On This Day in History - June 24

Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

June 24, 1997: U.S. Air Force reports on Roswell

On this day in 1997, U.S. Air Force officials release a 231-page report dismissing long-standing claims of an alien spacecraft crash in Roswell, New Mexico, almost exactly 50 years earlier.

Public interest in Unidentified Flying Objects, or UFOs, began to flourish in the 1940s, when developments in space travel and the dawn of the atomic age caused many Americans to turn their attention to the skies. The town of Roswell, located near the Pecos River in southeastern New Mexico, became a magnet for UFO believers due to the strange events of early July 1947, when ranch foreman W.W. Brazel found a strange, shiny material scattered over some of his land. He turned the material over to the sheriff, who passed it on to authorities at the nearby Air Force base. On July 8, Air Force officials announced they had recovered the wreckage of a "flying disk." A local newspaper put the story on its front page, launching Roswell into the spotlight of the public's UFO fascination.

The Air Force soon took back their story, however, saying the debris had been merely a downed weather balloon. Aside from die-hard UFO believers, or "ufologists," public interest in the so-called "Roswell Incident" faded until the late 1970s, when claims surfaced that the military had invented the weather balloon story as a cover-up. Believers in this theory argued that officials had in fact retrieved several alien bodies from the crashed spacecraft, which were now stored in the mysterious Area 51 installation in Nevada. Seeking to dispel these suspicions, the Air Force issued a 1,000-page report in 1994 stating that the crashed object was actually a high-altitude weather balloon launched from a nearby missile test-site as part of a classified experiment aimed at monitoring the atmosphere in order to detect Soviet nuclear tests.

On July 24, 1997, barely a week before the extravagant 50th anniversary celebration of the incident, the Air Force released yet another report on the controversial subject. Titled "The Roswell Report, Case Closed," the document stated definitively that there was no Pentagon evidence that any kind of life form was found in the Roswell area in connection with the reported UFO sightings, and that the "bodies" recovered were not aliens but dummies used in parachute tests conducted in the region. Any hopes that this would put an end to the cover-up debate were in vain, as furious ufologists rushed to point out the report's inconsistencies. With conspiracy theories still alive and well on the Internet, Roswell continues to thrive as a tourist destination for UFO enthusiasts far and wide, hosting the annual UFO Encounter Festival each July and welcoming visitors year-round to its International UFO Museum and Research Center.  

Some interesting things happened on this date! The French lost a significant sea battle to the British during the Hundred Years War. John Cabot proclaimed the eastern portion of Canada for England, thinking he had found the eastern route to Asia, much like Columbus before him. The colony of New Jersey (where I am presently writing this from) was founded on this date. The first republican constitution of France came on this date. The newly independent United States and Britain signed the Jay Treaty. Tennessee became the last state to secede from the Union. It was on this date that O Canada was first sung - but the earliest version was in French, and the lyrics remain radically different in meaning between the English and the French versions to this day. American forces scored a strong victory over Spain in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. Pablo Picasso had his first public exhibit. Radar was first successfully used. Germany advanced farther into Soviet territory as Operation Barbarossa continued and, years later, the Moscow Victory Parade took place on this date following Soviet victory over the Germans. The Berlin Blockade was begun by the Soviets on this date. Here are some things that I can remember - on this date in 1995, the Devils won their first ever Stanley Cup,l sweeping past the favored Detroit Red Wings. In 2010, American John Isner outlasted Mahut of France in the longest ever tennis match in history. Morsi becomes leader of Egypt, and women from Saudi Arabia are allowed to compete in the Olympic Games for the first time.

Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:

451 - 10th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet

843 - Vikings destroy Nantes

972 - Battle of Cedynia, the first documented victory of Polish forces, takes place.

1128 - Afonso I of Portugal defeats army of his mother Theresa

1298 - Rindfleish Persecutions-Jews of Ifhauben Austria massacred

1314 - Scotland regains independence from England, asScottish forces led by Robert the Bruce won over Edward II of England at the Battle of Bannockburn in Scotland.  

1322 - Jews are expelled from France for 3rd time

1340 - In the Hundred Years War, British fleet destroys the French at the battle of Sluys, off the Flemish coast.

1374 - A sudden outbreak of St. John's Dance causes people in the streets of Aachen, Germany, to experience hallucinations and begin to jump and twitch uncontrollably until they collapse from exhaustion.

1396 - Crusaders under earl of Nevers reach Vienna

1397 - Sultan Bajezid I release caught crusaders free, for ransom

1441 - Eton College founded by Henry VI

1472 - Zoe Paleologa departs Rome for Moscow

1497 - Italian explorer John Cabot, sailing in the service of England,, landed in North America, in what is now Newfoundland,  claimed eastern Canada for England (believing he had found Asia, like Columbus before him)

1497 - Cornish traitors Michael An Gof and Thomas Flamank are executed at Tyburn, London.

1509 - Henry VIII was crowned King of England

1522 - Battle at La Bicocca: Emperor Karel V beats France

1522 - Portuguese Antonio de Brita signs treaty island of Ternate Molukkas

1527 - Gustaaf I begins Reformation in Sweden, taking RC possessions

1529 - Zurich and catholic kantons sign Peace of Kappel

1535 - Anabaptists Protestants conquered & disbanded

1535 - Hessische troops occupy Munster

1540 - English King Henry VIII commands his 4th wife, Anne of Cleves to leave the court

1572 - 5 clergymen of Enkhuizen, hanged

1597 - Cornelis de Houtman's fleet reaches Bantam, West Java

1610 - Battle at Klushino: King Sigismund II beats Russia & Sweden

1619 - Tsar Michails father Filaret becomes patriarch of Moscow

1647 - Early American feminist Margaret Brent, the niece of Lord Baltimore, demanded a seat and vote in the Maryland Assembly, but was ejected from that body.

1648 - Cossacks slaughter 2,000 Jews & 600 Polish Catholics in Ukraine

1658 - French fleet recaptures Duinkerk

1662 - Dutch invasion of Macau repulsed (Macau Day)

1664 - The colony of New Jersey, named after the Isle of Jersey, was founded.  

1675 - King Philip's War, the most devastating war between the colonists and Indians, began with Indians attacking the Swansea (Mass.) settlement. 

1690 - King Willem III's army lands at Carrickfergus Ireland [OS=June 14]

1692 - Kingston, Jamaica founded

1717 - First Free Masons' grand lodge was founded in London

1748 - The Kingswood School is opened by John Wesley and his brother Charles Wesley in Bristol. The school later moved to Bath.

1778 - David Rittenhouse observes a total solar eclipse in Philadelphia

1793 - The first republican constitution in France was adopted.

1794 - Bowdoin College is founded.

1795 - US and Great Britain sign Jay Treaty, first US extradition treaty

1806 - English under commodore Popham/col Beresford reach Buenos Aires

1812 - Napoleon crossed the Nieman River and invaded Russia.      

1813 - Battle of Beaver Dam-British and Indian forces defeat US forces

1817 - First coffee planted in Hawaii on Kona coast

1821 - Battle of Carabobo; Bolívar defeats royalists outside of Caracas

1841 - Fordham University (then St John's College), opens in the Bronx

1843 - Vincenzo Soliva decrees no Jew can live outside of ghetto in Italy

1844 - Charles Goodyear was granted U.S. patent #3,633 for vulcanized rubber.

1846 - Residency tax on Jews of Hungary abolished

1853 - Gadsden Purchase 29,670-square-mile (76,800 square km) from Mexico (now southern Arizona and New Mexico) for $10 million signed by President Franklin Pierce

1859 - Battle of Solferino, N-Italy: France/Sardinia-Austria - At the Battle of Solferino, also known as the Battle of the Three Sovereigns, the French army led by Napoleon III defeated the Austrian army under Franz Joseph I in northern Italy.

1861 - Federal gunboats attacked Confederate batteries at Mathias Point, Virginia.    

1861 - Tennessee becomes 11th (and; last) state to secede from US

1862 - U.S. intervention saved the British and French at the Dagu forts in China.

1863 - Planning an invasion of Pennsylvania, Lee's army crosses Potomac

1866 - Second Battle at Custozza: Prussian-Austria defeated Italian army

1869 - Mary Ellen "Mammy" Pleasant officially became the Vodoo Queen in San Francisco, CA.

1880 - First performance of O Canada, the song that would become the national anthem of Canada, at the Congrès national des Canadiens-Français.

1881 - 200 drown as train runs off bridge near Cuautla Mexico

1882 - NL expels umpire Richard Higham for dishonesty

1884 - John Lynch is first black elected chairman of Republican convention

1885 - British government of Salisbury forms

1885 - Samuel David Ferguson becomes 1st US black bishop

1894 - Decision to hold modern Olympics every 4 years

1894 - Marie Francois Sadi Carnot is assassinated by Sante Geronimo Caserio.

1896 - Booker T. Washington became the first African American to receive an honorary MA degree from Howard University.

1897 - Hail injures 26 in Topeka Kansas

1898 - American troops, drive Spanish forces from La Guasimas Cuba

1900 - Dutch Social-Democratic Worker's party and Socialistenbond merge

1901 - First exhibition by Pablo Picasso, 19, opens in Paris

1901 - Jewish National Fund starts

1902 - King Edward VII develops appendicitis, delaying his coronation.

1903 - Russia prohibits meetings dealing with Zionist

1908 - The 22nd and 24th president of the United States, Grover Cleveland, died in Princeton, N.J.

1908 - Yanks replace Clark Griffith with Kid Elberfeld as manager who is destined to have worse won-lost pct of any Yankee mgr 27-71 (.276)

1910 - The Japanese army invaded Korea.  

1913 - Greece and Serbia annulled their alliance with Bulgaria following border disputes over Macedonia and Thrace.  

1914 - King Peter I of Serbia names son Alexander the Prince-regent

1916 - Mary Pickford becomes the first female film star to get a million dollar contract.

1917 - Russian Black Sea fleet mutiny at Sebastopol

1920 - Chuvash Autonomous Region forms in RSFSR

1922 - AFPA changes name to NFL, Chicago Staleys become Chicago Bears

1922 - The American Professional Football Association took the name of The National Football League.  

1923 - Pope Pius XI speaks against allies occupying Ruhrgebied

1928 - With declining business, the Great Gorge and International Railway begins using one-person crews on trolley operations in Canada.

 1930 - First radar detection of planes, Anacostia DC

1930 - Ground is broken for construction of Cleveland Stadium

1931 - The USSR and Afghanistan signed a treaty of neutrality.

1932 - Coup ends absolute monarchy in Thailand

1936 - Joe DiMaggio becomes 5th to hit 2 HRs in 1 inn, Yanks beat Browns 18-4

1936 - Mary McLeod Bethune named director of Negro Affairs in Natl Youth Adm

1938 - 500 ton meteorite lands near Pittsburgh Pennsylvania

1939 - Pan Am's 1st US to England flight

1940 - France signed an armistice with Italy during WW II

1940 - TV cameras were used for the first time in a political convention as the Republicans convened in Philadelphia, PA.  

1941 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt pledged all possible support to the Soviet Union.  

1941 - Entire Jewish male population of Gorzhdy Lithuania, exterminated

1941 - Germans advanced into Russia and Vilna, Brest-Litovsk & Kaunas

1942 - Admiral Ernest King orders Tulagi (Solomon Island) reconquered

1942 - Africa Corps occupy Egypt

1943 - Allies begin 10-day bombing on Hamburg

1945 - Schermerhorn government forms

1945 - The Moscow Victory Parade takes place.

1946 - 11.72" (29.77 cm) of rainfall at Mellen Wisc (state 24-hr record)

1946 - Georges Bidault elected premier of France

1947 - Pilot Kenneth Arnold reported seeing flying saucers over Mt. Rainier, Washington.    

1947 - Jackie Robinson swipes home for 1st of 19 times in his career

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.

1948 - Republican Natl Convention in Phila nominates NY gov Thomas Dewey

1949 - "Hopalong Cassidy" becomes 1st network western (NBC)

1949 - A M de Jong's murderer, Ton van Gog arrested in Scheveningen Neth

1949 - Cargo airlines 1st licensed by US Civil Aeronautics Board

1950 - Babe Didrikson-Zaharias wins LPGA Western Women's Golf Open

1950 - French government-Bidault resigns

1950 - NY Giant Wes Westrum hits 3 HRs & a triple

1951 - Persian army takes over nationalized oil installations

1953 - KSWS (now KOBR) TV channel 8 in Roswell, NM (NBC) begins broadcasting

1953 - John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier announced their engagement.  

1954 - "John Murray Anderson's Almanac" closes at Imperial NYC after 229 perf

1955 - Harmon Killebrew hits his 1st HR (off Billy Hoeff)

1955 - Soviet MIG's down a U.S. Navy patrol plane over the Bering Strait.

1956 - "Steve Allen Show," returns on NBC-TV

1956 - WISC TV channel 3 in Madison, WI (CBS) begins broadcasting

1957 - "I Love Lucy," last airs on CBS-TV

1957 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment in Roth v. United States.

1960 - Geoff Griffin takes a hat-trick South Africa v England Lord's

1961 - "Happiest Girl in the World" closes at Martin Beck NYC after 97 perfs

1961 - Beatles record "If You Love Me Baby"

1961 - Iraq demands dominion over Kuwait

1962 - Jack Reed's 22nd-inning HR wins longest NY Yankee game in history

1962 - The New York Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers, 9-7, after 22 innings.  

1963 - First demonstration of home video recorder, at BBC Studios, London

1963 - Levi Eshkol forms Israeli government

1963 - Zanzibar granted internal self-government by Britain

1964 -  The Federal Trade Commission announced that starting in 1965, cigarette manufactures would be required to include warnings on their packaging about the harmful effects of smoking.  

1966 - Bombay-NY Air India flight crashes into Mont Blanc (Switz), 117 die

1966 - Period of relative peace following WW II exceeds that following WW I

1967 - Pope Paul VI publishes encyclical Sacerdotalis coelibatus

1967 - Zaire adopts constitution

1968 - Australia all out for 78 v England at Lord's

1968 - Deadline for redeeming silver certificate dollars for silver bullion

1968 - Jim Northrup hits 2 grand-slammers to help Tigers beat Cleve 14-3

1968 - Joe Frazier TKOs Manuel Ramos in 2 for heavyweight boxing title

1968 - "Resurrection City," a shantytown constructed as part of the Poor People's March on Washington D.C., was closed down by authorities.  

1970 - The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly to repeal the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.  

1970 - The movie "Myra Breckinridge" premiered.  

1970 - "Catch 22" opens in movie theaters

1970 - Bobby Murcer ties record of 4 consecutive HRs

1970 - Reds play final game at Cincinnati's Crosley Field, beat Giants 5-4

1971 - The National Basketball Association modified its four-year eligibility rule to allow for collegiate hardship cases.  

1972 - "Troglodyte (Cave Man)" by Jimmy Castor Bunch peaks at #6

1972 - Wake Island becomes unincorporated territory of US (US Air Force)

1972 - Yvonne Braitwaite Burke becomes first black chair in Dem convention

1973 - Marlene Raymond (15), limboes under a flaming bar at 6 1/8"

1974 - India all out for 42 in Lord's Test cricket in 77 mins

1974 - Steve Busby retires 1st 9 White Sox to set AL record with 33 consecutive batters retired

1975 - Eastern 727 crashes at JFK Airport NY, kills 113

1975 - Moon tremor perceived (hit by Taurid meteors) 1976 -

1975 movie "Rocky Horror Picture Show" released in Germany

1977 - IRS reveals Jimmy Carter paid no taxes in 1976

1979 - Rickey Henderson debuts for Oakland & steals his 1st base

1980 - Affirmed wins $500,000 Hollywood Cup, 1st horse to win $2 million

1982 - Equal Rights Amendment goes down to defeat

1982 - Jean-Loup Chretien, first spacionaut, 2 others, lift off (Soyuz T-16)

1982 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that no president could be sued for damages connected with actions taken while serving as President of the United States.  

1982 - Soyuz T-6 Launch (USSR)

1982 - Supreme Court rules pres can't be sued for actions in office

1983 - 7th Space Shuttle Mission-Challenger 2 lands at Edwards AFB

 1983 - Don Sutton becomes 8th pitcher to strikeout 3,000 batters

1984 - Joe Morgan sets career HR mark for 2nd basemen with #265

1985 - Natalia Solzhenitsyn the wife of exiled, Soviet author Alexander Solzhenitsyn, became a U.S. citizen.  

1985 - 18th Space Shuttle Mission (51-G)-Discovery 5 returns to Earth

1985 - Challenger moves to Vandenberg AFB for mating of STS 51-F

1986 - Guy Hunt elected 1st Republican governor of Alabama in 112 years

1986 - US Senate approves "tax reform"

1987 - CFL's Montreal Alouettes fold

1987 - Salt Lake City Trappers begin pro baseball record 29 consec win streak

1988 - Cleve pitcher Doug Jones sets record of 14 consecutive saves

1988 - Red Sox begin AL record 23rd consecutive home win streak

1989 - Cards Vince Coleman steals record 39th & 40th consecutive bases

1991 - NHL adopts instant-replay & tenth of second clock in final minute

1992 - Billy Joel, gets an honorary diploma from Hicksville HS at 43

1992 - Commissioner Fay Vincent permanently bans Steve Howe from baseball

1992 - Eddie Antar, CEO (Crazy Eddies), $74 m stock fraud caught in Israel

1992 - John Gotti begins life sentence in jail

1993 - Arab terror group plans bombing of Holland/Lincoln Tunnels caught

1993 - Yale computer science professor Dr. David Gelernter loses the sight in one eye, the hearing in one ear, and part of his right hand after receiving a mailbomb from the Unabomber.

1994 - First French "all news" TV (LCI) begins broadcasting

1994 - Jeff Bagwell of Astros is 28th to hit 2 HRs in an inning

1994 - Sally Fields files for divorce from 2nd husband Alan Greisman

1995 - Stanley Cup: NJ Devils sweep Detroit Red Wings in 4 games

1997 - Melissa Drexler, 18, charged with killing her baby during her prom

1997 - Mark McGwire hits a 538 foot home run

1997 - Seat Mariner Randy Johnson strikes out 19 Oakland A's but loses

1997 - The U.S. Air Force released a report on the "Roswell Incident," suggesting the alien bodies witnesses reported seeing in 1947 were actually life-sized dummies.  

1998 - AT&T Corp. struck a deal to buy cable TV giant Tele-Communications Inc. for $31.7 billion.  

1998 - Walt Disney World Resort admitted its 600-millionth guest.  Disney movies, music and books  

2002 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that juries, not judges, must make the decision to give a convicted killer the death penalty.  

2002 - A painting from Monet's Waterlilies series sold for $20.2 million.

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

2003 - In Paris, France, manuscripts by novelist Georges Simenon brought in $325,579. The original manuscript of "La Mort de Belle" raised $81,705.

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

2007 - The Angora Fire starts near South Lake Tahoe, California destroying 200+ structures in its first 48 hours.

2010 - John Isner of the United States defeats Nicolas Mahut of France at Wimbledon, in the longest match in tennis history.

2010 - Apple released the iPhone 4.

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.

2012 - Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood becomes President of Egypt

2012 - Female athletes will be allowed to compete for Saudi Arabia at the Olympics for the first time




The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:

http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php

http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/jun24.htm

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory