On this date in history - July 24th: ---------- 1534 – French explorer Jacques Cartier plants a cross on the Gaspé Peninsula and takes possession of the territory in the name of Francis I of France. 1567 – Mary, Queen of Scots, is forced to abdicate and replaced by her 1-year-old son James VI. 1823 – Slavery is abolished in Chile. 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Kernstown – Confederate General Jubal Early defeats Union troops led by General George Crook in an effort to keep them out of the Shenandoah Valley. 1866 – Reconstruction: Tennessee becomes the first U.S. state to be readmitted to the Union following the American Civil War. 1935 – The Dust Bowl heat wave reaches its peak, sending temperatures to 109°F (43°C) in Chicago, Illinois and 104°F (40°C) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 1943 – World War II: Operation Gomorrah begins: British and Canadian aeroplanes bomb Hamburg by night, and American planes by day. By the end of the operation in November, 9,000 tons of explosives will have killed more than 30,000 people and destroyed 280,000 buildings. 1950 – Cape Canaveral Air Force Station begins operations with the launch of a Bumper rocket. 1967 – During an official state visit to Canada, French President Charles de Gaulle declares to a crowd of over 100,000 in Montreal: Vive le Québec libre! ("Long live free Quebec!"). The statement, interpreted as support for Quebec independence, delighted many Quebecers but angered the Canadian government and many English Canadians. 1969 – Apollo program: Apollo 11 splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean. 1974 – Watergate scandal: the United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled that President Richard Nixon did not have the authority to withhold subpoenaed White House tapes and they order him to surrender the tapes to the Watergate special prosecutor. 1983 – George Brett batting for the Kansas City Royals against the New York Yankees, has a game-winning home run nullified in the "Pine Tar Incident". 1990 – Iraqi forces start massing on the Kuwait-Iraq border. 1998 – Russell Eugene Weston, Jr. bursts into the United States Capitol and opens fire killing two police officers. He is later ruled to be incompetent to stand trial. 2005 – Lance Armstrong "wins" his seventh consecutive Tour de France.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Jul 2013 04:18:28 +0000
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