May 24

1543 Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus completed his revolutionary book On the Revolutionary of Heavenly Bodies by 1532 but feared the reaction to his theory that the Earth revolves round the Sun rather than the Earth being at the center of the universe. Copernicus was seized with apoplexy and paralysis in late 1542, and he died aged 70 on May 24, 1543. His friend Georg Rhaethicus kept a copy of the book until Copernicus was virtually on his deathbed when it was finally published.

Astronomer Copernicus, or Conversations with God, by Matejko.

1595 The Nomenclator, a printed catalogue of the collections held at Leiden University Library, in the late 16th century, holds historical significance. The library, established in 1587, saw the compilation of this catalogue by Petrus Bertius, a theology professor at the university. Published on May 24, 1595, the Nomenclator holds the distinction of being the world's first printed catalogue for an institutional library.

1626 Dutch government official and explorer Peter Minuit acquired Manhattan Island on May 24, 1626 from unnamed American Indian people, (believed to have been Canarsee Indians of the Lenape). He exchanged the island for beads, cloth and trinkets valued at 60 guilders (In today’s dollars the island of Manhattan would have cost the American Indians about $1,050.)

1683 Oxford University's Ashmolean Museum, the world's first university museum, was opened by Elias Ashmole in Oxford on May 24, 1683. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole had given to the University of Oxford in 1677. Visitors were charged according to how long they stayed.

1686 German physicist Gabriel Fahrenheit was born on May 24, 1686 in Danzig (Gdańsk), then in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth,. In 1714, Gabriel Fahrenheit constructed the mercury thermometer, the first sealed thermometer. He discovered a method for cleaning mercury so that it would not stick to a glass tube, which enabled him to use this element rather than alcohol, which had given less accurate results.

Location of Fahrenheit's birth in Gdańsk

1738 On May 24, 1738, John Wesley attended a Moravian meeting in Aldersgate Street, London,  where he heard a reading of Martin Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans. Wesley felt his heart "strangely warmed." Following this conversion experience, Wesley visited Count Zinzendorf's Moravian community to see how the Gospel was lived out there. After returning, he founded the Methodist movement, an off shoot of the Anglican Church, to spread "scriptural holiness."

1819 Queen Victoria was born at 4.15 a.m. on May 24, 1819 at Kensington Palace in London.She was the only child of Edward, the Duke of Kent, the fourth son of George III, and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Victoria was eleven when she realized she would be next in line for the UK throne. When the implication sank in she had a good cry. Then she controlled herself and said solemnly to her Governess. "I will be good."

Portrait of Victoria (aged four) by Stephen Poyntz Denning 1823

1830 The Nursery Rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb," written by the influential US editor, novelist and campaigner Sarah Josepha Hale was first published on May 24, 1830. It was based on a true story of a girl called Mary Sawyer taking a pet sheep to school. "Mary Had A Little Lamb" was Thomas Edison’s first recording on his phonograph in 1878.

1836 Four giraffes arrived at London Zoo on May 24, 1836. They were the first ever seen in Britain apart from a young female giraffe presented to George IV and which lived briefly at Windsor. The names of the male giraffes were Mabrouck, Selim and Guib-Allah. The female was called Zaida.
The giraffes were temporarily kept in the Elephant House and were moved to the Giraffe House just under a month later.

1844 On May 24, 1844, Samuel Morse sent the first ever long distance Morse code message down an experimental telegraph line that ran from Washington DC to Baltimore, Maryland. It read "What hath God wrought!," which is a quote from the Old Testament Book of Numbers. The discovery of electronic communication was attributed to God who had given the power.

1883 New York City's Brooklyn Bridge, at the time the longest suspension bridge in the world, opened on May 24, 1883. The bridge was then the only land passage between Manhattan and Brooklyn. The opening ceremony was attended by several thousand people, including President Chester A. Arthur, who crossed the bridge to celebratory cannon fire. Further festivities included the performance of a band, gunfire from ships, and a fireworks display.

1895 British actor and theatrical manager Sir Henry Irving became the first person from the theater to be knighted on May 24, 1895. Previously, the acting profession was often looked down upon by the upper classes in the UK, but Irving's knighthood helped elevate the status of actors and contributed to the growing acceptance and recognition of theater as a respected art form.

1920 President Paul Deschanel of France fell out of his presidential train 60 miles south of Paris on May 24, 1920, after taking sleeping tablets and sleepwalking. He was found uninjured and taken to the nearest level-crossing keeper’s cottage. Deschanel's fall was a major scandal in France. He was widely criticized for his recklessness and for the embarrassment he caused the country. As a result, he was forced to resign from the presidency on September 21, 1920.

1930 Amy Johnson was a pioneering English pilot, who flying solo or with her husband, Jim Mollison, set numerous long-distance records during the 1930s. This included becoming the first woman to fly solo from Britain to Australia. Flying G-AAAH, the first of two aircraft she named "Jason", she left Croydon in South East England, on May 5, 1930 and crash landed in Darwin, Northern Territory, on May 24, 1930 after flying 11,000 miles (18,000 km).

1931 Albanian Agnes Bojaxhiu (later to be known as Mother Teresa) Agnes arrived in India in 1929, where she joined the Loretto Convent in Darjiling in the lower Himalayas. She took her first religious vows on May 24, 1931 choosing to be named after Thérèse de Lisieux, the patron saint of missionaries; because a nun in the convent had already chosen that name, Agnes opted for its Spanish spelling (Teresa).

1935 The first night game in Major League Baseball history was played in Cincinnati, Ohio on May 24, 1935. The Cincinnati Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies 2–1 at Crosley Field. The game drew 25,000 fans, who stood by as President Roosevelt symbolically switched on the recently installed lights from Washington, D.C.

1940 Russian-born aeronautics engineer Igor Sikorsky emigrated to the U.S. after World War I and became known as the ‘father of the helicopter’. The composer Sergei Rachmaninoff helped him start his aviation company in 1923 with a personal check for $5,000. Sikorsky designed and flew the Vought-Sikorsky VS-300, the first viable American helicopter, which pioneered the rotor configuration used by most helicopters today. Its debut flight took place on May 24, 1940.

1941 Robert Zimmerman was born on May 24, 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota. His parents, Abram Zimmerman and Beatrice "Beatty" Stone, were part of the area's small but close-knit Jewish community. He briefly attended the University of Minnesota, where he began performing in coffeehouses as Bob Dylan. The former Robert Zimmerman told Playboy in 1978 “I just chose that name and it stuck.”

1946 In 1946, Jordan became an independent state officially known as The Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan. On May 24, 1946 Abdullah bin Husayn, Emir of the Emirate of Transjordan, was proclaimed King of the renamed Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan. The name of the state was changed to The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in 1949.

1956 The first Eurovision Song Contest was held in Lugano, Switzerland on May 24, 1956. Only seven countries took part. The UK wasn’t one of them — they were supposed to take part but failed to enter our details before the submission deadline. Switzerland’s Lys Assia was the first-ever winner of the Eurovision Song Contest.

1970 Drilling began on May 24, 1970 on the Kola Peninsula in Russia, of the Kola Superdeep Borehole. It eventually reached 12,262 metres (40,230 ft), making it the deepest hole ever drilled and the deepest artificial point on Earth. The Kola Borehole has been abandoned since 2006 and only a small metal wield covers the 40,000 ft+ hole.

1974 Duke Ellington led his band from 1923 until he died of lung cancer on May 24, 1974 aged 75. His son Mercer Ellington took over the band until he died of cancer in 1996. Then Paul Ellington, Mercer's youngest son, took over the band. His legacy continued to rise after his death, and Ellington was awarded a special Pulitzer Prize for music in 1999.

1979 Bermuda is a territory in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean, consisting of an area of 21 sq miles.
Bermuda is Britain's oldest colony. The islands were settled by English colonists in 1609 and officially taken by the crown in 1684. It is now the oldest and most populous remaining British Overseas Territory. The first Bermuda Day was in 1979 and replaced Empire Day, which was also on May 24, celebrating Queen Victoria's birthday on that date.

1991 The Guinness World record for most passengers ever carried by a commercial airliner is 1,088, by an El Al Boeing 747 during Operation Solomon. The flight involved the evacuation of Ethiopian Jews from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and started on May 24, 1991. This figure included two babies born during the trip.

1995 Former UK Prime Minister Harold Wilson died of colon cancer and Alzheimer's Disease on May 24, 1995, at the age of 79. When her husband passed away, Mary Wilson wrote a poem which included the lines: "My love you have stumbled slowly. On the quiet way to death. And you lie where the wind blows strongly. With a salty spray on its breath."

2013 Gibraltar was confirmed as UEFA's 54th member on May 24, 2013. Their first international football match took place six months later, against Slovakia. The match ended with a 0-0 draw. Gibraltar has since played in a number of UEFA competitions, including the UEFA Nations League and the UEFA European Championship qualifiers. 

2015 The world's largest polar fleece blanket was unveiled at Alton Towers in England on May 24, 2015. The giant polar fleece blanket measuring a total 98.80 m2 (1063.474 ft2) is made of red fleece material, blue stitching and clear thread. It took the team eight days to complete and can easily cover a total of 56 standard children’s beds.