November 24

Events

1642 - Abel Tasman becomes the first European to discover the island Van Diemen's Land (later renamed Tasmania).
1859 - Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species.
1940 - World War II: Slovakia becomes a signatory of the Tripartite Pact, officially joining the Axis Powers.
1944 - World War II: Bombing of Tokyo - The first bombing raid against the Japanese capital from the east and by land is carried out by 88 American aircraft.
1947 - Red Menace: After the notorious Hollywood 10 refuse to co-operate with the House Un-American Activities Committee concerning Communist influence in the movie industry, the United States House of Representatives votes 346 to 17 to approve citations of contempt of Congress against them.
1963 - Lee Harvey Oswald is shot and killed by Jack Ruby in the basement of Dallas police department headquarters on live television.
1971 - During a severe thunderstorm over Washington state, a hijacker calling himself Dan Cooper (AKA D. B. Cooper) parachutes from a Northwest Orient Airlines plane with $200,000 in ransom money.
1974 - Donald Johanson and Tom Gray discover the 40% complete Australopithecus afarensis skeleton, nicknamed "Lucy" after The Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia's Afar Depression.