It happened today – this day in history – August 24

1360: The Treaty of Brétigny is ratified at Calais, marking the end of the first phase of the Hundred Years’ War.

1537: Henry VIII’s third wife Jane Seymour dies of postnatal complications aged 28.

1601: Astronomer Johannes Kepler becomes imperial mathematician to Emperor Rudolph II on the death of Tycho Brahe in Prague aged 54..

1648: The Treaty of Westphalia ends The Thirty Years’ War in the Holy Roman Empire.

1681: The Earl of Shaftesbury accused of high treason in London.

1812: The Battle of Maloyaroslavets takes place near Moscow during the Napoleonic Wars.

1818: Felix Mendelssohn, aged 9, performs his first public concert in Berlin.

1836: The earliest American patent for a phosphorus friction match by Alonzo Dwight Phillips of Springfield, Massachusetts.

1851: William Lassell discovers Ariel and Umbriel, satellites of Uranus.

1857: The world’s first soccer club, Sheffield F. C. is founded in Yorkshire.

1861: West Virginia secedes from Virginia.

1871: A mob in LA hangs 18 Chinese immigrants.

1885: Johann Strauss’ operetta “Zigeunerbaron premieres in Vienna.

1901: Anna Taylor becomes the f irst woman to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel.

1902: The Santa Maria volcano in Guatemala erupts, killing 6,000 people. It is one of the three largest eruptions of the 20^th century.

1911: Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s expedition leaves Cape Evans, Ross Island, Antarctica for the South Pole. On the same day, Orville Wright remaines in the air for 9 minutes and 45 seconds in a glider at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, setting a new world record that stands for 10 years.

1917: Germany and Austria defeat the Italian army at the Battle of Caporetto.

1922: Chocolate manufacturer George Cadbury, dies aged 83.

1926: Harry Houdini’s final performance, at the Garrick Theatre in Detroit.

1929: “Black Thursday”, the start of the stock market crash.

1930: A bloodless coup in Brazil ousts Washington Luís Pereira de Sousa, the last President of the First Republic. Getúlio Vargas is installed as provisional president.

1931: Al Capone is sentenced to 11 years for tax evasion.

1939: Nylon stockings go on sale for first time in Wilmington, Delaware.

1944: The US aircraft carrier Princeton sinks off the Philippines.

1945: The United Nations Charter is ratified at a ceremony in Washington DC. On the same day, Norwegian prime minister Vidkun Quisling is executed for collaborating with the Nazis.

1946: A camera on board a V-2 rocket launched from Whites Sands US, takes the first photograph of earth from space.

1948: Austrian-Hungarian composer Franz Lehár, dies aged 78.

1949: Construction begins on the UN headquarters in New York.

1954: President Dwight D Eisenhower pledges the US’s support to South Vietnam. On the same day, Maserati driver Juan Manuel Fangio wins his second Formula 1 World Drivers Championship.

1957: Singer/actor Bing Crosby marries actress Kathryn Grant.

1960: A massive explosion on the USSR Baikonoer launch pad kills up to 165 people. The Soviet Union covers up news of the disaster, saying the team have been killed in a plane crash.

1962: Soviet ships approach but stop short of the US blockade of Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis. On the same day, soul singer James Brown and his Famous Flames record the legendary Live At The Apollo album.

1964: Zambia (formerly Northern Rhodesia) gains independence from Britain.

1965: Jim Clark in a Lotus is forced to retire from the season-ending Mexican Grand Prix at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez with engine trouble, but still secures his second Formula 1 World Drivers Championship

1968: Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull are busted for possession of pot and released on £50 bail. On the same day, the People’s Democracy (PD) stages a protest demonstration at Stormont, the Northern Ireland parliament building.

1970: Marxist Salvador Allende is elected President of Chile by the Chilean Congress.

1971: The president of Sinn Féin Ruairi O’Brady, addresses a party conference in Dublin and proclaims that the North of Ireland must be made ungovernable as a first step to achieve a united Ireland. On the same day, a member of the IRA is shot dead by undercover RUC officers during a bomb attack in Belfast.

1973: John Lennon begins litigation against the US government, accusing them of tapping his telephone. On the same day, the Yom Kippur War ends with Israel 65 miles from Cairo and 26 from Damascus.

1974: TV on this day (Thursday)

1976: McLaren driver James Hunt finishes fourth in the season ending Japanese Grand Prix at Fuji Speedway to win his only Formula 1 World Drivers Championship.

1977: Keith Richards is fined £205 after admitting having cannabis, Chinese heroin, mandrax tablets and a revolver at his Chelsea home. Later that evening, Keith and Anita Pallenberg accidentally set fire to their London hotel bedroom.

1978: Keith Richards is convicted of heroin possession in Toronto and faces the very real possibility of a jail sentence.

1980: The Polish government legalises independent labour union Solidarity.

1983: Civil servant Dennis Nilsen goes on trial accused of six murders and two attempted murders.

1985: Lásló Bíró, inventor of the ballpoint pen, dies aged 86.

1986: Britain breaks off diplomatic relations with Syria following revelations of official complicity in terrorist Nezar Hindawi’s plot to blow up an El Al airliner.

1989: American televangelist Jim Bakker is sentenced to 45 years in prison for fraud. The sentence is later reduced to eight years on appeal.

1991: Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry dies aged 70.

1998: Former Stone Roses singer Ian Brown is jailed for four months after being found guilty of disorderly behaviour during a flight from Paris to Manchester.

2001: Two lorries crash head-on and catch fire inside the Gotthard road tunnel in Switzerland.

2002: Police arrest spree killers John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, ending the Beltway sniper attacks in the area around Washington, D.C. On the same day, record producer Tom Dowd dies of emphysema.

2003: Concorde makes its last commercial passenger flight taking off from Heathrow Airport.

2004: Singles chart:

1. Call On Me – Eric Prydz
2. The Love Of Richard Nixon – Manic Street Preachers
3. Millionaire – Kelis ft Andre 2000
4. My Neck, My Back (Lick It) – Khia
5. I Believe My Heart – Duncan James & Keedie
6. Happy People – R Kelly
7. Enjoy The Silence – Depeche Mode
8. Kinda Love – Darius
9. Radio – Robbie Williams
10. Flashdance – Deep Dish

Album chart:

1. Greatest Hits – Robbie Williams
2. 10 Years Of Hits – Ronan Keating
3. Stardust: The Great American Songbook III – Rod Stewart
4. Songs About Jane – Maroon 5
5. Scissor Sisters – Scissor Sisters
6. Welcome To My World – Daniel O’Donnell
7. Around The Sun – REM
8. American Idiot – Green Day
9. Mind, Body And Soul – Joss Stone
10. Miracle – Celine Dion

2005: American civil rights figure Rosa Parks dies of natural causes aged 92.

2008: “Bloody Friday” sees many of the world’s stock exchanges experience the worst declines in their history. On the same day, Iceland receives a £1.3billion bailout package from the International Monetary Fund.

2015: Hollywood star Maureen O’Hara dies aged 95.

2016: Singer Bobby Vee dies age 73.

2017: Pianist and singer-songwriter Fats Domino dies aged 89 at his home in Louisiana. On the same day, actor Robert Guillaume also dies aged 89.

2018: Pipe bombs are sent to prominent US Democrats including the Obamas, the Clintons and CNN. All are safely defused. On the same day, singer, songwriter Tony Joe White dies of a heart attack aged 75.

2019: The remains of 20^th century Spanish dictator General Franco are removed from a mausoleum in the Valley of the Fallen and reburied in a private family vault in Madrid.

BIRTHDAYS: Bill Wyman (Perks), bassist, 84; F. Murray Abraham, actor, 81; Ted Templeman, record producer, 78; Kevin Kline, actor, 73; Edgar Broughton, singer/musician, 73; Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea FC, 54; Dervla Kirwan, actress, 49; Katie McGrath, actress, 37; Wayne Rooney, footballer, 35; Drake (Aubrey Graham) rapper/songwriter, 34; John Ruddy, goalkeeper, 34; İlkay Gündoğan, footballer, 30; Claudia Fragapane, gymnast, 23.