What are the important events that happened on May 24? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.
May 24: Facts & Myths About This Day
May 24 is the 144th day of the year 2025 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 221 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Saturday.
Under the Julian calendar, this day is May 11, 2025 – a Saturday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?
When this day started, 485,568 hours has elapsed since midnight of January 1, 1970 – the Unix epoch.
Strange as it may, if we name this day after a polygon then it will be called ‘hectatetracontatetragon’ day.
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Gemini is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Emerald is the modern birthstone for this month. Sapphire is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.
According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 269 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.
The ancient Maya civilization believes that the end of the world will happen on December 21, 2012. There are now 4,537 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.
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May 24 Historical Events
- 1621 –The Protestant Union is formally dissolved.
- 1844 –Samuel Morse sends the message “What hath God wrought” (a biblical quotation, Numbers 23:23) from the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the United States Capitol to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, Maryland to inaugurate the first telegraph line.
- 1895 –Henry Irving becomes the first person from the theatre to be knighted.
- 1921 –The trial of Sacco and Vanzetti opens.
- 1930 –Amy Johnson lands in Darwin, Northern Territory, becoming the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia (she left on May 5 for the 11,000 mile flight).
- 1943 –Holocaust: Josef Mengele becomes chief medical officer of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
- 1960 –Following the 1960 Valdivia earthquake, the largest ever recorded earthquake, Cordón Caulle begins to erupt.
- 1961 –Cyprus joins the Council of Europe.
- 1976 –The London to Washington, D.C. Concorde service begins.
- 2002 –Russia and the United States sign the Moscow Treaty.
Who were born on May 24?
- 1854 –John Riley Banister, American law officer and cowboy (d. 1918)
- 1885 –Susan Sutherland Isaacs, English educational psychologist (d. 1948)
- 1900 –Eduardo De Filippo, Italian actor and screenwriter (d. 1984)
- 1963 –Michael Chabon, American author
- 1966 –Russell Kun, Nauruan politician
- 1967 –Steve McDonald, American bassist (Redd Kross)
- 1968 –Mo Willems, American author and screenwriter
- 1974 –Masahide Kobayashi, Japanese baseball player
- 1979 –Kareem McKenzie, American football player
- 1989 –Andrew Jordan, British racing driver
Who died on May 24?
- 1915 –Private John Condon, English World War I soldier (b. 1896)
- 1948 –Jacques Feyder, Belgian director and screenwriter (b. 1885)
- 1960 –Avraham Arnon, Israeli educator and a recipient of the Israel Prize (b. 1887)
- 1969 –Willy Ley, German-born rocket scientist (b. 1906)
- 2000 –Majrooh Sultanpuri, Indian poet and lyricist (b. 1919)
- 2004 –Milton Shulman, Canadian author and critic (b. 1913)
- 2005 –Arthur Haulot, Belgian journalist (b. 1913)
- 2005 –Carl Amery, German writer (b. 1922)
- 2010 –Anneliese Rothenberger, German operatic lyric soprano (b. 1926)
- 2010 –Virendra Bhatia, Indian politician (b. 1947)
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