This Day in History - July 24th

1959: Kitchen Debate in Moscow

On 24 July 1959, in front of a replica of a suburban American kitchen, U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev engage in an impromptu debate about the merits and disadvantages of capitalism and communism. Nixon had travelled to Moscow to open the U.S. Trade and Cultural Fair in Sokolniki Park, organised as a goodwill gesture by the USSR. The televised Kitchen Debate helped solidify Nixon's reputation as a tough and capable U.S. leader.

Also On This Day

2005

American cyclist Lance Armstrong wins a record breaking seventh consecutive Tour de France title.

2000

As part of the Good Friday peace agreement in Northern Ireland. , loyalist paramilitary hitman Michael Stone is released from the Maze prison.

1987

Conservative Peer and novelist Jeffrey Archer is awarded record damages by the high Court in a libel case against the Daily Star newspaper after it claimed Archer had paid to have sex with a prostitute.

1974

The United States Supreme Court orders President Nixon to hand over tape recordings of White House conversations about the Watergate affair.

1969

Apollo 11 returns safely from the Moon to Earth.

1969

The British Government exchanges two Soviet spies for British lecturer Gerald Brooke, who had already served four years in a Soviet jail for smuggling anti-Soviet leaflets.

1943

The Second World War: British bombers raid Hamburg, Germany by night as Operation Gomorrah begins.

1923

The partitioning of the Ottoman Empire is settled with the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne.

1915

In America, the steamer Eastland overturns in the Chicago River, drowning between 800 and 850 of its passengers.

1911

American archaeologist, Hiram Bingham, discovers Machu Picchu, the lost city of the Incas near Cuzco, Peru.

1908

Amid turmoil in the Ottoman Empire, Sultan Abdul Hamid decrees restoration of the constitution, fulfilling the main demand of the Committee of Union and Progress, a rising reformist political party known as the Young Turks.

1847

After 17 months of travelling, Brigham Young leads 148 Mormon pioneers into Utah’s Valley of the Great Salt Lake where they settle and form a community.

1567

Mary Queen of Scots is forced to abdicate the throne.

1534

French explorer Jacques Cartier lands at Gaspe in Canada and claims the territory for France.

1411

In Scotland, the Battle of Harlaw is fought between Donald of Islay, Lord of the Isles and Alexander Stewart, Earl of Mar.