May 24
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Featured Event
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On this day in 1976, the Judgment of Paris took place. Despite its vaguely menacing name, the event was actually a blind tasting of French and American wines. The judges were nine of the most influential wine experts in France, widely considered the center of the wine world. After the last sip, two California wines had taken the top spot in the white and red categories. [Read today’s edition of Today in History > >]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
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We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat; they do not exist.
Born this day in 1819, Victoria, queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1837–1901) and empress of India (1876–1901), gave her name to an era that was marked by British expansion and economic prosperity.
Famous Birthdays
More on May 24
© Steve Mandamadiotis/Dreamstime.com
2023
American-born singer and longtime R&B icon Tina Turner died at age 83; her signature song, “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” was from her blockbuster album Private Dancer (1984). [Test your knowledge of music.]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
2000
Israel ended its 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon, withdrawing the last of its troops from its self-declared security zone. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about the Middle East.]
Richard Drew/AP Images
1994
Four men convicted in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City were each sentenced to 240 years in prison; the terrorist attack had killed 6 people and injured some 1,000.
Image: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1956
The first Eurovision Song Contest was held, in Lugano, Switzerland, and it became a hugely popular annual event. [Take our quiz about songs and music stars.]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1951
In the U.S. nuclear program, the fourth test of Operation Greenhouse was conducted, resulting in the first proof-of-principle test of a booster design in nuclear fission. [Watch the sequence of events in the fission of a uranium nucleus by a neutron.]
© Jay Blakesberg/Retna Ltd.
1941
American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, who was hailed as the Shakespeare of his generation, was born in Duluth, Minnesota. [Test your knowledge of songwriters.]
Image: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1938
Carl Magee of Oklahoma was granted a U.S. patent for the first coin-controlled parking meter, which become ubiquitous on streets around the country. [How much do you know about inventions?]
Mark Gerson
1928
Irish author William Trevor, who was noted for his wry and often macabre short stories and novels, was born in County Cork. [Take our quiz about authors of classic literature.]
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (digital file no. 3b51126)
1883
A brilliant feat of 19th-century engineering, the Brooklyn Bridge—spanning the East River from Brooklyn to Manhattan Island in New York City—opened; it was designed by civil engineer John Augustus Roebling. [How much do you know about bridges?]
Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (reproduction no. LC-USZ61-127)
1856
A group of abolitionists led by John Brown launched a nighttime raid on a proslavery settlement at Pottawatomie Creek in Kansas Territory during which five men were murdered. [Test your knowledge of U.S. history.]
Courtesy of CSX Transportation Inc.
1830
The first line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad opened with the maiden voyage of Peter Cooper’s locomotive Tom Thumb. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about man-made marvels.]
Image: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1689
The Toleration Act was passed by the British Parliament, granting freedom of worship to Nonconformists and allowing them their own places of worship and their own teachers and preachers.