On This Day — 24 August

2000s

2023

Japan officially begins discharging treated radioactive water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean, sparking international concerns and condemnation.

Discharge of radioactive water of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant

2020

Erin O'Toole is elected leader of the Conservative Party of Canada.

Erin O'Toole

2017

The National Space Agency of Taiwan successfully launches the observation satellite Formosat-5 into space.

List of government space agencies

2016

An earthquake strikes Central Italy with a magnitude of 6.2, with aftershocks felt as far as Rome and Florence. Around 300 people are killed.

August 2016 Central Italy earthquake

2016

Proxima Centauri b, the closest exoplanet to Earth, is discovered by the European Southern Observatory.

Proxima Centauri b

2014

A magnitude 6.0 earthquake strikes the San Francisco Bay Area; it is the largest in that area since 1989.

2014 South Napa earthquake

2012

Anders Behring Breivik, perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks, is sentenced to 21 years of preventive detention.

Anders Behring Breivik

2010

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

San Fernando, Tamaulipas

2010

Henan Airlines Flight 8387 crashes at Yichun Lindu Airport in Yichun, Heilongjiang, China, killing 44 out of the 96 people on board.

Henan Airlines Flight 8387

2010

Agni Air Flight 101 crashes near Shikharpur, Makwanpur, Nepal, killing all 14 people on board.

Agni Air Flight 101

2008

Sixty-five passengers are killed when Iran Aseman Airlines Flight 6895 crashes during an emergency landing at Manas International Airport in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

Iran Aseman Airlines Flight 6895

2008

A Cessna 208 Caravan crashes in Cabañas, Zacapa, Guatemala, killing 11 people.

Cessna 208 Caravan

2006

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

International Astronomical Union

2004

Ninety passengers die after two airliners explode after flying out of Domodedovo International Airport, near Moscow. The explosions are caused by suicide bombers from Chechnya.

2004 Russian aircraft bombings

2001

Air Transat Flight 236 loses all engine power over the Atlantic Ocean, forcing the pilots to conduct an emergency landing in the Azores.

Air Transat Flight 236

1900s

1998

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

Radio-frequency identification

1995

Microsoft releases Windows 95 to the public in North America.

Microsoft

1992

Hurricane Andrew makes landfall in Homestead, Florida as a Category 5 hurricane, causing up to $25 billion (1992 USD) in damages.

Hurricane Andrew

1991

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

Mikhail Gorbachev

1991

Ukraine declares itself independent from the Soviet Union.

Ukraine

1989

Colombian drug barons declare "total war" on the Colombian government.

Colombia

1989

Tadeusz Mazowiecki is chosen as the first non-communist prime minister in Central and Eastern Europe.

Tadeusz Mazowiecki

1981

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

Mark David Chapman

1970

Vietnam War protesters bomb Sterling Hall at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, leading to an international manhunt for the perpetrators.

Vietnam War

1967

Led by Abbie Hoffman, the Youth International Party temporarily disrupts trading at the New York Stock Exchange by throwing dollar bills from the viewing gallery, causing trading to cease as brokers scramble to grab them.

Abbie Hoffman

1963

Buddhist crisis: As a result of the Xá Lợi Pagoda raids, the US State Department cables the United States Embassy, Saigon to encourage Army of the Republic of Vietnam generals to launch a coup against President Ngô Đình Diệm if he did not remove his brother Ngô Đình Nhu.

Buddhist crisis

1954

The Communist Control Act goes into effect, outlawing the Communist Party in the United States.

Communist Control Act of 1954

1954

Vice president João Café Filho takes office as president of Brazil, following the suicide of Getúlio Vargas.

Café Filho

1951

United Air Lines Flight 615 crashes near Decoto, California, killing 50 people.

United Air Lines Flight 615

1950

Edith Sampson becomes the first black U.S. delegate to the United Nations.

Edith S. Sampson

1949

The treaty creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization goes into effect.

NATO

1944

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

Liberation of Paris

1942

World War II: The Battle of the Eastern Solomons. Japanese aircraft carrier Ryūjō is sunk, with the loss of seven officers and 113 crewmen. The US carrier USS Enterprise is heavily damaged.

World War II

1941

The Holocaust: Adolf Hitler orders the cessation of Nazi Germany's systematic T4 euthanasia program of the mentally ill and the handicapped due to protests, although killings continue for the remainder of the war.

The Holocaust

1938

Kweilin incident: A Japanese warplane shoots down the Kweilin, a Chinese civilian airliner, killing 14. It is the first recorded instance of a civilian airliner being shot down.

Kweilin incident

1937

Spanish Civil War: the Basque Army surrenders to the Italian Corpo Truppe Volontarie following the Santoña Agreement.

Spanish Civil War

1937

Spanish Civil War: Sovereign Council of Asturias and León is proclaimed in Gijón.

Sovereign Council of Asturias and León

1936

The Australian Antarctic Territory is created.

Australian Antarctic Territory

1933

The Crescent Limited train derails in Washington, D.C., after the bridge it is crossing is washed out by the 1933 Chesapeake–Potomac hurricane.

Crescent (train)

1932

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

Amelia Earhart

1931

Resignation of the United Kingdom's Second Labour Government. Formation of the UK National Government.

Second MacDonald ministry

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; the remaining Jews are forced to flee the city.

1929 Hebron massacre

1914

World War I: German troops capture Namur.

World War I

1914

World War I: The Battle of Cer ends as the first Allied victory in the war.

Battle of Cer

1911

Manuel de Arriaga is elected and sworn in as the first President of Portugal.

Manuel de Arriaga

1909

Workers start pouring concrete for the Panama Canal.

Panama Canal

1800s

1898

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

Mikhail Nikolayevich Muravyov

1870

The Wolseley expedition reaches Manitoba to end the Red River Rebellion.

Wolseley expedition

1857

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

Panic of 1857

1821

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

Treaty of Córdoba

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1820

Constitutionalist insurrection at Oporto, Portugal.

Constitutionalism

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1816

The Treaty of St. Louis is signed in St. Louis, Missouri.

Treaty of St. Louis (1816)

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1815

The modern Constitution of the Netherlands is signed.

Constitution of the Netherlands

1814

British troops capture Washington, D.C. and set the Presidential Mansion, Capitol, Navy Yard and many other public buildings ablaze.

Burning of Washington

1812

Peninsular War: A coalition of Spanish, British, and Portuguese forces succeed in lifting the two-and-a-half-year-long Siege of Cádiz.

Peninsular War

Before 1800

1789

The first naval battle of the Svensksund began in the Gulf of Finland.

Battle of Svensksund (1789)

1781

American Revolutionary War: A small force of Pennsylvania militia is ambushed and overwhelmed by an American Indian group, which forces George Rogers Clark to abandon his attempt to attack Detroit.

American Revolutionary War

1743

The War of the Hats: The Swedish army surrenders to the Russians in Helsinki, ending the war and starting Lesser Wrath.

Russo-Swedish War (1741–1743)

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's foundation date is unknown).

Job Charnock

1682

William Penn receives the area that is now the state of Delaware, and adds it to his colony of Pennsylvania.

William Penn

1662

The 1662 Book of Common Prayer is legally enforced as the liturgy of the Church of England, precipitating the Great Ejection of Dissenter ministers from their benefices.

Book of Common Prayer (1662)