and land warfare).
• 1922 - Popular author and Irish Republican Army member Robert Erskine Childers is executed by an Irish Free State firing squad for illegally carrying a revolver.
• 1932 - In Washington, DC, the FBI Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory (better known as the FBI Crime Lab) officially opens.
• 1941 - World War II: The United States grants Lend-Lease to the Free French.
• 1944 - World War II: Bombing of Tokyo - The first bombing raid against the Japanese capital of Tokyo from the east and by land was made by 88 American aircraft.
• 1947 - Red Scare: After refusing to co-operate with the House Un-American Activities Committee concerning allegations of Communist influence in the movie industry, the United States House of Representatives votes 346 to 17 to approve citations of contempt of Congress against the so-called Hollywood 10.
• 1947 - Robert Schuman becomes Prime Minister of France
• 1951 - The Broadway play Gigi opens starring little known actress Audrey Hepburn playing the lead character (the play ran for six months and lead to Hepburn's film debut in Roman Holiday).
• 1963 - John F. Kennedy assassination: Alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald is mortally shot by Jack Ruby in Dallas, Texas on live national television.
• 1963 - Vietnam War: Newly sworn in US President Lyndon B. Johnson confirms that the United States intends to continue supporting South Vietnam militarily and economically.
• 1969 - Apollo program: The Apollo 12 spacecraft splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean, ending the second manned mission to the Moon.
• 1971 - During a severe thunderstorm over Washington state, a man calling himself Dan Cooper (commonly remembered as D. B. Cooper) parachutes from the Northwest Orient Airlines plane he hijacked with US$200,000 in ransom money (he was never heard from again).
• 1976 - The Band gives its last public performance; Martin Scorsese is on hand to film it.
• 1992 - In the People's Republic of China, a China Southern Airlines domestic flight crashes, killing all 141 people on-board.
• 1993 - In the United Kingdom, 11-year olds Robert Thompson and Jon Venables are convicted of the child murder of 2-year-old James Bulger of Liverpool (they were sentenced to "indefinite detention").
• 1996 - Rusty Wallace wins the Suzuka NASCAR Thunder 100 racing event at Suzuka Circuitland in Suzuka City (this was the first NASCAR competition held in Japan).
• 1997 - Following a 554.26 point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), officials at the New York Stock Exchange for the first time invoke the "circuit breaker" rule to stop trading (this was a very controversial move and prompted a quick change in the rule; trading stops will only occur when the DJIA drops at least 10 or 20 percent).
• 1998 - America Online announces it will acquire Netscape Communications in a stock-for-stock transaction worth US$4.2 billion.

Births

• 1632 - Baruch Spinoza, philosopher (d. 1677)
• 1713 - Laurence Sterne, novelist (d. 1768)
• 1713 - Junipero Serra, founder of California missions (d. 1784)
• 1784 - Zachary Taylor, 12th President of the United States (d. 1850)
• 1787 - Franz Xaver Gruber, organist and composer (d. 1863)
• 1801 - Ludwig Bechstein, narrator and poet (d. 1860)
• 1826 - Carlo Collodi, author (d. 1890)
• 1849 - Frances Hodgson Burnett, author (d. 1924)
• 1853 - Bat Masterson, gunslinger, policeman, sports reporter (d. 1921)
• 1859 - Cass Gilbert, architect, designer of U.S. Supreme Court Building (d. 1934)
• 1864 - Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, painter (d. 1901)
• 1868 - Scott Joplin, musician (d. 1917)
• 1876 - Walter Burley Griffin, architect
• 1877 - Alben W. Barkley, Vice President of the United States (d. 1956)
• 1881 - Al Christie, early Hollywood director/producer (d. 1951)
• 1884 - Itzhak Ben-Zvi, President of Israel (1952-1963) (d. 1963)
• 1888 - Dale Carnegie, writer (d. 1955)
• 1905 - Irving Allen, producer, director (d. 1987)
• 1912 - Garson Kanin, writer (d. 1999)
• 1912 - Teddy Wilson, jazz musician (d. 1986)
• 1913 - Geraldine Fitzgerald, actress
• 1916 - Forrest J. Ackerman, writer, publisher
• 1917 - Howard Duff, actor
• 1921 - John Lindsay, American politician (d. 2000)
• 1925 - William F. Buckley Jr., writer, political commentator
• 1934 - Alfred Schnittke, composer (d. 1998)
• 1936 - Sophie Daumier, actress
• 1938 - Oscar Robertson, basketball hall of famer
• 1941 - Pete Best, drummer
• 1943 - Dave Bing, basketball star
• 1947 - Dwight Schultz, actor
• 1946 - Ted Bundy, serial killer
• 1948 - Steve Yeager, baseball player
• 1952 - Thierry Lhermitte, actor
• 1953 - Mudbone Cooper, singer (P Funk)
• 1955 - Ian Botham, English cricketer

Deaths

• 1541 - Margaret Tudor
• 1848 - Lord Melbourne, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
• 1922 - Robert Erskine Childers, author, Irish nationalist (executed)
• 1929 - Georges Clemenceau, Premier of France
• 1956 - Guido Cantelli, conductor
• 1963 - Lee Harvey Oswald, assassination suspect
• 1957 - Diego Rivera, painter
• 1973 - John Neihardt, ghostwriter of Black Elk Speaks
• 1980 - George Raft, actor
• 1991 - Freddie Mercury, musician (Queen)
• 1996 - Sorley MacLean, Scots Gaelic poet
• 2001 - Melanie Thornton, singer
• 2002 - John Rawls, philosopher
• 2003 - Warren Spahn, Major League Baseball pitcher

See also

November 23 - November 25 - October 24 - December 24 -- listing of all days

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

Referenced By