On this day: September 24

Events on September 24

• 787 The Second Council of Nicaea begins at the Church of Holy Wisdom in the city of Nicaea in Bithynia. Wikipedia
• 1568 At San Juan de Ulúa (present-day Veracruz, Mexico), a Spanish naval fleet forced English privateers to halt their trade (battle pictured). Wikipedia
• 1645 English Civil War: Royalists commanded by King Charles I suffered a significant defeat at the Battle of Rowton Heath. Wikipedia
• 1645 The Battle of Rowton Heath in England occurs, ending in a Parliamentarian victory over a Royalist army commanded in person by King Charles I. Wikipedia
• 1846 Mexican–American War: General Zachary Taylor captures Monterrey. Wikipedia
• 1853 Admiral Despointes formally takes possession of New Caledonia in the name of France. Wikipedia
• 1869 Black Friday (1869): Gold prices plummet after United States President Ulysses S. Grant orders the Treasury to sell large quantities of gold after Jay Gould and James Fisk plot to control the market. Wikipedia
• 1875 The 1864 play Heath Cobblers by Aleksis Kivi premieres in Oulu, Finland. Wikipedia
• 1877 At the Battle of Shiroyama, the final engagement of the Satsuma Rebellion, the Imperial Japanese Army defeated rebel samurai of the Satsuma Domain led by Saigō Takamori. Wikipedia
• 1911 His Majesty's Airship No. 1, Britain's first rigid airship, was wrecked by strong winds before her maiden flight at Barrow-in-Furness. Wikipedia
• 1932 Mahatma Gandhi and B. R. Ambedkar agree to the Poona Pact, which reserved seats in the Indian provincial legislatures for the "Depressed Classes" (Untouchables). Wikipedia
• 1941 Operation Barbarossa: A Wehrmacht training event known as the Mogilev Conference began, marking an increase in violence against Jews and other civilians in the areas under General Max von Schenckendorff's command. Wikipedia
• 1948 The Honda Motor Company is founded. Wikipedia
• 1950 The "Great Smoke Pall", generated by the Chinchaga fire, the largest recorded fire in North American history, was first recorded in present-day Nunavut and may eventually have circled the entire globe. Wikipedia
• 1954 AEC Routemaster, the iconic London bus was introduced. Wikipedia
• 1954 The Cochabamba–Santa Cruz highway connecting western and eastern Bolivia is inaugurated. Wikipedia
• 1959 TAI Flight 307 crashes during takeoff from Bordeaux–Mérignac Airport in Bordeaux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France, killing 55 people. Wikipedia
• 1973 Guinea-Bissau declares its independence from Portugal. Wikipedia
• 1975 Dougal Haston and Doug Scott of the Southwest Face expedition became the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest by ascending one of its faces. Wikipedia
• 1993 Norodom Sihanouk became King of Cambodia with the restoration of the monarchy after a 23-year interregnum. Wikipedia
• 1993 The Cambodian monarchy is restored, with Norodom Sihanouk as king. Wikipedia
• 2005 Hurricane Rita makes landfall in the United States, devastating portions of southwestern Louisiana and extreme southeastern Texas. Wikipedia
• 2008 Thabo Mbeki resigns as president of South Africa. Wikipedia
• 2009 South African Airlink Flight 8911 crashes near Durban International Airport in Durban, South Africa, killing the captain and injuring the rest of the crew. Wikipedia
• 2019 The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom unanimously ruled that advice given by Prime Minister Boris Johnson to Queen Elizabeth II that Parliament should be prorogued was unlawful. Wikipedia
• 2023 NASA's OSIRIS-REx capsule containing samples from the asteroid 101955 Bennu successfully lands back on Earth. Wikipedia

Born on September 24

• 15 Vitellius, Roman emperor (died 69) Wikipedia
• 1501 Gerolamo Cardano, Italian mathematician, physician, and astrologer (died 1576) Wikipedia
• 1583 Albrecht von Wallenstein, Bohemian general (died 1634) Wikipedia
• 1717 Horace Walpole, English historian, author, and politician (died 1797) Wikipedia
• 1755 John Marshall, American Continental Army officer, jurist, and politician, 4th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court (died 1835) Wikipedia
• 1801 Mikhail Ostrogradsky, Ukrainian-Russian mathematician and physicist (died 1862) Wikipedia
• 1878 Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz, Swiss author and poet (died 1947) Wikipedia
• 1883 Franklin Clarence Mars, American businessman, founded Mars, Incorporated (died 1934) Wikipedia
• 1884 İsmet İnönü, Turkish general and politician, 2nd President of Turkey (died 1973) Wikipedia
• 1895 André Frédéric Cournand, French physician and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1988) Wikipedia
• 1896 F. Scott Fitzgerald, American novelist and short story writer (died 1940) Wikipedia
• 1898 Howard Florey, Australian pharmacologist and pathologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1968) Wikipedia
• 1905 Severo Ochoa, Spanish–American physician and biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1993) Wikipedia
• 1911 Konstantin Chernenko, Soviet politician, General Secretary of the Communist Party and de facto leader of the USSR (died 1985) Wikipedia
• 1914 John Kerr, Australian politician, 18th Governor-General of Australia (died 1991) Wikipedia
• 1920 Richard Bong, American soldier and pilot, Medal of Honor recipient (died 1945) Wikipedia
• 1930 John W. Young, American captain, engineer, and astronaut (died 2018) Wikipedia
• 1934 Manfred Wörner, German politician and diplomat, 7th Secretary General of NATO (died 1994) Wikipedia
• 1936 Jim Henson, American puppeteer, director, producer, and screenwriter, created The Muppets (died 1990) Wikipedia
• 1941 Linda McCartney, American singer, photographer, and activist (died 1998) Wikipedia
• 1969 Paul Ray Smith, American sergeant, Medal of Honor recipient (died 2003) Wikipedia
• 1980 John Arne Riise, Norwegian footballer Wikipedia

Died on September 24

• 366 Pope Liberius Wikipedia
• 768 Pepin the Short, Frankish king (born 714) Wikipedia
• 1143 Pope Innocent II Wikipedia
• 1180 Manuel I Komnenos, Byzantine emperor (born 1118) Wikipedia
• 1541 Paracelsus, German-Swiss physician, botanist, and chemist (born 1493) Wikipedia
• 1802 Alexander Radishchev, Russian author and critic (born 1749) Wikipedia
• 1834 Pedro I of Brazil (born 1798) Wikipedia
• 1904 Niels Ryberg Finsen, Faroese-Danish physician and author, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1860) Wikipedia
• 1939 Carl Laemmle, German-American film producer, founded Universal Studios (born 1867) Wikipedia
• 1945 Hans Geiger, German physicist and academic, co-invented the Geiger counter (born 1882) Wikipedia
• 1991 Dr. Seuss, American children's book writer, poet, and illustrator (born 1904) Wikipedia
• 2004 Françoise Sagan, French author and screenwriter (born 1935) Wikipedia
• 2014 Christopher Hogwood, English harpsichord player and conductor, founded the Academy of Ancient Music (born 1941) Wikipedia
• 2025 Sara Jane Moore, American attempted assassin of Gerald Ford (born 1930) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Armed Forces Day (Peru) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Anathalon (in Brescia) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Antonio Gonzalez Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Anton Martin Slomšek Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Bystrík Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Colomba Gabriel Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Émilie Gamelin (Canada) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Gerard of Csanád Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Our Lady of Mercy and its related observance: La Mercè (Barcelona) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Our Lady of Ransom (Mercedarians) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Our Lady of Walsingham (Church of England) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Pacificus of San Severino Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Rupert of Salzburg Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed William Spenser Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: September 24 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics). Wikipedia
• Constitution Day (Cambodia) Wikipedia
• Heritage Day (South Africa) Wikipedia
• Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Guinea-Bissau from Portugal in 1973. Wikipedia
• Mahidol Day (Thailand) Wikipedia
• New Caledonia Day (New Caledonia) Wikipedia
• Republic Day (Trinidad and Tobago) Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “September 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.