On This Day — 24 July

2000s

2025

Angara Airlines Flight 2311 crashes on approach to Tynda Airport, killing all 48 people on board.

Angara Airlines Flight 2311

2024

A Saurya Airlines Bombardier CRJ200 crashes during takeoff from Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal killing 18.

Saurya Airlines

2019

Boris Johnson becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after defeating Jeremy Hunt in a leadership contest, succeeding Theresa May.

Boris Johnson

2014

Air Algérie Flight 5017 loses contact with air traffic controllers 50 minutes after takeoff. It was travelling between Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso and Algiers. The wreckage is later found in Mali. All 116 people on board are killed.

Air Algérie Flight 5017

2013

Santiago de Compostela derailment: A high-speed train derails in Spain rounding a curve with an 80 km/h (50 mph) speed limit at 190 km/h (120 mph), killing 78 passengers.

Santiago de Compostela derailment

2012

Syrian civil war: The People's Protection Units (YPG) capture the city of Girkê Legê.

Syrian civil war

2009

Aria Air Flight 1525 crashes at Mashhad International Airport, killing 16.

Aria Air Flight 1525

📅

2001

The Bandaranaike Airport attack is carried out by 14 Tamil Tiger commandos, resulting in military and civilian casualties and destroyed aircraft.

Bandaranaike Airport attack

1900s

1999

Air Fiji flight 121 crashes while en route to Nadi, Fiji, killing all 17 people on board.

Air Fiji Flight 121

📅

1998

Russell Eugene Weston Jr. bursts into the United States Capitol and opens fire killing two police officers. He is later ruled to be incompetent to stand trial.

1998 United States Capitol shooting

1987

US supertanker SS Bridgeton collides with mines laid by IRGC causing a 43-square-meter dent in the body of the oil tanker.

SS Bridgeton

1987

Hulda Crooks, at 91 years of age, climbed Mt. Fuji. Crooks became the oldest person to climb Japan's highest peak.

Hulda Crooks

1983

The Black July anti-Tamil riots begin in Sri Lanka, killing between 400 and 3,000. Black July is generally regarded as the beginning of the Sri Lankan Civil War.

Black July

1983

George Brett playing for the Kansas City Royals against the New York Yankees, has a game-winning home run nullified in the "Pine Tar Incident".

George Brett

1982

Heavy rain causes a mudslide that destroys a bridge at Nagasaki, Japan, killing 299.

Nagasaki

📅

1980

The Quietly Confident Quartet of Australia wins the men's 4 x 100 metre medley relay at the Moscow Olympics, the only time the United States has not won the swimming event at Olympic level.

Quietly Confident Quartet

1977

End of a four-day-long Libyan–Egyptian War.

Egyptian–Libyan War

1974

Watergate scandal: The United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled that President Richard Nixon did not have the authority to withhold subpoenaed White House tapes and they order him to surrender the tapes to the Watergate special prosecutor.

Watergate scandal

1969

Apollo program: Apollo 11 splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean.

Apollo program

1967

During an official state visit to Canada, French President Charles de Gaulle declares to a crowd of over 100,000 in Montreal: Vive le Québec libre! ("Long live free Quebec!"); the statement angered the Canadian government and many Anglophone Canadians.

Charles de Gaulle

📅

1966

Michael Pelkey makes the first BASE jump from El Capitan along with Brian Schubert. Both came out with broken bones. BASE jumping has now been banned from El Cap.

Michael Pelkey

1963

The ship Bluenose II was launched in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. The schooner is a major Canadian symbol.

Bluenose II

1959

At the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow, U.S. vice president Richard Nixon and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev have a "Kitchen Debate".

American National Exhibition

1950

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station begins operations with the launch of a Bumper rocket.

Cape Canaveral Space Force Station

1943

World War II: Operation Gomorrah begins: British and Canadian aeroplanes bomb Hamburg by night, and American planes bomb the city by day. By the end of the operation in November, 9,000 tons of explosives will have killed more than 30,000 people and destroyed 280,000 buildings.

World War II

1935

The Dust Bowl heat wave reaches its peak, sending temperatures to 109 °F (43 °C) in Chicago and 104 °F (40 °C) in Milwaukee.

Dust Bowl

1929

The Kellogg–Briand Pact, renouncing war as an instrument of foreign policy, goes into effect (it is first signed in Paris on August 27, 1928, by most leading world powers).

Kellogg–Briand Pact

1927

The Menin Gate war memorial is unveiled at Ypres.

Menin Gate

1924

Themistoklis Sofoulis becomes Prime Minister of Greece.

Themistoklis Sofoulis

1923

The Treaty of Lausanne, settling the boundaries of modern Turkey, is signed in Switzerland by Greece, Bulgaria and other countries that fought in World War I.

Treaty of Lausanne

1922

The draft of the British Mandate of Palestine was formally confirmed by the Council of the League of Nations; it came into effect on 26 September 1923.

Mandatory Palestine

1915

The passenger ship SS Eastland capsizes while tied to a dock in the Chicago River. A total of 844 passengers and crew are killed in the largest loss of life disaster from a single shipwreck on the Great Lakes.

SS Eastland

1911

Hiram Bingham III re-discovers Machu Picchu, "the Lost City of the Incas".

Hiram Bingham III

1910

The Ottoman Empire captures the city of Shkodër, putting down the Albanian Revolt of 1910.

Ottoman Empire

1901

O. Henry is released from prison in Columbus, Ohio, after serving three years for embezzlement from a bank.

O. Henry

1800s

1866

Reconstruction: Tennessee becomes the first U.S. state to be readmitted to Congress following the American Civil War.

Reconstruction era

1864

American Civil War: Battle of Kernstown: Confederate General Jubal Early defeats Union troops led by General George Crook in an effort to keep them out of the Shenandoah Valley.

American Civil War