What happened on May 24 ?

1153 - Malcolm IV becomes King of Scotland.

1218 - The Fifth Crusade leaves Acre for Egypt.

1276 - Magnus Ladulås crowned King of Sweden in Uppsala Cathedral.

1487 - Imposter Lambert Simnel is crowned as "King Edward VI" at Dublin.

1595 - Nomenclator of Leiden University Library appears, the first printed catalog of an institutional library.

1621 - Protestant Union formally dissolved.

1626 - Peter Minuit buys Manhattan.

1668 - Glen Cove, New York is founded.

1689 - The English Parliament passes the Act of Toleration protecting Protestants (Roman Catholics are intentionally excluded).

1738 - John Wesley is converted, essentially launching the Methodist movement; the day is celebrated annually by Methodists as Aldersgate Day.

1787 - The United States Constitutional Convention is convened after a quorum of delegates arrives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1798 - Irish Rebellion of 1798 led by the United Irishmen against British rule begins.

1822 - Battle of Pichincha: Antonio José de Sucre secures the independence of the Presidency of Quito.

1830 - Mary had a little lamb by Sarah Hale is published.

1844 - Samuel F. B. Morse sent the message "What hath God wrought" (a Bible quotation, Numbers 23:23) from the Supreme Court room in Washington, D.C. to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, Maryland.

1846 - Mexican-American War: General Zachary Taylor captures Monterrey.

1856 - John Brown and his men murder five slavery supporters at Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas.

1861 - American Civil War: Union troops occupy Alexandria, Virginia.

1883 - The Brooklyn Bridge in New York is opened to traffic after 14 years of construction.

1893 - The Niagara Falls Park and River Railway opens in Ontario.

1895 - Henry Irving becomes the first personage from the theatre to be knighted.

1899 - The first public parking garage in the United States is opened in Boston, Massachusetts.

1900 - Second Boer War: The United Kingdom annexes the Orange Free State.

1911 - The New York Public Library opened.

1915 - World War I: Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary.

1921 - The trial of Sacco and Vanzetti opens.

1929 - The Cocoanuts, the first film to star the Marx Brothers, opens.

1930 - Amy Johnson lands in Darwin, Northern Territory, becoming the first woman to fly from England to Australia (she left on May 5 for the 11,000 mile flight).

1935 - Crosley Field in Cincinnati, Ohio, hosts major-league baseball's first night game ever as the Cincinnati Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies 2-1.

1940 - Igor Sikorsky performs the first successful single-rotor helicopter flight.

1941 - World War II: In the North Atlantic, the German Battleship Bismarck sinks the HMS Hood killing all but three crewmen on what was the pride of the Royal Navy.

1943 - Holocaust: Josef Mengele becomes chief medical officer in Auschwitz concentration camp.

1949 - The Soviet Union ends the 11-month Berlin Blockade.

1958 - United Press International is formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service.

1961 - American civil rights movement: Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi for "disturbing the peace" after disembarking from their bus.

1962 - American astronaut Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule.

1968 - Students set fire to the Paris bourse.

1968 - FLQ separatists bomb the U.S. consulate in Quebec City.

1974 - After a nine-year run, The Dean Martin Show airs for the last time.

1976 - London to Washington, DC Concorde service begins.

1980 - The International Court of Justice calls for the release of United States embassy hostages in Tehran. The hostages would not be freed until the following January.

1980 - Bobby Nystrom scores the game winning overtime goal to lift the New York Islanders to their first of four consecutive Stanley Cups.

1981 - First International Women's Day for Disarmament.

1988 - Section 28 is passed as law by Parliament in the United Kingdom.

1989 - Sonia Sutcliffe, wife of the Yorkshire Ripper, is awarded a six-figure sum in damages after winning a libel action against Private Eye.

1990 - A car carrying American Earth First! activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney explodes in Oakland, California, critically injuring both.

1991 - Israel conducts Operation Solomon, evacuating Ethiopian Jews to Israel.

1992 - The last Thai dictator, General Suchinda Kraprayoon, resigns following pro-democracy protests.

1993 - Eritrea gains its independence from Ethiopia.

1993 - Microsoft unveils Windows NT.

2000 - Israeli troops withdraw from southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation.

2001 - Mountain climbing: 15-year-old Sherpa Temba Tsheri becomes the youngest person to climb to the top of Mount Everest.

2001 - The Versailles wedding hall collapse in Jerusalem, Israel, kills 23 and injures over 200 in Israel's worst-ever civil disaster.