Today in History – September 24 in History
What happened on this day in history – September 24 in History around the world
1788 | After having been dissolved, the French Parliament of Paris reassembles in triumph. | |
1789 | Congress passes the Judiciary Act of 1789, establishing a strong federal court system with the powers it needs to ensure the supremacy of the Constitution and federal law. The new Supreme Court will have a chief justice and five associate justices. | |
1842 | Branwell Bronte, the brother of the Bronte sisters and the model for Hindley Earnshaw in Emily’s novel Wuthering Heights, dies of tuberculosis. Emily and Anne die the same year. | |
1862 | President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus against anyone suspected of being a Southern sympathizer. | |
1904 | Sixty-two die and 120 are injured in head-on train collision in Tennessee. | |
1914 | In the Alsace-Lorraine area between France and Germany, the German Army captures St. Mihiel. | |
1915 | Bulgaria mobilizes troops on the Serbian border. | |
1929 | The first flight using only instruments is completed by U.S. Army pilot James Doolittle. | |
1930 | Noel Coward’s comedy Private Lives opens in London starring Gertrude Lawrence and Coward himself. | |
1947 | The World Women’s Party meets for the first time since World War II. | |
1956 | The first transatlantic telephone cable system begins operation. | |
1957 | President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends federal troops into Little Rock, Arkansas, to protect nine black students entering its newly integrated high school. | |
1960 | The Enterprise, the first nuclear powered aircraft carrier, is launched. | |
1962 | The University of Mississippi agrees to admit James Meredith as the first black university student, sparking more rioting. | |
1969 | The “Chicago Eight,” charged with conspiracy and crossing state lines with the intent to incite a riot, go on trial for their part in the mayhem during the 1968 Democratic Party National Convention in the “Windy City.” | |
1970 | The Soviet Luna 16 lands, completing the first unmanned round trip to the moon. | |
1979 | CompuServe (CIS) offers one of the first online services to consumers; it will dominate among Internet service providers for consumers through the mid-1990s. | |
1993 | Sihanouk is reinstalled as king of Cambodia. | |
1996 | Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty signed by representatives of 71 nations at the UN; at present, five key nations have signed but not ratified it and three others have not signed. | |
2005 | Hurricane Rita, the 4th-most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded, comes ashore in Texas causing extensive damage there and in Louisiana, which had devastated by Hurricane Katrina less than a month earlier. | |
2009 | LRAD (Long Range Acoustic Device) “sonic cannon,” a non-lethal device that utilizes intense sound, is used in the United States for the first time, to disperse protestors at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh, Penn. | |
Born on September 24 | ||
1501 | Gerolamo Cardano, mathematician, author of Games of Chance, the first systematic computation of probabilities. | |
1717 | Horace Walpole, author, creator of the Gothic novel genre. | |
1755 | John Marshall, fourth chief justice of the Supreme Court and U.S. secretary of state. | |
1870 | George Claude, French engineer, inventor of the neon light. | |
1894 | E. Franklin Frazier, first African-American president of the American Sociological Society. | |
1896 | Francis Scott Key (F. Scott) Fitzgerald, novelist best known for The Great Gatsby. | |
1911 | Konstantin Chernenko, president of the Soviet Union 1984-1985. | |
1936 | Jim Henson, puppeteer who created the “Muppets” in 1954 and television’s Sesame Street. | |
1941 | Linda McCartney, singer, photographer, activist; member of band Wings; former wife of Beatles member Paul McCartney. | |
1945 | Louis “Lou” Dobbs, TV personality (Lou Dobbs Tonight, CNN), radio host (Fox Business Network). | |
1946 | “Mean Joe” Greene, pro football player (Pittsburgh Steelers) considered one of the greatest defensive linemen ever to play in the NFL; member of Pro Football Hall of Fame. | |
1969 | Paul Ray Smith, US Army Sergeant, received Medal of Honor posthumously during Operation Iraqi Freedom. |