What happened on your birthday?

What’s Your Vietnam War Draft Lottery Number?

The Vietnam War draft lottery ran from 1969 to 1972. If you were born on August 24, would your number have been called?

  • Vietnam War 1969 Lottery
    CalledDrafted
    36
  • Vietnam War 1970 Lottery
    Not CalledNot drafted
    274
  • Vietnam War 1971 Lottery
    Not CalledNot drafted
    256
  • Vietnam War 1972 Lottery
    Not CalledNot drafted
    138

Read on to learn more about the Vietnam war draft lottery.





more events on August 24

  • 2010

    The Mexican criminal syndicate Los Zetas kills 72 illegal immigrants from Central and South America in San Fernando, Tamaulipas, Mexico.

  • 2006

    Pluto is downgraded to a dwarf planet when the International Astronomical Union (IAU) redefines “planet.”

  • 2004

    Chechnyan suicide bombers blow up two airliners near Moscow, killing 89 passengers.

  • 2003

    Alexandre Coste, son of Albert II, Prince of Monaco, and former air stewardess Nicole Coste.

  • 1994

    Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) create initial accord regarding partial self-rule for Palestinians living on the West Bank, the Agreement on Preparatory Transfer of Powers and Responsibilities.

  • 1992

    Hurricane Andrew makes landfall in Florida. The Category 5 storm, which had already caused extensive damage in the Bahamas, caused $26.5 billion in US damages, caused 65 deaths, and felled 70,000 acres of trees in the Everglades.

  • 1991

    Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union; Ukraine declares its independence from USSR.

  • 1989

    Baseball commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti bans Pete Rose from baseball for gambling.

  • Colombian drug lords declare “total and absolute war” on Colombia’s government, booming the offices of two political parties and burning two politicians’ homes.

  • 1981

     Mark David Chapman sentenced to 20 years to life for murdering former Beatles band member John Lennon.

  • 1975

    The principal leaders of Greece’s 1967 coup—Georgios Papadopoulos, Stylianos Pattakos, and Nikolaos Maarezos—sentenced to death for high treason, later commuted to life in prison.

  • 1973

    Grey DeLisle-Griffin, voice-over actress in animated TV shows (The Fairly OddParents) and video games (Diablo III).

  • 1965

    Reginald “Reggie” Miller, professional basketball player who set record for most career 3-point field goals (later superseded by Ray Allen); Olympic gold medalist.

  • 1963

    Hideo Kojima, creator and director of video games (Metal Gear series).

  • US State Department cables embassy in Saigon that if South Vietnam’s president Ngo Dinh Diem does not remove his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu as his political adviser the US would explore alternative leadership, setting the stage for a coup by ARVN generals.

  • 1960

    Calvin “Cal” Ripken, Jr., shortstop and third baseman for Baltimore Orioles (1981–2001) who broke Lou Gehrig’s record for consecutive games played.

  • 1954

    Congress outlaws the Communist Party in the United States.

  • 1951

    Oscar Hijuelos, novelist (The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love).

  • 1948

    Edith Mae Irby becomes the first African-American student to attend the University of Arkansas.

  • 1942

    In the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, the third carrier-versus-carrier battle of the war, U.S. naval forces defeat a Japanese force attempting to screen reinforcements for the Guadalcanal fighting.

  • 1929

    Yasir Arafat, leader of the Palestinian Liberation Movement.

  • 1915

    Alice H.B. Sheldon, science fiction writer and artist, CIA photo-intelligence operative, lecturer at American University and major in the U.S. Army Air Force.

  • 1912

    By an act of Congress, Alaska is given a territorial legislature of two houses.

  • 1905

    Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup, blues singer, a major influence on Elvis Presley.

  • 1899

    Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer (Ficciones).

  • 1898

    Malcolm Cowley, poet, translator, literary critic and social historian.

  • 1896

    Thomas Brooks is shot and killed by an unknown assailant beginning a six year feud with the McFarland family.

  • 1895

    Richard Cushing, the director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith.

  • 1894

    Congress passes the first graduated income tax law, which is declared unconstitutional the next year.

  • 1891

    Thomas Edison files a patent for the motion picture camera.

  • 1890

    Jean Rhys, writer (Wide Sargasso Sea).

  • 1869

    Cornelius Swarthout of Troy, New York, patents the waffle iron.

  • 1847

    Charlotte Bronte, using the pseudonym Currer Bell, sends a manuscript of Jane Eyre to her publisher in London.

  • 1814

    British troops under General Robert Ross capture Washington, D.C., which they set on fire in retaliation for the American burning of the parliament building in York (Toronto), the capital of Upper Canada.

  • 1810

    Theodore Parker, anti-slavery movement leader.

  • 1780

    King Louis XVI abolishes torture as a means to get suspects to confess.

  • 1572

    Some 50,000 people are put to death in the ‘Massacre of St. Bartholomew’ as Charles IX of France attempts to rid the country of Huguenots.

  • 1542

    In South America, Gonzalo Pizarro returns to the mouth of the Amazon River after having sailed the length of the great river as far as the Andes Mountains.

  • 410

    German barbarians sack Rome.

  • 79

    Mount Vesuvius erupts destroying Pompeii, Stabiae, Herculaneum and other smaller settlements.