![Today in History 24 June 2024](https://b.blackcampus.online/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/GridArt_20240624_081130991-1024x1024.jpg)
972: With the completion of its first building today, which is the 9th day of Ramadan, the University of Al-Azhar is founded. Named after Fatimah al-Zahra, by 2023 it will be Egypt’s oldest degree-granting university and the world’s second oldest degree-granting university. The institutions will be considered the most prestigious university for Islamic scholarship.
![](https://b.blackcampus.online/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/University-of-Al-Azhar.jpg)
1901: Pablo Picasso opens his first exhibition. The 18-year-old Spanish artist was featured for the first time in Ambroise Vollard’s gallery at 6 Rue Laffite in Paris. Neither of the two art critics who visited the show thought much about the works. Picasso went on to become one of the most influential artists of all time.
![](https://b.blackcampus.online/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Pablo-Picasso.jpg)
1923: Nigeria’s first political party, the Nigerian National Democratic Party, is founded, by Herbert Macaulay. Its purpose is to oppose colonialism and promote democracy by increasing Nigerians’ political involvement. The party will win all seats to the Legislative Council of British Nigeria this year and will win all seats in the next two elections, in 1928 and 1933.
![](https://b.blackcampus.online/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Herbert-Macaulay.jpg)
1932: The Promoters Revolution, a bloodless coup, overthrew Prajadhipok, the king of Thailand, ending the absolute monarchy in that country and initiating the so-called Constitutional Era.
![](https://b.blackcampus.online/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/A-Palace-in-Thailand.jpg)
1948: The Berlin Blockade begins. In reaction to the currency reform in West Germany, the Soviet Union blocked all access to West Berlin. It was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. Western Allies launched the Berlin airlift to transport supplies to the blocked area. In Germany, the planes became known as “raisin bombers” or “candy bombers”.
1965: Chief Anthony Enahoro’s trial for treason opened before a Lagos court.
![](https://b.blackcampus.online/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Chief-Tony-Enahoro-Arrives-at-the-Supreme-Court.jpg)
1982: A British Airways jumbo jet experiences a sudden total engine failure
At the same time, the crew observed a mysterious glow in the darkness. The Boeing 747’s pilots had unwittingly flown into a cloud of volcanic ash caused by the eruption of Mount Galunggung, causing all four engines to flame out. The crew eventually succeeded in restarting the engines and landing safely in Jakarta.
1990: Côte d’Ivoire’s controversial Our Lady of Peace Basilica, the world’s largest basilica built by 1,200 labourers working day and night for five years, is consecrated by Pope John Paul II. The Pope also gives his blessing to an adjacent hospital that was built to offset criticism that the basilica is a costly extravagance.
![](https://b.blackcampus.online/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Our-Lady-of-Peace-Basilica.jpg)
1997: U.S. Air Force officials release a 231-page report dismissing long-standing claims of an alien spacecraft crash in Roswell, New Mexico, almost exactly 50 years earlier.
2002: Africa’s worst-ever train disaster kills 281. The crash occurred near Msagali, Tanzania when a passenger train with some 1200 passengers rolled back down Igandu hill after its brakes had failed.
2003: Stella Obasanjo called the wives of the state governors to Abuja –according to Africanwoman – and publicly declared in front of television cameras that: “There is only one First Lady in Nigeria. Period!” She went on to warn them to stop using the title ‘First Lady’ and to revert to their proper title of governor’s wife.
![](https://b.blackcampus.online/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Stella-Obasanjo.jpg)
2010: The Senate unanimously approved the appointment of Attahiru Jega asNigeria’s chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
2012: Mohammed Morsi is announced as the winner of Egypt’s first democratic elections. The new president is the candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood, which seeks to make Coptic Christian Egypt an Islamic state. Morsi had to run as an Independent because the Muslim Brotherhood is banned from political activity.
2021: West Africa’s largest solar power array goes on-line in Togo. The 50-megawatt facility will power 158,000 homes.
![](https://b.blackcampus.online/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/West-Africas-largest-solar-power-array.jpg)
BIRTHS ON THIS DAY: June 24
Juan Riquelme, 46 years
Juan Román Riquelme is an Argentine former professional footballer and current president of Boca Juniors, the club where he spent the majority of his playing career. He is considered by various journalists, players, and coaches as one of the greatest playmakers of all time.
![](https://b.blackcampus.online/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Juan-Riquelme.jpg)
Lionel Messi, 37 years
Lionel Andrés “Leo” Messi is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for and captains both Major League Soccer club Inter Miami and the Argentina national team. He was born on24 June 1987.
![](https://b.blackcampus.online/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Lionel-Messi.jpg)
Samuel Johnson (June 24, 1846 – April 29, 1901)
Sierra Leonean historian and Anglican priest, in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The brother of the first Yoruba medical doctor, he wrote a landmark history of the Yoruba people. When he died prematurely at 54, his brother, Dr. Obadiah Johnson, finished editing the work, A History of the Yorubas from the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the British Protectorate. When published in 1921, the sweeping history was favourably compared to Gibbon’s The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
Like, comment, follow, and share.
![](https://b.blackcampus.online/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Samuel-Johnson.jpg)