January 24
41 - Roman emperor Gaius Caesar, better known as Caligula, was murdered.
1848 - James W. Marshall discovered a gold nugget at Sutter’s Mill in northern California, a discovery that led to the gold rush of ’49 after the news was announced by President James K. Polk.
1908 - Robert Baden-Powell organized the first Boy Scout troop in England.
1924 - The Russian city of St. Petersburg was renamed Leningrad in honor of late revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin.
1943 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill concluded a wartime conference in Casablanca, Morocco.
1945 - Associated Press war correspondent Joseph Morton was among a group of captives executed by the Germans 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.
1972 - The Supreme Court struck down laws that denied welfare benefits to people who had resided in a state for less than a year.
1978 - A nuclear-powered Soviet satellite, Cosmos 954, plunged through Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrated, scattering radioactive debris over parts of northern Canada.
1984 - Apple Computer began selling its first Macintosh model, which boasted a built-in 9-inch monochrome display, a clock rate of 8 megahertz and 128k of RAM.
1985 - The space shuttle Discovery was launched from Cape Canaveral on the first secret, all-military shuttle mission.
1986 - The Voyager 2 space probe passed within 51,000 miles of Uranus.
1989 - Confessed serial killer Ted Bundy was executed in Florida's electric chair.
1993 - Retired Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall died at age 84.
1995 - The prosecution gave its opening statement in the O.J. Simpson murder trial.
2003 - The Department of Homeland Security became the newest Cabinet-level department, with Tom Ridge serving as its first secretary.
2004 - NASA's Opportunity rover landed on Mars three weeks after its identical twin, Spirit.
2008 - French bank Societe Generale announced it had uncovered a $7.14 billion fraud by a single futures trader.
2011 - Jared Lee Loughner pleaded not guilty in Phoenix to federal charges he'd tried to kill U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and two of her aides in a Tucson shooting rampage that had claimed six lives.
2012 - Declaring the American dream under siege, President Barack Obama used his State of the Union address to deliver a populist challenge to shrink the gap between rich and poor, promising to tax the wealthy more and help jobless Americans get work and hang onto their homes.
2013 - Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced the lifting of a ban on women serving in combat.
2017 - President Donald Trump moved swiftly to advance the controversial Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipelines, signing executive actions to aggressively overhaul America’s energy policy and deal a sharp blow to Barack Obama’s legacy on climate change.
2020 - Health officials in Chicago said a woman in her 60s had become the second U.S. patient diagnosed with a new virus that had emerged in China; she had returned from that country in mid-January.
Birthdays
36 - Mischa Barton (actress)
38 - Justin Baldoni (actor)
40 - Daveed Diggs (actor)
41 - Carrie Coon (actress)
43 - Tatyana Ali (actress)
44 - Christina Moses (actress)
44 - Mark Hildreth (actor)
44 - Kristen Schaal (actress)
48 - Ed Helms (actor)
50 - Beth Hart (singer)
52 - Matthew Lillard (actor)
54 - Mary Lou Retton (gymnast)
55 - Phil LaMarr (comedian)
61 - Theo Peoples (singer)
61 - Nastassja Kinski (actress)
68 - William Allen Young (actor)
71 - Yakov Smirnoff (comedian)
72 - Becky Hobbs (singer)
72 - Daniel Auteuil (actor)
76 - Michael Ontkean (actor)
81 - Aaron Neville (singer)
81 - Neil Diamond (singer)
83 - Ray Stevens (singer)
86 - Doug Kershaw (musician)
==========================================
Today in Sports History - January 24
1947 - NFL owners voted to allow a sudden-death overtime in playoff games. The rule wasn't used until 1958. League owners also approved the addition of a fifth official (back judge).
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 acquired the television rights for the 1964 and 165 NFL regular seasons at a cost of $14.1 million per year.
1973 - Warren Spahn is elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
1982 - The San Francisco 49ers defeat the Cincinnati Bengals 26-21 in Detroit to win Super Bowl XVI.
1990 - Pat Riley of the Los Angeles Lakers becomes the fastest coach in NBA history to reach 500 wins (500-184), surpassing Don Nelson (500-317).
1990 - Clarence "Big House" Gaines collected the 800th victory of his college coaching career when Winston-Salem State University beat Livinstone, 79-70.
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.
41 - Roman emperor Gaius Caesar, better known as Caligula, was murdered.
1848 - James W. Marshall discovered a gold nugget at Sutter’s Mill in northern California, a discovery that led to the gold rush of ’49 after the news was announced by President James K. Polk.
1908 - Robert Baden-Powell organized the first Boy Scout troop in England.
1924 - The Russian city of St. Petersburg was renamed Leningrad in honor of late revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin.
1943 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill concluded a wartime conference in Casablanca, Morocco.
1945 - Associated Press war correspondent Joseph Morton was among a group of captives executed by the Germans 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.
1972 - The Supreme Court struck down laws that denied welfare benefits to people who had resided in a state for less than a year.
1978 - A nuclear-powered Soviet satellite, Cosmos 954, plunged through Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrated, scattering radioactive debris over parts of northern Canada.
1984 - Apple Computer began selling its first Macintosh model, which boasted a built-in 9-inch monochrome display, a clock rate of 8 megahertz and 128k of RAM.
1985 - The space shuttle Discovery was launched from Cape Canaveral on the first secret, all-military shuttle mission.
1986 - The Voyager 2 space probe passed within 51,000 miles of Uranus.
1989 - Confessed serial killer Ted Bundy was executed in Florida's electric chair.
1993 - Retired Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall died at age 84.
1995 - The prosecution gave its opening statement in the O.J. Simpson murder trial.
2003 - The Department of Homeland Security became the newest Cabinet-level department, with Tom Ridge serving as its first secretary.
2004 - NASA's Opportunity rover landed on Mars three weeks after its identical twin, Spirit.
2008 - French bank Societe Generale announced it had uncovered a $7.14 billion fraud by a single futures trader.
2011 - Jared Lee Loughner pleaded not guilty in Phoenix to federal charges he'd tried to kill U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and two of her aides in a Tucson shooting rampage that had claimed six lives.
2012 - Declaring the American dream under siege, President Barack Obama used his State of the Union address to deliver a populist challenge to shrink the gap between rich and poor, promising to tax the wealthy more and help jobless Americans get work and hang onto their homes.
2013 - Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced the lifting of a ban on women serving in combat.
2017 - President Donald Trump moved swiftly to advance the controversial Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipelines, signing executive actions to aggressively overhaul America’s energy policy and deal a sharp blow to Barack Obama’s legacy on climate change.
2020 - Health officials in Chicago said a woman in her 60s had become the second U.S. patient diagnosed with a new virus that had emerged in China; she had returned from that country in mid-January.
Birthdays
36 - Mischa Barton (actress)
38 - Justin Baldoni (actor)
40 - Daveed Diggs (actor)
41 - Carrie Coon (actress)
43 - Tatyana Ali (actress)
44 - Christina Moses (actress)
44 - Mark Hildreth (actor)
44 - Kristen Schaal (actress)
48 - Ed Helms (actor)
50 - Beth Hart (singer)
52 - Matthew Lillard (actor)
54 - Mary Lou Retton (gymnast)
55 - Phil LaMarr (comedian)
61 - Theo Peoples (singer)
61 - Nastassja Kinski (actress)
68 - William Allen Young (actor)
71 - Yakov Smirnoff (comedian)
72 - Becky Hobbs (singer)
72 - Daniel Auteuil (actor)
76 - Michael Ontkean (actor)
81 - Aaron Neville (singer)
81 - Neil Diamond (singer)
83 - Ray Stevens (singer)
86 - Doug Kershaw (musician)
==========================================
Today in Sports History - January 24
1947 - NFL owners voted to allow a sudden-death overtime in playoff games. The rule wasn't used until 1958. League owners also approved the addition of a fifth official (back judge).
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 acquired the television rights for the 1964 and 165 NFL regular seasons at a cost of $14.1 million per year.
1973 - Warren Spahn is elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
1982 - The San Francisco 49ers defeat the Cincinnati Bengals 26-21 in Detroit to win Super Bowl XVI.
1990 - Pat Riley of the Los Angeles Lakers becomes the fastest coach in NBA history to reach 500 wins (500-184), surpassing Don Nelson (500-317).
1990 - Clarence "Big House" Gaines collected the 800th victory of his college coaching career when Winston-Salem State University beat Livinstone, 79-70.
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.
