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On this day in history - March 24

What Happened On This Day – March 24

  • 1999 For the first time in its history, NATO attacks a sovereign country

    The military alliance bombed Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War - without a UN mandate.

  • 1989 Oil tanker Exxon Valdez runs aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska

    The mishap resulted in one of the most devastating environmental disasters in history, killing up to 250,000 seabirds and other wildlife.

  • 1965 Millions watch NASA spacecraft Ranger 9 crash into the Moon

    The U.S. space probe broadcast live pictures back to Earth, enabling TV viewers to follow its approach to the Moon and its controlled crash.

  • 1896 Aleksander Popov achieves the world's first radio transmission

    The Russian physicist transmitted the words “Heinrich Hertz” from one building of St. Petersburg University to another.

  • 1882 Robert Koch discovers the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis

    The German scientist, who is regarded as the father of modern bacteriology, won the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1905.

Illustration of stork, signifying birth

Births On This Day,
March 24

  • 1930 Steve McQueen

    American actor

  • 1897 Wilhelm Reich

    Austrian/American psychotherapist

  • 1884 Peter Debye

    Dutch/American physicist, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate

  • 1874 Harry Houdini

    Hungarian/American magician, actor

  • 1820 Fanny Crosby

    American composer, songwriter

Illustration of tombstone, signifying death

Deaths On This Day,
March 24

  • 1976 Bernard Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein

    English army officer

  • 1946 Alexander Alekhine

    Russian chess player

  • 1905 Jules Verne

    French author

  • 1882 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

    American poet

  • 1603 Elizabeth I of England