24 August 2024 (MIA)

1391 – Jews are massacred in Palma de Mallorca.

1456 – The printing of the Gutenberg Bible is completed.

1516 – The Ottoman Empire under Selim I defeats the Mamluk Sultanate and captures present-day Syria at the Battle of Marj Dabiq.

1662 – The Act of Uniformity requires England to accept the Book of Common Prayer.

1690 – Job Charnock of the East India Company establishes a factory in Calcutta, an event formerly considered the founding of the city (in 2003 the Calcutta High Court ruled that the city has no birthday).

1814 – British troops invade Washington, D.C. and during the Burning of Washington the White House is set ablaze, though not burned to the ground; as well as several other buildings.

1815 – The modern Constitution of the Netherlands is signed.

1821 – The Treaty of Córdoba is signed in Córdoba, now in Veracruz, Mexico, concluding the Mexican War of Independence from Spain.

1857 – The Panic of 1857 begins, setting off one of the most severe economic crises in United States history.

1891 – Thomas Edison patents the motion picture camera.

1898 – Count Muravyov, Foreign Minister of Russia, presents a rescript that convoked the First Hague Peace Conference.

1912 – Alaska becomes a United States territory.

1929 – Second day of two-day Hebron massacre during the 1929 Palestine riots: Arab attacks on the Jewish community in Hebron in the British Mandate of Palestine result in the death of 65-68 Jews and the remaining Jews being forced to leave the city.

1931 – France and the Soviet Union sign a neutrality/no attack treaty.

1931 – Resignation of the United Kingdom’s Second Labour Government. Formation of the UK National Government.

1932 – Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly across the United States non-stop (from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey).

1937 – In the Spanish Civil War, the Basque Army surrenders to the Italian Corpo Truppe Volontarie following the Santoña Agreement

1941 – Adolf Hitler orders the cessation of Nazi Germany’s systematic T4 euthanasia program of the mentally ill and the disabled due to protests, although killings continue for the remainder of the war.

1944 – World War II: Allied troops begin the attack on Paris.

1949 – The treaty creating NATO goes into effect.

1954 – The Communist Control Act goes into effect. The American Communist Party is outlawed.

1963 – Buddhist crisis: As a result of the Xa Loi Pagoda raids, the US State Department cables the US Embassy in Saigon to encourage Army of the Republic of Vietnam generals to launch a coup against President Ngo Dinh Diem if he did not remove his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu.

1981 – Mark David Chapman is sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for murdering John Lennon.

1989 – Colombian drug barons declare “total war” on the Colombian government.

1991 – Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

1991 – Ukraine declares itself independent from the Soviet Union.

1994 – Initial accord between Israel and the PLO about partial self-rule of the Palestinians on the West Bank.

1998 – First radio-frequency identification (RFID) human implantation tested in the United Kingdom.

2004 – Eighty-nine passengers die after two airliners explode after flying out of Domodedovo International Airport, near Moscow. The explosions are caused by suicide bombers (reportedly female) from the Russian Republic of Chechnya.

2006 – The International Astronomical Union (IAU) redefines the term “planet” such that Pluto is now considered a dwarf planet.

2010 – In San Fernando, Tamaulipas, Mexico, 72 illegal immigrants are killed by Los Zetas and eventually found dead by Mexican authorities.

2016 – On 24 August, a magnitude of 6.2 earthquake hit the Apennines Mountains in central Italy, devastating the small towns of Amartrice, Accumoli and Pescare del Tronto. At least 293 lives were lost.