June 24

109 – Roman emperor Trajan inaugurates the Aqua Traiana, an aqueduct that channels water from Lake Bracciano, 25 miles northwest of Rome to the city. It remains in use for 1500 years and most of it still stands to this day

1230 – During the Spanish Reconquista, the forces of King Ferdinand III of Castile besiege city of Jaén in the southern Spanish area of Andalusia, defended by the Taifa of Jayyān.

1314 – During the first war of Scottish Independence, the Battle of Bannockburn concludes with a decisive victory by Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce

1497 – John Cabot lands in North America at Newfoundland

1813 – In the Battle of Beaver Dams,  near Thorold, Ontario, a British and Kahnawake Indian combined force defeats the United States Army during the War of 1812.

1916 – Mary Pickford becomes the first female film star to sign a million dollar contract.

1922 – The American Professional Football Association is renamed the National Football League.

1938 – Pieces of a meteor, estimated to have weighed 450 tons when it hit the Earth’s atmosphere and exploded, land near Chicora, Pennsylvania.

1947 – Kenneth Arnold makes the first widely reported UFO sighting near Mount Rainier, Washington.

1948 – In retaliation for the introduction of the West German Deutsche Mark which caused economic upheaval in the Soviet Zone of Occupation, the Soviets begin blocking overland travel between West Germany and West Berlin as a negotiating tactic to have issue of the new currency halted, beginning the ‘Berlin Blockade’.

1949 – The first television western, Hopalong Cassidy, starring William Boyd, is aired on the NBC network.

1957 – In the case of Roth v. United States, the Supreme Court rules that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment.

1973 – The UpStairs Lounge arson attack takes place at a homosexual hangout located on the 2nd floor of the 3 story building at 141 Chartres Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Killing 32 people.

1975 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 66, a Boeing 727, encounters severe wind shear and crashes on final approach to New York’s JFK Airport killing 113 of the 124 passengers and crew on board, making it the deadliest U.S. plane crash at the time.

1994 – Piloted by a known, reckless, daredevil ‘hot dog’ past its operational limits, the crash of a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress at Fairchild Air Force Base near Spokane Washington – killing all 4 crew aboard – is video recorded in detail and later used for training purposes.

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

2021 – The Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside, Florida suffers a sudden partial collapse, killing 98 residents.

2022 – In the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Supreme Court rules that the U.S. Constitution does not assign the authority to regulate abortions to the federal government, returns such authority to the individual states and overturning the prior decisions in Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992).