30 BCCaesarion (died), Egyptian king (born 47 BC)
406 Gothic king Radagaisus is executed after he is defeated by Roman general Stilicho and 12,000 “barbarians” are incorporated into the Roman army or sold as slaves.
79 Mount Vesuvius begins stirring, on the feast day of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire.
1305 Sir William Wallace (born 1272) is executed for high treason at Smithfield in London.
1541 French explorer Jacques Cartier lands near Quebec City in his third voyage to Canada.
1572 Mob violence against Huguenots in Paris – St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre.
1614 The University of Groningen is established in the Dutch Republic.
1623 Stanisław Lubieniecki (born), Polish astronomer, theologian, and historian (died 1675)
1628 George Villiers, the first Duke of Buckingham, is assassinated by John Felton.
1650 Colonel George Monck of the English Army forms Monck’s Regiment of Foot, which will later become the Coldstream Guards.
1652 John Byron (died), 1st Baron Byron, English politician (born 1600)
1741 Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse (born), French admiral and explorer (died 1788)
1754 Louis XVI of France (born) (died 1793)
1769 Georges Cuvier (born), French biologist (died 1832)
1783 William Tierney Clark (born), English engineer, designed the Hammersmith Bridge (died 1852)
1784 Western North Carolina (now eastern Tennessee) declares itself an independent state under the name of Franklin; it is not accepted into the United States, and only lasts for four years.
1785 Oliver Hazard Perry (born), American commander (died 1819)
1799 Napoleon leaves Egypt for France en route to seizing power.
1819 Oliver Hazard Perry (died), American commander (born 1785)
1829 Moritz Cantor (born), German mathematician and historian (died 1920)
1846 Alexander Milne Calder (born), Scottish-American sculptor (died 1923)
1847 Sarah Frances Whiting (born), American physicist and astronomer (died 1927)
1852 Arnold Toynbee (born), English economist and historian (died 1883)
1868 Edgar Lee Masters (born), American author (died 1950)
1884 Will Cuppy (born), American author and critic (died 1949)
1890 Harry Frank Guggenheim (born), American businessman and publisher, co-founded Newsday (died 1971)
1897 Henry F. Pringle (born), American historian and journalist (died 1958)
1898 The Southern Cross Expedition, the first British venture of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, departs from London.
1903 William Primrose (born), Scottish viola player (died 1982)
1904 The automobile tire chain is patented.
1905 Ernie Bushmiller (born), American cartoonist (died 1982)
1912 Gene Kelly (born), American actor, singer, and dancer (died 1996)
1917 Tex Williams (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1985)
1919 Vladimir Abramovich Rokhlin (born), Azerbaijani mathematician (died 1984)
1923 Capt. Lowell Smith and Lt. John P. Richter performed the first mid-air refueling on De Havilland DH-4B, setting an endurance flight record of 37 hours.
1926 Clifford Geertz (born), American anthropologist (died 2006)
1926 Rudolph Valentino (died), Italian-American actor (born 1895)
1927 Italian Anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti are executed after a lengthy, controversial trial.
1942 World War II: Beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad.
1943 Nelson DeMille (born), American author
1944 World War II: Marseille is liberated.
1946 Keith Moon (born), English drummer, songwriter, and producer (The Who and Plastic Ono Band) (died 1978)
1949 Geoff Capes (born), English shot putter and strongman
1949 Rick Springfield (born), Australian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (Zoot)
1949 William Lane Craig (born), American apologist and theologian
1951 Queen Noor of Jordan (born)
1954 First flight of the C-130 Hercules transport aircraft.
1956 Andreas Floer (born), German mathematician (died 1991)
1960 Oscar Hammerstein II (died), American director, producer, and composer (born 1895)
1961 Dean DeLeo (born), American guitarist (Stone Temple Pilots, Talk Show, and Army of Anyone)
1962 Hoot Gibson (died), American actor, director, and producer (born 1892)
1962 Walter Anderson (died), Russian-German ethnologist (born 1885)
1963 Glen Gray (died), American saxophonist and bandleader (Casa Loma Orchestra) (born 1900)
1966 Francis X. Bushman (died), American actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1883)
1966 Lunar Orbiter 1 takes the first photograph of Earth from orbit around the Moon.
1970 Organized by Mexican American union leader César Chávez, the Salad Bowl strike, the largest farm worker strike in U.S. history, begins.
1970 River Phoenix (born), American actor and singer (died 1993)
1973 A bank robbery gone wrong in Stockholm, Sweden, turns into a hostage crisis; over the next five days the hostages begin to sympathize with their captors, leading to the term “Stockholm syndrome”.
1977 The Gossamer Condor wins the Kremer prize for human powered flight.
1985 Hans Tiedge, top counter-spy of West Germany, defects to East Germany.
1987 Didier Pironi (died), French race car driver (born 1952)
1987 The American male basketball team lost the gold medal to Brazilian team at the Pan American Games in Indianapolis. Score was 115-120 and triggered changes in this sport basis in USA, resulting in the “Dream Team”.
1990 Armenia declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
1990 Saddam Hussein appears on Iraqi state television with a number of Western “guests” (actually hostages) to try to prevent the Gulf War.
1990 Tim Berners-Lee opens the WWW – World Wide Web to new users.
1990 West Germany and East Germany announce that they will reunite on October 3.
1993 The Galileo spacecraft discovers a moon, later named Dactyl, around 243 Ida, the first known asteroid moon.
1994 Eugene Bullard, the only black pilot in World War I, is posthumously commissioned as Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force.
1996 Osama bin Laden issues message entitled ‘A declaration of war against the Americans occupying the land of the two holy places.’
2006 Maynard Ferguson (died), Canadian trumpet player and bandleader (Big Bop Nouveau) (born 1928)
2011 Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is overthrown after the National Transitional Council forces take control of Bab al-Azizia compound during the 2011 Libyan civil war.
2013 William Glasser (died), American psychiatrist (born 1925)
EO Smith
Latest posts by EO Smith (see all)
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- Alternative Facts and Science - 24 January, 2017