Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index October 24 is the 297th day of the year (298th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 68 days remaining. Table of contents 1 Events 2 Births 3 Deaths 4 Holidays Events 69 - Second Battle of Bedriacum, forces under Antonius Primus, the commander of the Danube armies, loyal to Vespasian, defeat the forces of Emperor Vitellius. 1648 - Peace of Westphalia signed. End of Thirty Years' War 1795 - Poland is divided between Austria, Prussia and Russia 1861 - First transcontinental telegraph line completed, ending the Pony Express 1917 - Battle of Caporetto started on the Austro-Italian front of World War I 1929 - Great Depression: "Black Thursday" - The New York Stock Exchange crashes, sparking a world-wide depression. 1935 - Italy invades Ethiopia 1944 - Zuikaku Japanese aircraft carrier destroyed 1945 - Founding of the United Nations 1954 - Dwight D. Eisenhower pledges United States support to South Vietnam 1956 - Soviet Union invades Hungary 1964 - Northern Rhodesia granted independence by UK (Southern Rhodesia remained a colony) 1970 - Salvador Allende elected President of Chile 1973 - Yom Kippur War ends 1980 - Government of Poland legalizes Solidarity trade union 1998 - Launch of Deep Space 1 comet/asteroid mission Births 51 - Roman emperor Domitian († 96) 1632 - Anton van Leeuwenhoek, microbiologist 1788 - Sarah Hale, poet 1811 - Ferdinand Hiller, composer († 1885) 1855 - James S. Sherman, Vice President of the United States 1868 - Alexandra David-Néel, French explorer, anarchist, spiritualist, buddhist and writer 1887 - Victoria Eugenia, Queen of Spain († 1969) 1891 - Molina Trujillo, President of the Dominican Republic 1903 - Melvin Purvis, FBI chief († 1960) 1904 - Moss Hart, dramatist († 1961) 1915 - Bob Kane, cartoonist 1925 - Luciano Berio, Italian composer 1926 - Y. A. Tittle, American football star 1929 - George Crumb, composer 1930 - The Big Bopper (Jiles Perry Richardson, Jr.), rock and roll star († 1959) 1931 - Sofia Gubaidulina, composer 1936 - Bill Wyman, musician (the Rolling Stones) 1939 - F. Murray Abraham, actor 1948 - Kweisi Mfume, American civil rights activist. Congressman from Maryland 1960 - Ian Baker-Finch, golf champion 1961 - Mary Bono, Congresswoman from California 1962 - B.D. Wong, actor 1985 - Wayne Rooney, English football star Deaths 1672 - John Webb, architect 1799 - Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf, composer 1821 - Elias Boudinot, second President of the United States in Congress assembled under the Articles of Confederation 1852 - Daniel Webster, lawyer and politician 1898 - Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, painter 1944 - Louis Renault, automobile manufacturer, Nazi collaborator 1945 - Vidkun Quisling, Norwegian politician and famous traitor 1948 - Franz Lehár, composer 1971 - Carl Ruggles, composer 1972 - Jackie Robinson, member of the Baseball Hall of Fame 1991 - Gene Roddenberry, creator of the Star Trek series 1997 - Don Messick, voice actor 2001 - Wolf Rüdiger Hess Holidays United Nations Day See Also: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December October 23 - October 25 - November 24 - September 24 - more historical anniversaries This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.