Once Upon A Time – June 24 – 1916 – Mary Pickford Becomes First Female Film Star To Get A Million Dollar Contract

1497 John Cabot claims Eastern Canada for England (believes he has found Asia in Nova Scotia)

1509 Henry VIII is crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey, London

1793 1st republican constitution in France adopted

1812 Napoleon Bonaparte’s Grand Armée numbering half a million begin their invasion of Russia by crossing the Nieman River

1817 Execution of Chinese convert and Catholic priest Joseph Yuan Zaide in China’s Sichuan Province.

1853 US President Franklin Pierce signs the Gadsden Purchase, buying 29,670 square-miles (76,800 square km) from Mexico for $10 million (now southern Arizona and New Mexico)

1901 1st exhibition by Pablo Picasso aged 19, opens in Paris

1930 1st detection of an airplane using reflected radio waves, a precursor to radar, by US Naval Research Laboratory engineers in Anacostia, Washington, D.C.

HISTORICAL EVENTS TODAY

TODAY IN FILM & TV

1916 Mary Pickford becomes the first female film star to get a million dollar contract

TODAY IN MUSIC

1958 Nina Simone releases her debut jazz album “Little Girl Blue”

TODAY IN SPORT

1995 3rd Rugby World Cup, Ellis Park, Johannesburg: Springboks fly-half Joel Stransky lands the winning drop goal in extra time as South Africa beats New Zealand, 15-12

MORE FACTS….

2010 In the longest match in tennis history, American John Isner defeats Nicolas Mahut of France at Wimbledon after 11 hours, 5 minutes of play over 3 days

1374 Sudden outbreak of St. John’s Dance causes people in the streets of Aachen, Germany, to experience hallucinations and begin to jump and twitch uncontrollably until they collapse from exhaustion

FAMOUS WEDDINGS

1885 28th US President Woodrow Wilson (28) weds Presbyterian minister’s daughter Ellen Louise Axson (25) in Savannah, Georgia

1904 Prime Minister of Canada Arthur Meighen (30) weds Jessie Isabel Cox

1914 MLB greatest pitcher Walter Johnson (26) weds Hazel Lee Roberts in Northwest, Washington, D.C.