What Happened on April 24th in History
30 historical events on this date
Easter Rising: Irish rebels, led by Patrick Pearse and James Connolly, launch an uprising in Dublin against British rule and proclaim an Irish Republic.
The Easter Rising, also known as the Easter Rebellion, was an armed insurrection in Ireland during Easter Week in April 1916. The Rising was launched by Irish republicans against British rule in...
World War I: First tank-to-tank combat, during the second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux. Three British Mark IVs meet three German A7Vs.
World War I, or the First World War, also known as the Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Central Powers. Major areas of conflict included Europe and the...
The first segment of the Imperial Wireless Chain providing wireless telegraphy between Leafield in Oxfordshire, England, and Cairo, Egypt, comes into operation.
The Imperial Wireless Chain was a strategic international communications network of powerful long range radiotelegraphy stations, created by the British government to link the countries of the...
Thorvald Stauning becomes premier of Denmark (first term).
Thorvald August Marinus Stauning was the first social democratic prime minister of Denmark. He served as prime minister from 1924 to 1926 and again from 1929 until his death in 1942.
The Treaty of Berlin is signed. Germany and the Soviet Union each pledge neutrality in the event of an attack on the other by a third party for the next five years.
The Treaty of Berlin was a treaty signed on 24 April 1926 under which Germany and the Soviet Union pledged neutrality in the event of an attack on the other by a third party for five years. The...
Benny Rothman leads the mass trespass of Kinder Scout, leading to substantial legal reforms in the United Kingdom.
Bernard "Benny" Rothman was a British political activist. He is known for organizing the mass trespass of Kinder Scout in 1932, which led to the establishment of the National Parks and Access to the...
Nazi Germany begins its persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses by shutting down the Watch Tower Society office in Magdeburg.
Nazi Germany, officially the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it...
World War II: The SBS launches a raid against the garrison of Santorini in Greece.
World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major...
Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945, during the Second World War, and again...
The Bandung Conference ends: Twenty-nine non-aligned nations of Asia and Africa finish a meeting that condemns colonialism, racism, and the Cold War.
The first large-scale AsianâAfrican or AfroâAsian Conference, also known as the Bandung Conference, was a meeting of Asian and African states, most of which were newly independent, which took place...
Suez Crisis: The Suez Canal is reopened following the introduction of UNEF peacekeepers to the region.
The Suez Crisis, also known as the second ArabâIsraeli war, the Tripartite Aggression in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel, was a BritishâFrenchâIsraeli invasion of Egypt in 1956. Israel...
Marriage of Princess Alexandra of Kent to Angus Ogilvy at Westminster Abbey in London.
Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy, is a member of the British royal family. She is the only daughter of Prince George, Duke of Kent, and Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark, the only...
Civil war breaks out in the Dominican Republic when Colonel Francisco Caamaño overthrows the triumvirate that had been in power since the coup d'état against Juan Bosch.
The Dominican Civil War, also known as the April Revolution, took place between April 24, 1965, and September 3, 1965, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. It started when civilian and military...
Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1 when its parachute fails to open. He is the first human to die during a space mission.
An astronaut is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spacecraft. Although generally reserved for professional space...
Vietnam War: American General William Westmoreland says in a news conference that the enemy had "gained support in the United States that gives him hope that he can win politically that which he cannot win militarily".
The Vietnam War was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam and their allies. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and China, while...
China launches Dong Fang Hong I, becoming the fifth nation to put an object into orbit using its own booster.
Dong Fang Hong 1, in the western world also known as China 1 or PRC 1, was the first space satellite of the People's Republic of China (PRC), launched successfully on 24 April 1970 as part of the...
The Gambia becomes a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations, with Dawda Jawara as its first President.
The Gambia, officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. Geographically, the Gambia is the smallest country in continental Africa; it is bounded by Senegal on all sides except...
Eight U.S. servicemen die in Operation Eagle Claw as they attempt to end the Iran hostage crisis.
Operation Eagle Claw was a failed United States Department of Defense attempt to rescue 52 embassy staff held captive by Revolutionary Iran on 24 April 1980. It was ordered by U.S. president Jimmy...
STS-31: The Hubble Space Telescope is launched from the Space Shuttle Discovery.
STS-31 was the 35th mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program and the tenth flight of the Space Shuttle Discovery. The primary purpose of this mission was the deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope...
Gruinard Island, Scotland, is officially declared free of the anthrax disease after 48 years of quarantine.
Gruinard Island is a small, oval-shaped Scottish island approximately two kilometres long by one kilometre wide, located in Gruinard Bay, about halfway between Gairloch and Ullapool. At its closest...
An IRA bomb devastates the Bishopsgate area of London.
The Provisional Irish Republican Army, officially known as the Irish Republican Army and informally known as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary force that sought to end British rule in...
A Douglas DC-3 ditches in Botany Bay after takeoff from Sydney Airport. All 25 people on board survive.
The Douglas DC-3 is a propeller-driven airliner that was manufactured by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It had a lasting effect on the airline industry from the 1930s through World War II. It was...
In the United States, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 is passed into law.
The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA), Pub. L. 104â132 (text) (PDF), 110 Stat. 1214, enacted April 24, 1996, was introduced to the United States Congress in April 1995 as...
The United States lifts economic sanctions imposed on Libya 18 years previously, as a reward for its cooperation in eliminating weapons of mass destruction.
Economic sanctions or embargoes are commercial and financial penalties applied by states or institutions against states, groups, or individuals. Economic sanctions are a form of coercion that...
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is inaugurated as the 265th Pope of the Catholic Church taking the name Pope Benedict XVI.
A cardinal is a senior member of the clergy of the Catholic Church. As titular members of the clergy of the Diocese of Rome, they serve as advisors to the pope, who is the bishop of Rome and the...
Bombings in the Egyptian resort city of Dahab kill 23 people and injure about 80.
Three bomb attacks on the Egyptian resort city of Dahab, in the Sinai Peninsula, took place on 24 April 2006. The resort town is popular with Western tourists and Egyptians alike during the holiday...
WikiLeaks starts publishing the Guantanamo Bay files leak.
WikiLeaks is a non-profit media organisation and publisher of leaked documents. It is funded by donations and media partnerships. It has published classified documents and other media provided by...
A building collapses near Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing 1,134 people and injuring about 2,500 others.
The Rana Plaza collapse occurred on 24 April 2013 in Savar Upazila, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, when the eight-story Rana Plaza commercial building collapsed due to a structural failure. The search for...
Violence in Bachu County, Kashgar Prefecture, of China's Xinjiang results in death of 21 people.
On 24 April 2013, ethnic clashes occurred in Marelbeshi (Bachu), Xinjiang, China. The violence left at least 21 people dead, including 15 police and officials.
A mass stabbing at a school in Nantes, France, leaves one person dead and three others wounded.
On 24 April 2025, a teenage girl was killed and three students were wounded in a mass stabbing at a private secondary school, Our Lady of All Helps High School in Nantes, Loire-Atlantique, France....