Today in History
June 24

1314		Scottish forces, led by Robert the Bruce, win an overwhelming victory against English King Edward II at the Battle of Bannockburn.
1340		The English fleet defeats the French fleet at Sluys, off the Flemish coast.
1497		Explorer John Cabot lands in North America in present-day Canada.
1509		Henry VIII is crowned King of England.
1664		The colony of New Jersey, named after the Isle of Jersey, is founded.
1647		Margaret Brent, demands a voice and a vote for herself in the Maryland colonial assembly.
1675		King Philip's War begins.
1812		Napoleon crosses the Nieman River and invades Russia.
1859		At the Battle of Solferino, also known as the Battle of the Three Sovereigns, the French army, led by Napoleon III, defeats the Austrian army under Franz Joseph I.
1861		Federal gunboats attack Confederate batteries at Mathias Point, Virginia.
1862		U.S. intervention saves the British and French at the Dagu forts in China.
1896		Booker T. Washington becomes the first African American to receive an honorary MA degree from Howard University.
1910		The Japanese army invades Korea.
1913		Greece and Serbia annul their alliance with Bulgaria following border disputes over Macedonia and Thrace.
1931		The Soviet Union and Afghanistan sign a treaty of neutrality.
1940		France signs an armistice with Italy.
1941		President Franklin Roosevelt pledges all possible support to the Soviet Union.
1943		Royal Air Force Bombers hammer Muelheim, Germany, in a drive to cripple the Ruhr industrial base.
1948		The Soviet Union begins the Berlin Blockade, America responds with the Berlin Airlift.
1953		John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier announce their engagement.
1955		Soviet MIG's down a U.S. Navy patrol plane over the Bering Strait.
1964		The Federal Trade Commission announces that, starting in 1965, cigarette makers must include warning labels about the harmful effects of smoking.
1970		The U.S. Senate votes overwhelmingly to repeal the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution