June 24
1314 - Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce won over Edward II of England at the Battle of Bannockburn in Scotland.
1340 - The English fleet defeated the French fleet at Sluys, off the Flemish coast.
1497 - Italian explorer John Cabot, sailing in the service of England, landed in North America on what is now Newfoundland.
1509 - Henry VIII was crowned King of England.
1664 - New Jersey, named after the Isle of Jersey, was founded.
1675 - King Philip's War began when Indians massacre colonists at Swansee, Plymouth colony.
1717 - The Freemasons were founded in London.
1793 - The first republican constitution in France was adopted.
1812 - Napoleon crossed the Nieman River and invaded Russia.
1844 - Charles Goodyear was granted U.S. patent #3,633 for vulcanized rubber.
1859 - At the Battle of Solferino, also known as the Battle of the Three Sovereigns, the French army led by Napoleon III defeated the Austrian army under Franz Joseph I in northern Italy.
1861 - Federal gunboats attacked Confederate batteries at Mathias Point, Virginia.
1862 - U.S. intervention saved the British and French at the Dagu forts in China.
1869 - Mary Ellen "Mammy" Pleasant officially became the Vodoo Queen in San Francisco, CA.
1896 - Booker T. Washington became the first African American to receive an honorary MA degree from Howard University.
1910 - The Japanese army invaded Korea.
1913 - Greece and Serbia annulled their alliance with Bulgaria following border disputes over Macedonia and Thrace.
1922 - The American Professional Football Association took the name of The National Football League.
1931 - The Soviet Union and Afghanistan signed a treaty of neutrality.
1940 - France signed an armistice with Italy.
1940 - TV cameras were used for the first time in a political convention as the Republicans convened in Philadelphia, PA.
1941 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt pledged all possible support to the Soviet Union.
1947 - Kenneth Arnold reported seeing flying saucers over Mt. Rainier, Washington.
1948 - The Soviet Union began the Berlin Blockade.
1953 - John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier announced their engagement.
1955 - Soviet MIG's down a U.S. Navy patrol plane over the Bering Strait.
1962 - The New York Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers, 9-7, after 22 innings.
1964 - The Federal Trade Commission announced that starting in 1965, cigarette manufactures would be required to include warnings on their packaging about the harmful effects of smoking.
1968 - "Resurrection City," a shantytown constructed as part of the Poor People's March on Washington D.C., was closed down by authorities.
1970 - The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly to repeal the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
1970 - The movie "Myra Breckinridge" premiered.
1971 - The National Basketball Association modified its four-year eligibility rule to allow for collegiate hardship cases.
1982 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that no president could be sued for damages connected with actions taken while serving as President of the United States.
1985 - Natalia Solzhenitsyn the wife of exiled, Soviet author Alexander Solzhenitsyn, became a U.S. citizen.
1986 - The Empire State Building was designated a National Historic Landmark.
1997 - The U.S. Air Force released a report titled "The Roswell Report, Case Closed" that dismissed the claims that an alien spacecraft had crashed in Roswell, NM, in 1947.
1998 - AT&T Corp. struck a deal to buy cable TV giant Tele-Communications Inc. for $31.7 billion.
1998 - Walt Disney World Resort admitted its 600-millionth guest.
Disney movies, music and books
2002 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that juries, not judges, must make the decision to give a convicted killer the death penalty.
2002 - A painting from Monet's Waterlilies series sold for $20.2 million.
2003 - In Paris, France, manuscripts by novelist Georges Simenon brought in $325,579. The original manuscript of "La Mort de Belle" raised $81,705.
2010 - Apple released the iPhone 4.
