May 24

Independence Day
Eritrea : May 24 1993
Ecuador : May 24 1822

Events May 24
1218 – The Fifth Crusade leaves Acre for Egypt.
1276 – Magnus Ladulås is crowned King of Sweden in Uppsala Cathedral.
1487 – The ten-year-old Lambert Simnel is crowned in Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland with the name of Edward VI in a bid to threaten King Henry VII's reign.
1595 – Nomenclator of Leiden University Library appears, the first printed catalog of an institutional library.
1621 – The Protestant Union is formally dissolved.
1626 – Peter Minuit buys Manhattan.
1667 – The French Royal Army crosses the border into the Spanish Netherlands, starting the War of Devolution opposing France to the Spanish Empire and the Triple Alliance.
1689 – The English Parliament passes the Act of Toleration protecting Protestants. Roman Catholics are intentionally excluded.
1738 – John Wesley is converted, essentially launching the Methodist movement; the day is celebrated annually by Methodists as Aldersgate Day and a church service is generally held on the preceding Sunday.
1798 – The Irish Rebellion of 1798 led by the United Irishmen against British rule begins.
1822 – Battle of Pichincha: Antonio José de Sucre secures the independence of the Presidency of Quito.
1830 – Mary Had a Little Lamb by Sarah Josepha Hale is published.
1830 – The first revenue trains in the United States begin service on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad between Baltimore, Maryland and Ellicott's Mills, Maryland.
1832 – The First Kingdom of Greece is declared in the London Conference.
1844 – Samuel Morse sends the message "What hath God wrought" (a biblical quotation, Numbers 23:23) from the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the United States Capitol to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, Maryland to inaugurate the first telegraph line.
1846 – Mexican-American War: General Zachary Taylor captures Monterrey.
1856 – John Brown and his men kill five slavery supporters at Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas.
1861 – American Civil War: Union troops occupy Alexandria, Virginia.
1883 – The Brooklyn Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic after 14 years of construction.
1895 – Henry Irving becomes the first person from the theatre to be knighted.
1900 – Second Boer War: The United Kingdom annexes the Orange Free State.
1901 – Seventy-eight miners die in the Caerphilly pit disaster in South Wales.
1915 – World War I: Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary.
1921 – The trial of Sacco and Vanzetti opens.
1930 – Amy Johnson lands in Darwin, Northern Territory, becoming the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia (she left on May 5 for the 11,000 mile flight).
1935 – The first night game in Major League Baseball history is played in Cincinnati, Ohio, with the Cincinnati Reds beating the Philadelphia Phillies 2-1 at Crosley Field.
1940 – Igor Sikorsky performs the first successful single-rotor helicopter flight.
1941 – World War II: In the Battle of the Atlantic, the German Battleship Bismarck sinks the then pride of the Royal Navy, HMS Hood, killing all but three crewmen.
1943 – Holocaust: Josef Mengele becomes chief medical officer of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
1948 – Arab–Israeli War: Egypt captures the Israeli kibbutz of Yad Mordechai, but the five-day effort gives Israeli forces time to prepare enough to stop the Egyptian advance a week later.
1956 – Conclusion of the Sixth Buddhist Council on Vesak Day, marking the 2,500 year anniversary after the Lord Buddha's Parinibbāna.
1956 – The first Eurovision Song Contest is held in Lugano, Switzerland
1958 – United Press International is formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service.
1960 – Following the 1960 Valdivia earthquake, the largest ever recorded earthquake, Cordón Caulle begins to erupt.
1961 – American civil rights movement: Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi for "disturbing the peace" after disembarking from their bus.
1961 – Cyprus joins the Council of Europe.
1962 – Project Mercury: American astronaut Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule.
1967 – Egypt imposes a blockade and siege of the Red Sea coast of Israel.
1968 – FLQ separatists bomb the U.S. consulate in Quebec City.
1970 – The drilling of the Kola Superdeep Borehole begins in the Soviet Union.
1976 – The London to Washington, D.C. Concorde service begins.
1976 – The Judgement of Paris takes place in France, launching California as a worldwide force in the production of quality wine.
1981 – Ecuadorian president Jaime Roldós Aguilera, his wife and his presidential committee died in an aircraft accident while travelling from Quito to Zapotillo minutes after the president famous speech regarding the 24 de mayo anniversary of the Battle of Pichincha.
1982 – Liberation of Khorramshahr: Iranians recapture of the port city of Khorramshahr from the Iraqis during the Iran–Iraq War.
1988 – Section 28 of the United Kingdom's Local Government Act 1988, a controversial amendment stating that a local authority cannot intentionally promote homosexuality, is enacted.
1991 – Eritrea gains its independence from Ethiopia.
1991 – Israel conducts Operation Solomon, evacuating Ethiopian Jews to Israel.
1992 – The last Thai dictator, General Suchinda Kraprayoon, resigns following pro-democracy protests.
1994 – Four men convicted of bombing the World Trade Center in New York in 1993 are each sentenced to 240 years in prison.
2000 – Israeli troops withdraw from southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation.
2001 – Mountain climbing: 15-year-old Sherpa Temba Tsheri becomes the youngest person to climb to the top of Mount Everest.
2001 – The Versailles wedding hall disaster in Jerusalem, Israel, kills 23 and injures over 200
2002 – Russia and the United States sign the Moscow Treaty.

Holidays and observances

Aldersgate Day (Methodism)
Battle of Pichincha Day (Ecuador)
Bermuda Day (Bermuda)
Christian Feast Day:
Sarah (celebrated by the Romani people of Camargue)
Vincent of Lérins
May 24 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
David I of Scotland (never formally canonised but venerated in the Roman Catholic Church)
Commonwealth Day (Belize)
Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Eritrea from Ethiopia in 1993.
Lubiri Memorial Day (Buganda)
Saints Cyril and Methodius Day (Eastern Orthodox Church) and its related observance:
Bulgarian Education and Culture and Slavonic Literature Day (Bulgaria)
Saints Cyril and Methodius, Slavonic Enlighteners' Day (Republic of Macedonia)
Victoria Day; celebrated on Monday on or before May 24. (Canada)
National Patriots Day or Journée nationale des patriotes. (Quebec)

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