1546 Having published nothing for eleven years, François Rabelais publishes the Tiers Livre, his sequel to Gargantua and Pantagruel.
1556 The deadliest earthquake in history, the Shaanxi earthquake, hits Shaanxi province, China. The death toll may have been as high as 830,000.
1570 James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, regent for the infant King James VI of Scotland, is assassinated by firearm, the first recorded instance of such.
1571 The Royal Exchange opens in London.
1622 William Baffin (died), English explorer and navigator
1656 Blaise Pascal publishes the first of his Lettres provinciales.
1737 John Hancock (born), American politician, 1st Governor of Massachusetts (died 1793)
1744 Giambattista Vico (died), Italian philosopher and historian (born 1668)
1745 William Jessop (born), English engineer, built the Cromford Canal (died 1814)
1785 Matthew Stewart (died), Scottish mathematician (born 1717)
1786 Auguste de Montferrand (born), French-Russian architect, designed Saint Isaac’s Cathedral and Alexander Column (died 1858)
1789 Georgetown College, the first Catholic University in the United States, is founded in Georgetown, Maryland (now a part of Washington, D.C.)
1789 John Cleland (died), English author (born 1709)
1800 Edward Rutledge (died), American politician, 39th Governor of South Carolina, signer of the United States Declaration of Independence (born 1749)
1803 Arthur Guinness (died), Irish brewer (born 1725)
1810 Johann Wilhelm Ritter (died), German chemist and physicist (born 1776)
1820 Prince Edward (died), Duke of Kent and Strathearn (born 1767)
1832 Édouard Manet (born), French painter (died 1883)
1840 Ernst Abbe (born), German physicist (died 1905)
1849 Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her M.D. by the Geneva Medical College of Geneva, New York, becoming the United States’ first female doctor.
1855 The first bridge over the Mississippi River opens in what is now Minneapolis, Minnesota, a crossing made today by the Hennepin Avenue Bridge.
1855 John Browning (born), American weapons designer, founded the Browning Arms Company (died 1926)
1870 In Montana, U.S. cavalrymen kill 173 Native Americans, mostly women and children, in the Marias Massacre.
1879 Anglo-Zulu War: the Battle of Rorke’s Drift ends.
1897 Elva Zona Heaster is found dead in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. The resulting murder trial of her husband is perhaps the only case in United States history where the alleged testimony of a ghost helped secure a conviction.
1899 The Malolos Constitution is inaugurated, establishing the First Philippine Republic.
1900 The Battle of Spion Kop between the forces of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State and British forces during the Second Boer War ends in a British defeat.
1907 Dan Duryea (born), American actor (died 1968)
1909 RMS Republic, a passenger ship of the White Star Line, becomes the first ship to use the CQD distress signal after colliding with another ship, the SS Florida, off the Massachusetts coastline, an event that kills six people. The Republic sinks the next day.
1912 The International Opium Convention is signed at The Hague.
1912 Boris Pokrovsky (born), Russian director (died 2009)
1913 Wally Parks (born), American businessman, founded the National Hot Rod Association (died 2007)
1915 Arthur Lewis (born), Saint Lucian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1991)
1916 David Douglas Duncan (born), American photographer and journalist
1919 Ernie Kovacs (born), American comedian and actor (died 1962)
1920 Walter Frederick Morrison (born), American inventor, invented the Frisbee (died 2010)
1927 Lars-Eric Lindblad (born), Swedish-American businessman and explorer (died 1994)
1931 Anna Pavlova (died), Russian ballerina (born 1881)
1937 In Moscow, 17 leading Communists go on trial accused of participating in a plot led by Leon Trotsky to overthrow Joseph Stalin’s regime and assassinate its leaders.
1941 Charles Lindbergh testifies before the U.S. Congress and recommends that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler.
1942 World War II: The Battle of Rabaul begins, the first fighting of the New Guinea campaign.
1943 World War II: Troops of Montgomery’s 8th Army capture Tripoli in Libya from the German-Italian Panzer Army.
1943 World War II: Australian and American forces finally defeat the Japanese army in Papua, New Guinea
1943 Duke Ellington plays at Carnegie Hall in New York City for the first time.
1943 Alexander Woollcott (died), American actor and journalist (born 1887)
1944 Edvard Munch (died), Norwegian painter (born 1863)
1948 Anita Pointer (born), American singer-songwriter (The Pointer Sisters)
1950 The Knesset passes a resolution that states Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.
1951 Chesley Sullenberger (born), American pilot and captain
1957 American inventor Walter Frederick Morrison sells the rights to his flying disc to the Wham-O toy company, which later renames it the “Frisbee”.
1960 The bathyscaphe USS Trieste breaks a depth record by descending to 10,911 metres (35,797 ft) in the Pacific Ocean.
1961 The Portuguese luxury cruise ship Santa Maria is hijacked by opponents of the Estado Novo regime with the intention of waging war until dictator António de Oliveira Salazar is overthrown.
1964 The 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibiting the use of poll taxes in national elections, is ratified.
1964 Mariska Hargitay (born), American actress
1968 North Korea seizes the USS Pueblo, claiming the ship had violated its territorial waters while spying.
1973 President Richard Nixon announces that a peace accord has been reached in Vietnam.
1977 Toots Shor (died), American businessman, founded Toots Shor’s Restaurant (born 1903)
1978 Vic Ames (died), American singer (Ames Brothers) (born 1925)
1986 The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts its first members: Little Richard, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Fats Domino, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley.
1989 Salvador Dalí (died), Spanish painter (born 1904)
1990 Allen Collins (died), American guitarist and songwriter (Lynyrd Skynyrd, Rossington Collins Band, and Allen Collins Band) (born 1952)
1997 Madeleine Albright becomes the first woman to serve as United States Secretary of State.
2001 Five people attempt to set themselves on fire in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, an act that many people later claim is staged by the Communist Party of China to frame Falun Gong and thus escalate their persecution.
2002 “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh returns to the United States in FBI custody.
2002 Reporter Daniel Pearl is kidnapped in Karachi, Pakistan and subsequently murdered .
2003 Final communication between Earth and Pioneer 10.
2005 Johnny Carson (died), American talk show host (born 1925)
2007 E. Howard Hunt (died), American CIA officer (born 1918)
2011 Jack LaLanne (died), American fitness instructor, author, and television host (born 1914)
EO Smith
Latest posts by EO Smith (see all)
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- Alternative Facts and Science - 24 January, 2017