What happened on 24 June?

15 events from the Ever-When timeline, ranked by how much they mattered.

1. 1948 Berlin Airlift Western powers fly supplies into West Berlin for nearly a year to break a Soviet blockade.
2. 1812 Napoleon's invasion of Russia Grande Armée of ~600,000 invades Russia; takes Moscow but cannot force peace; retreat in winter destroys the army.
3. 1948 Stalin blockades West Berlin Two and a quarter million people in the western sectors are cut off with just over a month's food and coal, a hundred miles inside the Soviet zone. Stalin is betting the West will
4. 1941 The Einsatzgruppen killings begin Behind the armies invading the Soviet Union come four mobile killing squads, some 3,000 men, with orders that widen within weeks from Jewish men to entire communities. By the end o
5. 2022 Overturning of Roe v. Wade (Dobbs) US Supreme Court ends federal abortion rights protected since 1973.
6. 1987 Born: Lionel Messi Argentine footballer; multiple Ballon d'Ors; 2022 World Cup winner.
7. 1497 John Cabot reaches North America Italian-born English explorer reaches Newfoundland; first verified European landing on continental North America since the Vikings.
8. 1960 Premiership of Patrice Lumumba Ten weeks as the Congo's first prime minister before dismissal, arrest and murder.
9. 1859 Battle of Solferino Last major battle in which monarchs commanded armies in person; inspired the Red Cross.
10. 1340 Battle of Sluys Edward III's English fleet destroys the French fleet in the harbour of Sluys; secures cross-Channel supply for English armies.
11. 1821 Battle of Carabobo Decisive victory securing Venezuelan independence from Spain.
12. 79 Reign of Titus Flavian emperor who completed the Colosseum; reign marked by Vesuvius eruption and fire and plague at Rome.
13. 1922 Walther Rathenau is assassinated Germany's Jewish foreign minister — industrialist, intellectual, the republic's most capable servant — is machine-gunned in his open car by nationalist officers. One of 350-plus po
14. 1880 O Canada first performed Calixa Lavallée's setting of Routhier's French lyrics debuts at Quebec's Saint-Jean-Baptiste banquet; it becomes the official anthem exactly a century later.
15. 1717 Grand Lodge of London founded Four London lodges meet at the Goose and Gridiron alehouse to form the first Grand Lodge — the founding moment of organised Freemasonry, soon exported across Europe and the Atlanti