On this day: November 24

Events on November 24

• 847 An earthquake hits Syria, causing multiple casualties and damages in Antioch, Damascus and Mosul. Wikipedia
• 1221 Mongol invasion of the Khwarazmian Empire: Genghis Khan defeated the renegade Khwarazmian prince Jalal al-Din at the Battle of the Indus. Wikipedia
• 1221 Genghis Khan defeats the renegade Khwarazmian prince Jalal al-Din at the Battle of the Indus, completing the Mongol conquest of Central Asia. Wikipedia
• 1429 Hundred Years' War: Joan of Arc unsuccessfully besieges La Charité. 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
• 1832 South Carolina passes the Ordinance of Nullification, declaring that the Tariffs of 1828 and 1832 were null and void in the state, beginning the Nullification Crisis. 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
• 1859 British naturalist Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species is published. Wikipedia
• 1863 American Civil War: Battle of Lookout Mountain: Near Chattanooga, Tennessee, Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant capture Lookout Mountain and begin to break the Confederate siege of the city led by General Braxton Bragg. 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
• 1917 In Milwaukee, nine members of the Milwaukee Police Department are killed by a bomb, the most deaths in a single event in U.S. police history until the September 11 attacks in 2001. Wikipedia
• 1929 The Finnish far-right Lapua Movement officially begins when a group of mainly the former White Guard members, led by Vihtori Kosola, interrupted communism occasion at the Workers' House in Lapua, Finland. 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
• 1962 Cold War: The West Berlin branch of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany forms a separate party, the Socialist Unity Party of West Berlin. Wikipedia
• 1963 Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of President John F. Kennedy, is killed by Jack Ruby on live television. Robert H. Jackson takes a photograph of the shooting that will win the 1964 Pulitzer Prize in Photography. Wikipedia
• 1966 Bulgarian TABSO Flight 101 crashes near Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, killing all 82 people on board. Wikipedia
• 1971 During a severe thunderstorm over Washington state, a hijacker calling himself Dan Cooper (aka D. B. Cooper) parachutes from a Northwest Orient Airlines plane with $200,000 in ransom money. He has never been found. Wikipedia
• 1974 Donald Johanson and Tom Gray discover the 40% complete Australopithecus afarensis skeleton, nicknamed "Lucy" (after The Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"), in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia's Afar Depression. Wikipedia
• 2009 The Avdhela Project, an Aromanian digital library and cultural initiative, was launched in Bucharest, Romania. Wikipedia
• 2009 The Avdhela Project, an Aromanian digital library and cultural initiative, is founded in Bucharest, Romania. Wikipedia
• 2012 A fire at a clothing factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, kills at least 112 people. Wikipedia
• 2013 Iran signs an interim agreement with the P5+1 countries, limiting its nuclear program in exchange for reduced sanctions. Wikipedia
• 2015 An explosion on a bus carrying Tunisian Presidential Guard personnel in Tunisia's capital Tunis leaves at least 14 people dead. Wikipedia
• 2016 The government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia–People's Army sign a revised peace deal, bringing an end to the country's more than 50-year-long civil war. Wikipedia

Born on November 24

• 1632 Baruch Spinoza, Dutch philosopher and scholar (died 1677) 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
• 1806 William Webb Ellis, English priest, created Rugby football (died 1872) 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
• 1876 Walter Burley Griffin, American architect and urban planner, designed Canberra (died 1937) Wikipedia
• 1877 Alben W. Barkley, American lawyer and politician, 35th Vice President of the United States (died 1956) Wikipedia
• 1885 Christian Wirth, German SS officer (died 1944) 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
• 1940 Paul Tagliabue, American lawyer and businessman, 5th Commissioner of the National Football League (died 2025) 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
• 1961 Arundhati Roy, Indian writer and activist Wikipedia
• 1978 Katherine Heigl, American actress and producer Wikipedia

Died on November 24

• 1492 Loys of Gruuthuse, Earl of Winchester (born c. 1427) Wikipedia
• 1572 John Knox, Scottish pastor and theologian (born 1510) Wikipedia
• 1577 Ismail II, Shah of Safavid Iran (born 1537) Wikipedia
• 1848 William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1779) Wikipedia
• 1929 Georges Clemenceau, French physician, publisher, and politician, 72nd Prime Minister of France (born 1841) Wikipedia
• 1948 Anna Jarvis, American founder of Mother's Day (born 1864) 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
• 1982 Barack Obama Sr., Kenyan economist and academic, father of Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States (born 1936) Wikipedia
• 1991 Freddie Mercury, Tanzanian-English singer-songwriter, lead vocalist of Queen, and producer (born 1946) Wikipedia
• 1991 Eric Carr, American drummer of Kiss (born 1950) Wikipedia
• 2002 John Rawls, American philosopher, author, and academic (born 1921) Wikipedia
• 2025 Dharmendra, Indian actor (born 1935) 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

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 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.