64 Great Fire of Rome: a fire begins to burn in the merchant area of Rome and soon burns completely out of control. According to a popular, but untrue legend, Nero fiddled as the city burned.
1374 Petrarch (died), Italian poet and scholar (born 1304)
1543 Mary Boleyn (died), English daughter of Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire (born 1499)
1545 The Tudor warship Mary Rose sinks off Portsmouth; in 1982 the wreck is salvaged in one of the most complex and expensive projects in the history of maritime archaeology.
1553 Lady Jane Grey is replaced by Mary I of England as Queen of England after only nine days on the throne.
1631 Cesare Cremonini (died), Italian philosopher (born 1550)
1670 Richard Leveridge (born), English singer-songwriter (died 1758)
1688 Giuseppe Castiglione (born), Italian missionary and painter (died 1766)
1692 Sarah Good (died), American woman accused of witchcraft (born 1653)
1692 Susannah Martin (died), American woman accused of witchcraft (born 1621)
1701 Representatives of the Iroquois Confederacy sign the Nanfan Treaty, ceding a large territory north of the Ohio River to England.
1742 William Somervile (died), English poet (born 1675)
1744 Heinrich Christian Boie (born), German author (died 1806)
1759 Marianna Auenbrugger (born), Austrian pianist and composer (died 1782)
1759 Seraphim of Sarov (born), Russian monk and saint (died 1833)
1789 John Martin (born), English painter (died 1854)
1814 Matthew Flinders (died), English navigator and cartographer (born 1774)
1814 Samuel Colt (born), American businessman, founded the Colt’s Manufacturing Company (died 1862)
1832 The British Medical Association is founded as the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association by Sir Charles Hastings at a meeting in the Board Room of the Worcester Infirmary.
1834 Edgar Degas (born), French painter (died 1917)
1838 Pierre Louis Dulong (died), French physicist and chemist (born 1785)
1843 Brunel’s steamship the SS Great Britain is launched, becoming the first ocean-going craft with an iron hull or screw propeller and becoming the largest vessel afloat in the world.
1848 Women’s rights: a two-day Women’s Rights Convention opens in Seneca Falls, New York.
1849 Ferdinand Brunetière (born), French scholar and critic (died 1906)
1850 Margaret Fuller (died), American journalist and critic (born 1810)
1860 Lizzie Borden (born), American accused murderer (died 1927)
1863 American Civil War: Morgan’s Raid – At Buffington Island in Ohio, Confederate General John Hunt Morgan’s raid into the north is mostly thwarted when a large group of his men are captured while trying to escape across the Ohio River.
1865 Charles Horace Mayo (born), American surgeon, founded the Mayo Clinic (died 1939)
1865 Georges Friedel (born), French mineralogist and crystallographer (died1933)
1868 Florence Foster Jenkins (born), American soprano (died 1945)
1870 Franco-Prussian War: France declares war on Prussia.
1878 Yegor Ivanovich Zolotarev (died), Russian mathematician (born 1847)
1894 Aleksandr Khinchin, Russian mathematician (died 1959)
1898 Herbert Marcuse (born), German-American sociologist and philosopher (died 1979)
1900 The first line of the Paris Métro opens for operation.
1903 Maurice Garin wins the first Tour de France.
1920 Robert Mann (born), American violinist, composer, and conductor (Juilliard String Quartet)
1922 George McGovern (born), American lieutenant and politician (died 2012)
1932 Jan Lindblad (born), Swedish biologist and photographer (died 1987)
1937 George Hamilton IV (born), American singer and guitarist
1940 World War II: Army order 112 forms the Intelligence Corps of the British Army.
1941 Vikki Carr (born), American singer and actress
1946 Alan Gorrie (born), Scottish singer and bass player (Average White Band and Forever More)
1946 Ilie Năstase (born), Romanian tennis player
1946 Stephen Coonts (born), American author
1947 Bernie Leadon (born), American guitarist and songwriter (The Eagles, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Run C&W, and Hearts & Flowers)
1947 Brian May (born), English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Queen and Smile)
1948 Keith Godchaux (born), American keyboard player and songwriter (Grateful Dead and Heart of Gold Band) (died 1980)
1952 Allen Collins (born), American guitarist and songwriter (Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Rossington-Collins Band, and Allen Collins Band) (died 1990)
1952 The 1952 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad, were opened in Helsinki, Finland.
1956 Mark Crispin (born), American computer scientist, designed the IMAP (died 2012)
1962 Anthony Edwards (born), American actor and director
1963 Joe Walker flies a North American X-15 to a record altitude of 106,010 meters (347,800 feet) on X-15 Flight 90. Exceeding an altitude of 100 km, this flight qualifies as a human spaceflight under international convention.
1965 Syngman Rhee (died), South Korean politician, 1st President of South Korea (born 1875)
1968 Robb Flynn (born), American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Machine Head, Vio-lence, and Forbidden)
1971 Urs Bühler (born), Swiss tenor (Il Divo)
1975 Lefty Frizzell (died), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1928)
1979 The Sandinista rebels overthrow the government of the Somoza family in Nicaragua.
1981 In a private meeting with U.S. President Ronald Reagan, French Prime Minister François Mitterrand reveals the existence of the Farewell Dossier, a collection of documents showing that the Soviets had been stealing American technological research and development.
1983 The first three-dimensional reconstruction of a human head in a CT is published.
1997 The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army resumes a ceasefire to end their 25-year campaign to end British rule in Northern Ireland.
2009 Henry Surtees (died), English race car driver (born 1991)
2010 Jon Cleary (died), Australian author (born 1917)
EO Smith
Latest posts by EO Smith (see all)
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- Alternative Facts and Science - 24 January, 2017