January 24
41 - Roman emperor Gaius Caesar, better known as Caligula, was murdered.
1848 - Gold was first discovered in California, in Sutter's Mill. When President James K. Polk announced the news in December, the California Gold Rush began.
1908 - Robert Baden-Powell organized the first Boy Scout troop in England.
1943 - The Casablanca Conference with President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill concluded.
1945 - Associated Press war correspondent Joseph Morton was among a group of captives executed by German soldiers at the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp in Austria.
1965 - Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill died in London at age 90.
1972 - Japanese soldier Shoichi Yokoi was discovered in Guam, having spent 28 years hiding in the jungle thinking World War II was still going on.
1978 - A nuclear-powered Soviet satellite, Kosmos 954, plunged through the Earth's atmosphere and disintegrated, scattering radioactive debris over parts of northern Canada.
1984 - Apple Computer began selling its first Macintosh personal computer, which boasted a built-in 9-inch monochrome display, a clock rate of 8 megahertz, and 128k of RAM.
1986 - The Voyager Two space probe passed within 51,000 miles of Uranus.
1989 - Confessed serial killer Ted Bundy was executed in Florida's electric chair.
2003 - The Department of Homeland Security became a cabinet-level department, and former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge was named its first secretary.
2011 - A suicide bomber attacked Moscow's busiest airport, killing 37 people; Chechen separatists claimed responsibility.
2013 - President Barack Obama's defense secretary Leon Penetta announced the lifting of a ban on women serving in combat.
2018 - Former sports doctor Larry Nassar, who had admitted to molesting some of the nation's top gymnasts for years under the guise of medical treatment, was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison.
Birthdays
39 - Sean McVay (football coach)
39 - Mischa Barton (actress)
40 - Josie Gibson (TV host)
41 - Justin Baldoni (actor)
43 - Daveed Diggs (actor)
44 - Carrie Coon (actress)
46 - Tatyana Ali (actress)
47 - Kristen Schaal (actress/comedian)
51 - Ed Helms (actor)
53 - Beth Hart (musician)
54 - Kenya Moore (reality star)
55 - Matthew Lillard (actor)
57 - Mary Lou Retton (gymnast)
71 - William Allen Young (actor)
74 - Yakov Smirnoff (comedian)
75 - Daniel Auteuil (actor)
84 - Aaron Neville (singer)
84 - Neil Diamond (singer)
86 - Ray Stevens (singer)
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Today in Sports History - January 24
1939 - Eddie Collins, Willie Keeler and George Sisler are elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
1947 - NFL owners voted to allow a sudden-death overtime in playoff games. The rule wasn't used until 1958.
1955 - The rules committee of major league baseball announced a plan to strictly enforce the rule that required a pitcher to release the ball within 20 seconds after taking his position on the mound.
1964 - CBS-TV acquired the rights to televise the National Football League’s 1964-1965 regular season. The move cost CBS $14.1 million a year. The NFL stayed on CBS for 30 years.
1973 - Warren Spahn is elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
1982 - The San Francisco 49ers defeat the Cincinnati Bengals 26-21 to win Super Bowl XVI.
1990 - Clarence "Big House" Gaines collected the 800th victory of his college coaching career when Winston-Salem State University beat Livinstone, 79-70.
1999 - David Duval fires a 59 in the final round of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic to become just the third player to shoot a sub-60 round on the PGA Tour.
2006 - Mario Lemieux retired from playing in the NHL for the last time. He had previously retired and came back from cancer, a heart problem, agonizing back pain, a rare bone infection, a self-imposed one-season layoff and, five years earlier, from the boredom of retirement.
2023 - Scott Rolen is elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
