1. On June 24, 1864, during the Civil War, Union troops led by General Samuel Sturgis launched a surprise attack on Confederates under General Nathan Bedford Forrest at the Battle of Tupelo. Though the Confederates initially held their ground, they eventually withdrew, and the Union declared victory.

2. Civil rights activist Clyde Kennard passed away on June 24, 1963, while serving a seven-year prison sentence for attempting to integrate Mississippi Southern College (now the University of Southern Mississippi) in Hattiesburg. Kennard's case brought national attention to the civil rights movement in Mississippi.

3. On June 24, 1946, the Delta Democrat-Times newspaper in Greenville, Mississippi, published a controversial op-ed written by journalist Hodding Carter III in support of racial equality. The article garnered backlash from segregationists and even resulted in a shooting at Carter's home.

4. James Chaney, one of the three civil rights workers murdered in Neshoba County during Freedom Summer in 1964, was born on June 24, 1943, in Meridian, Mississippi. Chaney's death, along with fellow activists Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, drew national attention and marked a turning point in the fight for civil rights.

5. Mississippi musician and blues legend Robert Johnson recorded several of his influential songs on June 24, 1937, in a makeshift studio in a hotel room in San Antonio, Texas. Among the songs recorded that day were "Cross Road Blues," "Hellhound on My Trail," and "Traveling Riverside Blues." Johnson's music continues to influence generations of musicians worldwide.