What happened today
1610
Famous birthdays
1544
Get history's greatest tales
Subscribe to our HistoryNet Now! newsletter for a blast from the past each week in your inbox.
more events on May 24
-
1961
Civil rights activists are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi.
-
1951
Willie Mays begins playing for the New York Giants.
-
1941
Bob Dylan (Robert Zimmerman), singer and songwriter.
-
The British battleship Hood is sunk by the German battleship Bismarck. There are only three survivors.
-
1930
Amy Johnson becomes the first woman to fly from England to Australia.
-
1928
William Trevor, Irish short story writer and novelist (The Old Boys, The Boarding House).
-
1905
Mikhail Sholokhov, Russian novelist (And Quiet Flows the Don).
-
1903
Arthur Vineberg, Canadian heart surgeon.
-
1895
Samuel I. Newhouse, American publisher.
-
1878
Lillian Moller Gilbreth, pioneer in time-motion studies.
-
The first American bicycle race is held in Boston.
-
1863
Bushwackers led by Captain William Marchbanks attack a Federal militia party in Nevada, Missouri.
-
1861
General Benjamin Butler declares slaves to be the contraband of war.
-
1846
General Zachary Taylor captures Monterey.
-
1844
Samuel Morse taps out the first telegraph message.