211 Septimius Severus (died), Roman emperor (born 145)
1169 A strong earthquake struck the Ionian coast of Sicily, causing tens of thousands of injuries and deaths, especially in Catania.
1454 In the Thirteen Years’ War, the Secret Council of the Prussian Confederation sends a formal act of disobedience to the Grand Master.
1677 Johann Ludwig Bach (born), German violinist and composer (died 1731)
1703 In Edo (now Tokyo), 46 of the Forty-seven Ronin commit seppuku (ritual suicide) as recompense for avenging their master’s death.
1713 Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury (died), English politician (born 1671)
1725 Dru Drury (born), English entomologist (died 1804)
1746 Tadeusz Kościuszko (born), Polish-American general (died 1817)
1778 A. P. de Candolle (born), Swiss botanist (died 1841)
1789 George Washington is unanimously elected as the first President of the United States by the U.S. Electoral College.
1794 The French legislature abolishes slavery throughout all territories of the French Republic. It will be reestablished in the French West Indies in 1802.
1797 The Riobamba earthquake strikes Ecuador, causing up to 40,000 casualties.
1801 John Marshall is sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States.
1810 The Royal Navy seizes Guadeloupe.
1825 The Ohio Legislature authorizes the construction of the Ohio and Erie Canal and the Miami and Erie Canal.
1831 Oliver Ames (born), American politician, 35th Governor of Massachusetts (died 1895)
1846 Nikolay Umov (born), Russian physicist and mathematician (died 1915)
1846 The first Mormon pioneers make their exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois, westward towards Utah Territory.
1859 The Codex Sinaiticus is discovered in Egypt.
1861 American Civil War: In Montgomery, Alabama, delegates from six break-away U.S. states meet and form the Confederate States of America.
1895 Nigel Bruce (born), English actor (died 1953)
1899 The Philippine–American War begins with the Battle of Manila.
1902 Charles Lindbergh (born), American pilot and activist (died 1974)
1902 Hartley Shawcross, Baron Shawcross (born), German-English lawyer and politician, Attorney General for England and Wales (died 2003)
1906 Dietrich Bonhoeffer (born), German pastor and theologian (died 1945)
1913 Rosa Parks (born), American activist (died 2005)
1918 Ida Lupino (born), English actress and director (died 1995)
1936 Radium becomes the first radioactive element to be made synthetically.
1941 John Steel (born), English drummer (The Animals)
1941 The United Service Organization (USO) is created to entertain American troops.
1944 Florence LaRue (born), American singer and actress (The 5th Dimension)
1945 World War II: The British Indian Army and Imperial Japanese Army begin a series of battles known as the Battle of Pokoku and Irrawaddy River operations.
1945 World War II: The Yalta Conference between the “Big Three” (Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin) opens at the Livadia Palace in the Crimea.
1948 Alice Cooper (born), American singer-songwriter and actor
1948 Ceylon (later renamed Sri Lanka) becomes independent within the British Commonwealth.
1966 Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor (died), Turkish-American journalist (born 1875)
1967 Albert Orsborn (died), American 6th General of The Salvation Army (born 1886)
1967 Lunar Orbiter program: Lunar Orbiter 3 lifts off from Cape Canaveral’s Launch Complex 13 on its mission to identify possible landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo spacecraft.
1969 Yasser Arafat takes over as chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
1973 Oscar De La Hoya (born), American boxer
1974 M62 coach bombing: The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) explodes a bomb on a bus carrying off-duty British Armed Forces personnel in Yorkshire, England. Nine soldiers and three civilians are killed.
1974 The Symbionese Liberation Army kidnaps Patty Hearst in Berkeley, California.
1976 In Guatemala and Honduras an earthquake kills more than 22,000.
1976 The 1976 Winter Olympics opens in Innsbruck, Austria.
1977 A Chicago Transit Authority elevated train rear-ends another and derails, killing 11 and injuring 180, the worst accident in the agency’s history.
1980 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini names Abolhassan Banisadr as president of Iran.
1983 Karen Carpenter (died), American singer and drummer (The Carpenters) (born 1950)
1987 Carl Rogers (died), American psychologist (born 1902)
1987 Liberace (died), American singer-songwriter and pianist (born 1919)
1987 Meena Keshwar Kamal (died), Afghan activist, founded the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (born 1956)
1992 A coup d’état is led by Hugo Chávez against Venezuelan President Carlos Andrés Pérez.
1996 Major snowstorm paralyzes Midwestern United States, Milwaukee, Wisconsin and ties its all-time record low temperature at -26°F (-32.2°C)
1997 After at first contesting the results, Serbian President Slobodan Milošević recognizes opposition victories in the November 1996 elections.
1997 En route to Lebanon, two Israeli Sikorsky CH-53 troop-transport helicopters collide in mid-air over northern Galilee, Israel killing 73.
1998 An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter Scale in northeast Afghanistan kills more than 5,000.
1999 Unarmed West African immigrant Amadou Diallo is shot dead by four plainclothes New York City police officers on an unrelated stake-out, inflaming race-relations in the city.
2000 Doris Coley (died), American singer (Shirelles) (born 1941)
2003 The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is officially renamed Serbia and Montenegro and adopts a new constitution.
2004 Facebook, a mainstream online social networking site, is founded by Mark Zuckerberg.
2006 A stampede occurs in the ULTRA Stadium near Manila killing 71.
2006 Betty Friedan (died), American author and activist (born 1921)
EO Smith
Latest posts by EO Smith (see all)
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- Alternative Facts and Science - 24 January, 2017