May 24

Events

• 1844 - Samuel F. B. Morse sent the message "What hath God wrought" (a Bible quotation, Numbers 23:23) from the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the United States Capitol to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, Maryland.
• 1846 - Mexican-American War: General Zachary Taylor captures Monterrey.
• 1883 - The Brooklyn Bridge in New York is opened to traffic after 14 years of construction
• 1900 - Second Boer War: The United Kingdom annexes the Orange Free State.
• 1911 - The New York Public Library opened.
• 1915 - World War I: Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary.
• 1940 - Igor Sikorsky performs the first successful single-rotor helicopter flight.
• 1941 - World War II: In the North Atlantic, the German Battleship Bismarck sinks the HMS Hood
• 1949 - The Soviet Union ends the 11-month Berlin Blockade.
• 1958 - United Press International is formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service.
• 1968 - FLQ separatists bomb the U.S. consulate in Quebec City.
• 1976 - London to Washington, DC Concorde service begins.
• 1993 - Eritrea gains its independence from Ethiopia.
• 2000 - Israeli troops driven out of southern Lebanon by Hezbollah after 22 years of occupation.

Births

• 1686 - Gabriel Fahrenheit, inventor and thermometer maker (d. 1736)
• 1819 - Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom (d. 1901)
• 1870 - Jan Christiaan Smuts, Prime Minister of South Africa (d. 1950)
• 1895 - Samuel Irving Newhouse, American publisher (d. 1979)
• 1902 - Austin J. App, German-American revisionist professor (d. 1984)
• 1941 - Bob Dylan, Jewish droning "singer"

Deaths

• 1543 - Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish astronomer (b. 1473)
• 1959 - John Foster Dulles, United States Secretary of State (b. 1888)
• 1995 - Harold Wilson, British politician (b. 1916)