On 24 June 1277 English King Edward I began his first campaign against the Welsh following Llewelyn ap Gruffydd's refusal to pay him homage.

The First War of Welsh Independence;

1267 Llywelyn ap Gruffydd and Henry III of England agreed to The Treaty of Montgomery in which Henry III agreed to recognise Llewelyn as Prince of Wales, and accepted that the title should descend to Llewelyn's heirs and all other Welsh rulers had to do homage to Llewelyn, while Llewelyn agreed to do homage to the English monarch in exchange for his support.

1272 Edward I became King of England

1274 After failing in an assassination attempt on Llywelyn, Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn of Powys and Llywelyn's younger brother Dafydd ap Gruffydd defected to the English.

1275 Edward demanded that Llywelyn come to Chester to do homage to him, Llywelyn refused.

1275 Llywelyn's was married by proxy to Eleanor, which antagonised Edward further as she was the daughter of Simon de Montfort, the leader of a rebellion against the crown during the reign of Edward's father Henry III.

1276 Edward declared war on Llywelyn and when Eleanor sailed from France to meet Llewelyn, Edward hired pirates to seize her ship and imprisoned her at Windsor Castle.

1277 (24th June) Llywelyn refused to pay homage to Edward

1277 (July) Edward launched a punitive expedition into Wales with a force of 15,500. English armies, from Carmarthen, were successful in Deheubarth, from Chester in Powys Fadog and from Shrewsbury in Maelienydd, Builth, Brycheiniog and Gwrtheyrnion. Llywelyn realised his position was hopeless and surrendered.

1277 (November) Llywelyn was forced to accept The Treaty of Aberconwy. According to the terms of the Treaty, the concessions granted by the earlier Treaty of Montgomery were effectively removed and Llywelyn had to undergo the humiliation of swearing oaths of fealty to Edward, pay a fine of £50,000 and lose the fealty of the other Welsh rulers. He was left with only Uwch Conwy (the lands west of the river Conwy) but allowed to still use the title of Prince of Wales. Once signed, Edward began building the castles of Flint, Rhuddlan, Aberystwyth and Builth.

The earliest reference to building at Caernarfon Castle dates from 24 June 1283, when a ditch was dug separating the site of the castle from the town

Edward I's war with Wales ended in May 1283 and he began building castles to consolidate his rule. Caernarfon Castle is perhaps Edward's most imposing castles as it was to be a symbol of English dominance over the subdued Welsh.

* The master mason responsible for the design and orchestrating the construction of the castle was James of Saint George.

* The architecture was based on that of Constantinople, which had inspired Edward when he was fighting there in the Crusades

* As with most castles built in enemy territory, a wooden barricade was erected to defend the building works from attack.

* Timber was shipped in from Rhuddlan, Conway and Liverpool

* Stone was quarried from from Anglesey and from the ruins of the near by Roman fort of Segontium

* According to the Flores Historium, during the construction of the castle and planned town, the body of the Roman emperor Magnus Maximus was discovered and Edward I ordered his reburial in a local church.

* The cost of the building work was £22,000, more than the Treasury's yearly income.

* Building work continued until 1323, but it was actually never finished

* Edward II was born at Caernarfon on 25 April 1284

* In 1284, Caernarfon was defended by a garrison of forty men.

J ulia Gillard (born in Barry) was sworn in on June 24th 2010 , becoming the first female Prime Minister of Australia

Julia Gillard was born on September 29th, 1961, in Barry. As a child, Gillard suffered from bronchopneumonia and for the benefit of her recovery, her parents decided in 1966, to move to the warmer climate of Australia, settling in Adelaide. Gillard began her studies in arts and law at the University of Adelaide; but in 1983, she was elected the Vice President of the Australian Union of Students (AUS). Since the AUS headquarters were in Melbourne, she had to stop her studies in Adelaide and continue them at the Melbourne University. That same year, the very politically active and aware Gillard, was elected the President of AUS. After finishing her law degree in Melbourne, Gillard began working for the industrial law firm, Slater and Gordon, which she would later, in 1990, become a partner at. Her work at the firm focused primarily on employee rights after unfair dismissals and workplace disputes. While working at the firm, Gillard switched her aims to that of a career in federal politics.

In 1996, Gillard entered the political world by becoming John Brumby’s (the then Opposition Leader of the State of Victoria) Chief-of-Staff. She served as Brumby’s Chief-of-Staff until 1998, when she ran for “the Federal seat of Lalor for the Australian Labor Party and was elected that year. From 1998 until 2001, Gillard served on a number of committees and in 2001, she was appointed Shadow Minister for Population and Immigration. Then in 2003, she took on the responsibilities of the Reconciliation and Indigenous Affairs Committee. Gillard also served as Shadow Minister for Health from 2003 to 2006. Julia Gillard became the Deputy Leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) on December 4th, 2006, and also assumed the responsibility of Shadow Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations. The ALP came out on top after the 2007 elections and Gillard became the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education,

On June 24th, 2010 and September 14th, 2010 (there are two swearing-in sessions so as to follow the later Federal Election) Julia Gillard became the first female Prime Minister of Australia.

On 24th June 1468, Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, granted a charter to Neath Abbey.

Neath Abbey, whose substantial ruins still remain, was a Cistercian monastery, near the present-day Neath and at one time, was the largest abbey in Wales. Tudor historian John Leland called Neath Abbey "the fairest abbey of all Wales."