39 Lucan (born), Roman poet (died 65)
1493 Christopher Columbus first sights the island of Dominica in the Caribbean Sea.
1500 Benvenuto Cellini (born), Italian sculptor and painter (died 1571)
1783 John Austin, a highwayman, is the last person to be publicly hanged at London’s Tyburn gallows.
1783 The American Continental Army is disbanded.
1793 French playwright, journalist and feminist Olympe de Gouges is guillotined.
1793 Stephen F. Austin (born), American businessman (died 1836)
1794 William Cullen Bryant (born), American poet and journalist (died 1878)
1817 The Bank of Montreal, Canada’s oldest chartered bank, opens in Montreal, Quebec.
1838 The Times of India, the world’s largest circulated English language daily broadsheet newspaper is founded as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce.
1868 John Willis Menard was the first African American elected to the United States Congress. Because of an electoral challenge, he was never seated.
1883 American Old West: Self-described “Black Bart the poet” gets away with his last stagecoach robbery, but leaves a clue that eventually leads to his capture.
1911 Chevrolet officially enters the automobile market in competition with the Ford Model T.
1913 The United States introduces an income tax.
1926 Annie Oakley (died), American target shooter (born 1860)
1954 The first Godzilla film is released.
1957 The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2. On board is the first animal to enter orbit, a dog named Laika.
1960 The land that would become the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge was established by an Act of Congress after a year-long legal battle that pitted local residents against Port Authority of New York and New Jersey officials wishing to turn the Great Swamp into a major regional airport for jet aircraft.
1964 Washington D.C. residents are able to vote in a presidential election for the first time.
1969 Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon addresses the nation on television and radio, asking the “silent majority” to join him in solidarity on the Vietnam War effort and to support his policies.
1973 NASA launches the Mariner 10 toward Mercury. On March 29, 1974, it becomes the first space probe to reach that planet.
1979 Five members of the Communist Workers Party are shot dead and seven are wounded by a group of Klansmen and neo-Nazis during a “Death to the Klan” rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, United States.
1986 The Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa reports that the United States has been secretly selling weapons to Iran in order to secure the release of seven American hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon.
1990 Mary Martin (died), American actress (born 1913)
EO Smith
Latest posts by EO Smith (see all)
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- Alternative Facts and Science - 24 January, 2017