October 24 is the 297th day of the year (298th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 68 days remaining.

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