01010624 This Day In History, June 24

79: Vespasian, Roman emperor from 69-79 and founder of the Flavian dynasty, died (see Vespasian and What Did Jesus Christ Say About Those Stones?).

109: The Aqua Traiana was inaugurated by Roman Emperor Trajan. The aqueduct delivers water from Lake Bracciano, 40 kilometers / 25 miles from Rome.

637: The Battle of Moira, the largest battle in the history of Ireland. The High King of Ireland fought the Kings of Ulster and Dalriada.

1292: Adolf of Nassau was crowned as German king at Aachen.

1310: Solomon ben Abraham Adret died at age 75. The religious leader of Spanish Jews of his time, he is remembered partly for his 1305 decree threatening to excommunicate all Jews under 30 (except medical students) who studied philosophy or science (see Israel In History and Prophecy: Judaism).

1322: Jews were expelled from France.

1340: During the Hundred Years war, the British fleet battled the French at Sluys.

1441: Eton College in England was founded by King Henry VI.

1497: John Cabot, navigator and explorer, sighted Cape Breton Island and claimed North America for England.

1509: Henry VIII was crowned king of England, the second monarch from the House of Tudor.

1527: King Gustavus of Sweden assembled the Diet of Wester's for the purpose of carrying through the Protestant Reformation in Sweden.

1534: French explorer Jacques Cartier landed on what is today Prince Edward Island, Canada.

1604: Samuel de Champlain discovered the mouth of the Saint John River, site of Reversing Falls and the present day city of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.

1611: Henry Hudson, his son, and several sick men were set adrift in present-day Hudson Bay by mutineers. After more than a year at sea, the crew of Hudson's ship, the Discovery, were afraid of going any further. Nothing is known of Hudson's fate. The only record of the voyage and mutiny is an account by Abacuk Pricket, a survivor of the Discovery.

1664: New Jersey, named after the Isle of Jersey in Britain's Channel Islands, was founded.

1812: During the Napoleonic Wars, Napoleon's Grande Armée crossed the Neman River, thereby beginning the invasion of Russia.

1813: The Battle of Beaver Dams during the War of 1812 (1812-1814). After being warned by Laura Secord of an impending U.S. attack on a British outpost at Beaver Dams, about 500 U.S. invaders, including their commander, were taken prisoner after a firefight. The site of the battle was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1921.

1916: During the First World War (listen to our Sermon The European World Wars), the First Battle of the Somme began. More than 1 million men were killed during the five-month battle.

1947: U.S. pilot Ken Arnold reported seeing strange objects in the sky over Mount Rainier (in Washington State) looking like "saucers skipping across the water." The incident led to the first use of the term "flying saucers."

1948: The Soviet Union began the Berlin Blockade.

1985: Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud became the first Arab, and first Muslim, in space, aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery.

1994: The European Union and Russia signed a landmark friendship accord in Corfu, Greece.

2002: The Igandu train disaster in Tanzania killed 281 people, the worst train accident in African history.