27 BC Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus is granted the title Augustus by the Roman Senate, marking the beginning of the Roman Empire.
550 Gothic War (535–554): The Ostrogoths, under King Totila, conquer Rome after a long siege, by bribing the Isaurian garrison.
1412 The Medici family is appointed official banker of the Papacy.
1477 Johannes Schöner (born), German astronomer and cartographer (died 1547)
1492 The first grammar of the Spanish language is presented to Queen Isabella I.
1547 Ivan IV of Russia aka Ivan the Terrible becomes Czar of Russia.
1547 Johannes Schöner (died), German astronomer and cartographer (born 1477)
1572 Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk is tried for treason for his part in the Ridolfi plot to restore Catholicism inEngland.
1581 The English Parliament outlaws Roman Catholicism.
1605 The first edition of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (Book One of Don Quixote) by Miguel de Cervantes is published in Madrid, Spain.
1707 The Scottish Parliament ratifies the Act of Union, paving the way for the creation of Great Britain.
1780 American Revolutionary War: Battle of Cape St. Vincent.
1786 Virginia enacted the Statute for Religious Freedom authored by Thomas Jefferson.
1821 John C. Breckinridge (born), American general and politician, 14th Vice President of the United States (died 1875)
1838 Franz Brentano (born), German philosopher and psychologist (died 1917)
1847 John C. Frémont is appointed Governor of the new California Territory.
1853 André Michelin (born), French businessman, co-founded the Michelin Tyre Company (died 1931)
1883 The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, establishing the United States Civil Service, is passed.
1900 Edith Frank (born), German mother of Anne Frank (died 1945)
1900 The United States Senate accepts the Anglo-German treaty of 1899 in which the United Kingdom renounces its claims to the Samoan islands.
1901 Frank Zamboni (born), American inventor and businessman, invented the Ice resurfacer (died 1988)
1906 Marshall Field (died), American businessman, founded Marshall Field’s (born 1834)
1908 Ethel Merman (born), American actress and singer (died 1984)
1909 Ernest Shackleton’s expedition finds the magnetic South Pole.
1910 Dizzy Dean (born), American baseball player (died 1974)
1917 Carl Karcher (born), American businessman, founded Carl’s Jr. (died 2008)
1917 George Dewey (died), American admiral (born 1837)
1918 Allan Ekelund (born), Swedish film producer (died 2009)
1918 Stirling Silliphant (born), American screenwriter and producer (died 1996)
1919 Temperance movement: The United States ratifies the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, authorizing Prohibition in the United States one year after ratification.
1920 The League of Nations holds its first council meeting in Paris, France.
1932 Dian Fossey (born), American zoologist (died 1985)
1933 Susan Sontag (born), American author (died 2004)
1934 Marilyn Horne (born), American soprano
1935 A. J. Foyt (born), American race car driver
1935 Ma Barker (died), American criminal (born 1871)
1936 Albert Fish (died), American serial killer (born 1870)
1939 The Irish Republican Army (IRA) begins a bombing and sabotage campaign in England.
1942 Carole Lombard (died), American actress (born 1908)
1942 Crash of TWA Flight 3, killing all 22 aboard, including film star Carole Lombard.
1945 Adolf Hitler moves into his underground bunker, the so-called Führerbunker.
1947 Laura Schlessinger (born), American physiologist, talk show host, and author
1948 John Carpenter (born), American director
1956 President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt vows to reconquer Palestine.
1957 Arturo Toscanini (died), Italian conductor (born 1867)
1962 Denis O’Hare (born), Irish-American actor
1964 Hello, Dolly! (musical) starring Carol Channing opened on Broadway, beginning a run of 2,844 performances.
1967 Robert J. Van de Graaff (died), American physicist (born 1901)
1969 Czech student Jan Palach commits suicide by self-immolation in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in protest against the Soviets’ crushing of thePrague Spring the year before.
1969 Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 perform the first-ever docking of manned spacecraft in orbit, the first-ever transfer of crew from one space vehicle to another, and the only time such a transfer was accomplished with a space walk.
1970 Buckminster Fuller receives the Gold Medal award from the American Institute of Architects.
1973 Anna Christian Waters disappears from her backyard. She is never found.
1973 Bonanza Final episode airs on NBC.
1974 Kate Moss (born), English model
1979 The last Iranian Shah flees Iran with his family for good and relocates to Egypt.
1986 First meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force.
1991 The Coalition Forces go to war with Iraq, beginning the Gulf War (U.S. Time).
1992 El Salvador officials and rebel leaders sign the Chapultepec Peace Accords in Mexico City, Mexico ending the 12-year Salvadoran Civil Warthat claimed at least 75,000 lives.
2001 Congolese President Laurent-Désiré Kabila is assassinated by one of his own bodyguards.
2001 US President Bill Clinton awards former President Theodore Roosevelt a posthumous Medal of Honor for his service in the Spanish–American War.
2002 The UN Security Council unanimously establishes an arms embargo and the freezing of assets of Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, and the remaining members of the Taliban.
2003 The Space Shuttle Columbia takes off for mission STS-107 which would be its final one. Columbia disintegrated 16 days later on re-entry.
2005 Romanian university lecturer and novelist Adriana Iliescu gives birth at 66 to her daughter Eliza, breaking the record for the oldest birth mother in the world
2007 Benny Parsons (died), American race car driver and sportscaster (born 1941)
2009 Andrew Wyeth (died), American painter (born 1917)
2010 Glen Bell (died), American businessman, founded Taco Bell (born 1923)
2013 An estimated 41 international workers are taken hostage in an attack in the town of In Aménas, Algeria.
2013 André Cassagnes (died), French toy maker, created the Etch A Sketch (born 1926)
2013 Glen P. Robinson (died), American businessman, founded Scientific Atlanta (born 1923)
2013 Pauline Phillips (died), American columnist and radio host, created Dear Abby (born 1918)
EO Smith
Latest posts by EO Smith (see all)
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- Alternative Facts and Science - 24 January, 2017