March 24

What happened that day?

• 2015: Germanwings Flight 9525 crashes in the French Alps in an apparent pilot mass murder-suicide, killing all 150 people on board.
• 2008: Bhutan officially becomes a democracy, with its first ever general election.
• 2003: The Arab League votes 21-1 in favor of a resolution demanding the immediate and unconditional removal of U.S. and British soldiers from Iraq.
• 1999: A lorry carrying margarine and flour catches fire inside the [Mont Blanc Tunnel](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Mont_Blanc_Tunnel). The resulting inferno kills 38 people.
• 1999: Kosovo war: NATO began attacks on Yugoslavia without United Nations Security Council (UNSC) approval, marking the first time NATO has attacked a sovereign country.
• 1998: First computer-assisted Bone Segment Navigation, performed at the University of Regensburg, Germany
• 1998: A tornado sweeps through Dantan in India, killing 250 people and injuring 3,000 others.
• 1998: Mitchell Johnson and Andrew Golden, aged 11 and 13 respectively, fire upon teachers and students at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas; five people are killed and ten are wounded.
• 1993: Discovery of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9.
• 1989: In Prince William Sound in Alaska, the Exxon Valdez spills 240,000 barrels (38,000 m3) of crude oil after running aground.
• 1986: The Loscoe gas explosion leads to new UK laws on landfill gas migration and gas protection on landfill sites.
• 1980: El Salvadorian Archbishop Óscar Romero is assassinated while celebrating Mass in San Salvador.
• 1976: In Argentina, the armed forces overthrow the constitutional government of President Isabel Perón and start a 7-year dictatorial period self-styled the National Reorganization Process.
• 1973: Kenyan athlete Kip Keino defeats Jim Ryun at the first-ever professional track meet in Los Angeles.
• 1965: Images from the Ranger 9 lunar probe are broadcast live on network television.
• 1961: Quebec Board of the French Language is established.
• 1958: Rock 'n' roll teen idol Elvis Presley is drafted in the U.S. Army.
• 1946: A British Cabinet Mission arrives in India to discuss and plan for the transfer of power from the British Raj to Indian leadership.
• 1944: World War II: In an event later dramatized in the movie The Great Escape, 76 Allied prisoners of war begin breaking out of the German camp Stalag Luft III.
• 1944: Ardeatine massacre: German troops murder 335 Italian civilians in Rome.
• 1934: United States Congress passes the Tydings-McDuffie Act, allowing the Philippines to become a self-governing commonwealth.
• 1927: Nanking Incident: Foreign warships bombard Nanjing, China, in defense of the foreign citizens within the city.
• 1921: The 1921 Women's Olympiad begins in Monte Carlo, first international women's sports event
• 1907: The first issue of the Georgian Bolshevik newspaper Dro is published.
• 1900: Mayor of New York City Robert Anderson Van Wyck breaks ground for a new underground "Rapid Transit Railroad" that would link Manhattan and Brooklyn.
• 1896: A. S. Popov makes the first radio signal transmission in history.
• 1885: Sino-French War: Chinese victory in the Battle of Bang Bo on the Tonkin-Guangxi border.
• 1882: Robert Koch announces the discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis.
• 1878: The British frigate HMS Eurydice sinks, killing more than 300.
• 1869: The last of Titokowaru's forces surrendered to the New Zealand government, ending his uprising.
• 1860: Sakuradamon Incident: Assassination of Japanese Chief Minister (Tairō) Ii Naosuke.
• 1854: Slavery is abolished in Venezuela.
• 1837: Canada gives African Canadian men the right to vote.
• 1832: In Hiram, Ohio, a group of men beat and tar and feather Mormon leader Joseph Smith.
• 1829: The Parliament of the United Kingdom passes the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829, allowing Catholics to serve in Parliament.
• 1794: In Kraków, Tadeusz Kościuszko announces a general uprising against Imperial Russia and the Kingdom of Prussia, and assumes the powers of the Commander in Chief of all of the Polish forces.
• 1765: Great Britain passes the Quartering Act, which requires the Thirteen Colonies to house British troops.
• 1731: Naturalization of Hieronimus de Salis Parliamentary Act is passed.
• 1721: Johann Sebastian Bach dedicated six concertos to Margrave Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg-Schwedt, now commonly called the Brandenburg Concertos, BWV 1046-1051.
• 1720: Count Frederick of Hesse-Kassel is elected King of Sweden by the Riksdag of the Estates, after his consort Ulrika Eleonora abdicated the throne on 29 February
• 1663: The Province of Carolina is granted by charter to eight Lords Proprietor in reward for their assistance in restoring Charles II of England to the throne.
• 1603: Tokugawa Ieyasu is granted the title of shogun from Emperor Go-Yōzei, and establishes the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo, Japan.
• 1603: James VI of Scotland becomes James I of England and Ireland, upon the death of Elizabeth I.
• 1401: Turco-Mongol emperor Timur sacks Damascus.