March 24

1199 – King Richard I ‘The Lionheart’ of England is wounded by a crossbow bolt while fighting in France, leading to his death on April 6.

1603 – James VI of Scotland is proclaimed King James I of England and Ireland, upon the death of Elizabeth I. Less than a year later he commissions a new translation of the Old and New Testaments of the bible, the ‘King James Version‘.

1663 – The Province of Carolina consisting of all or parts of present day Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and the Bahamas. is granted by charter to eight Lords Proprietor.

1765 – Great Britain passes the Quartering Act, which requires the Thirteen Colonies to house British troops. And now you know the historical basis behind the 3rd amendment in the Bill of Rights.

1882 – While employed at the Imperial Department of Health in Berlin, Dr. Robert Koch announces the discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium responsible for Tuberculosis.

1900 – Mayor of New York City Robert Anderson Van Wyck breaks ground for a new underground “Rapid Transit Railroad” that would link Manhattan and Brooklyn.

1934 – Congress passes the Tydings–McDuffie Act, establishing the process for the Philippines to become a self governing commonwealth.

1944 – During World War 2, in an event later dramatized in the movie The Great Escape, 76 Allied prisoners of war begin breaking out of the German camp, Stalag Luft III.

1989 – In Prince William Sound, Alaska, the Exxon Valdez runs aground on Bligh Reef,  spilling over 240,000 barrels of crude oil.

1993 – While using the Schmidt telescope at the Palomar Observatory in California to make observations for celestial Near Earth Objects, Astronomers Carolyn and Eugene M. Shoemaker and David Levy discover Comet D/1993 F2, as per practice named Shoemaker–Levy 9.

1998 – Mitchell Johnson and Andrew Golden, aged 11 and 13 respectively, fire upon teachers and students at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas, killing 5 and wounding 10 before being arrested as they attempted to flee the area. Because of their ages, the maximum sentence available in Arkansas, imprisonment until age 21, is imposed at trial.