Wednesday · November 11, 2026
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American history, reported as it happened
Made for the 250th
On this day › October 24

What happened on October 24 in American history

October 24 is the 297th day of the year (the 298th in leap years). Patriot Compass has published 6 stories from October 24 spanning 1861 to 1957. Among them: in 1861, Wires meet at Salt Lake City; California wires Lincoln its loyalty; and in 1900, Washington says it will buy the Danish West Indies for $7 million.

1861Member story · 1776 Club

Wires meet at Salt Lake City; California wires Lincoln its loyalty

Crews building east and west close the final gap, and Chief Justice Stephen Field sends the first coast-to-coast message of the war.
1900

Washington says it will buy the Danish West Indies for $7 million

The second American attempt in three decades to take the islands, this time with the Caribbean suddenly a strategic priority.
1944

Musashi rolls over and sinks after waves of American carrier strikes

Nineteen torpedoes and seventeen bombs were enough to capsize the heaviest battleship ever built.
1945Member story · 1776 Club

The UN Charter becomes international law; the Security Council's five powers have all signed on

A majority of the other 46 signatories ratified too, making the United Nations official five months after San Francisco.
1946

A camera rides a captured Nazi rocket 65 miles up and photographs the curve of the Earth

The rocket smashed into the New Mexico desert, but the film survived.
1957Member story · 1776 Club

Three Weeks After Sputnik, the Air Force Merges Three Studies Into One Space Plane Program

Three rival hypersonic studies are folded into Weapon System 464L, a winged spacecraft meant to succeed the X-15.