July 24 in history — What Happened Today in History

The Black July anti-Tamil riots begin in Sri Lanka, killing between 400 and 3,000. Black July is generally regarded as the beginning of the Sri Lankan Civil War.

George Brett, playing for the Kansas City Royals against the New York Yankees, has a game-winning home run nullified in the "Pine Tar Incident".

Heavy rain causes a mudslide that destroys a bridge at Nagasaki, Japan, killing 299.

The Quietly Confident Quartet of Australia wins the men's 4 x 100 metre medley relay at the Moscow Olympics, the only time the United States has not won the swimming event at Olympic level.

End of a four-day-long Libyan–Egyptian War.

Watergate scandal: The United States Supreme Court unanimously rules that President Richard Nixon does not have the authority to withhold subpoenaed White House tapes and they order him to surrender the tapes to the Watergate special prosecutor.

Apollo program: Apollo 11 splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean.

During an official state visit to Canada, French President Charles de Gaulle declares to a crowd of over 100,000 in Montreal: Vive le Québec libre! ("Long live free Quebec!"); the statement angered the Canadian government and many Anglophone Canadians.

Michael Pelkey makes the first BASE jump from El Capitan along with Brian Schubert. Both came out with broken bones. BASE jumping has now been banned from El Cap.

The ship Bluenose II is launched in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. The schooner is a major Canadian symbol.

At the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow, U.S. vice president Richard Nixon and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev have a "Kitchen Debate".

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station begins operations with the launch of a Bumper rocket.

World War II: Operation Gomorrah begins: British and Canadian aeroplanes bomb Hamburg by night, and American planes bomb the city by day. By the end of the operation in November, 9,000 tons of explosives will have killed more than 30,000 people and destroyed 280,000 buildings.

The Dust Bowl heat wave reaches its peak, sending temperatures to 109 °F (43 °C) in Chicago and 104 °F (40 °C) in Milwaukee.

The Kellogg–Briand Pact, renouncing war as an instrument of foreign policy, goes into effect (it is first signed in Paris on August 27, 1928, by most leading world powers).

The Menin Gate war memorial is unveiled at Ypres.

Themistoklis Sofoulis becomes Prime Minister of Greece.

The Treaty of Lausanne, settling the boundaries of modern Turkey, is signed in Switzerland by Greece, Bulgaria and other countries that fought in World War I.

The draft of the British Mandate of Palestine is formally confirmed by the Council of the League of Nations; it came into effect on 26 September 1923.

The passenger ship SS Eastland capsizes while tied to a dock in the Chicago River. A total of 844 passengers and crew are killed in the largest loss of life disaster from a single shipwreck on the Great Lakes.

Hiram Bingham III re-discovers Machu Picchu, "the Lost City of the Incas".

The Ottoman Empire captures the city of Shkodër, putting down the Albanian Revolt of 1910.

O. Henry is released from prison in Columbus, Ohio, after serving three years for embezzlement from a bank.

Reconstruction: Tennessee becomes the first U.S. state to be readmitted to Congress following the American Civil War.

American Civil War: Battle of Kernstown: Confederate General Jubal Early defeats Union troops led by General George Crook in an effort to keep them out of the Shenandoah Valley.

After 17 months of travel, Brigham Young leads 148 Mormon pioneers into Salt Lake Valley, resulting in the establishment of Salt Lake City.

Richard March Hoe, American inventor, patents the rotary-type printing press.

War of the Spanish Succession: The French under Marshal Villars win a decisive victory over Eugene of Savoy at Denain.

Elliot Rodger, English-American mass murderer (died 2014)

Trevor van Riemsdyk, American ice hockey player

Maurkice Pouncey, American football player

Han Seung-yeon, South Korean singer and dancer

Nichkhun, Thai-American singer-songwriter and actor

Ricky Petterd, Australian footballer

Nathan Gerbe, American ice hockey player

Zack Sabre Jr., English wrestler

Mara Wilson, American actress

Natalie Tran, Australian actress and online producer

Patrice Bergeron, Canadian ice hockey player

Aries Merritt, American hurdler

Lukáš Rosol, Czech tennis player

Peg Lynch, American actress and screenwriter (born 1916)

Ingrid Sischy, South African-American journalist and critic (born 1952)

Ik-Hwan Bae, Korean-American violinist and educator (born 1956)

Dale Schlueter, American basketball player (born 1945)

Hans-Hermann Sprado, German journalist and author (born 1956)

Garry Davis, American pilot and activist, created the World Passport (born 1921)

Fred Dretske, American philosopher and academic (born 1932)

Virginia E. Johnson, American psychologist and sexologist (born 1925)

Pius Langa, South African lawyer and jurist, 19th Chief Justice of South Africa (born 1939)

Chad Everett, American actor and director (born 1937)

Sherman Hemsley, American actor and singer (born 1938)

Larry Hoppen, American singer and guitarist (born 1951)

Robert Ledley, American physiologist and physicist, invented the CT scanner (born 1926)