July 24

1148 – An army under Louis VII of France lays siege to Damascus during the Second Crusade.

1534 – French explorer Jacques Cartier plants a cross on the Gaspé Peninsula along the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River, and takes possession of the territory in the name of Francis I of France.

1567 – Mary, Queen of Scots is forced to abdicate and is replaced by her 1-year-old son James VI, later also James I of England

1701 – Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac founds the trading post at Fort Pontchartrain, which later becomes the city of Detroit.

1783 – Simón Bolívar is born in Caracas, Venezuela.

1847 – Brigham Young leads 148 Mormon pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley.

1864 – Confederate troops led by General Jubal Early defeat Union troops led by General George Crook, in the 2nd Battle of Kernstown, Virginia

1866 – Tennessee becomes the first state to be readmitted to the Union under Reconstruction

1911 – Hiram Bingham III discovers Machu Picchu

1915 – The Michigan Steamship Company’s passenger ship SS Eastland capsizes while tied to a dock in the Chicago River with the loss of 844 passengers and crew of the 2572 aboard.

1922 – The British Mandate of Palestine is formally confirmed by the Council of the League of Nations

1929 – The Kellogg–Briand Pact, renouncing war as an instrument of foreign policy, goes into effect (really effective wasn’t it?)

1950 – Cape Canaveral Air Force Station begins operations with the launch of a Bumper rocket.

1959 – At the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow, Vice President Nixon and Soviet Premier Khrushchev have a “Kitchen Debate”.

1969 – Apollo 11 and crew returns to Earth, safely splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.

1974 – The Supreme Court rules that President Nixon does not have the authority to withhold subpoenaed White House tapes and orders them surrendered to the Watergate special prosecutor.

1987 – The US flagged supertanker SS Bridgeton collides with mines off Farsi island in the Persian Gulf laid by Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, causing  moderate damage to the hull of the tanker.

1998 – Russell Eugene Weston Jr. opens fire in the United States Capitol killing two police officers.