May 24 is the 144th day of the year (145th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 221 days remain until the end of the year.
 
Events
Pre-1600
919 – The nobles of Franconia and Saxony elect Henry the Fowler at the Imperial Diet in Fritzlar as king of the East Frankish Kingdom. 1218 – The Fifth Crusade leaves Acre for Egypt. 1276 – Magnus Ladulås is crowned King of Sweden in Uppsala Cathedral. 1487 – The ten-year-old Lambert Simnel is crowned in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, Ireland, with the name of Edward VI in a bid to threaten King Henry VII's reign. 1567 – Erik XIV of Sweden and his guards murder five incarcerated Swedish nobles. 1595 – Nomenclator of Leiden University Library appears, the first printed catalog of an institutional library. 1601–1900
1607 – One hundred-five English settlers under the leadership of Captain Christopher Newport established the colony called Jamestown at the mouth of the James River on the Virginia coast, the first permanent English colony in America.[1] 1621 – The Protestant Union is formally dissolved. 1626 – Peter Minuit buys Manhattan. 1667 – The French Royal Army crosses the border into the Spanish Netherlands, starting the War of Devolution opposing France to the Spanish Empire and the Triple Alliance. 1683 – The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England, opens as the world's first university museum. 1689 – The English Parliament passes the Act of Toleration protecting dissenting Protestants but excluding Roman Catholics. 1738 – John Wesley is converted, essentially launching the Methodist movement; the day is celebrated annually by Methodists as Aldersgate Day and a church service is generally held on the preceding Sunday. 1798 – The Irish Rebellion of 1798 led by the United Irishmen against British rule begins. 1813 – South American independence leader Simón Bolívar enters Mérida, leading the invasion of Venezuela, and is proclaimed El Libertador ("The Liberator"). 1822 – Battle of Pichincha: Antonio José de Sucre secures the independence of the Presidency of Quito. 1832 – The First Kingdom of Greece is declared in the London Conference. 1844 – Samuel Morse sends the message "What hath God wrought" (a biblical quotation, Numbers 23:23) from a committee room in the United States Capitol to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, Maryland, to inaugurate a commercial telegraph line between Baltimore and Washington D.C. 1856 – John Brown and his men kill five slavery supporters at Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas. 1861 – American Civil War: Union troops occupy Alexandria, Virginia. 1873 – Patrick Francis Healy becomes the first black president of a predominantly white university in the United States.[2] 1883 – The Brooklyn Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic after 14 years of construction. 1900 – Second Boer War: The United Kingdom annexes the Orange Free State. 1901–present
1915 – World War I: Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary, joining the conflict on the side of the Allies. 1930 – Amy Johnson lands in Darwin, Northern Territory, becoming the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia (she left on May 5 for the 11,000 mile flight). 1935 – The first night game in Major League Baseball history is played in Cincinnati, Ohio, with the Cincinnati Reds beating the Philadelphia Phillies 2–1 at Crosley Field. 1940 – Igor Sikorsky performs the first successful single-rotor helicopter flight. 1940 – Acting on the orders of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, NKVD agent Iosif Grigulevich orchestrates an unsuccessful assassination attempt on exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky in Coyoacán, Mexico. 1941 – World War II: In the Battle of the Atlantic, the German Battleship Bismarck sinks then-pride of the Royal Navy, HMS Hood, killing all but three crewmen. 1944 – Börse Berlin building burns down after being hit in an air raid during World War II.[3] [4] 1948 – Arab–Israeli War: Egypt captures the Israeli kibbutz of Yad Mordechai, but the five-day effort gives Israeli forces time to prepare enough to stop the Egyptian advance a week later. 1956 – The first Eurovision Song Contest is held in Lugano, Switzerland. 1958 – United Press International is formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service. 1960 – Following the 1960 Valdivia earthquake, the largest ever recorded earthquake, Cordón Caulle begins to erupt. 1961 – American civil rights movement: Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, for "disturbing the peace" after disembarking from their bus. 1962 – Project Mercury: American astronaut Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule. 1967 – Egypt imposes a blockade and siege of the Red Sea coast of Israel. 1967 – Belle de Jour, directed by Luis Buñuel, is released.[5] 1976 – The Judgment of Paris takes place in France, launching California as a worldwide force in the production of quality wine. 1981 – Ecuadorian president Jaime Roldós Aguilera, his wife, and his presidential committee die in an aircraft accident while travelling from Quito to Zapotillo minutes after the president gave a famous speech regarding the 24 de mayo anniversary of the Battle of Pichincha. 1982 – Liberation of Khorramshahr: Iranians recapture of the port city of Khorramshahr from the Iraqis during the Iran–Iraq War. 1988 – Section 28 of the United Kingdom's Local Government Act 1988, a controversial amendment stating that a local authority cannot intentionally promote homosexuality, is enacted. 1991 – Israel conducts Operation Solomon, evacuating Ethiopian Jews to Israel. 1992 – The last Thai dictator, General Suchinda Kraprayoon, resigns following pro-democracy protests. 1992 – The ethnic cleansing in Kozarac, Bosnia and Herzegovina begins when Serbian militia and police forces enter the town. 1993 – Eritrea gains its independence from Ethiopia. 1993 – Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo and five other people are assassinated in a shootout at Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla Guadalajara International Airport in Mexico.[6] 1994 – Four men are convicted of bombing the World Trade Center in New York in 1993; each one is sentenced to 240 years in prison. 1995 – While attempting to return to Leeds Bradford Airport in the United Kingdom, Knight Air Flight 816 crashes in Harewood, North Yorkshire, killing all 12 people on board.[7] 1999 – The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands indicts Slobodan Milošević and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo. 2000 – Israeli troops withdraw from southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation. 2002 – Russia and the United States sign the Moscow Treaty. 2014 – A 6.4 magnitude earthquake occurs in the Aegean Sea between Greece and Turkey, injuring 324 people. 2014 – At least three people are killed in a shooting at Brussels' Jewish Museum of Belgium. 2019 – Twenty-two students die in a fire in Surat (India).[8] 2019 – Under pressure over her handling of Brexit, British Prime Minister Theresa May announces her resignation as Leader of the Conservative Party, effective as of June 7. Holidays and observances
Aldersgate Day/Wesley Day (Methodism) Battle of Pichincha Day (Ecuador) Bermuda Day (Bermuda), celebrated on the nearest weekday if May 24 falls on the weekend. Christian feast day: Anna Pak Agi (one of The Korean Martyrs) Donatian and Rogatian Jackson Kemper (Episcopal Church) Joanna Mary, Help of Christians Sarah (celebrated by the Romani people of Camargue) Vincent of Lérins May 24 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Commonwealth Day (Belize) Earliest day on which El Colacho tradition can fall, while June 27 is the latest; celebrated on Sunday after Corpus Christi. (Castrillo de Murcia, near Burgos) Independence Day (Eritrea), celebrates the independence of Eritrea from Ethiopia in 1993. Lubiri Memorial Day (Buganda) Saints Cyril and Methodius Day (Eastern Orthodox Church, Julian Calendar) and its related observance: Bulgarian Education and Culture and Slavonic Literature Day (Bulgaria) Saints Cyril and Methodius, Slavonic Enlighteners' Day (North Macedonia) Victoria Day; celebrated on Monday on or before May 24. (Canada), and its related observance: National Patriots' Day or Journée nationale des patriotes (Quebec)