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HISTORY & TIMELINE
24 November

A journey through
24 November in history

From Abel Tasman’s first sight of Tasmania in 1642 to an interim deal on Iran’s nuclear programme in 2013, 24 November has seen voyages, discoveries about human origins and changes of power in Africa and Europe. This timeline follows the date across nearly four centuries.

Begin the Timeline ↓ ← Back to Explore This Day
JUMP THROUGH TIME
III
A CHANGING WORLD

Early Modern Era

Exploration, political change, scientific development and expanding global connections.

1642
Abel Tasman, in a French engraving of about 1850.Abel Tasman, in a French engraving of about 1850.Image: Unknown authorUnknown author · Public domain
world · Oceania

Abel Tasman sights Tasmania

The Dutch East India Company sent Abel Tasman from Batavia (now Jakarta) on 14 August 1642 with two ships, the Heemskerck and the Zeehaen, to explore the unknown southern ocean. Sailing far to the south and then east, his crews sighted the mountains of an unknown coast on 24 November 1642. Tasman named it Van Diemen’s Land after the company’s governor-general, Anthony van Diemen; it was renamed Tasmania in the 1850s. He sailed on to become the first European to reach New Zealand, in December.

Source: Te Ara, the Encyclopedia of New Zealand: Abel Tasman ↗
IV
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

The 1800s

Industry, empire, invention, reform and a century of enormous transformation.

1859
The title page of the first edition of On the Origin of Species, published by John Murray in 1859.The title page of the first edition of On the Origin of Species, published by John Murray in 1859.Image: John Murray, Publisher · Public domain
science · Europe

Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species

More than twenty years after his voyage on HMS Beagle, and hurried into print after Alfred Russel Wallace sent him a paper with the same idea, Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection with John Murray of London on 24 November 1859. The book argued that species are not fixed but change over many generations, as individuals better suited to their surroundings survive and leave more offspring. It sold well, stirred fierce debate and went through six editions in Darwin’s lifetime, becoming the foundation of modern biology.

Source: Darwin Correspondence Project (University of Cambridge): Darwin in letters, 1858-1859, Origin ↗
V
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

The 1900s

War and peace, technological leaps, social change, politics, sport and popular culture.

1934
Mustafa Kemal in the 1920s.Mustafa Kemal in the 1920s.Image: The Prime Ministry of Turkey. It is government property, which original photographer wasn't be listed. · Public domain
politics · Asia

Mustafa Kemal is given the name Atatürk

Earlier in 1934 Turkey’s parliament had required every family to take a surname. On 24 November 1934, by Law No. 2587, the Grand National Assembly gave the republic’s founder, Mustafa Kemal, the surname Atatürk, ‘Father of the Turks’, and reserved it for him alone.

Source: Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, biography ↗
1965
Colonel Joseph Mobutu in December 1960.Colonel Joseph Mobutu in December 1960.Image: Universal Studios · CC0
politics · Africa

Mobutu seizes power in the Congo

Five years after independence from Belgium, the Congo was again deadlocked by a struggle between its president, Joseph Kasavubu, and its prime minister. On 24 November 1965 the army commander, General Joseph Mobutu, removed them both in a bloodless coup and took the presidency himself. Mobutu ruled for more than thirty years. He renamed the country Zaire in 1971 and himself Mobutu Sese Seko, and his rule became known for corruption and repression until rebels drove him out in 1997.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Mobutu Sese Seko ↗
1969
The recovery ship USS Hornet moves towards the floating Apollo 12 command module, 24 November 1969.The recovery ship USS Hornet moves towards the floating Apollo 12 command module, 24 November 1969.Image: NASA Johnson Space Center · Public domain
science · Americas

Apollo 12 splashes down after the second Moon landing

Charles ‘Pete’ Conrad, Richard Gordon and Alan Bean splashed down in the South Pacific, about 375 miles east of Pago Pago in American Samoa, on 24 November 1969, ending the second crewed Moon landing. Conrad and Bean had set down on the Ocean of Storms within walking distance of an earlier robot probe, Surveyor 3. Helicopters lifted the crew to the aircraft carrier USS Hornet, where they went into quarantine in case they had brought back lunar germs.

Source: NASA: 50 years ago, the recovery of Apollo 12 ↗
1974
A cast of the 'Lucy' skeleton at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, Paris.A cast of the ‘Lucy’ skeleton at the Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, Paris.Image: 120 · CC BY 2.5
science · Africa

The fossil ‘Lucy’ is found in Ethiopia

On 24 November 1974 the palaeoanthropologist Donald Johanson and his student Tom Gray spotted a fragment of arm bone in a gully at Hadar, in the Afar region of Ethiopia. Over the following weeks the team recovered about 40 per cent of a single skeleton, about 3.2 million years old. Nicknamed Lucy after the Beatles song played in camp, and known in Ethiopia as Dinkinesh, she belonged to the species Australopithecus afarensis. Her bones showed that our ancestors walked upright long before they had large brains.

Source: Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University: Lucy’s story ↗
1989
Miloš Jakeš in Prague in 2014.Miloš Jakeš in Prague in 2014.Image: David Sedlecký · CC BY-SA 3.0
politics · Europe

Czechoslovakia’s Communist leadership resigns

A week into the mass protests of the Velvet Revolution, the Communist Party leader Miloš Jakeš told an emergency meeting of the party’s central committee on the evening of 24 November 1989 that he and the whole leadership would step down. Within five weeks the dissident playwright Václav Havel was president.

Source: Radio Prague International: Miloš Jakeš, Communist leader in charge during the Velvet Revolution, dies aged 97 ↗
VI
2000 TO TODAY

Modern Day

The events of recent decades that have already become part of the historical record.

2013
Foreign ministers of the six powers, the European Union and Iran meeting in Geneva in the early hours of 24 November 2013.Foreign ministers of the six powers, the European Union and Iran meeting in Geneva in the early hours of 24 November 2013.Image: U.S. Department of State from United States · Public domain
politics · Asia

Iran and six powers agree an interim nuclear deal

After four days of talks in Geneva, Iran and six powers (China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States) signed an interim agreement, the Joint Plan of Action, in the early hours of 24 November 2013. Iran agreed to cap uranium enrichment at 5 per cent and to neutralise its stock of more highly enriched uranium, in return for limited relief from sanctions. It was the first real limit on Iran’s nuclear programme in about a decade, and led to the fuller agreement of July 2015.

Source: International Atomic Energy Agency: Statement by the Director General on the Geneva agreement ↗
RESEARCH

Sources & Further Reading

Selected authoritative references supporting the events on this page.

WHY THESE MOMENTS?

Significance before volume

This page is not the longest possible list of events. It is a chronological journey through 24 November, where each entry is chosen for historical significance, human interest and reliability.

Facts are checked against authoritative museums, archives, universities and reference works. Where sources disagree, the page says so.

EXPLORED THE DEEPER STORY?

Return to the highlights of 24 November

Discover the lighter side of the date with famous birthdays, culture, firsts and lives remembered.

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