490 BC Battle of Marathon: The conventionally accepted date for the Battle of Marathon. The Athenians and their Plataean allies, defeat the first Persian invasion force of Greece.
1362 Pope Innocent VI (died) (born 1295)
1492 Lorenzo de’ Medici (born), Duke of Urbino (died 1519)
1494 Francis I of France (born), King of France (died 1547)
1500 Albert III (died), Duke of Saxony (born 1443)
1605 William Dugdale (born), English antiquarian (died 1686)
1609 Henry Hudson begins his exploration of the Hudson River while aboard the Halve Maen.
1612 Vasili IV of Russia (died) (born 1552)
1712 Jan van der Heyden (died), Dutch painter (born 1637)
1740 Johann Heinrich Jung (born), German author (died 1817)
1764 Jean-Philippe Rameau (died), French composer and theorist (born 1683)
1768 Benjamin Carr (born), English-American singer-songwriter, educator, and publisher (died 1831)
1812 Richard March Hoe (born), American engineer and businessman, invented the Rotary printing press (died 1886)
1814 Battle of North Point: an American detachment halts the British land advance to Baltimore in the War of 1812.
1818 Richard Jordan Gatling (born), American inventor, invented the Gatling gun (died 1903)
1846 Elizabeth Barrett elopes with Robert Browning.
1847 Mexican–American War: the Battle of Chapultepec begins.
1848 Switzerland becomes a Federal state.
1857 Manuel Espinosa Batista (born), Colombian pharmacist and politician (died 1919)
1857 The SS Central America sinks about 160 miles east of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, drowning a total of 426 passengers and crew, including Captain William Lewis Herndon. The ship was carrying 13–15 tons of gold from the California Gold Rush.
1869 Peter Mark Roget (died), English physician, theologian, and lexicographer (born 1779)
1870 Fitz Hugh Ludlow (died), American journalist, explorer, and author (born 1836)
1880 H. L. Mencken (born), American journalist and author (died 1956)
1885 Heinrich Hoffmann (born), German photographer (died 1957)
1888 Maurice Chevalier (born), French actor, singer, and dancer (died 1972)
1890 Salisbury, Rhodesia, is founded.
1892 Alfred A. Knopf, Sr. (born), American publisher, founded Alfred A. Knopf Inc. (died 1984)
1897 Irène Joliot-Curie (born), French chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1956)
1910 Premiere performance of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 in Munich (with a chorus of 852 singers and an orchestra of 171 players. Mahler’s rehearsal assistant conductor was Bruno Walter)
1913 Eiji Toyoda (born), Japanese businessman (died 2013)
1913 Jesse Owens (born), American sprinter (died 1980)
1916 Tony Bettenhausen (born), American race car driver (died 1961)
1922 Mark Rosenzweig (born), American psychologist (died 2009)
1927 Sarah Frances Whiting (died), American physicist and astronomer (born 1847)
1933 Leó Szilárd, waiting for a red light on Southampton Row in Bloomsbury, conceives the idea of the nuclear chain reaction.
1939 Henry Waxman (born), American lawyer and politician
1940 Cave paintings are discovered in Lascaux, France.
1940 Linda Gray (born), American actress, director, and producer
1942 World War II: First day of the Battle of Edson’s Ridge during the Guadalcanal Campaign. U.S. Marines protecting Henderson Field on Guadalcanal are attacked by Imperial Japanese Army forces.
1942 World War II: RMS Laconia, carrying civilians, Allied soldiers and Italian POWs is torpedoed off the coast of West Africa and sinks with a heavy loss of life.
1943 Maria Muldaur (born), American singer
1943 World War II: Benito Mussolini, dictator of Italy, is rescued from house arrest on the Gran Sasso in Abruzzi, by German commando forces led by Otto Skorzeny.
1944 Barry White (born), American singer-songwriter and producer (died 2003)
1944 Colin Young (born), Barbadian-English singer (The Foundations)
1946 Tony Bellamy (born), Mexican-American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Redbone) (died 2009)
1949 Irina Rodnina (born), Russian figure skater
1951 Ali-Ollie Woodson (born), American singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and actor (The Temptations) (died 2010)
1952 Gerry Beckley (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (America)
1952 Neil Peart (born), Canadian drummer, songwriter, and producer (Rush)
1952 Strange occurrences, including a monster sighting, take place in Flatwoods, West Virginia.
1953 U.S. Senator and future President John Fitzgerald Kennedy marries Jacqueline Lee Bouvier at St. Mary’s Church in Newport, Rhode Island.
1956 Brian Robertson (born), Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist (Thin Lizzy, Motörhead, and Wild Horses)
1958 Jack Kilby demonstrates the first integrated circuit.
1959 Premiere of Bonanza, the first regularly scheduled TV program presented in color.
1959 The Soviet Union launches a large rocket, Lunik II, at the moon.
1964 Canyonlands National Park is designated as a National Park.
1966 Gemini 11, the penultimate mission of NASA’s Gemini program, and the current human altitude record holder (except for the Apollo lunar missions)
1967 Jason Statham (born), English actor and martial artist
1967 Louis C.K. (born), Mexican-American comedian, actor, producer, and screenwriter
1968 Tommy Armour (died), Scottish-American golfer (born 1894)
1970 Palestinian terrorists blow up three hijacked airliners in Jordan, continuing to hold the passengers hostage in various undisclosed locations in Amman.
1974 Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, ‘Messiah’ of the Rastafari movement, is deposed following a military coup by the Derg, ending a reign of 58 years.
1974 Jennifer Nettles (born), American singer-songwriter (Sugarland)
1977 South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko dies in police custody.
1983 A Wells Fargo depot in West Hartford, Connecticut, United States, is robbed of approximately US$7 million by Los Macheteros.
1983 The USSR vetoes a United Nations Security Council Resolution deploring the Soviet shooting down of a Korean civilian jetliner on September 1.
1992 Anthony Perkins (died), American actor, singer, and director (born 1932)
1992 NASA launches Space Shuttle Endeavour on STS-47 which marked the 50th shuttle mission. On board are Mae Carol Jemison, the first African-American woman in space, Mamoru Mohri, the first Japanese citizen to fly in a US spaceship, and Mark Lee and Jan Davis, the first married couple in space.
1993 Raymond Burr (died), Canadian-American actor and director (born 1917)
1993 Willie Mosconi (died), American pool player (born 1913)
1994 Frank Eugene Corder crashes a single-engine Cessna 150 into the White House’s south lawn, striking the West wing and killing himself.
1994 Tom Ewell (died), American actor and singer (born 1909)
2003 Iraq War: In Fallujah, U.S. forces mistakenly shoot and kill eight Iraqi police officers.
2003 Johnny Cash (died), American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (The Tennessee Three and The Highwaymen) (born 1932)
2003 The United Nations lifts sanctions against Libya after that country agreed to accept responsibility and recompense the families of victims in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.
2005 Hong Kong Disneyland opens in Penny’s Bay, Lantau Island, Hong Kong.
2007 Former Philippine President Joseph Estrada is convicted of the crime of plunder.
2009 Jack Kramer (died), American tennis player (born 1921)
2011 The 9/11 Memorial Museum in New York City opens to the public.
2012 Sid Watkins (died), English surgeon (born 1928)
2012 Tom Sims (died), American skateboarder and snowboarder, founded Sims Snowboards (born 1950)
2013 Candace Pert (died), American neuroscientist and pharmacologist (born 1946)
2013 Ray Dolby (died), American engineer and businessman, founded Dolby Laboratories (born 1933)
EO Smith
Latest posts by EO Smith (see all)
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- Alternative Facts and Science - 24 January, 2017