12 BC The Roman Emperor Augustus is named Pontifex Maximus, incorporating the position into that of the Emperor
1475 Michelangelo (born), Italian painter and sculptor (died 1564)
1483 Francesco Guicciardini (born), Italian historian and politician (died 1540)
1490 Ivan the Young (died), Russian son of Ivan III of Russia (born 1458)
1521 Ferdinand Magellan arrives at Guam.
1619 Cyrano de Bergerac (born), French soldier and playwright (died 1655)
1716 Pehr Kalm (born), Swedish-Finnish botanist and explorer (died 1779)
1724 Henry Laurens (born), American merchant and politician, 5th President of the Continental Congress (died 1792)
1754 Henry Pelham (died), English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1694)
1758 Henry Vane (died), 1st Earl of Darlington, English politician (born 1705)
1764 Philip Yorke (died), 1st Earl of Hardwicke, English lawyer and politician (born 1690)
1785 Karol Kurpiński (born), Polish composer and conductor (died 1857)
1787 Joseph von Fraunhofer (born), German physicist (died 1826)
1788 The First Fleet arrives at Norfolk Island in order to found a convict settlement.
1796 Guillaume Thomas François Raynal (died), French author (born 1713)
1806 Elizabeth Barrett Browning (born), English poet (died 1861)
1812 Aaron Lufkin Dennison (born), American businessman, co-founded the Waltham Watch Company (died 1895)
1820 The Missouri Compromise is signed into law by President James Monroe. The compromise allows Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state, brings Maine into the Union as a free state, and makes the rest of the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase territory slavery-free.
1834 George du Maurier (born), French-English author and illustrator (died 1896)
1834 York, Upper Canada is incorporated as Toronto.
1836 Deaths at the Battle of the Alamo:
Davy Crockett (died), American soldier and politician (born 1786).
James Bonham, American lawyer and soldier (died) (born 1807)
James Bowie, American colonel (died) (born 1796)
William B. Travis (died), American lieutenant and lawyer (born 1809)
1836 Texas Revolution: Battle of the Alamo After a thirteen day siege by an army of 3,000 Mexican troops, the 187 Texas volunteers, including frontiersman Davy Crockett and colonel Jim Bowie, defending the Alamo are killed and the fort is captured.
1842 Constanze Mozart (died), German wife of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (born 1763)
1849 Georg Luger (born), Austrian gun designer, designed the Luger pistol (died 1923)
1857 The Supreme Court of the United States rules in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case.
1866 William Whewell (died), English priest, philosopher, and historian (born 1794)
1869 Dmitri Mendeleev presents the first periodic table to the Russian Chemical Society.
1870 Oscar Straus (born), Viennese composer (died 1954)
1881 Horatia Nelson (died), English daughter of Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson (born 1801)
1885 Ring Lardner (born), American author and journalist (died 1933)
1888 Louisa May Alcott (died), American author (born 1832)
1899 Bayer registers “Aspirin” as a trademark.
1899 Kaʻiulani of Hawaii (died) (born 1875)
1900 Gottlieb Daimler (died), German businessman, co-founded Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (born 1834)
1906 Lou Costello (born), American actor and comedian (died 1959)
1913 Louise Latimer (born), American actress (died 1973)
1914 Kirill Kondrashin (born), Russian conductor (died 1981)
1917 Donald Davidson (born), American philosopher (died 2003)
1917 Will Eisner (born), American illustrator (died 2005)
1921 Portuguese Communist Party is founded as the Portuguese Section of the Communist International.
1923 Ed McMahon (born), American comedian, game show host, and announcer (died 2009)
1923 Wes Montgomery (born), American guitarist and songwriter (Montgomery Brothers) (died 1968)
1926 Alan Greenspan (born), American economist
1927 Gordon Cooper (born), American engineer, pilot, and astronaut (died 2004)
1929 Tom Foley (born), American politician, 57th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
1931 Hal Needham (born), American actor, stuntman, screenwriter, and director
1932 John Philip Sousa (died), American conductor and composer (born 1854)
1933 Anton Cermak (died), Czech-American politician, 44th Mayor of Chicago (born 1873)
1935 Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (died), American jurist (born 1841)
1936 Marion Barry (born), American politician, 2nd Mayor of the District of Columbia
1936 Sylvia Robinson (born), American singer and producer (Mickey & Sylvia) (died 2011)
1939 Adam Osborne (born), Thai-Indian author and businessman, founded the Osborne Computer Corporation (died 2003)
1939 Ferdinand von Lindemann (died), German mathematician (born 1852)
1941 Gutzon Borglum (died), Danish-American sculptor, designed Mount Rushmore (born 1867)
1942 Flora Purim (born) Brazilian singer (Return to Forever)
1944 Mary Wilson (born), American singer (The Supremes)
1945 World War II: Cologne is captured by American troops.
1946 David Gilmour (born), English singer-songwriter and guitarist (Pink Floyd, Joker’s Wild, and Deep End)
1946 Ho Chi Minh signs an agreement with France which recognizes Vietnam as an autonomous state in the Indochinese Federation and the French Union.
1947 Dick Fosbury (born), American high jumper
1947 John Stossel (born), American journalist and author
1947 Rob Reiner (born), American actor, director, and producer
1948 Anna Maria Horsford, (born) American actress
1948 Stephen Schwartz (born), American composer and songwriter
1951 The trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg begins.
1951 Volodymyr Vynnychenko (died), Ukrainian politician, Prime Minister of Ukraine (born 1880)
1953 Carolyn Porco (born), American planetary scientist
1953 Georgy Malenkov succeeds Joseph Stalin as Premier of the Soviet Union and First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
1954 Jeff Greenwald (born), American author, photographer, and monologist
1957 Ghana becomes the first Sub-Saharan country to gain independence from the British
1959 Tom Arnold (born), American actor, screenwriter, and producer
1963 D. L. Hughley (born), American comedian and actor
1964 Constantine II becomes King of Greece.
1964 Nation of Islam’s Elijah Muhammad officially gives boxing champion Cassius Clay the name Muhammad Ali.
1967 Connie Britton, (born) American actress, singer, and producer
1967 John Haden Badley (died), English author and educator, founded the Bedales School (born 1865)
1967 Joseph Stalin’s daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva defects to the United States.
1967 Nelson Eddy (died), American actor and singer (born 1901)
1968 The first of the East L.A. Walkouts take place at several high schools.
1970 An explosion at the Weather Underground safe house in Greenwich Village kills three.
1973 Pearl S. Buck (died), American author, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1892)
1974 Ernest Becker (died), American anthropologist and author (born 1924)
1975 For the first time the Zapruder film of the assassination of John F. Kennedy is shown in motion to a national TV audience by Robert J. Groden and Dick Gregory.
1981 After 19 years of presenting the CBS Evening News, Walter Cronkite signs off for the last time.
1982 Ayn Rand (died), Russian-American author (born 1905)
1983 The first United States Football League game is played.
1986 Georgia O’Keeffe (died), American painter (born 1887)
1988 Mairéad Farrell (died), Irish soldier (born 1957)
1988 Three Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteers are killed by Special Air Service on the territory of Gibraltar in the conclusion of Operation Flavius.
1992 The Michelangelo computer virus begins to affect computers.
2005 Hans Bethe (died), German-American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1906)
2008 A suicide bomber kills 68 people (including first responders) in Baghdad on the same day that a gunman kills 8 students in Jerusalem.
2013 Alvin Lee (died), English singer-songwriter and guitarist (Ten Years After) (born 1944)
2013 Duane Gish (died), American biochemist (born 1921)
EO Smith
Latest posts by EO Smith (see all)
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- Alternative Facts and Science - 24 January, 2017