History Events on May 24

The Brooklyn Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic after 14 years of construction.

#Brooklyn_Bridge

United Press International is formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service.

#United_Press_International

Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo and five other people are assassinated in a shootout at Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla Guadalajara International Airport in Mexico.

#Juan_Jesús_Posadas_Ocampo

Following the 1960 Valdivia earthquake, the largest ever recorded earthquake, Cordón Caulle begins to erupt.

#1960_Valdivia_earthquake

Samuel Morse sends the message "What hath God wrought" (a biblical quotation, Numbers 23:23) from a committee room in the United States Capitol to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, Maryland, to inaugurate a commercial telegraph line between Baltimore and Washington D.C.

#Samuel_Morse

South American independence leader Simón Bolívar enters Mérida, leading the invasion of Venezuela, and is proclaimed El Libertador ("The Liberator").

#Simón_Bolívar

John Wesley is converted, essentially launching the Methodist movement; the day is celebrated annually by Methodists as Aldersgate Day and a church service is generally held on the preceding Sunday.

#John_Wesley

At least three people are killed in a shooting at Brussels' Jewish Museum of Belgium.

#Jewish_Museum_of_Belgium_shooting

The Fifth Crusade leaves Acre for Egypt.

#Fifth_Crusade

The ten-year-old Lambert Simnel is crowned in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, Ireland, with the name of Edward VI in a bid to threaten King Henry VII's reign.

#Lambert_Simnel

American Civil War: Union troops occupy Alexandria, Virginia.

#American_Civil_War

World War I: Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary, joining the conflict on the side of the Allies.

#World_War_I

Magnus Ladulås is crowned King of Sweden in Uppsala Cathedral.

#Magnus_III_of_Sweden

The Irish Rebellion of 1798 led by the United Irishmen against British rule begins.

#Irish_Rebellion_of_1798

The ethnic cleansing in Kozarac, Bosnia and Herzegovina begins when Serbian militia and police forces enter the town.

#Kozarac

Liberation of Khorramshahr: Iranians recapture of the port city of Khorramshahr from the Iraqis during the Iran-Iraq War.

#Liberation_of_Khorramshahr

Russia and the United States sign the Moscow Treaty.

#Strategic_Offensive_Reductions_Treaty

Amy Johnson lands in Darwin, Northern Territory, becoming the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia (she left on May 5 for the 11,000 mile flight).

#Amy_Johnson

Battle of Pichincha: Antonio José de Sucre secures the independence of the Presidency of Quito.

#Battle_of_Pichincha

Four men convicted of bombing the World Trade Center in New York in 1993 are each sentenced to 240 years in prison.

#1993_World_Trade_Center_bombing

Acting on the orders of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, NKVD agent Iosif Grigulevich orchestrates an unsuccessful assassination attempt on exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky in Coyoacán, Mexico.

#Soviet_Union

The Judgment of Paris takes place in France, launching California as a worldwide force in the production of quality wine.

#Judgment_of_Paris_(wine)

Peter Minuit buys Manhattan.

#Peter_Minuit

Nomenclator of Leiden University Library appears, the first printed catalog of an institutional library.

#Nomenclator_(nomenclature)

John Brown and his men kill five slavery supporters at Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas.

#John_Brown_(abolitionist)

Arab-Israeli War: Egypt captures the Israeli kibbutz of Yad Mordechai, but the five-day effort gives Israeli forces time to prepare enough to stop the Egyptian advance a week later.

#1948_Arab-Israeli_War

"Mary Had a Little Lamb" by Sarah Josepha Hale is published.

#Mary_Had_a_Little_Lamb

Egypt imposes a blockade and siege of the Red Sea coast of Israel.

#Egypt

The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England, opens as the world's first university museum.

#Ashmolean_Museum

Under pressure over her handling of Brexit, British Prime Minister Theresa May announces her resignation as Leader of the Conservative Party, effective as of June 7. She will remain as Prime Minister until a new Tory leader is selected in late July 2019.

#Brexit

Second Boer War: The United Kingdom annexes the Orange Free State.

#Second_Boer_War

The Protestant Union is formally dissolved.

#Protestant_Union

The English Parliament passes the Act of Toleration protecting dissenting Protestants but excluding Roman Catholics.

#Parliament_of_England

100 English settlers disembark in Jamestown, the first permanent English colony in America.

#Jamestown,_Virginia

Project Mercury: American astronaut Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule.

#Project_Mercury

World War II: In the Battle of the Atlantic, the German Battleship Bismarck sinks then-pride of the Royal Navy, HMS Hood, killing all but three crewmen.

#World_War_II

Israel conducts Operation Solomon, evacuating Ethiopian Jews to Israel.

#Israel

Igor Sikorsky performs the first successful single-rotor helicopter flight.

#Igor_Sikorsky

The last Thai dictator, General Suchinda Kraprayoon, resigns following pro-democracy protests.

#Thailand

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands indicts Slobodan Miloševi? and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo.

#International_Criminal_Tribunal_for_the_former_Yugoslavia

Ecuadorian president Jaime Roldós Aguilera, his wife, and his presidential committee die in an aircraft accident while travelling from Quito to Zapotillo minutes after the president gave a famous speech regarding the 24 de mayo anniversary of the Battle of Pichincha.

#Jaime_Roldós_Aguilera

The nobles of Franconia and Saxony elect Henry the Fowler at the Imperial Diet in Fritzlar as king of the East Frankish Kingdom.

#Franconia

A 6.4 magnitude earthquake occurs in the Aegean Sea between Greece and Turkey, injuring 324 people.

#2014_Aegean_Sea_earthquake

19 students died in a fire in Surat (India).

Israeli troops withdraw from southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation.

Section 28 of the United Kingdom's Local Government Act 1988, a controversial amendment stating that a local authority cannot intentionally promote homosexuality, is enacted.

American civil rights movement: Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, for "disturbing the peace" after disembarking from their bus.

The first Eurovision Song Contest is held in Lugano, Switzerland.

The first night game in Major League Baseball history is played in Cincinnati, Ohio, with the Cincinnati Reds beating the Philadelphia Phillies 2-1 at Crosley Field.

The First Kingdom of Greece is declared in the London Conference.

The French Royal Army crosses the border into the Spanish Netherlands, starting the War of Devolution opposing France to the Spanish Empire and the Triple Alliance.

Erik XIV of Sweden and his guards murder five incarcerated Swedish nobles.