June 24

1901 - The first exhibition by the 19-year-old painter Pablo Picasso opened in Paris to critical acclaim.

1916 - The first Battle of the Somme began in World War One.

1948 - The Soviet Union began a blockade of Berlin, stopping all land traffic entering the city from West Germany.

2007 - Saddam Hussein's cousin, widely known as "Chemical Ali", was sentenced to hang for masterminding a genocidal military campaign that used poison gas against Iraq's Kurds in the 1980s.