[CaptainCrunch]

March 24th


1401 – Turco-Mongol emperor Timur sacks Damascus.

1603 – James VI of Scotland becomes James I of England and Ireland, upon the death of Elizabeth I.

1603 – Tokugawa Ieyasu is granted the title of shogun from Emperor Go-Yōzei, and establishes the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo, Japan.

1663 – The Province of Carolina is granted by charter to eight Lords Proprietor in reward for their assistance in restoring Charles II of England to the throne.

1720 – Count Frederick of Hesse-Kassel is elected King of Sweden by the Riksdag of the Estates, after his consort Ulrika Eleonora abdicated the throne on 29 February

1721 – Johann Sebastian Bach dedicated six concertos to Margrave Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg-Schwedt, now commonly called the Brandenburg Concertos, BWV 1046–1051.




1731 – Naturalization of Hieronimus de Salis Parliamentary Act is passed.

1765 – Great Britain passes the Quartering Act, which requires the Thirteen Colonies to house British troops.

1794 – In Kraków, Tadeusz Kościuszko announces a general uprising against Imperial Russia and the Kingdom of Prussia, and assumes the powers of the Commander in Chief of all of the Polish forces.

1829 – The Parliament of the United Kingdom passes the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829, allowing Catholics to serve in Parliament.

1832 – In Hiram, Ohio, a group of men beat and tar and feather Mormon leader Joseph Smith.

1837 – Canada gives African Canadian men the right to vote.

1854 – Slavery is abolished in Venezuela.

1860 – Sakuradamon Incident: Assassination of Japanese Chief Minister (Tairō) Ii Naosuke.

1869 – The last of Titokowaru's forces surrendered to the New Zealand government, ending his uprising.

1878 – The British frigate HMS Eurydice sinks, killing more than 300.

1882 – Robert Koch announces the discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis.

1885 – Sino-French War: Chinese victory in the Battle of Bang Bo on the Tonkin–Guangxi border.

1896 – A. S. Popov makes the first radio signal transmission in history.




1900 – Mayor of New York City Robert Anderson Van Wyck breaks ground for a new underground "Rapid Transit Railroad" that would link Manhattan and Brooklyn.

1907 – The first issue of the Georgian Bolshevik newspaper Dro is published.

1921 – The 1921 Women's Olympiad begins in Monte Carlo, first international women's sports event.

1927 – Nanking Incident: Foreign warships bombard Nanjing, China, in defense of the foreign citizens within the city.

1933 – The Enabling Act passed in both the Reichstag and Reichsrat.




1934 – United States Congress passes the Tydings–McDuffie Act, allowing the Philippines to become a self-governing commonwealth.

1944 – Ardeatine massacre: German troops murder 335 Italian civilians in Rome.

1944 – World War II: In an event later dramatized in the movie The Great Escape, 76 Allied prisoners of war begin breaking out of the German camp Stalag Luft III.




1946 – A British Cabinet Mission arrives in India to discuss and plan for the transfer of power from the British Raj to Indian leadership.

1958 – Rock 'n' roll teen idol Elvis Presley is drafted in the U.S. Army.




1961 – Quebec Board of the French Language is established.

1965 – Images from the Ranger 9 lunar probe are broadcast live on network television.




1973 – Kenyan athlete Kip Keino defeats Jim Ryun at the first-ever professional track meet in Los Angeles.

1976 – In Argentina, the armed forces overthrow the constitutional government of President Isabel Perón and start a 7-year dictatorial period self-styled the National Reorganization Process.

1977 - Morarji Desai became the Prime Minister of India, the first Prime Minister not to belong to Indian National Congress.

1980 – El Salvadorian Archbishop Óscar Romero is assassinated while celebrating Mass in San Salvador.

1986 – The Loscoe gas explosion leads to new UK laws on landfill gas migration and gas protection on landfill sites.

1989 – In Prince William Sound in Alaska, the Exxon Valdez spills 240,000 barrels (38,000 m3) of crude oil after running aground.




1993 – Discovery of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9.




1998 – Mitchell Johnson and Andrew Golden, aged 11 and 13 respectively, fire upon teachers and students at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas; five people are killed and ten are wounded.

1998 – A tornado sweeps through Dantan in India, killing 250 people and injuring 3,000 others.

1998 – First computer-assisted Bone Segment Navigation, performed at the University of Regensburg, Germany

1999 – Kosovo war: NATO began attacks on Yugoslavia without United Nations Security Council (UNSC) approval, marking the first time NATO has attacked a sovereign country.




1999 – A lorry carrying margarine and flour catches fire inside the Mont Blanc Tunnel. The resulting inferno kills 38 people.

2003 – The Arab League votes 21–1 in favor of a resolution demanding the immediate and unconditional removal of U.S. and British soldiers from Iraq.

2008 – Bhutan officially becomes a democracy, with its first ever general election.

2015 – Germanwings Flight 9525 crashes in the French Alps in an apparent pilot mass murder-suicide, killing all 150 people on board.