June 24
1509
Henry VIII was crowned king of England.
1647
Early American feminist Margaret Brent demanded a seat and vote in the Maryland Assembly, but was ejected from that body.
1675
King Philip’s War, the most devastating war between the colonists and Indians, began with Indians attacking the Swansea (Mass.) settlement.
1908
The 22nd and 24th president of the United States, Grover Cleveland, died in Princeton, N.J.
1947
Kenneth Arnold, an American pilot, reported seeing strange objects near Mt. Rainier, Washington. He described them as “saucers skipping across the water,” hence the term “flying saucers” was born.
1948
The Soviet Union began a blockade of Berlin. Allied forces responded with what would be known as the Berlin Airlift flying in more than 2 million tons of supplies over the next year.
1997
The U.S. Air Force released The Roswell Report, closing the case on the 1947 Roswell, N.M. incident concerning UFOs and alien bodies.
2011
New York passes a law to allow same-sex marriage, becoming the largest state that allows gay and lesbian couples to marry.
2012
Lonesome George, the last known Pinta Island Tortoise, died at a Galapagos National Park, making the subspecies extinct.
Birthdays
Jack Dempsey
1895–1983, American boxer, born William Harrison Dempsey in Manassa, Colorado.
Sir John Ross
arctic explorer (1777)
Henry Ward Beecher
clergyman (1813)
Ambrose Bierce
satirist (1842)
John Ciardi
poet (1916)
Anita Desai
writer (1937)