October 24
is the 297th day of the year (298th in
leap years) in the
Gregorian Calendar, with 68 days remaining.
*
69 -
Second Battle of Bedriacum, forces under Antonius Primus, the commander of the Danube armies, loyal to
Vespasian, defeat the forces of
Emperor Vitellius.
*
1260 - The spectacular
Cathedral of Chartres is dedicated in the presence of King
Louis IX of France; the cathedral is now a
UNESCO World Heritage Site.
* 1260 -
Saif ad-Din Qutuz,
Mamluk sultan of
Egypt, is
assassinated by
Baibars, who seizes power for himself.
*
1360 - The
Treaty of Brétigny is ratified at
Calais, marking the end of the first phase of the
Hundred Years' War.
*
1593 - Alleged
teleportation of
Gil Perez.
*
1648 - The
Peace of Westphalia is signed, marking the end of the
Thirty Years' War.
*
1795 -
Partitions of Poland: The
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is completely divided between
Austria,
Prussia and
Russia*
1812 -
Napoleonic Wars: The
Battle of Maloyaroslavets takes place near
Moscow.
*
1857 -
Sheffield F.C., the worlds first football club, is founded in
Sheffield,
England.
*
1861 - The first transcontinental
telegraph line across the
United States is completed, spelling the end for the 18-month-old
Pony Express.
*
1917 - Battle of
Caporetto starts on the
Austro-
Italian front of
World War I*
1929 - "
Black Thursday"
stock market crash on the
New York Stock Exchange.
*
1930 - A bloodless
coup d'état in
Brazil ousts
Washington Luís Pereira de Sousa, the last
President of the
First Republic.
Getúlio Dornelles Vargas is then installed as "provisional president."
*
1935 -
Italy invades
Ethiopia*
1944 -
World War II: The
Japanese
aircraft carrier Zuikaku is sunk.
*
1945 - Founding of the
United Nations*
1947 -
Walt Disney testifies to the House
Unamerican Activities Committee, naming Disney employees he believes to be
communists.
*
1954 -
Dwight D. Eisenhower pledges
United States support to
South Vietnam*
1957 - the USAF starts the
X-20 Dyna-Soar program.
*
1960 -
Nedelin catastrophe: An
R-16 ballistic missile explodes on the launch pad at the
Soviet Union's
Baikonur Cosmodrome space facility, killing 165. Among the dead is Field Marshall
Mitrofan Nedelin, whose death is reported to have occurred in a plane crash.
*
1964 -
Northern Rhodesia gains independence from the
United Kingdom and becomes the
Republic of Zambia (Southern
Rhodesia remained a colony)
*
1973 -
Yom Kippur War ends
*
1977 -
Veterans Day is observed on the fourth Monday in October for the seventh and last time. (The holiday is once again observed on
November 11 beginning the following year.)
*
1980 - Government of
Poland legalizes
Solidarity trade union*
1986 -
Nezar Hindawi is sentenced to 45 years in prison, the longest sentence handed down by a British court, for the attempted bombing on an
El Al flight at
Heathrow. After the verdict, the
United Kingdom breaks diplomatic relations with
Syria, claiming that Hindawi was helped by Syrian officials.
*
1990 - Italian prime minister
Giulio Andreotti reveals to the Italian parliament the existence of
Gladio, the Italian "
stay-behind" clandestine paramilitary
NATO army.
*
1995 - A total
solar eclipse is visible from Iran, India, Thailand, and SE Asia. [
1]
*
1998 - Launch of
Deep Space 1 comet/
asteroid mission
*
2002 - Police
arrest spree killers
John Allen Muhammad and
Lee Boyd Malvo, ending the
Beltway sniper attacks in the area around
Washington, DC.
*
2003 -
Concorde makes its last commercial
flight, bringing the era of
airliner supersonic transport to a close, at least for the time being.
*
2004 - A plane carrying ten members of the
NASCAR Hendrick Motorsports team
crashes en route to the race held at
Martinsville Speedway. There were no survivors.
*
2005 -
Hurricane Wilma makes landfall in South Florida.
*
2006 -
Eid ul-Fitr (Muslim holiday)
*
51 -
Domitian,
Roman Emperor (d.
96)
*
1402 -
David Stewart, Duke of Rothesay, heir to the throne of Scotland (b.
1378)
*
1632 -
Anton van Leeuwenhoek, Dutch microbiologist (d.
1723)
*
1675 -
Richard Temple, 1st Viscount Cobham, English soldier and politician (d.
1749)
*
1710 -
Alban Butler, English Catholic priest and writer (d.
1773)
*
1788 -
Sarah Hale, American poet (d.
1879)
*
1804 -
Wilhelm Eduard Weber, German physicist (d.
1891)
*
1811 -
Ferdinand Hiller, German composer (d.
1885)
*
1854 -
Hendrik Willem Bakhuis Roozeboom, Dutch chemist (d.
1907)
*
1855 -
James S. Sherman,
Vice President of the United States (d.
1912)
*
1857 -
Ned Williamson, baseball player (d.
1894)
*
1868 -
Alexandra David-Néel, French explorer and writer (d.
1969)
*
1872 -
Peter O'Connor, Irish athlete (d.
1957)
*
1875 -
Konstantin Yuon, Russian painter (d.
1958)
*
1887 -
Octave Lapize, French cyclist (d.
1917)
*
1891 -
Rafael Molina-Trujillo,
President of the Dominican Republic (d.
1961)
*
1901 -
Gilda Gray, Polish-born actress and dancer (d.
1959)
*
1903 -
Melvin Purvis, American Federal Bureau of Investigation agent (d.
1960)
*
1904 -
Moss Hart, American dramatist (d.
1961)
*
1909 -
Bill Carr, American athlete (d.
1966)
*
1915 -
Tito Gobbi, Italian baritone (d.
1984)
* 1915 -
Bob Kane, American cartoonist (d.
1998)
* 1915 -
Roger Milliken, American millionaire
*
1923 -
Denise Levertov, English-born poet (d
1997)
*
1925 -
Luciano Berio, Italian composer (d.
2003)
*
1926 -
Y. A. Tittle, American football player
*
1927 -
Jean-Claude Pascal, French singer (d.
1992)
*
1929 -
George Crumb, American composer
* 1929 -
Yordan Radichkov, Bulgarian writer
*
1930 -
The Big Bopper, American singer (d.
1959)
* 1930 -
Johan Galtung, Norwegian scientist
* 1930 -
Sultan Ahmad Shah,
King of Malaysia*
1931 -
Sofia Gubaidulina, Russian composer
*
1932 -
Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, French physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate
* 1932 -
Robert Mundell, Canadian economist,
Nobel Prize laureate
*
1933 -
Ronald and Reginald Kray, British gangsters
*
1935 -
Malcolm Bilson, American pianist and music professor
*
1936 -
Bill Wyman, English musician (
The Rolling Stones)
*
1939 -
F. Murray Abraham, American actor
*
1945 -
Anthony Christian, English Artist
*
1946 -
Jerry Edmonton, Canadian drummer (
Steppenwolf)
*
1947 -
Kevin Kline, American actor
*
1948 -
Kweisi Mfume, American civil rights activist, U.S. Congressman from Maryland
*
1950 -
Steven Greenberg, composer
* 1950 -
Rawly Eastwick, baseball player
*
1954 -
Mike Rounds, Governor of South Dakota
*
1957 -
Ron Gardenhire, baseball manager
*
1960 -
Ian Baker-Finch, Australian golf player
* 1960 -
Jaime Garzón, Colombian journalist and comedian (d.
1999)
*
1961 -
Mary Bono, U.S. Congresswoman from California
*
1962 -
B.D. Wong, American actor
* 1962 -
Dave Blaney, American race car driver
*
1966 -
Roman Abramovich, Russian oil magnate
*
1971 -
Dervla Kirwan, Irish actress
* 1971 -
Caprice Bourret, American model and actress
*
1972 -
Scott Peterson, American murderer
* 1972 -
Pat Williams, American football player
*
1973 -
Levi Leipheimer, American cyclist
* 1973 -
Jackie McNamara, Scottish footballer
* 1973 -
Mike Matthews, baseball player
*
1974 -
Wilton Guerrero, baseball player
*
1975 -
Juan Pablo Ángel, Columbian footballer
*
1977 -
Iván Kaviedes, Ecuadoran footballer
*
1979 -
Ben Gillies, Australian musician (
Silverchair)
*
1980 -
James Killian, American football player
* 1980 -
Monica, American singer
*
1981 -
Tila "Tequila" Nguyen, American model
*
1981 -
Zac Posen, American fashion designer
*
1983 -
Brian Vickers, American race car driver
*
1985 -
Wayne Rooney, English footballer
*
1989 -
Eliza Taylor-Cotter, Australian actress
*
996 - King
Hugh Capet of France (b.
938)
*
1260 -
Saif ad-Din Qutuz, Mamluk sultan of Egypt
*
1375 - King
Valdemar IV of Denmark (bc.
1320)
*
1537 -
Jane Seymour, third wife of
Henry VIII of England*
1572 -
Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby, English politician (bc.
1508)
*
1601 -
Tycho Brahe, Danish astronomer (b.
1546)
*
1655 -
Pierre Gassendi, French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist (b.
1592)
*
1669 -
William Prynne, English Puritan leader (b.
1600)
*
1672 -
John Webb, English architect (b.
1611)
*
1708 -
Kowa Seki, Japanese mathematician
*
1725 -
Alessandro Scarlatti, Italian composer (b.
1660)
*
1799 -
Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf, Austrian composer (b.
1739)
*
1821 -
Elias Boudinot, American
President of the Continental Congress (b.
1740)
*
1852 -
Daniel Webster, American lawyer and politician (b.
1782)
*
1898 -
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, French painter (b.
1824)
*
1912 -
Mykola Lysenko, Ukrainian composer (b.
1842)
*
1915 -
Désiré Charnay, French archaeologist (b.
1828)
*
1938 -
Ernst Barlach, German sculptor (b.
1870)
*
1944 -
Louis Renault, French automobile manufacturer (b.
1877)
*
1945 -
Vidkun Quisling, Norwegian traitor (executed) (b.
1887)
*
1948 -
Franz Lehár, Austrian composer (b.
1870)
*
1957 -
Christian Dior, French fashion designer (b.
1905)
*
1971 -
Carl Ruggles, American composer (b.
1876)
*
1972 -
Jackie Robinson, baseball player (b.
1919)
* 1972 -
Claire Windsor, American actress (b.
1897)
*
1974 -
David Oistrakh, Ukrainian violinist (b.
1908)
*
1991 -
Gene Roddenberry, American television producer (b.
1921)
*
1997 -
Don Messick, American voice actor (b.
1926)
*
2001 -
Wolf Rüdiger Hess, German neo-Nazi (b.
1937)
*
2002 -
Winton M. Blount, United States Postmaster General (b.
1921)
* 2002 -
Adolph Green, American lyricist and playwright (b.
1914)
* 2002 -
Harry Hay, American activist (b.
1912)
*
2004 -
Randy Dorton, American race car crew member (b.
1954)
* 2004 -
Ricky Hendrick, American race car team owner (b.
1980)
* 2004 -
James Cardinal Hickey, American Catholic archbishop (b.
1920)
*
2005 -
José Azcona del Hoyo,
President of Honduras (b.
1926)
* 2005 -
Rosa Parks, American civil rights activist (b.
1913)
*
R.C. Saints - optional memorial of Antonio Maria Claret
* Also see
October 24 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)*
Zambia -
Independence Day (
1964)
*
United Nations Day (charter
1945)
*
Discordianism - Maladay
* In
The Fellowship of the Ring, by
J.R.R. Tolkien, the date is mentioned to
Frodo Baggins by
Gandalf upon his waking in
Rivendell.
*
BBC: On This Day*
Daily historical facts and eventsOctober 23 -
October 25 -
September 24 -
November 24 - more
historical anniversaries
