In Calendar Form

October 24

0439 Carthage, the leading Roman city in North Africa, falls to Genseric and the Vandals.

1260 Under Pope Alexander IV, Chartres Cathedral in France is consecrated. Completed in less than 30 years, the structure represents high Gothic architecture at its purest. (Bradley)

1531 Bavaria, despite being a Catholic region, joins the League of Schmalkalden, a Protestant group which opposes Charles V.

1537 Death: Jane Seymour, third wife of King Henry VIII of England.

1538 French reformer John Calvin wrote in a letter: 'Among Christians there ought to be so great a dislike of schism, as that they may always avoid it so far as lies in their power.'

1601 Death: Tycho Brahe, astronomer, in Prague at 54.

1632 Birth: Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, Dutch naturalist. (Philosophical Transactions), pioneering Dutch microscope maker.

1648 The signing of the Treaty of Westphalia ends the German Thirty Years' War.

1655 Death: Pierre Gassendi, French philosopher, at 63.

1755 A British expedition against French held Fort Niagara in Canada ends in failure.

1790 English founder of Methodism John Wesley, aged 87, makes the last entry in his 55-year-long journal, written after preaching a sermon: 'I hope many even then resolved to choose the better part.'

1795 The third partition of Poland is made, between Austria, Prussia and Russia.

1798 George Washington acknowledges his belief in the existence of the Illuminati and the principles of Jacobinism already active in the US It "is too evident to be questioned" Washington writes. (Sturdza 44)

1802 Baron Nathan Mayer Rothschild is initiated into Emulation Lodge No. 12, London. (Masonic Portraits: Sketches of Distinguished Freemasons, W. W. Morgan, London: 1876)

1830 Birth: Belva Lockwood, women's rights advocate, attorney; will be the first woman candidate for US president, nominated by the National Equal Rights Party.

1836 Alonzo D. Phillips of Springfield, Massachusetts receives a patent for the phosphorous friction safety match.

1851 William Lassell discovers Ariel and Umbriel, satellites of Uranus.

1855 Birth: James Schoolcraft Sherman, 27th US Vice President (Taft). "...House members, led by Speaker Cannon, pressed for the nomination of James Sherman. On the surface, it seemed as though Sherman won the nomination by default, after the more progressive possibilities withdrew their names from consideration. But years later, in his memoirs, Senator Chauncey Depew revealed a more Machiavellian version of what had happened. The New York delegation had lobbied hard to convince Taft's managers that New York would be a critical state in the election, and that a New Yorker would most strengthen the ticket headed by a "westerner" like Taft of Ohio. Since Taft's managers had already discussed the nomination with several other potential candidates, they could not turn to Sherman without first dissuading these people—and doing so without offending their states. As Depew explained: 'The method adopted by one of the leading managers was both adroit and hazardous. He would call up a candidate on the telephone and say to him: "The friends of Mr. Taft are very favorable to you for vice-president. Will you accept the nomination?" The candidate would hesitate and begin to explain his ambitions, his career and its possibilities, and the matter which he would have to consider. Before the prospective candidate had finished, the manager would say, "Very sorry, deeply regret," and put up the telephone. When the nomination was made these gentlemen who might have succeeded would come around to the manager and say impatiently and indignantly: "I was all right. Why did you cut me off?" However, those gentlemen have had their compensation. Whenever you meet one of them he will say to you: "I was offered the vice-presidency with Taft but was so situated that I could not accept..." Note: This is an outstanding and definitive link.

1856 The Constitution of South Australia is adopted.

1861 US Civil War: Western Union completes the first transcontinental telegraph line, putting the Pony Express out of business. Telegrams are sent coast to coast for the first time in the US. California Justice Stephen J. Field is the first in line to send a message. The recipient is President Abraham Lincoln. (Bradley)

1863 US Civil War: General Ulysses S. Grant arrives in Chattanooga, Tennessee to find the Union Army there starving.

1871 A mob in Los Angeles lynches 18 Chinese.

1883 Birth: Walter Buch, Chairman of the Supreme Party Court of the NSDAP and father-in-law of Martin Bormann. Sentenced to five years in a labor camp after the war, Buch is believed to have committed suicide in 1949 by slashing his wrists and drowning himself in Ammer Lake.

1901 Daredevil Annie Edson Taylor had nothing better to do on this, her 43rd birthday. Taylor, of Bay City, Michigan, initiates a famous stunt tradition when she goes over Niagara Falls in a wooden barrel. Taylor plunges over the 175-foot-tall Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side of Niagara, inside a barrel five feet high and three feet in diameter. A leather harness and cushions line the barrel and protect Taylor during her fall, and she emerges shaken but unhurt in the river below. Taylor hopes that after the stunt she will make a fortune touring the world, displaying the famous barrel and relating the adventure. Although the stunt did indeed receive international attention, Taylor will reap few financial rewards, and die in poverty after twenty years as a Niagara street vendor. She is the first to live to tell about it; but only one of many people to try. Interestingly, Annie couldn't swim. (Bradley)

1911 Robert Falcon Scott's expedition leaves Cape Evans for the South Pole.

1916 Henry Ford awards equal pay to women.

1917 WW1: German troops under Gen. Otto von Below lead a powerful attack against the weak Italian defenses at Caporetto, forcing Cadorna to withdraw along the entire front (The twelfth Battle of Isonzo).

1918 WW1: Italian forces attack Austrian positions in Italy at the Battle of Vittorio Veneto, but are quickly halted on the Piave River line.

1923 Weimar: 14 policemen are killed and 100 wounded during a Communist insurrection in Hamburg, .

1929 Black Thursday: The New York Stock Exchange crashes, quickly setting off a worldwide economic depression. Investors who had been "buying stock on margin," (generally 10%) are devastated when their "24-hour broker call loans " are all called in at the same time. This means that the stock brokers and their customers have to dump their stocks in order to pay off their loans. Put simply, when all the sellers offer their stock at the same time, prices plummet.

1929 Black Thursday: Winston Churchill is personally brought to the New York Stock Exchange by Bernard Baruch. Some conspiracy-oriented historians are convinced that Churchill is brought to witness the crash firsthand because it is desired that he see the power of the banking system at work. (Galbraith)

1931 George Washington Bridge opens connecting New York to New Jersey. The bridge will become a famous New York landmark and will be featured in many movies and TV shows. The toll to cross the bridge is to be temporary - just to cover costs. But it costs a lot when you have to keep repairing and painting a bridge that big, so the bridge toll continues. And the bridge is still being painted. (Bradley)

1935 Catholic and Protestant leaders urge America not to participate in the Berlin Olympics.

1934 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, called Mahatma or 'Great Soul', resigns from Congress in India.

1938 The Fair Labor Standards Act becomes law in the US, establishing the 40-hour work week.

1938 German Foreign Minister Ribbentrop (above) and Polish Ambassador Lipski meet at Berchtesgaden. Ribbentrop invites Polish Foreign Minister Beck to visit Berlin and puts forward the following suggestions: (1) Danzig to be a German city. (2) Free port for Poland in Danzig with communications assured by extraterritorial railroad and highway through Danzig. (3) An Extraterritorial zone one kilometer wide for a railroad and highway across the Polish Corridor uniting the two portions of Germany carved out at Versailles. (4) Both nations to recognize and guarantee their frontiers. (5) An extension of the German-Polish treaty of Friendship. These proposals are standing and open until August 10, 1939, when Poland will reject them and declare "any intervention by the Reich Government (will be regarded as) an act of aggression."

1939 Diary of Leon Gladun: Today 400 [...] and non-commissioned officers departed. They received rations for 4 days, therefore [...].

1939 Women's nylon hosiery goes on sale for the first time - at Wilmington Dry Goods in Wilmington, Delaware. The Dupont Company, the inventor of nylon, is based there.

1940 WW2: Hitler meets General Petain (above) at Montoire.

1941 Barbarossa: Kharkov falls to the Wehrmarcht, netting yet another Russian Army Group. (Clark II)

1942 WW2: The Cafe Club (German recreation center in Warsaw) is bombed by Polish People's Guard in retaliation for public execution of 50 Poles. (See Oct 20)

1943 WW2: Anti-nazi Clandestine Radio Soldatsender Calais begins transmitting.

1944 WW2: The aircraft carrier USS Princeton is sunk by a single Japanese plane during the last day of Battle of Leyte Gulf.

1945 United Nations: The UN Charter comes into force with just 29 signatories at this point. The organization's stated purposes are to "save succeeding generations from the scourge of war," develop friendly relations among states, cooperate in solving international economic, social, cultural, and humanitarian problems, and promote respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. (Bradley)

1946 Death: Dr. Robert Ley, Hitler's 'Labor Leader', commits suicide in Allied captivity. His suicide note reads (in part), "I have always been one of the responsible men. I was with Hitler in the good days...I wanted to be with him in the black days. God led me in whatever I did. He led me up and now he lets me fall. I am torturing myself to find the reasons for my downfall, and this is the result of my contemplation's. We have forsaken God and therefore were forsaken by God. Anti-Semitism distorted our outlook and we made grave errors. It is hard to admit these mistakes but the whole existence of our people is in question. We Nazis must have the courage to rid ourselves of Anti-Semitism. We have to declare to our youth that it was a mistake. The youth will not believe our opponents. We have to meet the Jews with open hearts. German people, reconcile yourselves with the Jew. Invite him into your home with you. We cannot stop the excited sea at once but must let her calm down gradually, otherwise terrible repercussions would result. A complete reconciliation with the Jews has priority over economic or cultural reconstruction. We outspoken Anti-Semites have to become the first fighters for the new ideas. We have to show the people the way." Note: Goering, upon hearing of Ley's suicide, remarks, "It's just as well that he's dead, because I had my doubts how he would behave at the trial."

1945 Death: Vidkun Quisling is executed by a firing squad in Norway.

1946 Death: Kurt Daluege, Commander-in-Chief of the Police of the German Reich and later Deputy Protector of Bohemia and Moravia. Daluege joined the NSDAP in 1922 and in March 1926 founded and led the first SA group in Berlin and North Germany, a position he held until 1928, when he transferred to the SS. For the next five years he was Commander of SS units in East Germany, organizing special shock battalions for surprise attacks on opponents. After Hitler came to power in 1933, he was given the special assignment of purging the police apparatus of Hitler's opponents, and was largely responsible for turning the police into an instrument of the Nazi regime. Promoted to SS General in 1934, he subsequently became the most powerful policeman in the SS, second in rank only to Himmler. After Heydrich's death, he became Deputy Protector of Bohemia and Moravia in 1942, and was said to have been responsible for the destruction of the village of Lidice. He is executed by the Czechs this day.

1952 Presidential candidate General Dwight D. Eisenhower, in Detroit, delivers his famous speech about Korea. He promises to go to Korea and seek 'an early settlement to the war' if he is elected President.

1952 The Arab Liberation Movement becomes the only party of Syria.

1954 Birth: This humble chronicler emerges into a world he never made.

1960 A disaster on a USSR launch pad kills missile expert Nedelin and his team. The USSR claims he was killed in plane crash.

1961 Death: Dr Milan Stoyadinovich, Fascist, Yugoslavia Prime Minister (1935-9), at 73.

1964 Martin Luther King is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo.

1964 Zambia (Northern Rhodesia) gains independence from Britain. Now a National Day.

1973 The Yom Kippur War ends with Israel 65 miles from Cairo, 26 from Damascus.

1980 The Polish government legalizes the independent labor union Solidarity.

1984 The FBI arrests 11 alleged chiefs of the Colombo crime family on charges of racketeering in New York City.

1984 Intelsat 5 reenters Earth's atmosphere five months after it failed.

1987 Death: Constantin Alajalov, Russian artist, at 86.

1989 The Reverend Jim Bakker, TV evangelist, is sentenced to 45 years in prison and fined $500,000 dollars for fleecing his flock.

1990 Representative Donald Lukens, R-Ohio, resigns over new sex charges.

1995 The UN marks its 50th anniversary. The celebration is the largest gathering of world leaders in history.

2001 Pakistan officials declare they require no help in securing their nation's nuclear weapons, despite fears they might fall into the hands of Islamic extremists.

2001 An estranged sister-in-law of Osama bin Laden tells a US television show that she believes some members of the Saudi royal family support the terrorist.

2001 Israel continues to raid Palestinian controlled areas, and claims to have captured two of the Zeevi assassins.

2001 US Postmaster General John Potter tells Americans "There are no guarantees that mail is safe." He also advises Americans to wash hands after handling mail.

2001 An air strike in Kabul kills 22 Pakistani militants linked to Osama bin Laden. The Pentagon says they are "surprised at how doggedly" the Taliban are clinging to power.

2001 The US House of representatives overwhelmingly approves a domestic antiterrorism bill giving police new
powers.

2004

2004

2004

2004