871 Alfred the Great leads a West Saxon army to repel an invasion by Danelaw Vikings.
1297 François Grimaldi, disguised as monk, leads his men to capture the fortress protecting the Rock of Monaco, establishing his family as the rulers of Monaco.
1455 The Romanus Pontifex is written.
1456 Lawrence Justinian (died), Italian bishop and saint (born 1381)
1499 Louis XII of France marries Anne of Brittany.
1587 Johannes Fabricius (born), German astronomer (died 1616)
1642 Galileo Galilei (died), Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher (born 1564)
1697 Last execution for blasphemy in Britain; of Thomas Aikenhead, student, at Edinburgh.
1734 Premiere performance of George Frideric Handel’s Ariodante at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
1790 George Washington delivers the first State of the Union address in New York, New York.
1806 Cape Colony becomes a British colony.
1811 An unsuccessful slave revolt is led by Charles Deslondes in St. Charles and St. James, Louisiana.
1815 War of 1812: Battle of New Orleans – Andrew Jackson leads American forces in victory over the British.
1821 James Longstreet (born), American general and diplomat (died 1904)
1821 W. H. L. Wallace (born), American lawyer and general (died 1862)
1823 Alfred Russel Wallace (born), Welsh-English geographer, biologist, and explorer (died 1913)
1825 Eli Whitney (died), American inventor, invented the cotton gin (born 1765)
1835 The United States national debt is zero for the only time.
1862 Frank Nelson Doubleday (born), American publisher, founded the Doubleday Publishing Company (died 1934)
1863 American Civil War: Second Battle of Springfield
1867 African American men are granted the right to vote in Washington, D.C.
1874 Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg (died), French historian and archaeologist (born 1814)
1877 Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their last battle against the United States Cavalry at Wolf Mountain, Montana Territory.
1889 Herman Hollerith is issued US patent #395,791 for the ‘Art of Applying Statistics’ — his punched card calculator.
1902 Carl Rogers (born), American psychologist (died 1987)
1904 The Blackstone Library is dedicated, marking the beginning of the Chicago Public Library system.
1906 A landslide in Haverstraw, New York, caused by the excavation of clay along the Hudson River, kills 20 people.
1909 Evelyn Wood (born), American educator (died 1995)
1912 José Ferrer (born), Puerto Rican actor (died 1992)
1918 President Woodrow Wilson announces his “Fourteen Points” for the aftermath of World War I.
1920 The steel strike of 1919 ends in a complete failure for the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers labor union.
1922 Jan Nieuwenhuys (born), Dutch painter (died 1986)
1926 Soupy Sales (born), American comedian and actor (died 2009)
1931 Bill Graham (born), German-American music promoter (died 1991)
1935 Elvis Presley (born), American singer, guitarist, and actor (The Blue Moon Boys) (died 1977)
1937 Shirley Bassey (born), Welsh singer
1940 World War II: Britain introduces food rationing.
1942 Stephen Hawking (born), English physicist and author
1942 Yvette Mimieux (born), American actress
1943 Charles Murray (born), American political scientist and author
1947 David Bowie (born), English singer-songwriter, producer, and actor (The Riot Squad, Tin Machine, The Hype, and Arnold Corns)
1956 Operation Auca: Five U.S. missionaries are killed by the Huaorani of Ecuador shortly after making contact with them.
1961 In France a referendum supports Charles de Gaulle’s policies in Algeria.
1963 Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is exhibited in the United States for the first time, at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
1964 President Lyndon B. Johnson declares a “War on Poverty” in the United States.
1973 Soviet space mission Luna 21 is launched.
1973 Watergate scandal: The trial of seven men accused of illegal entry into Democratic Party headquarters at Watergate begins.
1975 Ella T. Grasso becomes Governor of Connecticut, the first woman to serve as a Governor in the United States other than by succeeding her husband.
1976 Josh Meyers (born), American actor
1977 Three bombs explode in Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group.
1979 The tanker Betelgeuse explodes in Bantry Bay, Ireland.
1981 A local farmer reports a UFO sighting in Trans-en-Provence, France, claimed to be “perhaps the most completely and carefully documented sighting of all time”.
1982 The break up of AT&T: AT&T agrees to divest itself of twenty-two subdivisions.
1983 Kim Jong-un (born), North Korean politician, 3rd Supreme Leader of North Korea
1994 Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov on Soyuz TM-18 leaves for Mir. He would stay on the space station until March 22, 1995, for a record 437 days in space.
1996 An Antonov An-32 cargo aircraft crashes into a crowded market in Kinshasa, Zaire, killing up to 237 on the ground; the aircraft’s crew of 6 survive the crash.
1996 François Mitterrand (died), French politician, 21st President of France (born 1916)
2002 Dave Thomas (died), American businessman and philanthropist, founded Wendy’s (born 1932)
2002 President George W. Bush signs into law the No Child Left Behind Act.
2004 The RMS Queen Mary 2, the largest passenger ship ever built, is christened by her namesake’s granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II.
2005 The nuclear sub USS San Francisco collides at full speed with an undersea mountain south of Guam. One man is killed, but the sub surfaces and is repaired.
2007 Yvonne De Carlo (died), Canadian-American actress and singer (born 1922)
2009 A 6.1-magnitude earthquake in northern Costa Rica kills 15 people and injures 32.
2010 Gunmen from an offshoot the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda attacked the bus carrying the Togo national football team on its way to the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, killing three.
EO Smith
Latest posts by EO Smith (see all)
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- Alternative Facts and Science - 24 January, 2017