920 Louis IV of France (born) (died 954)
1197 Henry II (died), Count of Champagne (born 1166)
1419 John the Fearless, French son of Margaret III, Countess of Flanders (born 1371), Duke of Burgundy is assassinated by adherents of the Dauphin, the future Charles VII of France.
1509 An earthquake known as “The Lesser Judgment Day” hits Constantinople.
1519 John Colet (died), English theologian and scholar (born 1467)
1570 Spanish Jesuit missionaries land in present-day Virginia to establish the short-lived Ajacán Mission.
1607 Luzzasco Luzzaschi (died), Italian organist and composer (born 1545)
1608 John Smith is elected council president of Jamestown, Virginia.
1624 Thomas Sydenham (born), English physician (died 1689)
1659 Henry Purcell (born), English composer (died 1695)
1753 John Soane (born), English architect, designed the Royal Academy and Freemasons’ Hall (died 1837)
1776 American Revolutionary War: Nathan Hale volunteers to spy for the Continental Army.
1788 Jacques Boucher de Crèvecœur de Perthes (born), French archaeologist (died 1868)
1797 Mary Wollstonecraft (died), English philosopher and author (born 1759)
1801 Jason Fairbanks (died), American murderer (born 1780)
1801 Marie Laveau (born), American voodoo practitioner (died 1881)
1813 The United States defeats the British Fleet at the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812.
1823 Simón Bolívar is named President of Peru.
1839 Charles Sanders Peirce (born), American mathematician, scientist, and philosopher (died 1914)
1839 Isaac K. Funk (born), American minister and publisher, co-founded Funk & Wagnalls (died 1912)
1842 Letitia Christian Tyler (died), American wife of John Tyler, 11th First Lady of the United States (born 1790)
1846 Elias Howe is granted a patent for the sewing machine.
1851 Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet (died), American minister and educator (born 1787)
1855 Albert F. Mummery (born), English mountaineer and author (died 1895)
1858 George Mary Searle discovers the asteroid 55 Pandora.
1871 Charles Collett (born), English engineer (died 1952)
1876 Hugh D. McIntosh (born), Australian businessman (died 1942)
1880 Georgia Douglas Johnson (born), American poet (died 1966)
1887 Kenneth Mason (born), English soldier and geographer (died 1976)
1890 Elsa Schiaparelli (born), Italian-French fashion designer (died 1973)
1892 Arthur Compton (born), American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1962)
1896 Adele Astaire (born), American actress and dancer (died 1981)
1897 Lattimer massacre: A sheriff’s posse kills 20 unarmed immigrant miners in Pennsylvania, United States.
1898 Empress Elizabeth of Austria is assassinated by Luigi Lucheni.
1908 Waldo Rudolph Wedel (born), American archaeologist (died 1996)
1919 J. F. Archibald (died), Australian journalist and publisher, founded the Archibald Prize (born 1856)
1923 Glen P. Robinson (born), American businessman, founded Scientific Atlanta (died 2013)
1929 Arnold Palme (born) r, American golfer
1931 Philip Baker Hall (born) American actor
1932 Bo Goldman (born), American playwright, screenwriter, and producer
1933 Karl Lagerfeld (born), German-French fashion designer
1933 Yevgeny Khrunov (born), Russian colonel and astronaut (died 2000)
1934 Charles Kuralt (born), American journalist (died 1997)
1934 Jim Oberstar (born), American politician (died 2014)
1934 Larry Sitsky (born), Australian pianist, composer, and educator
1934 Roger Maris (born), American baseball player and coach (died 1985)
1935 Huey Long (died), American lawyer and politician, 40th Governor of Louisiana (born 1893)
1935 Mary Oliver (born), American poet and author
1936 First World Individual Motorcycle Speedway Championship, Held at London’s (England) Wembley Stadium
1937 Jared Diamond (born), American biologist, geographer, and author
1939 World War II: Canada declares war on Nazi Germany, joining the Allies – France, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia.
1939 World War II: The submarine HMS Oxley is mistakenly sunk by the submarine HMS Triton near Norway and becomes the Royal Navy’s first loss.
1941 Stephen Jay Gould (born), American paleontologist, biologist, and author (died 2002)
1942 Danny Hutton (born), Irish-American singer (Three Dog Night)
1943 World War II: German forces begin their occupation of Rome.
1946 While riding a train to Darjeeling, Sister Teresa Bojaxhiu of the Loreto Sisters’ Convent claimed to have heard the call of God, directing her “to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them”. She would become known as Mother Teresa.
1949 Bill O’Reilly (born), American television host, journalist, and author
1950 Joe Perry (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Aerosmith and The Joe Perry Project)
1950 Rosie Flores (born), American singer and guitarist (Asleep at the Wheel)
1954 Peter Anders (died), German tenor (born 1908)
1960 At the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Abebe Bikila becomes the first sub-Saharan African to win a gold medal, winning the marathon in bare feet.
1960 Colin Firth (born), English actor and singer
1961 Italian Grand Prix, a crash causes the death of German Formula One driver Wolfgang von Trips and 13 spectators who are hit by his Ferrari.
1961 Wolfgang von Trips (died), German race car driver (born 1928)
1963 Marian Keyes (born), Irish author
1964 John E. Sununu (born), American engineer and politician
1965 Father Divine (died), American spiritual leader (born 1880)
1967 The people of Gibraltar vote to remain a British dependency rather than becoming part of Spain.
1972 The United States suffers its first loss of an international basketball game in a disputed match against the Soviet Union at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany.
1974 Guinea-Bissau gains independence from Portugal.
1977 Hamida Djandoubi, convicted of torture and murder, is the last person to be executed by guillotine in France.
1987 Pope John Paul II starts his 11-day papal visit to Fort Simpson, Canada and afterwards to several southern and western cities in the United States.
1988 Jared Lee Loughner (born), American murderer
1990 Chandler Massey (born), American actor
2001 Charles Ingram cheats his way into winning one million pounds on a British version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire.
2002 Switzerland, traditionally a neutral country, joins the United Nations.
2005 Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown (died), American singer and guitarist (born 1924)
2005 Hermann Bondi (died), Austrian mathematician and cosmologist (born 1919)
2006 Daniel Wayne Smith (died), American son of Anna Nicole Smith (born 1986)
2007 Anita Roddick (died), English businesswoman, founded The Body Shop (born 1942)
2007 Jane Wyman (died), American actress and singer (born 1917)
2008 The Large Hadron Collider at CERN, described as the biggest scientific experiment in history, is powered up in Geneva, Switzerland.
2011 Cliff Robertson (died), American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1923)
EO Smith
Latest posts by EO Smith (see all)
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- Alternative Facts and Science - 24 January, 2017