COUNTDOWN TO NOVEMBER 24TH

November 24th

A day of science and mystery — from the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species to America's only unsolved airline hijacking and the discovery of Lucy.

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Next: Tuesday, November 24, 2026.

What Makes This Day Special

November 24th
Significance

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On the Origin of Species Published (1859)

Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species was published in London by John Murray on Thursday, November 24, 1859, priced at fifteen shillings. The first printing of 1,250 copies was snapped up by booksellers at Murray's trade sale two days earlier, and a second edition of 3,000 copies followed in January 1860. The book set out the theory of evolution by natural selection, drawing on evidence Darwin had gathered since his voyage on HMS Beagle, and it transformed biology.

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The D.B. Cooper Hijacking (1971)

On November 24, 1971, a man who bought his ticket as "Dan Cooper" hijacked Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305, a Boeing 727 flying from Portland, Oregon, to Seattle. After collecting $200,000 and four parachutes in Seattle, he had the plane take off again and parachuted out over southwestern Washington during the night. A reporter's error turned his alias into "D.B. Cooper." In 1980 a boy found about $5,800 of the ransom money on the bank of the Columbia River, but the hijacker was never identified; the FBI suspended its active investigation in 2016, and the case remains the only documented unsolved hijacking in commercial aviation history.

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Discovery of "Lucy" (1974)

On November 24, 1974, paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson and student Tom Gray found the first bones of a remarkably complete hominin skeleton at Hadar, in Ethiopia's Afar region. About 40 percent of the individual was eventually recovered, and she was nicknamed "Lucy" after the Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds." Dated to about 3.2 million years ago and assigned to Australopithecus afarensis, Lucy showed that human ancestors walked upright long before they evolved large brains.

Historical Events

This Day
in History

1642

Abel Tasman Sights Tasmania

Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first known European to sight the island he named Van Diemen's Land, after the governor-general of the Dutch East Indies. The island was renamed Tasmania in his honor in 1856. Tasman's voyage went on to reach New Zealand the following month.

1784

Zachary Taylor Born

Zachary Taylor, the 12th President of the United States, was born in Orange County, Virginia. A career army officer, he became a national hero in the Mexican–American War and won the presidency in 1848. He died in office in July 1850, after only 16 months.

1963

Jack Ruby Shoots Lee Harvey Oswald

Two days after President Kennedy's assassination, Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald in the basement of Dallas police headquarters as Oswald was being transferred to the county jail. The shooting was broadcast live on national television. Oswald died at Parkland Memorial Hospital, the same hospital where Kennedy had been pronounced dead.

1991

Freddie Mercury Dies

Freddie Mercury, lead singer of Queen, died at his home in London at age 45 of bronchial pneumonia brought on by AIDS, one day after publicly announcing that he had the disease. His death raised global awareness of HIV/AIDS, and his bandmates later organized the 1992 Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert at Wembley Stadium.