On this day: November 24

Events on November 24

• 1221 Mongol invasion of the Khwarazmian Empire: Genghis Khan defeated the renegade Khwarazmian prince Jalal al-Din at the Battle of the Indus. Wikipedia
• 1542 Anglo-Scottish Wars: English forces captured about 1,200 Scots at the Battle of Solway Moss. Wikipedia
• 1642 Abel Tasman becomes the first European to discover the island Van Diemen's Land (later renamed Tasmania). Wikipedia
• 1643 Thirty Years' War: Holy Roman Empire, Bavarian and Spanish forces led by Franz von Mercy defeated the French army in Germany led by Marshal Josias von Rantzau at the Battle of Tuttlingen. Wikipedia
• 1859 British naturalist Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species was first published, and sold out its initial print run on the first day. Wikipedia
• 1863 American Civil War: As part of the Chattanooga campaign in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Union forces captured Lookout Mountain, helping them to begin breaking the Confederate siege of the city. Wikipedia
• 1877 Anna Sewell's animal welfare novel Black Beauty is published. Wikipedia
• 1906 The second of two games between two Ohio football teams took place, after which accusations were made that players conspired to deliberately lose games. Wikipedia
• 1918 The Podgorica Assembly convened in Montenegro, with the intention of uniting with the Kingdom of Serbia. Wikipedia
• 1922 Irish Civil War: Irish nationalist author Erskine Childers was executed by the Irish Free State for illegally carrying a semi-automatic pistol. Wikipedia
• 1925 The Eugene O'Neill Theatre opened on Broadway, New York, with a production of the musical Mayflowers. Wikipedia
• 1940 World War II: The First Slovak Republic becomes a signatory to the Tripartite Pact, officially joining the Axis powers. Wikipedia
• 1941 The Holocaust: The Theresienstadt Ghetto was founded as a waystation to Nazi extermination camps and a "retirement settlement" for elderly and prominent Jews to mislead their communities about the Final Solution. Wikipedia
• 1943 World War II: Following the American capture of Makin Atoll, USS Liscome Bay was sunk by a torpedo from Japanese submarine I-175, killing 644. Wikipedia
• 1950 The "Great Appalachian Storm", a large extratropical cyclone, struck the east coast of the United States before moving northeast. Wikipedia
• 1963 During a live television broadcast, businessman Jack Ruby shot and fatally wounded Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated U.S. president John F. Kennedy, fueling numerous conspiracy theories. Wikipedia
• 1965 Joseph-Désiré Mobutu seizes power in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and becomes President; he rules the country (which he renames Zaire in 1971) for over 30 years, until being overthrown by rebels in 1997. Wikipedia
• 1971 After collecting a ransom payout of $200,000, D. B. Cooper parachuted out of the rear stairway of the airplane he had hijacked over the Pacific Northwest and disappeared. Wikipedia
• 1973 A national speed limit is imposed on the Autobahn in Germany because of the 1973 oil crisis. The speed limit lasts only four months. Wikipedia
• 1976 A magnitude-7.3 earthquake struck eastern Turkey, destroying 80 per cent of buildings in the region and causing at least 4,000 casualties. Wikipedia
• 1989 After a week of mass protests against the Communist regime known as the Velvet Revolution, Miloš Jakeš and the entire Politburo of the Czechoslovak Communist Party resign from office. This brings an effective end to Communist rule in Czechoslovakia. Wikipedia
• 2009 The Avdhela Project, an Aromanian digital library and cultural initiative, was launched in Bucharest, Romania. Wikipedia
• 2015 A Russian Sukhoi Su-24 attack aircraft was shot down by a Turkish fighter jet after the former allegedly strayed into Turkish airspace and ignored warnings to change course. Wikipedia
• 2017 A terrorist attack on a Mosque in Al-Rawda, North Sinai, Egypt kills 311 people and injures 128. Wikipedia
• 2022 Five days after the general elections which resulted in a hung parliament, opposition leader and former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim is officially named as the 10th prime minister of Malaysia. Wikipedia
• 2023 Hibiscus Rising, a sculpture commemorating the life of David Oluwale, was unveiled in Leeds. Wikipedia

Born on November 24

• 1394 Charles I, Duke of Orléans (died 1465) Wikipedia
• 1632 Baruch Spinoza, Dutch philosopher and scholar (died 1677) Wikipedia
• 1655 Charles XI of Sweden (died 1697) Wikipedia
• 1713 Laurence Sterne, Irish novelist and clergyman (died 1768) Wikipedia
• 1729 Alexander Suvorov, Russian field marshal (died 1800) Wikipedia
• 1784 Zachary Taylor, American general and politician, 12th President of the United States (died 1850) Wikipedia
• 1826 Carlo Collodi, Italian journalist and author (died 1890) Wikipedia
• 1849 Frances Hodgson Burnett, English-American novelist and playwright (died 1924) Wikipedia
• 1864 Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, French painter and illustrator (died 1901) Wikipedia
• 1868 Scott Joplin, American pianist and composer (died 1917) Wikipedia
• 1877 Alben W. Barkley, American lawyer and politician, 35th Vice President of the United States (died 1956) Wikipedia
• 1887 Erich von Manstein, German field marshal (died 1973) Wikipedia
• 1888 Dale Carnegie, American author and educator (died 1955) Wikipedia
• 1925 Simon van der Meer, Dutch-Swiss physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2011) Wikipedia
• 1926 Tsung-Dao Lee, Chinese-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2024) Wikipedia
• 1941 Pete Best, Indian-English drummer and songwriter Wikipedia
• 1942 Billy Connolly, Scottish comedian and actor Wikipedia
• 1946 Ted Bundy, American serial killer (died 1989) Wikipedia
• 1954 Emir Kusturica, Serbian actor, director, and screenwriter Wikipedia
• 1955 Najib Mikati, Lebanese businessman and politician, 31st Prime Minister of Lebanon Wikipedia
• 1961 Arundhati Roy, Indian writer and activist Wikipedia
• 1978 Katherine Heigl, American actress and producer Wikipedia

Died on November 24

• 1572 John Knox, Scottish pastor and theologian (born 1510) Wikipedia
• 1577 Ismail II, Shah of Safavid Iran (born 1537) Wikipedia
• 1741 Ulrika Eleonora, Queen of Sweden (born 1688) Wikipedia
• 1848 William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1779) Wikipedia
• 1870 Comte de Lautréamont, Uruguayan-French poet and author (born 1846) Wikipedia
• 1929 Georges Clemenceau, French physician, publisher, and politician, 72nd Prime Minister of France (born 1841) Wikipedia
• 1957 Diego Rivera, Mexican painter and sculptor (born 1886) Wikipedia
• 1958 Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, English lawyer and politician, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1864) Wikipedia
• 1963 Lee Harvey Oswald, American assassin of John F. Kennedy (born 1939) Wikipedia
• 1991 Freddie Mercury, Tanzanian-English singer-songwriter, lead vocalist of Queen, and producer (born 1946) Wikipedia
• 2002 John Rawls, American philosopher, author, and academic (born 1921) Wikipedia
• 2019 Goo Hara, South Korean singer and actress (born 1991) Wikipedia
• 2025 Dharmendra, Indian actor (born 1935) Wikipedia
• 2025 Jimmy Cliff, Jamaican Hall of Fame reggae singer-songwriter (born 1944) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast days: Albert of Louvain Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: Andrew Dũng-Lạc, Pierre Dumoulin-Borie, and other Vietnamese Martyrs Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: Chrysogonus Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: Colmán of Cloyne Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: Eanflæd Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: Firmina Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: Flavian of Ricina Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: Flora and Maria Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: Jehu Jones (Lutheran) Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: Justus Falckner (Lutheran) Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: Kenan (Cianán) Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: Pierre Dumoulin-Borie Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: Protasius of Milan Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: Romanus of Blaye Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: November 24 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Evolution Day (International observance) Wikipedia
• Lachit Divas (Assam) Wikipedia
• Martyrdom of Guru Tegh Bahadur (India) Wikipedia
• Teachers' Day (Turkey) Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “November 24” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/November 24” — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikidata — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “November 24” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for November 24 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.