THIS DAY IN HISTORY ― JUNE 24

June 24 is the 175th day of the year (176th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 190 days remaining until the end of the year.

NATIONAL PRALINES DAY 

217 BC – The Romans, led by Gaius Flaminius, are ambushed and defeated by Hannibal at the Battle of Lake Trasimene as part of the Second Punic War. Hannibal’s victory over the Roman army at Lake Trasimene remains, in terms of the number of men involved, the largest ambush in military history. In the prelude to the battle, Hannibal also achieved the earliest known example of a strategic turning movement.

1314 – First War of Scottish Independence: The Battle of Bannockburn concludes with a decisive victory by Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce, though England did not recognize Scottish independence until 1328 with the signing of the Treaty of Edinburgh–Northampton.

1340 – Hundred Years' War: Battle of Sluys ― The French fleet is almost completely destroyed by the English fleet commanded in person by King Edward III.

1497 – Navigator and explorer John Cabot lands in North America at Newfoundland leading the first European exploration of the region since the Vikings. To mark the Canadian celebration of the 500th anniversary of Cabot's expedition, the Canadian and British governments have both accepted a widely held conclusion that the landing site was at Cape Bonavista, Newfoundland. However, alternative theories have also been proposed.

1509 – Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon are crowned King and Queen of England. The daughter of Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, Catherine was three years old when she was betrothed to Prince Arthur, heir apparent to the English throne. They married in 1501, and Arthur died five months later. In 1507, she held the position of ambassador for the Spanish Court in England, becoming the first female ambassador in European history.

1597 – The first Dutch voyage to the East Indies reaches Banten (on Java).


1604 – Samuel de Champlain discovers the mouth of the Saint John River, site of Reversing Falls and the present day city of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. "The Father of New France", was a French navigator, cartographer, draughtsman, soldier, explorer, geographer, ethnologist, diplomat, and chronicler. He founded New France and Quebec City on July 3, 1608. He is important to Canadian history because he made the first accurate map of the coast and he helped establish the settlements.

1812 – Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon's Grande Armée crosses the Neman river beginning the invasion of Russia.

1916 – World War I: The Battle of the Somme begins with a week-long artillery bombardment on the German Line. Also known as the Somme Offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British and French empires against the German Empire. It took place between 1 July and 18 November 1916 on both sides of upper reaches of the River Somme in France. It was the largest battle of World War I on the Western Front; more than one million men were wounded or killed, making it one of the bloodiest battles in human history.

1938 – Pieces of a meteor, estimated to have weighed 450 metric tons when it hit the Earth's atmosphere and exploded, land near Chicora, Pennsylvania. ― From spacewatchtower.com

1948 – Start of the Berlin Blockade: The Soviet Union makes overland travel between West Germany and West Berlin impossible. During the multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, road, and canal access to the sectors of Berlin under Western control. The Soviets offered to drop the blockade if the Western Allies withdrew the newly introduced Deutsche mark from West Berlin. In response, the Western Allies organized the Berlin airlift to carry supplies to the people of West Berlin, a difficult feat given the city's population.

1957 – In Roth v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment. Roth came down as a 6-3 decision, with the opinion of the Court authored by William J. Brennan, Jr.. The Court repudiated the Hicklin test and defined obscenity more strictly, as material whose "dominant theme taken as a whole appeals to the prurient interest" to the "average person, applying contemporary community standards." Only material meeting this test could be banned as "obscene." However, Brennan reaffirmed that obscenity was not protected by the First Amendment and thus upheld the convictions of Roth and Alberts for publishing and sending obscene material through the mail.

1982 – "The Jakarta Incident": British Airways Flight 9 flies into a cloud of volcanic ash thrown up by the eruption of Mount Galunggung, resulting in the failure of all four engines. The reason for the failure was not immediately apparent to the crew or air traffic control. The aircraft was diverted to Jakarta in the hope that enough engines could be restarted to allow it to land there. The aircraft was able to glide far enough to exit the ash cloud, and all engines were restarted (although one failed again soon after), allowing the aircraft to land safely at the Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in Jakarta.

1989 – Jiang Zemin succeeds Zhao Ziyang to become the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

2002 – The Igandu train disaster in Tanzania kills 281, the worst train accident in African history.

2004 – In New York, capital punishment is declared unconstitutional.

2012 – Lonesome George, the last known individual of Chelonoidis nigra abingdonii, a subspecies of the Galápagos tortoise, dies.

BORN TODAY

1499 – Johannes Brenz, German theologian and the Protestant Reformer (d. 1570)

1587 – William Arnold, English-American settler of the Colony of Rhode Island and the Plantation Provinces (d. 1675)

1771 – Éleuthère Irénée du Pont, French chemist and businessman, founded DuPont (d. 1834)

1893 – Roy O. Disney, American businessman, co-founded The Walt Disney Company (d. 1971)

1917 – Joan Clarke, English cryptanalyst and numismatist (d. 1996)

1923 – Margaret Olley, Australian painter and philanthropist (d. 2011)

1946 – Ellison Onizuka, American colonel, engineer, and astronaut, Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-51-C (d. 1986)

From Wikipedia and Google (images), ex as noted.