What Happened on August 24th in History

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

Edith Spurlock Sampson was an American lawyer, diplomat and civil rights advocate known for being the first African American to officially represent the United States at the United Nations,...

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

United Air Lines Flight 615 was a US transcontinental east–west airline service from Boston to Hartford, Cleveland, Chicago, Oakland and San Francisco. On August 24, 1951, the Douglas DC-6 with...

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

The Communist Control Act of 1954 is an American law signed by President Dwight Eisenhower on August 24, 1954, that outlawed the Communist Party USA and criminalized membership in or support for the...

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

João Fernandes Campos Café Filho was a Brazilian politician who served as the 18th president of Brazil, taking office upon the suicide of President Getúlio Vargas. He was the first Protestant to...

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.

The Buddhist crisis was a period of political and religious tension in South Vietnam between May and November 1963, characterized by a series of repressive acts by the South Vietnamese government...

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.

Abbot Howard Hoffman was an American political and social activist who co-founded the Youth International Party ("Yippies") and was a member of the Chicago Seven. He was also a leading proponent of...

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

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...

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

Mark David Chapman is an American man who murdered musician John Lennon in New York City on December 8, 1980. As Lennon walked into the archway of the Dakota, his apartment building on the Upper...

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

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country located in South America, with insular regions in North America. Colombia's mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north,...

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

Tadeusz Mazowiecki was a Polish author, journalist, philanthropist and politician, formerly one of the leaders of the Solidarity movement, and the first non-communist Polish prime minister since...

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

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was a Soviet and Russian politician who was the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 until the country's dissolution in 1991. He served as General Secretary of the...

Ukraine declares itself independent from the Soviet Union.

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the north; Poland and...

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

Hurricane Andrew was the most destructive hurricane to ever hit Florida in terms of structures damaged or destroyed, and remained the costliest in financial terms until Hurricane Irma surpassed it...

Microsoft releases Windows 95 to the public in North America.

Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Redmond, Washington. The company became influential in the rise of personal computers through software like...

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

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. An RFID system consists of a tiny radio transponder called a tag, a...

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 was a transatlantic flight bound for Lisbon, Portugal, from Toronto, Canada, that lost all engine power while flying over the Atlantic Ocean in the dark on August 24, 2001....

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.

On the night of 24 August 2004, explosive devices were detonated on board two domestic passenger flights that had taken off from Domodedovo International Airport in Moscow, Russia, causing the...

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

The International Astronomical Union is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research,...

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, was a Boeing 737-200, registered as EX-009, operating a charter flight operated by Itek Air on behalf of Iran Aseman Airlines which crashed on 24 August 2008 near...

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

The Cessna 208 Caravan is a utility aircraft produced by Cessna. The project was commenced on November 20, 1981, and the prototype first flew on December 9, 1982. The production model was certified...

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

San Fernando is a city located in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas; it serves as the seat of the surrounding municipality of the same name. It is about 85 miles (137 km) away from Brownsville, Texas,...

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 was a domestic flight operated by Henan Airlines from Harbin to Yichun, Heilongjiang. On the night of 24 August 2010, the Embraer E190 operating the route crashed on...

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

Agni Air Flight 101 was a regional flight between Kathmandu and Lukla, Nepal, that crashed on 24 August 2010, killing all 14 people on board. Twenty minutes after take-off, the flight crew of the...

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

Anders Behring Breivik is a Norwegian neo-Nazi, mass murderer, and domestic terrorist who perpetrated the 2011 Norway attacks. A believer in the Great Replacement conspiracy theory, he sought to...

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

The 2014 South Napa earthquake occurred in the northern San Francisco Bay Area on August 24 at 03:20:44 Pacific Daylight Time. At 6.0 on the moment magnitude scale and with a maximum Mercalli...

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.

An earthquake, measuring 6.2 ± 0.016 on the moment magnitude scale, hit Central Italy on 24 August 2016 at 03:36:32 CEST. Its epicentre was close to Accumoli, with its hypocentre at a depth of...

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

Proxima Centauri b is an exoplanet orbiting within the habitable zone of the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri in the constellation Centaurus. It can also be referred to as Proxima b, or Alpha...

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

Government space agencies, established by the governments of countries and regioagencies are established as a means for advocating for engaging in activities related to outer space, exploitation of...

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

Erin Michael O'Toole is a Canadian lawyer, former military officer and politician who was the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada and the leader of the Official Opposition from 2020 to 2022....

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

Radioactive water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan began being discharged into the Pacific Ocean on 11 March 2011, following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster triggered...