37 Tiberius (died), Roman emperor (born 46 BC)
455 Heraclius (died), Roman servant
455 Valentinian III (died), Roman emperor (born 419)
1338 Thomas de Beauchamp (born), 12th Earl of Warwick, English son of Katherine Mortimer, Countess of Warwick (died 1401)
1410 John Beaufort (died), 1st Earl of Somerset, French-English admiral (born 1373)
1521 Ferdinand Magellan reaches the Philippines.
1621 Samoset, a Mohegan, visited the settlers of Plymouth Colony and greets them, “Welcome, Englishmen! My name is Samoset.”
1660 The Long Parliament of England is dissolved so as to prepare for the new Convention Parliament.
1737 Benjamin Wadsworth (died), American clergyman and academic (born 1670)
1750 Caroline Herschel (born), German-English astronomer (died 1848)
1751 James Madison (born), American politician, 4th President of the United States (died 1836)
1771 Antoine-Jean Gros (born), French painter (died 1835)
1782 American Revolutionary War: Spanish troops capture the British-held island of Roatán.
1789 Georg Ohm (born), German physicist (died 1854)
1792 King Gustav III of Sweden is shot; he dies on March 29.
1794 Ami Boué (born), Austrian geologist (died 1881)
1802 The Army Corps of Engineers is established to found and operate the United States Military Academy at West Point.
1815 Prince Willem proclaims himself King of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, the first constitutional monarch in the Netherlands.
1834 James Hector (born), Scottish geologist (died 1907)
1839 John Butler Yeats (born), Irish painter (died 1922)
1851 Martinus Beijerinck (born), Dutch microbiologist and botanist (died 1931)
1856 Napoléon (born), Prince Imperial of France (died 1879)
1861 Edward Clark becomes Governor of Texas, replacing Sam Houston, who has been evicted from the office for refusing to take an oath of loyalty to the Confederacy.
1864 American Civil War: During the Red River Campaign, Union troops reach Alexandria, Louisiana.
1865 American Civil War: The Battle of Averasborough began as Confederate forces suffer irreplaceable casualties in the final months of the war.
1890 Robert Natus (born), Baltic German architect (died 1950)
1898 Aubrey Beardsley (died) English author and illustrator (born 1872)
1900 Sir Arthur Evans purchased the land around the ruins of Knossos, the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete.
1901 Edward Pawley (born), American actor (died 1988)
1902 Leon Roppolo (born), American clarinet player (New Orleans Rhythm Kings) (died 1943)
1906 Henny Youngman (born), English-American violinist and comedian (died 1998)
1912 Lawrence Oates, an ill member of Robert Falcon Scott’s South Pole expedition, left his tent to die, saying: “I am just going outside and may be some time.”
1912 Pat Nixon (born), American educator, 39th First Lady of the United States (died 1993)
1916 Mercedes McCambridge (born), American actress (died 2004)
1916 The 7th and 10th US cavalry regiments under John J. Pershing cross the US-Mexico border to join the hunt for Pancho Villa.
1916 Tsutomu Yamaguchi (born), Japanese engineer and businessman (died 2010)
1926 Charles Goodell (born), American politician (died 1987)
1926 Jerry Lewis (born), American actor, singer, director, screenwriter, and producer
1926 Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.
1927 Daniel Patrick Moynihan (born), American sociologist and politician, 12th United States Ambassador to the United Nations (died 2003)
1927 Vladimir Komarov (born), Russian pilot, engineer, and astronaut (died 1967)
1932 Walter Cunningham (born), American colonel, pilot, and astronaut
1935 Adolf Hitler orders Germany to rearm herself in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Conscription is reintroduced to form the Wehrmacht.
1936 Warmer-than-normal temperatures rapidly melt snow and ice on the upper Allegheny and Monongahela rivers and lead to a major flood in Pittsburgh.
1937 Amos Tversky (born), Israeli psychologist (died 1996)
1939 From Prague Castle, Hitler proclaims Bohemia and Moravia a German protectorate.
1939 Marriage of Princess Fawzia of Egypt to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran.
1940 Bernardo Bertolucci (born), Italian director and screenwriter
1940 First person killed in a German bombing raid on the UK in World War II during a raid on Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands, James Isbister.
1942 Jerry Jeff Walker (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Lost Gonzo Band)
1942 The first V-2 rocket test launch. It exploded at lift-off.
1943 Ursula Goodenoug (born)h, American biologist, zoologist, and author
1944 Andrew S. Tanenbaum (born), American computer scientist and author
1945 Börries von Münchhausen (died), German poet (born 1874)
1945 Ninety percent of Würzburg, Germany is destroyed in only 20 minutes by British bombers. 5,000 are killedied
1945 World War II: The Battle of Iwo Jima ended, but small pockets of Japanese resistance persistedied
1946 Michael Basman (born) English chess player
1947 Ramzan Paskayev (born), Kazakh accordion player and composer
1949 Erik Estrada (born), American actor
1951 Ray Benson (born), American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Asleep at the Wheel)
1952 Alice Hoffman (born), American author
1954 Nancy Wilson (born), American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actress (Heart)
1958 The Ford Motor Company produces its 50 millionth automobile, the Thunderbird, averaging almost a million cars a year since the company’s founding.
1959 Flavor Flav (born), American rapper and actor (Public Enemy)
1963 Jimmy DeGrasso (born), American drummer ( Megadeth, Black Star Riders, F5, Y&T, and Suicidal Tendencies)
1966 Launch of Gemini 8, the 12th manned American space flight and first space docking with the Agena Target Vehicle.
1968 General Motors produces its 100 millionth automobile, the Oldsmobile Toronado.
1968 In the My Lai massacre, between 347 and 500 Vietnamese villagers (men, women, and children) are killed by American troops.
1971 Thomas E. Dewey (died), American politician, 47th Governor of New York (born 1902)
1975 T-Bone Walker (died), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1910)
1976 British Prime Minister Harold Wilson resigns, citing personal reasons.
1978 Former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro is kidnapped and later killed by his captors.
1978 Supertanker Amoco Cadiz splits in two after running aground on the Portsall Rocks, three miles off the coast of Brittany, resulting in the 5th-largest oil spill in history.
1983 Arthur Godfrey (died), American actor and television host (born 1903)
1983 Demolition of the radio tower Ismaning, the last wooden radio tower in Germany.
1984 William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, Lebanon, is kidnapped by Islamic fundamentalists and later died in captivity.
1985 Associated Press newsman Terry Anderson is taken hostage in Beirut. He is released on December 4, 1991.
1988 Iran-Contra Affair: Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and Vice Admiral John Poindexter are indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
1988 The Kurdish town of Halabjah in Iraq is attacked with a mix of poison gas and nerve agents on the orders of Saddam Hussein, killing 5,000 people and injuring about 10,000 people.
1988 Ulster loyalist militant Michael Stone attacks a Provisional IRA funeral in Belfast with pistols and grenades. Three people are killed and more than 60 woundedied The attack was filmed by news crews.
1995 Mississippi formally ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was officially ratified in 1865.
2001 Bob Wollek (died), French race car driver (born 1943)
2003 Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old American woman involved with the International Solidarity Movement, is killed trying to prevent a Palestinian home from being destroyed by a bulldozer in Rafah.
2005 Israel officially hands over Jericho to Palestinian control.
EO Smith
Latest posts by EO Smith (see all)
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- Alternative Facts and Science - 24 January, 2017