March 24

March 24 is the 83rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (84th in Leap years). There are 282 days remaining.

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Events

• 1603 – James I becomes King of England.
• 1765 – American Revolutionary War: The Kingdom of Great Britain passes the Quartering Act that requires the 13 American colonies to house British troops.
• 1832 – In Hiram, Ohio a group of men beat, tar and feather Mormon leader Joseph Smith, Jr..
• 1868 – Metropolitan Life Insurance Company is formed.
• 1878 – The UK frigate Eurydice sinks, killing 300.
• 1882 – Robert Koch announces the discovery of the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis (mycobacterium tuberculosis).
• 1898 – Robert Allison of Port Carbon, Pennsylvania becomes the first person to buy an American-built automobile when he buys a Winton automobile that was advertised in Scientific American.
• 1900 – New York City Mayor Van Wyck breaks ground for a new underground "Rapid Transit Railroad" that would link Manhattan and Brooklyn.
• 1944 – Tragedy in the Polish village Markowa.
• 1944  – In an event later dramatized in the movie The Great Escape, 76 prisoners begin to break out of Stalag Luft III.
• 1965 – NASA spacecraft Ranger 9, equipped to convert its signals into a form suitable for showing on domestic television, brings images of the Moon into ordinary homes before crash-landing.
• 1972 – The United Kingdom imposes "Direct Rule" over Northern Ireland.
• 1973 – Kenyan track runner Kip Keino defeats Jim Ryun at the first-ever professional track meet in Los Angeles, sanctioned by the International Track Association.
• 1973 – Rock band Pink Floyd releases Dark Side of the Moon, which will go on to become one of the most influential and commercially successful albums of all-time.
• 1976 – Argentina's military forces depose president Isabel Perón.
• 1980 – Archbishop Óscar Romero is killed by gunmen while celebrating Mass in San Salvador.
• 1989 – Exxon Valdez oil spill: In Alaska's Prince William Sound the Exxon Valdez spills 240,000 barrels (42,000 m³) of oil after running aground.
• 1998 – Jonesboro massacre: In Jonesboro, Arkansas, two boys (aged 11 and 13 years) fire upon students at Westside Middle School. Four students and one teacher are killed and 10 injured.
• 1999 – Kosovo War: NATO commences air bombardment against Yugoslavia. This marks the first time NATO has attacked a sovereign country.
• 2001 – Apple Computer releases Mac OS X version 10.0.
• 2003 – The Arab League votes 21–1 in favor of a resolution demanding the immediate and unconditional removal of US and British soldiers from Iraq.

Births

• 1494 – Georg Agricola, scientist (d. 1555)
• 1607 – Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruyter, Dutch admiral (d. 1667)
• 1657 – Arai Hakuseki, Japanese poet, politician, and writer (d. 1725)
• 1693 – John Harrison, British clockmaker (d. 1776)
• 1834 – William Morris, writer and designer (d. 1896)
• 1834 – John Wesley Powell, explorer and environmentalist (d. 1902)
• 1835 – Jožef Stefan, Slovenian physicist, mathematician, and poet (d. 1893)
• 1855 – Andrew Mellon, financier (d. 1937)
• 1855 – Olive Schreiner, writer (d. 1920)
• 1874 – Harry Houdini, magician (d. 1926)
• 1886 – Edward Weston, photographer (d. 1958)
• 1887 – Fatty Arbuckle, actor (d. 1933)
• 1889 – Albert Hill, British athlete (d. 1969)
• 1891 – John Knittel, dramatist (d. 1970)
• 1893 – Walter Baade, astronomer (d. 1960)
• 1897 – Wilhelm Reich, psychotherapist (d. 1957)
• 1901 – Ub Iwerks, cartoonist (d. 1971)
• 1902 – Thomas Dewey, politician (d. 1971)
• 1910 – Richard Conte, American actor (d. 1975)
• 1911 – Joseph Barbera, American cartoonist
• 1915 – Gorgeous George, American professional wrestler (d. 1963)
• 1919 – Lawrence Ferlinghetti, author and publisher
• 1923 – Kermit Schafer, humorist (d. 1979)
• 1923 – Murray Hamilton, American actor (d. 1986)
• 1924 – Norman Fell, actor (d. 1998)
• 1926 – Dario Fo, Italian author, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature
• 1927 – Martin Walser, author
• 1928 – Byron Janis, American pianist
• 1930 – Steve McQueen, film director and producer (d. 1980)
• 1935 – Peter Bichsel, writer
• 1936 – David Suzuki, environmentalist
• 1937 – Billy Stewart, American singer (d. 1970)
• 1938 – David Irving, British historian
• 1940 – Bob Mackie, costume designer
• 1944 – R. Lee Ermey, American actor
• 1945 – Curtis Hanson, American film director
• 1945 – Robert T. Bakker, American paleontologist
• 1949 – Nick Lowe, musician
• 1951 – Tommy Hilfiger, fashion designer
• 1953 – Louie Anderson, American comedian
• 1954 – Robert Carradine, actor
• 1954 – Donna Pescow, American actress
• 1962 – Star Jones Reynolds, American television personality
• 1964 – Annabella Sciorra, American actress
• 1965 – The Undertaker, professional wrestler
• 1970 – Lara Flynn Boyle, actress
• 1970  – Sharon Corr, musician (The Corrs)
• 1974 – Alyson Hannigan, actress
• 1976 – Peyton Manning, American football player
• 1990 – Keisha Castle-Hughes, actress

Deaths

• 809 – Harun al-Rashid, Abbasid caliph (b. 763)
• 1455 – Pope Nicholas V (b. 1397)
• 1603 – Queen Elizabeth I of England (b. 1533)
• 1869 – Antoine-Henri Jomini, general (b. 1779)
• 1882 – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American author (b. 1807)
• 1905 – Jules Verne, author (b. 1828)
• 1909 – John Millington Synge, Irish playwright (b. 1871)
• 1916 – Enrique Granados, Spanish composer (ship sinking) (b. 1867)
• 1944 – Orde Wingate, British soldier (b. 1903)
• 1946 – Alexander Alekhine, chess champion (b. 1892)
• 1950 – James Rudolph Garfield, U.S. politician (b. 1865)
• 1953 – Mary of Teck, queen of George V of the United Kingdom (b. 1867)
• 1962 – Jean Goldkette, jazz musician (b. 1899)
• 1962  – Auguste Piccard, physicist and explorer (b. 1884)
• 1972 – Cristobal Balenciaga, couturier
• 1976 – Bernard Montgomery, British field marshal (b. 1887)
• 1980 – Óscar Romero, Archbishop of El Salvador (b. 1917)
• 1984 – Sam Jaffe, actor (b. 1891)
• 1990 – An Wang, computer pioneer (b. 1920)
• 1990 – Ray Goulding, American comedian
• 1993 – John Hersey, author (b. 1914)
• 1999 – Gertrud Scholtz-Klink, German women's leader (b. 1902)
• 1999 – Birdie Tebbetts, Major League Baseball player and manager (b. 1912)
• 2003 – Hans Hermann Groër, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Vienna

Holidays and observances

• Ancient Latvia – Kazimiras Diena observed
• World Tuberculosis Day

External links

• BBC: On This Day

March 23 – March 25 – February 24 – April 24 — listing of all days