24 May in history

6 events that happened on 24 May, from 1543 to 1941.

  1. ✦ Anniversary of the day

    1543 CE 483 years ago

    Nicolaus Copernicus dies in Frombork

    Copernicus died weeks after his On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres was printed; tradition says he saw a copy on his deathbed. His Sun-centred model began a revolution in astronomy.

  2. 1689 CE 337 years ago

    Toleration Act grants freedom of worship to Dissenters

    The Act allowed Protestant Nonconformists in England to worship in their own licensed meeting houses. Catholics and anti-Trinitarians were excluded.

    England

  3. 1738 CE 288 years ago

    John Wesley feels his heart 'strangely warmed'

    At a meeting in Aldersgate Street, London, John Wesley experienced an assurance of faith while hearing Luther's preface to Romans read. The experience energised the Methodist movement.

    London

  4. 1844 CE 182 years ago

    Samuel Morse sends 'What hath God wrought'

    Morse tapped out the biblical phrase from the Capitol in Washington to Alfred Vail in Baltimore. The line opened the age of the electric telegraph in the United States.

    United States

  5. 1883 CE 143 years ago

    Brooklyn Bridge opens across the East River

    After fourteen years of construction, the bridge linking Manhattan and Brooklyn opened. It was then the longest suspension bridge in the world, the first to use steel wire cables.

  6. 1941 CE 85 years ago

    Bismarck sinks HMS Hood in the Denmark Strait

    A shell from the German battleship detonated Hood's magazine, and she sank in minutes; only three of her 1,418 crew survived. The Royal Navy hunted Bismarck down three days later.

    British EmpireRoyal NavyDenmark

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