History of 24 March
1900 – Mayor Van Wyck of New York broke the ground for the New York subway tunnel that would link Manhattan and Brooklyn.
1900 – In New Jersey, the Carnegie Steel Corporation was formed.
1904 – Vice Adm. Tojo sank seven Russian ships as the Japanese strengthened their blockade of Port Arthur.
1905 – In Crete, a group led by Eleutherios Venizelos claimed independence from Turkey.
1906 – In Mexico, the Tehuantepec Isthmian Railroad opened as a rival to the Panama Canal.
1906 – The “Census of the British Empire” revealed that England ruled 1/5 of the world.
1911 – In Denmark, penal code reform abolished corporal punishment.
1920 – The first U.S. coast guard air station was established at Morehead City, NC.
1924 – Greece became a republic.
1927 – Chinese Communists seized Nanking and break with Chiang Kai-shek over the Nationalist goals.
1932 – Belle Baker hosted a radio variety show from a moving train. It was the first radio broadcast from a train.
1934 – U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt signed a bill granting future independence to the Philippines.
1938 – The U.S. asked that all countries help refugees fleeing from the Nazis.
1944 – In Rome, The Gestapo rounded up innocent Italians and shot them to death in response to a bomb attack that killed 32 German policemen. Over 300 civilians were executed.
1946 – The Soviet Union announced that it was withdrawing its troops from Iran.
1947 – The U.S. Congress proposed the limitation of the presidency to two terms.
1954 – Britain opened trade talks with Hungary.
1955 – Tennessee Williams’ play “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” debuted on Broadway.
1955 – The first oil drill seagoing rig was put into service.
1960 – A U.S. appeals court ruled that the novel “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” was not obscene and could be sent through the mail.
1972 – Great Britain imposed direct rule over Northern Ireland.
1976 – The president of Argentina, Isabel Peron, was deposed by her country’s military. 1980 – In San Salvador, Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero was shot to death by gunmen as he celebrated Mass.
1980 – “Nightline” with Ted Koppel premiered.
1982 – Soviet leader Leonid L. Brezhnev stated that Russia was willing to resume border talks with China.
1985 – Thousands demonstrated in Madrid against the NATO presence in Spain.
1988 – Former national security aides Oliver L. North and John M. Poindexter and businessmen Richard V. Secord and Albert Hakim pled innocent to Iran-Contra charges.
1989 – The Exxon Valdez spilled 240,000 barrels (11 million gallons) of oil in Alaska’s Prince William Sound after it ran aground.
1989 – The U.S. decided to send humanitarian aid to the Contras.
1990 – Indian troops left Sri Lanka.
1991 – The African nation of Benin held its first presidential elections in about 30 years.
1993 – In Israel, Ezer Weizman, an advocate of peace with neighboring Arab nations, was elected President.
1995 – Russian forces surrounded Achkoi-Martin. It was one of the few remaining strongholds of rebels in Chechenia.
1995 – The U.S. House of Representatives passed a welfare reform package that made the most changes in social programs since the New Deal.
1997 – The Australian parliament overturned the world’s first and only euthanasia law.
1998 – In Jonesboro, AR, two young boys open fire at students from woods near a school. Four students and a teacher were killed and 10 others were injured. The two boys were 11 and 13 years old cousins.
1998 – A former FBI agent said papers found in James Earl Ray’s car supports a conspiracy theory in the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
1999 – In Kenya, at least 31 people were killed when a passenger train derailed. Hundreds were injured.
1999 – NATO launched air strikes against Yugoslavia (Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, and Vojvodina). The attacks marked the first time in its 50-year history that NATO attacked a sovereign country. The bombings were in response to Serbia’s refusal to sign a peace treaty with ethnic Albanians who were seeking independence for the province of Kosovo.
1999 – The 7-mile tunnel under Mont Blanc in France became an inferno after a truck carrying flour and margarine caught fire. At least 30 people were killed.
2001 – Apple Computer Inc’s operating system MAC OS X went on sale.
2002 – Thieves stole five 17th century paintings from the Frans Hals Museum in the Dutch city of Haarlem. The paintings were worth about $2.6 million. The paintings were works by Jan Steen, Cornelis Bega, Adriaan van Ostade and Cornelis Dusart.
2005 – The government of Kyrgyzstan collapsed after opposition protesters took over President Askar Akayev’s presidential compound and government offices.
2005 – Sandra Bullock received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
2006 – In Spain, the Basque separatist group ETA announced a permanent cease-fire.
2014 – It was announced that the U.S. and its allies would exclude Russia from the G8 meeting and boycott a planned summit in Sochi in response to Russia’s takeover of Crimea.
2015 – Germanwings Flight 9525 crashes in the French Alps in an apparent pilot mass murder-suicide, killing all 150 people on board.
Celebrating Birthday Today
- 1981 – Mike Adams, American football player
- 1981 – Ron Hainsey, American ice hockey player
- 1981 – Dirk Hayhurst, American baseball player
- 1981 – Mark Looms, Dutch footballer
- 1981 – Gary Paffett, English racing driver
- 1982 – Corey Hart, American baseball player
- 1982 – Jack Swagger, American mixed martial artist, and professional wrestler
- 1982 – Epico Colon, Puerto Rican professional wrestler
- 1982 – Jimmy Hempte, Belgian footballer
- 1982 – Dustin McGowan, American baseball player
- 1983 – Luca Ceccarelli, Italian footballer
- 1983 – Riccardo Musetti, Italian footballer
- 1983 – Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1983 – T.J. Ford, American basketball player
- 1984 – Benoît Assou-Ekotto, French-Cameroonian footballer
- 1984 – Chris Bosh, American basketball player
- 1984 – Adrian D’Souza, Indian field hockey player
- 1984 – Lucy Wangui Kabuu, Kenyan runner
- 1984 – Park Bom, South Korean singer
- 1984 – Philipp Petzschner, a German tennis player
- 1985 – Lana, American wrestler, and manager
- 1985 – Haruka Ayase, Japanese actress, and singer
- 1987 – Ramires, Brazilian footballer
- 1987 – Shakib Al Hasan, Bangladeshi cricketer
- 1987 – Billy Jones, English footballer
- 1987 – Yuma Asami, Japanese actress, and singer
- 1988 – Aiga Grabuste, Latvian heptathlete
- 1988 – Ryan Higgins, Zimbabwean cricketer
- 1988 – Matías Martínez, the Argentinian footballer
- 1988 – Kardo Ploomipuu, Estonian swimmer
- 1988 – Matt Todd, New Zealand rugby union player
- 1990 – Starlin Castro, American baseball player
- 1990 – Aljur Abrenica, Filipino actor
- 1990 – Keisha Castle-Hughes, Australian-New Zealand actress
- 1991 – Nick Browne, English cricketer
- 1991 – Dalila Jakupovic, a Slovenian tennis player
- 1995 – Enzo Fernandez, French-Spanish footballer