What Happened Today in History on October 24

The Treaty of Calais is signed, ending the first phase of the Hundred Years' War between England and France.

Jane Seymour, the third wife of King Henry VIII, dies at Hampton Court Palace,12 days after giving birth to Edward Tudor, VI, her only son and only surviving legitimate son of Henry VIII; who would become King Edward VI. The cause of her death was likely an infection or pulmonary embolism.

The Thirty Years' War ends with the Peace of Westphalia,  a series of treaties  negotiated in the Westphalian towns of Münster and Osnabrück  which officially ended the devastating conflict that ravaged Europe; changing the map of Europe irrevocably. 

The Second Opium War ends with the signing of the Convention of Peking. The Beijing Convention consists of three individual treaties signed by China, with Great Britain (October 24), France (October 25), and Russia (November 14). More

The first transcontinental telegraph system is completed by Western Union, making it possible to transmit messages rapidly from coast to coast. This technological advance, pioneered by inventor Samuel F. B. Morse, heralded the end of the Pony Express. More

Annie Edson Taylor becomes the first person to successfully take the plunge over Niagara Falls inside an oak barrel. She was a 63-year-old at the time. Seventy one years earlier, on October 17,1829, Sam Patch, had survived jumping down the Horseshoe Falls of the Niagara River, on the Canadian side of the border. More

In the French town of Chalons-sur-Marne, U.S. Army Sgt. Edward F. Younger, a decorated World War I veteran, selects the "Unknown Soldier" to be interred in the planned Tomb at Arlington National Cemetery, by laying a spray of white roses upon one of four caskets. The following day, the Unknown Soldier’s casket departed from the port of Le Havre on board the USS Olympia.  Expand +

The United Nations is officially established on October 24, 1945 as its Charter comes into force, when the Charter was ratified by a majority of signatories, 51 countries, including the five permanent members of the Security Council (China, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States). Expand +

British Airways makes the final Concorde commercial flight on October 24, 2003 with a flight from New York's JFK Airport to London Heathrow. This was the last commercial passenger flight, although there was a later flight on November 26 2003  to a museum in Bristol, UK. More