October 24 is the 297th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 68 days remaining until the end of the year.
AD 69 – Second Battle of Bedriacum, forces under Marcus Antonius Primus, the commander of the Danube armies, loyal to Vespasian, defeat the forces of Emperor Vitellius.
1260 – Chartres Cathedral is dedicated in the presence of King Louis IX of France; the cathedral is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
1360 – The Treaty of Brétigny is ratified at Calais, marking the end of the first phase of the Hundred Years' War.
1590 – John White, the governor of the second Roanoke Colony, returns to England after an unsuccessful search for the "lost" colonists.
1641 – Sir Felim O'Neill of Kinard the leader of the Irish Rebellion issues his Proclamation of Dungannon justifying the uprising and declaring continued loyalty to Charles I.
1648 – The Peace of Westphalia is signed, marking the end of the Thirty Years' War.
1795 – Third Partition of Poland: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth is completely divided among Austria, Prussia, and Russia.
1812 – Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Maloyaroslavets takes place near Moscow.
1851 – William Lassell discovers the moons Umbriel, and Ariel, orbiting Uranus.
1857 – Sheffield F.C., the world's oldest association football club still in operation, is founded in Sheffield, England.
1861 – The first transcontinental telegraph line across the United States is completed.
1871 – An estimated 17 to 20 Chinese immigrants are tortured and lynched in the Chinese massacre of 1871 in Los Angeles, California.
1889 – Sir Henry Parkes delivers the Tenterfield Oration, effectively starting the federation process in Australia
1901 – Annie Edson Taylor becomes the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel.
1902 – Guatemala's Santa María Volcano begins to erupt, becoming the third-largest eruption of the 20th century.
1911 – Orville Wright remains in the air nine minutes and 45 seconds in a Wright Glider at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina.
1912 – First Balkan War: The Battle of Kirk Kilisse concludes with the Bulgarian victory against the Ottoman Empire.
1912 – First Balkan War: The Battle of Kumanovo concludes with the Serbian victory against the Ottoman Empire.
1917 – Battle of Caporetto; Italy suffers a catastrophic defeat by the forces of Austria-Hungary and Germany on the Austro-Italian front of World War I (lasts until 19 November - also called Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo).
1917 – Bolshevik Red Guards began takeover of buildings in Russia, among the first events associated with the October Revolution.
1926 – Harry Houdini's last performance takes place at the Garrick Theatre in Detroit.
1929 – "Black Thursday" stock market crash on the New York Stock Exchange.
1930 – A bloodless coup d'état in Brazil ousts Washington Luís, the last President of the First Republic. Getúlio Vargas is then installed as "provisional president".
1931 – The George Washington Bridge opens to public traffic.
1944 – World War II: The Japanese battleship Musashi is sunk by American aircraft in the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
1945 – Founding of the United Nations.
1946 – A camera on board the V-2 No. 13 rocket takes the first photograph of earth from outer space.
1947 – Famed animator Walt Disney testifies before the House Un-American Activities Committee, naming Disney employees he believes to be communists.
1949 – The cornerstone of the United Nations Headquarters is laid.
1954 – Dwight D. Eisenhower pledges United States support to South Vietnam.
1957 – The United States Air Force starts the X-20 Dyna-Soar program.
1960 – Nedelin catastrophe: An R-16 ballistic missile explodes on the launch pad at the Soviet Union's Baikonur Cosmodrome space facility, killing over 100. Among the dead is Field Marshal Mitrofan Nedelin, whose death is reported to have occurred in a plane crash.
1963 – An oxygen leak from an R-9 missile at the Baikonur Cosmodrome triggers a fire that kills seven people.
1964 – Northern Rhodesia gains independence from the United Kingdom and becomes the Republic of Zambia (Southern Rhodesia remained a colony until the next year, with the Unilateral Declaration of Independence).
1975 – In Iceland, 90% of women take part in a national strike, refusing to work in protest of gaps in gender equality.
1977 – Veterans Day is observed on the fourth Monday in October for the seventh and last time. (The holiday is once again observed on November 11 beginning the following year.)
1980 – The government of Poland legalizes the Solidarity trade union.
1986 – Nezar Hindawi is sentenced to 45 years in prison, the longest sentence handed down by a British court, for the attempted bombing on an El Al flight at Heathrow Airport. After the verdict, the United Kingdom breaks diplomatic relations with Syria, claiming that Hindawi is helped by Syrian officials.
1990 – Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti reveals to the Italian parliament the existence of Gladio, the Italian "stay-behind" clandestine paramilitary NATO army, which was implicated in false flag terrorist attacks implicating communists and anarchists as part of the strategy of tension from the late 1960s to early 1980s.
1992 – The Toronto Blue Jays become the first Major League Baseball team based outside the United States to win the World Series.
1998 – Launch of Deep Space 1 comet/asteroid mission.
2002 – Police arrest spree killers John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, ending the Beltway sniper attacks in the area around Washington, D.C.
2003 – Concorde makes its last commercial flight.
2004 – Arsenal Football Club loses to Manchester United, ending a row of unbeaten matches at 49 matches, which is the record in the Premier League.
2005 – Hurricane Wilma makes landfall in Florida resulting in 35 direct and 26 indirect fatalities and causing $20.6B USD in damage.
\2007 – Chang'e 1, the first satellite in the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, is launched from Xichang Satellite Launch Center.
2008 – "Bloody Friday" saw many of the world's stock exchanges experience the worst declines in their history, with drops of around 10% in most indices.
2014 – The China National Space Administration launches an experimental lunar mission, Chang'e 5-T1, which will loop behind the Moon and return to Earth.
2015 – A driver, arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence (DUI), crashes into the Oklahoma State Homecoming parade in Stillwater, Oklahoma, killing four people and injuring 34.
2016 – A Fairchild Merlin airliner on a French surveillance mission crashes in Kirkop, Malta, killing all five people on board.
