October 24

Events

• 69 - Second Battle of Bedriacum, forces under Antonius Primus, the commander of the Danube armies, loyal to Vespasian, defeat the forces of Emperor Vitellius.
• 1360 - The Treaty of Brétigny is ratified at Calais, marking the end of the first phase of the Hundred Years' War.
• 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.
• 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" crash of 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 - Zuikaku Japanese aircraft carrier destroyed
• 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
• 1955 - The body of Manolo Just, a probable bisexual, is found in the Mexico apartment of Mary Rogers, daughter of Will Rogers. Homicide is suspected, but never proven.
• 1956 - Soviet Union invades Hungary
• 1960 - 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)
• 1970 - Salvador Allende elected President of Chile
• 1973 - Yom Kippur War ends
• 1980 - Government of Poland legalizes Solidarity trade union
• 1989 - Televangelist Jim Bakker is sentenced to 45 years in prison and a 500,000 USD fine for defrauding investors of 3.7 million USD.
• 1998 - Launch of Deep Space 1 comet/asteroid mission
• 1998 - Tropical Storm Mitch reaches hurricane strength.
• 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.
  

  Births

• 51 - Roman Emperor Domitian (d. 96)
• 1632 - Anton van Leeuwenhoek, Dutch microbiologist (d. 1723)
• 1788 - Sarah Hale, poet (d. 1879)
• 1811 - Ferdinand Hiller, composer (d. 1885)
• 1855 - James S. Sherman, Vice President of the United States (d.1912)
• 1868 - Alexandra David-Néel, French explorer and writer (d. 1969)
• 1887 - Victoria Eugenia, Queen of Spain (d. 1969)
• 1891 - Rafael Molina-Trujillo, President of the Dominican Republic
• 1903 - Melvin Purvis, FBI chief (d. 1960)
• 1904 - Moss Hart, dramatist (d. 1961)
• 1909 - Bill Carr, American athlete (d. 1966)
• 1915 - Tito Gobbi, Italian baritone (d. 1984)
• 1915 - Bob Kane, cartoonist (d. 1998)
• 1925 - Luciano Berio, Italian composer (d. 2003)
• 1926 - Y. A. Tittle, American football star
• 1927 - Jean-Claude Pascal, French singer, Eurovision Song Contest winner (d.1992)
• 1929 - George Crumb, American composer
• 1929 - Yordan Radichkov, Bulgarian writer
• 1930 - The Big Bopper (Jiles Perry Richardson, Jr.), American singer (d. 1959)
• 1930 - Sultan Ahmad Shah, King of Malaysia
• 1931 - Sofia Gubaidulina, composer
• 1936 - Bill Wyman, musician (the Rolling Stones)
• 1939 - F. Murray Abraham, Academy Award-winning actor
• 1947 - Kevin Kline, American Academy Award-winning actor
• 1948 - Kweisi Mfume, American civil rights activist, U.S. Congressman from Maryland
• 1960 - Ian Baker-Finch, golf champion
• 1961 - Mary Bono, U.S. Congresswoman from California
• 1966 - Roman Abramovich, Russian oligarch and oil magnate
• 1962 - B.D. Wong, actor
• 1972 - Pat Williams, American football player
• 1981 - Tila Nguyen, model
• 1985 - Wayne Rooney, English footballer
  

  Deaths

• 996 - King Hugh Capet of France (b. 938)
• 1655 - Pierre Gassendi, French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist (b. 1592)
• 1672 - John Webb, architect
• 1799 - Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf, composer
• 1821 - Elias Boudinot, American President of the Continental Congress
• 1852 - Daniel Webster, American lawyer and politician
• 1898 - Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, French painter
• 1912 - Mykola Lysenko, composer
• 1944 - Louis Renault, automobile manufacturer, Nazi collaborator
• 1945 - Vidkun Quisling, Norwegian politician and famous traitor
• 1948 - Franz Lehár, composer
• 1957 - Christian Dior, an influential French fashion designer (b. 1905)
• 1971 - Carl Ruggles, composer
• 1972 - Jackie Robinson, member of the Baseball Hall of Fame
• 1974 - David Oistrakh, Ukrainian violinist (b. 1908)
• 1991 - Gene Roddenberry, creator of the Star Trek series
• 1997 - Don Messick, voice actor
• 2001 - Wolf Rüdiger Hess, German neo-Nazi
• 2002 - Winton M. Blount first United States Postmaster General to have served in a Presidential Cabinet
• 2002 - Adolph Green, American lyricist and playwright
• 2002 - Harry Hay, US gay rights activist and Mattachine Society founder
• 2004 - James Cardinal Hickey, archbishop of Washington, D.C

  Holidays and observations

• United Nations Day
• Zambia - Independence Day (1964)
  

  External links

• BBC: On This Day

October 23 - October 25 - November 24 - September 24 - more historical anniversaries