November 24

1553 Wife selling at inns, markets or fairs was a way of ending an unhappy marriage in England when divorce was a practical impossibility for all but the very wealthiest. The earliest definite case is recorded by London tailor Henry Machyn, November, 24, 1553. Before marriage laws were reformed in 1857, ‘selling’ a spouse was technically legal.

1572 By the summer of 1572, Scottish pastor and theologian John Knox was exceedingly feeble and his voice faint, but he continued to preach. After inducting his successor as minister of St Giles' in Edinburgh on November 9th, Knox returned to his home for the last time. He spent his last fortnight there surrounded by friends and asked for the Bible to be read aloud. John Knox passed away on November 24, 1572 after his young wife had read from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians.

Statue on the former John Knox Memorial Institute, Haddington. By Kim Traynor 

1642 On November 24, 1642, the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman made the first European sighting of Tasmania. Tasman named the island Anthoonij van Diemenslandt, after his sponsor, the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. The British shortened the name to Van Diemen's Land. It was officially renamed Tasmania on January 1, 1856. Tasman discovered Tasmania and New Zealand on his first Pacific voyage while missing the entire continent of Australia.

1703 The first Lutheran ordained in the region that became the United States was Justus Falckner. The fourth son of Daniel Falckner, a Lutheran pastor at Langenreinsdorf, a subdivision of Crimmitschau in Saxony, he traveled to the American colonies  after studying theology at the University of Halle. On November 24, 1703, Andrew Rudman and two other Swedish church leaders ordained Justus Falckner in a Philadelphia church. 

1712 Abbé Charles-Michel de l-Épée, the "Father of the Deaf", was born on November 24, 1712 in Versailles, France. In 1620, the Spanish priest Juan Pablo Bonnet wrote a text about teaching deaf people to speak, using gestures as a tool. The sign language created by Bonet was used by Abbé Charles-Michel de l-Épée to create a finger-spelling alphabet in the 18th century. This alphabet has changed very little since then, and is still used today in France and North America.

1836 The German composer Richard Wagner married Wilhelmine (Minna) Planer, an actress three or four years his senior with an eight year old daughter on November 24, 1836. They tied the knot in Tragheim Church, where they argued in front of the minister who was to marry them. The couple had a stormy marriage forever separating and reconciling until Minna died in 1866.

1849 English-American novelist Frances Hodgson Burnett was born on November 24, 1849. Her Vivian, clamored for something for little boys to read, so Frances wrote Little Lord Fauntleroy in 1886 and modeled the main character after him. Mrs. Burnett found inspiration for the character in Vivian's blonde curls and Oscar Wilde's style of dress. Her other children's novels include A Little Princess (1905), and The Secret Garden (1911). 

1859 Charles Darwin was one of the first to formulate an argument for the scientific theory of evolution by means of natural selection, which he wrote about in his book On the Origin of Species. It was first published on November 24, 1859, priced at fifteen shillings with a first printing of 1250 copies. Though some intellectuals latched onto Darwin's work with great enthusiasm, it generally caused controversy and outrage among Victorian society and he was vehemently attacked and ridiculed by the church.

Origin of Species title page

1877 Anna Sewell's classic animal welfare novel Black Beauty was published on November 24, 1877. It tells the life story of the titular horse named Black Beauty, beginning with his carefree days as a colt on an English farm with his mother, to his difficult life pulling cabs in London, to his happy retirement in the country.

1909 In 1909, Orville and Wilbur Wright won the first US military aviation contract when they built a machine that met the requirements of a two-seater, capable of flights of an hour's duration, at an average of 40 miles per hour (64 km/h) and land undamaged. The Wright brothers formed a million-dollar corporation for the commercial manufacture of their airplanes on November 24, 1909.

1916 American-English engineer Hiram Maxim died on November 24, 1916. He invented the world's first portable fully automatic machine gun in 1884. A prolific inventor, Maxim was also responsible for creating the world’s first automatic sprinkler to douse fires and the common mousetrap.

1946 The serial killer Ted Bundy was born on November 24, 1946. He was a law student who is believed to have killed at least 36 females, both adults and children, during the 1970s. Convicted in 1979 on several charges, including the murder of a 12-year-old girl, Bundy was sentenced to death. He was executed in Florida in 1989 after a string of unsuccessful appeals.

1955 The cricketer Ian Botham was born on November 24, 1955. His famous play during the 1981 Ashes series between England and Australia becoming known as Botham’s Ashes. On the 4th day of the Headingley Test, England was predicted to lose by the Bookies at an odds of 500-1. They came back to win the match after Botham's innings of 149 not-out.

1961 Kuwait's flag was officially hoisted November 24, 1961.  The flag consists of three horizontal stripes of equal width. From top to bottom, the colors are green, white, and red. The green color represents fertility, the white symbolizes purity, and the red signifies the country's brave victories. The flag was adopted shortly after Kuwait gained its independence from the United Kingdom on June 19, 1961.

1963 The first live televised murder occurred on November 24, 1963, when Jack Ruby killed President John Kennedy's alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald while millions of viewers watched. Oswald was fatally shot by nightclub owner Ruby, while being moved from police headquarters to the county jail.

1973 A national speed limit of 100 km/h (62 mph) was imposed on Germany's Autobahns because of the 1973 oil crisis on November 24, 1973. This was the first time that a national speed limit had been imposed on the Autobahns since they were first built in the 1930s. The speed limit lasted only four months and today much of the system has no speed limit for some classes of vehicles.

1991 Queen vocalist Freddie Mercury died of an AIDS-related illness on November 24, 1991. Mercury had spent his last months recording as many vocals as he could for the rest of Queen to finish after his death. The flamboyant singer was known for his remarkable vocal range but was actually a baritone. He didn't believe that his fans would recognize his voice unless he sang as a tenor.

2009 The Guinness world record for the most puppies ever delivered in one litter belongs to Tia, a Neapolitan mastiff living in England. On November 24, 2009, she gave birth to 24 puppies.
The pups were delivered by Cesarean section, but one was stillborn and three others died in the first week. Tia was owned by Damian Ward and Anne Kellegher of Manea, Cambridgeshire.

2016 The largest glass of freshly squeezed orange juice measures 1,525 liters (335.45 UK gallons) and was achieved by Altadis (Spain) in Valencia, Spain, on November 24, 2016. The record attempt lasted exactly one hour with 400 participants taking part.

2021 The world record, in competitive conditions for solving the Rubik's Cube has grown progressively lower. The current record stands at 3.13 seconds. It was set by Max Park of the United States on November 24, 2021, at the WCA Oceania Rubik's Cube Championship 2021 in Sydney, Australia.