Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!
On this day in 41, Claudius succeeded his nephew Caligula as Roman Emperor after his assassination by Praetorian Guards. In 817 on this day, St Paschal I began his reign as Catholic Pope, succeeding Stephen IV. The Synod of Worms took place on this day in 1076, when German King Henry IV fired Pope Gregory VII. Giovanni Caetani was elected Pope Gelasius II on this day in 1118. On this day in 1458, Matthias I Corvinus was chosen to be King of Hungary. Francois I signed a classified treaty with the Evangelical German monarchy on this day in 1534. Abdij Church in Middelburg was destroyed by fire on this day in 1568. On this day in 1659, Pierre Corneille's "Oedipe," premiered in Paris. In 1679 on this day, English King Charles II disbanded the Parliament. On this day in 1722, Czar Peter the Great began the civil system. Henry Knox arrived at Cambridge, Massachusetts, on this day in 1776 with the artillery that he has transported from Fort Ticonderoga. In 1839 on this day, Charles Darwin was elected to be a member of the Royal Society. On this day in 1862, the Romania principality arose under King Alexander Cuza, with the city of Bucharest proclaimed as the capital of Romania. On this day in 1900 during the Anglo-Boer War, the Battle at Tugela-Spionkop, in modern day South Africa, was fought. The Boy Scouts movement was started on this day in 1908 by General Robert Baden-Powell. On this day in 1939, Chile received a very intense and damaging 8.3-magnitude earthquake located near the city of Concepcion, which left 50,000 people dead and 60,000 injured on this day. On this day in 1943 during the Battle of Stalingrad, German General Friedrich Von Paulus demanded that Hitler allow the surrounded Germans to surrender to the Soviet Red Army, famously saying "Let us surrender!" Hitler refused and ordered all German Nazi troops to keep fighting to the death. On this day in 1965, iconic British World War II leader Winston Churchill died. Shoichi Yokoi, a Japanese Sergeant who had been hiding in the jungles in Guam since the end of World War II and was unaware that the war had ended, was discovered in Guam on this day in 1972.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
• On this day in 41, Claudius succeeded his nephew Caligula as Roman Emperor after his assassination by Praetorian Guards.
• In 817 on this day, St Paschal I began his reign as Catholic Pope, succeeding Stephen IV.
• The Synod of Worms took place on this day in 1076, when German King Henry IV fired Pope Gregory VII. Giovanni Caetani was elected Pope Gelasius II on this day in 1118.
• On this day in 1458, Matthias I Corvinus was chosen to be King of Hungary. Francois I signed a classified treaty with the Evangelical German monarchy on this day in 1534.
• Abdij Church in Middelburg was destroyed by fire on this day in 1568.
• 1568 - In Netherlands, Duke of Alva declares William of Orange an outlaw
• 1613 - Amsterdams merchant Hans Bontemantel baptized
• 1616 - Jacques Le Maire discovers Street Lemaire/Cape Receiver
• 1634 - Emperor Ferdinand II declares Albrecht von Wallenstein a traitor
• In 1639 on this day, the Connecticut colony was formed under the Fundamental Orders.
• 1644 - Battle at Nantwich Cheshire: Parliamentary armies win
• 1652 - Duke of Orleans joins Fronde rebels
• 1656 - 1st Jewish doctor in US, Jacob Lumbrozo, arrives in Maryland.
• On this day in 1659, Pierre Corneille's "Oedipe," premiered in Paris. In 1679 on this day, English King Charles II disbanded the Parliament. On this day in 1722, Czar Peter the Great began the civil system.
• 1722 - Edward Wigglesworth appointed 1st US divinity professor (Harvard)
• 1742 - German leaders elect Charles VII Albert Emperor
• 1764 - Gov Winthrop Telescope, is destroyed in a Harvard fire
Statue of a Continental Soldier of the American Revolutionary War of Independence in Trenton, New Jersey
• On this day in 1776 during the American Revolutionary War of Independence, Henry Knox arrived at Cambridge, Massachusetts, with the artillery that he has transported from Fort Ticonderoga.
British Botanist Charles Darwin
• In 1839 on this day, Charles Darwin was elected to be a member of the Royal Society.
• 1847 - 1,500 New Mexican Indians & Mexicans defeated by US Col Price
• In 1848 on this day, James W. Marshall discovered a gold nugget at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, a town in northern California. The discovery led to the gold rush of '49.
• 1857 - The University of Calcutta is formally founded as the first full-fledged university in south Asia.
• 1859 - Political union of Moldavia and Wallachia; Alexandru Ioan Cuza is elected as ruler.
• 1861 - Arsenal at Augusta, Ga seized by Confederacy
• 1861 - Federal troops from Ft Monroe are sent to Ft Pikens
• On this day in 1862, the Romania principality arose under King Alexander Cuza, with the city of Bucharest proclaimed as the capital of Romania.
• 1874 - Gen J van Swieten conquerors Kraton Atjeh, after 1000's die
• 1874 - Mussorgsky's opera "Boris Godunov," premieres in St Petersburg
• 1875 - Camille Saint-Saëns' "Danse Macabre," premieres
• 1878 - The revolutionary Vera Zasulich shoots at Fyodor Trepov, the Governor of Saint Petersburg.
• 1892 - battle at Mengo, Uganda: French missionaries attack Brit missionaries
• 1899 - Belgium government of Vandenpeereboom forms
• 1899 - Rubber heel patented by Humphrey O'Sullivan
Delville Wood War Memorial in front of the Union Buildings in Pretoria, South Africa
• On this day in 1900 during the Anglo-Boer War in modern day South Africa, the Boers under General Joubert defeated the English at the Battle of Tugela - Spion Kop, in Natal, with some 2,000 killed.
1900 - Newcastle Badminton Club, world's oldest, forms in England
1901 - 1st games played in baseball's American League
1901 - Emily Hobhouse view lord Kitcheners concentration camp at Bloemfontein
• The Boy Scouts movement was started on this day in 1908 by General Robert Baden-Powell. On January 24, 1908, the Boy Scouts movement begins in England with the publication of the first installment of Robert Baden-Powell's Scouting for Boys. The name Baden-Powell was already well known to many English boys, and thousands of them eagerly bought up the handbook. By the end of April, the serialization of Scouting for Boys was completed, and scores of impromptu Boy Scout troops had sprung up across Britain. In 1900, Baden-Powell became a national hero in Britain for his 217-day defense of Mafeking in the South African War. Soon after, Aids to Scouting, a military field manual he had written for British soldiers in 1899, caught on with a younger audience. Boys loved the lessons on tracking and observation and organized elaborate games using the book. Hearing this, Baden-Powell decided to write a nonmilitary field manual for adolescents that would also emphasize the importance of morality and good deeds. First, however, he decided to try out some of his ideas on an actual group of boys. On July 25, 1907, he took a diverse group of 21 adolescents to Brownsea Island in Dorsetshire where they set up camp for a fortnight. With the aid of other instructors, he taught the boys about camping, observation, deduction, woodcraft, boating, lifesaving, patriotism, and chivalry. Many of these lessons were learned through inventive games that were very popular with the boys. The first Boy Scouts meeting was a great success. With the success of Scouting for Boys, Baden-Powell set up a central Boy Scouts office, which registered new Scouts and designed a uniform. By the end of 1908, there were 60,000 Boy Scouts, and troops began springing up in British Commonwealth countries across the globe. In September 1909, the first national Boy Scout meeting was held at the Crystal Palace in London. Ten thousand Scouts showed up, including a group of uniformed girls who called themselves the Girl Scouts. In 1910, Baden-Powell organized the Girl Guides as a separate organization. The American version of the Boy Scouts has it origins in an event that occurred in London in 1909. Chicago publisher William Boyce was lost in the fog when a Boy Scout came to his aid. After guiding Boyce to his destination, the boy refused a tip, explaining that as a Boy Scout he would not accept payment for doing a good deed. This anonymous gesture inspired Boyce to organize several regional U.S. youth organizations, specifically the Woodcraft Indians and the Sons of Daniel Boone, into the Boy Scouts of America. Incorporated on February 8, 1910, the movement soon spread throughout the country. In 1912, Juliette Gordon Low founded the Girl Scouts of America in Savannah, Georgia. In 1916, Baden-Powell organized the Wolf Cubs, which caught on as the Cub Scouts in the United States, for boys under the age of 11. Four years later, the first international Boy Scout Jamboree was held in London, and Baden-Powell was acclaimed Chief Scout of the world. He died in 1941.
• On this day in 1913, Franz Kafka stops working on "Amerika"; a writing project which he in fact never finished.
1914 - Opera "Madeleine," premieres in NYC
1915 - German-British sea battle at Doggersbank & Helgoland
1922 - -54°F (-48°C), Danbury, Wisconsin (state record)
1922 - Eskimo Pie patented by Christian K Nelson of Iowa (not an Eskimo)
1922 - Lehman Caves National Monument established
Writer Franz KafkaWriter Franz Kafka 1923 - Aztec Ruins National Monument, NM established
• 1924 - Benito Mussolini disallows non-fascists work union
• On this day in 1924, the Russian city of St. Petersburg was renamed Leningrad. The name has since been changed back to St. Petersburg.
• 1925 - Moving picture of a solar eclipse taken from dirigible over Long Is
• 1925 - Sandler follows Branting as premier of Sweden
1927 - Director Alfred Hitchcock releases his first film, The Pleasure Garden, in England.
1930 - J E Mills scores 117 on Test Cricket debut, NZ v England, Wellington
1930 - Stewie Dempster scores New Zealand's 1st Test century
1933 - Noel Coward's "Design for Living," premieres in NYC
1935 - 1st canned beer, "Krueger Cream Ale," is sold by Kruger Brewing Co
1936 - Benny Goodman & orchestra record "Stompin' at the Savoy" on Victor Records
• 1936 - Albert Sarraut becomes Prime Minister of France
• On this day in 1939, Chile received a very intense and damaging 8.3-magnitude earthquake located near the city of Concepcion, which left 50,000 people dead and 60,000 injured on this day. The disaster came just 33 years after another terrible quake in Chile killed tens of thousands. Earthquakes in Chile are relatively common as virtually the entire country lies along an underground fault. Since consistent records have been kept, the country averages a significant tremor every three years. Typically, there is a pattern of foreshocks over several weeks that lead to a large earthquake. In January 1939, that pattern did not hold. One theory is that a sudden change in the barometric pressure on that day accelerated the cycle. The epicenter of the massive quake was in south central Chile near the city of Chillan. The entire community was leveled, as the construction of homes and public buildings was not nearly strong enough to prevent their collapse. Approximately 10,000 of Chillan's 40,000 residents died when they were crushed by falling buildings. The town of Concepcion was also struck hard. In the aftermath of the earthquake, President Pedro Aguirre Cerda declared martial law and sent in the Chilean military to establish order. The Red Cross also played an important role in the relief efforts, and a mild winter made the delivery of assistance and supplies to the region relatively easy. Although Chillan and Concepcion had previously been moved following quakes in years past, this time they were rebuilt in their existing locations, with more stringent safety and building codes in place
1939 - Eddie Collins, Willie Keeler & George Sisler elected to Hall of Fame
• 1939 - Spanish government moves to Figueras
Director Alfred HitchcockDirector Alfred Hitchcock
• 1941 - British troops march into Abyssinia
Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, D.C.
• In 1943 on this day during World War II, U.S. President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill concluded a wartime conference in Casablanca, Morocco.
• On this day in 1943 during the Battle of Stalingrad, German General Friedrich Von Paulus demanded that Hitler allow the surrounded Germans to surrender to the Soviet Red Army, famously saying "Let us surrender!" Hitler refused and ordered all German Nazi troops to keep fighting to the death. On this day, German Gen. Friedrich von Paulus, commander in chief of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad, urgently requests permission from Adolf Hitler to surrender his position there, but Hitler refuses. The Battle of Stalingrad began in the summer of 1942, as German forces assaulted the city, a major industrial center and a prized strategic coup. But despite repeated attempts and having pushed the Soviets almost to the Volga River in mid-October and encircling Stalingrad, the 6th Army, under Paulus, and part of the 4th Panzer Army could not break past the adamantine defense of the Soviet 62nd Army. Diminishing resources, partisan guerilla attacks, and the cruelty of the Russian winter began to take their toll on the Germans. On November 19, the Soviets made their move, launching a counteroffensive that began with a massive artillery bombardment of the German position. The Soviets then assaulted the weakest link in the German force-inexperienced Romanian troops. Sixty-five thousand were ultimately taken prisoner by the Soviets. The Soviets then made a bold strategic move, encircling the enemy, and launching pincer movements from north and south simultaneously, even as the Germans encircled Stalingrad. The Germans should have withdrawn, but Hitler wouldn't allow it. He wanted his armies to hold out until they could be reinforced. By the time those fresh troops arrived in December, it was too late. The Soviet position was too strong, and the Germans were exhausted. By January 24, the Soviets had overrun Paulus' last airfield. His position was untenable and surrender was the only hope for survival. Hitler wouldn't hear of it: "The 6th Army will hold its positions to the last man and the last round." Paulus held out until January 31, when he finally surrendered. Of more than 280,000 men under Paulus' command, half were already dead or dying, about 35,000 had been evacuated from the front, and the remaining 91,000 were hauled off to Soviet POW camps. Paulus eventually sold out to the Soviets altogether, joining the National Committee for Free Germany and urging German troops to surrender. Testifying at Nuremberg for the Soviets, he was released and spent the rest of his life in East Germany.
• 1943 - Jewish patients/nurses/doctors incinerated at Auschwitz-Birkenau
1944 - Allied troops occupy Nettuno Italy
1945 - Scottish 52nd Lowland division occupies Heinsberg
1947 - NFL adds 5th official (back judge) & allows sudden death in playoffs
1948 - "Music in My Heart" closes at Adelphi Theater NYC after 124 perfs
1948 - Australia all out 674 v India (Bradman 201, Hassett 198*)
1948 - Dutch Liberal Party forms-People's party for Freedom & Democracy (VVD)
1950 - Jackie Robinson signs highest contract ($35,000) in Dodger history
1951 - Dutch government Drees-van Schaik resigns
1952 - 1st NFL team in Texas, Dallas Texans formerly NY Yanks
1952 - Fire in main building of French Port Martin Antarctic base
• On this day in 1952, Vincent Massey was sworn in as the first Canadian-born Governor-General of Canada.
Baseball Player Jackie RobinsonBaseball Player Jackie Robinson 1954 - BPAA All-Star Tournament won by Don Carter
1954 - Betsy Rawls wins LPGA Tampa Women's Golf Open
1956 - 96.5 cm precipitation at Kilauea Plantation, Hawaii (state record)
1958 - After warming to 100,000,000 degrees, 2 light atoms are bashed together to create a heavier atom, resulting in 1st man-made nuclear fusion
1959 - "Party with Comden & Green" closes at John Golden NYC after 38 perfs
1959 - Dmitri Shostakovitch's comedy "Cheryomushk," premieres in Moscow
1959 - WHCT TV channel 18 in Hartford, CT (IND) begins broadcasting
1960 - Algeria uprises against French president De Gaulle
1961 - Edward Albee's "American Dream," premieres in NYC
1961 - Lazard Brothers Ltd draw a check for $334,867,807.68
1962 - 28 refugees escape from East to West Germany
• In 1962 on this day, Brian Epstein signed a management contract with the Beatles.
1962 - Jackie Robinson is 1st Black elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
1962 - Mickey Wright/Marilynn Smith wins LPGA Naples Pro-Am Golf Tournament
1963 - Buddy Rogers & Lou Thesz wrestle in Toronto, Rogers becomes WWF wrestling champ & Thesz becomes NWA champ
1964 - CBS purchases 1964 & 1965 NFL TV rights for $28.2 million
1964 - Martin Kresses final comic strip of Eric the Viking
1964 - 24th Amendment to US Constitution goes into effect & states voting rights could not be denied due to failure to pay taxes
Statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square, London
• On this day in 1965, iconic British World War II leader Winston Churchill died. Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, the British leader who guided Great Britain and the Allies through the crisis of World War II, dies in London at the age of 90. Born at Blenheim Palace in 1874, Churchill joined the British Fourth Hussars upon his father's death in 1895. During the next five years, he enjoyed an illustrious military career, serving in India, the Sudan, and South Africa, and distinguishing himself several times in battle. In 1899, he resigned his commission to concentrate on his literary and political career and in 1900 was elected to Parliament as a Conservative MP from Oldham. In 1904, he joined the Liberals, serving in a number of important posts before being appointed Britain's first lord of the admiralty in 1911, where he worked to bring the British navy to a readiness for the war that he foresaw. In 1915, in the second year of World War I, Churchill was held responsible for the disastrous Dardanelles and Gallipoli campaigns, and he was excluded from the war coalition government. He resigned and volunteered to command an infantry battalion in France. However, in 1917, he returned to politics as a cabinet member in the Liberal government of Lloyd George. From 1919 to 1921, he was secretary of state for war and in 1924 returned to the Conservative Party, where two years later he played a leading role in the defeat of the General Strike of 1926. Out of office from 1929 to 1939, Churchill issued unheeded warnings of the threat of Nazi and Japanese aggression. After the outbreak of World War II in Europe, Churchill was called back to his post as first lord of the admiralty and eight months later replaced the ineffectual Neville Chamberlain as prime minister of a new coalition government. In the first year of his administration, Britain stood alone against Nazi Germany, but Churchill promised his country and the world that the British people would "never surrender." He rallied the British people to a resolute resistance and expertly orchestrated Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin into an alliance that crushed the Axis. In July 1945, 10 weeks after Germany's defeat, his Conservative government suffered a defeat against Clement Attlee's Labour Party, and Churchill resigned as prime minister. He became leader of the opposition and in 1951 was again elected prime minister. Two years later, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his six-volume historical study of World War II and for his political speeches; he was also knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. In 1955, he retired as prime minister but remained in Parliament until 1964, the year before his death.
• 1969 - Queen Juliana appointed honorary citizen of Addis Ababa
• The Spanish Dictator, General Francisco Franco, declared a state of emergency in the country on this day in 1969.
1970 - 3rd ABA All-Star Game: West 128 beats East 98 at Indiana
1970 - Valeri Muratov skates world record 500m (38.99 sec)
1971 - NFL Pro Bowl: NFC beats AFC 27-6
1972 - WRIP (now WDSI) TV channel 61 in Chattanooga, TN (IND) 1st broadcast
• Shoichi Yokoi, a Japanese Sergeant who had been hiding in the jungles in Guam since the end of World War II and was unaware that the war had ended, was discovered in Guam on this day in 1972. Japanese soldier found hiding on Guam After 28 years of hiding in the jungles of Guam, local farmers discover Shoichi Yokoi, a Japanese sergeant who was unaware that World War II had ended. Guam, a 200-square-mile island in the western Pacific, became a U.S. possession in 1898 after the Spanish-American War. In 1941, the Japanese attacked and captured it, and in 1944, after three years of Japanese occupation, U.S. forces retook Guam. It was at this time that Yokoi, left behind by the retreating Japanese forces, went into hiding rather than surrender to the Americans. In the jungles of Guam, he carved survival tools and for the next three decades waited for the return of the Japanese and his next orders. After he was discovered in 1972, he was finally discharged and sent home to Japan, where he was hailed as a national hero. He subsequently married and returned to Guam for his honeymoon. His handcrafted survival tools and threadbare uniform are on display in the Guam Museum in Agana.
1973 - Warren Spahn is elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
1975 - "Hot l Baltimore" situation comedy premieres on ABC TV
1975 - Fastest Earth-bound object, 7200 kph, in vacuum centrifuge, England
1976 - Cleveland Cavaliers biggest margin victory-43 pts (beat Milwaukee 132-89)
1976 - George Foreman KOs Ron Lyle in 5th round of a real slugfest
1977 - 5 lawyers murdered by fascist in Madrid
1977 - Massacre of Atocha in Madrid, during the Spanish transition to democracy.
1978 - 31st NHL All-Star Game: Wales beat Campbell 3-2 (OT) at Buffalo
American President Jimmy Carter
• On this day in 1978, American President Jimmy Carter signed Executive Order 12036. It was designed to restructure the U.S. Intelligence Community in order to reinforce oversight, strengthen civil liberty considerations, and centralize authority under the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI).. It effectively tightened restrictions on surveillance, banned assassination involvement, and created the National Foreign Intelligence Board.
Boxing Champ George ForemanBoxing Champ George Foreman 1979 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1981 - Islanders scored 5 power play goals against Nordiques
1981 - Kim Hughes scores 213 v India at Adelaide
• Super Bowl XVI was played at the Pontiac Silverdome in Michigan on this day in 1982. It was the first Super Bowl played in a cold weather city. The San Francisco 49ers beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 26-21, to win the first Super Bowl title in franchise history. San Francisco quarterback Joe Montana was named the game's MVP.
1983 - Hulk Hogan pins Iron Sheik for World Wrestling Federation title
1984 - Apple Computer Inc unveils its revolutionary Macintosh personal computer
1985 - 15th Space Shuttle (51-C) Mission-Discovery 3 is launched
1986 - 43th Golden Globes: Whoopi Goldberg, Color Purple win
1986 - NY Islander Mike Bossy scores his 1,000th point
• 1986 - South Yemen Premier Haydar Bakr al-Attas becomes interim-president
• 1986 - Voyager 2 makes 1st fly-by of Uranus (81,593 km), finds new moons
1987 - 61st Australian Womens Tennis: H Mandlikova beat M Navratilova (75 76)
1988 - 1st WWF Royal Rumble - Jim Duggan wins
1988 - 76th Australian Mens Tennis: M Wilander beats P Cash (63 67 36 61 86)
1988 - 9th ACE Cable Awards
Actress Whoopi GoldbergActress Whoopi Goldberg 1988 - Australia beat New Zealand 2-0 to win Cricket's World Series Cup
1988 - Cerebral Palsy telethon
1989 - 1st reported case of AIDS transmitted by heterosexual oral sex
• 1990 - Japanese MUSES-A (Hiten) launched towards moon
1991 - "Les Miserables," opens at Theatre St Denis, Montreal
1993 - 14th annual star-athon $24,000,000
• 1993 - Polish ferry boat John Heweliusz sinks, 52 killed
• 1993 - Soyuz TM-16 launches
• 1993 - Turkish journalist and writer Uğur Mumcu is assassinated by a car bomb in Ankara.
1994 - Dow Jones closes above 3,900 for 1st time (3,914.48)
• 2003 - The United States Department of Homeland Security officially begins operation.
• 2009 - Pope Benedict XVI rescinds the excommunications of four bishops consecrated without papal consent in 1988 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.
• 2011 - At least 35 died and 180 injured in a bombing at Moscow's Domodedovo airport.
• 2013 - 17 people are killed and 34 are injured in a bus crash in Taperas, Bolivia
265th Pope Benedict XVI265th Pope Benedict XVI 2013 - A Japanese Coast guard ship engages a Taiwanese activist ship in the Senkaku Islands dispute
• 2013 - Russian police kill 13 rebels in Vedeno District, Chechnya
• 2013 - 17 people are killed and 34 are injured in a bus crash in Taperas, Bolivia
1899 - Humphrey O’Sullivan patented the rubber heel. 1908 - In England, the first Boy Scout troop was organized by Robert Baden-Powell. 1916 - Conscription was introduced in Britain. 1922 - Christian K. Nelson patented the Eskimo Pie. 1924 - The Russian city of St. Petersburg was renamed Leningrad. The name has since been changed back to St. Petersburg. 1930 - Primo Carnera made his American boxing debut by knocking out Big Boy Patterson in one minute, ten seconds of the opening round. 1935 - Krueger Brewing Company placed the first canned beer on sale in Richmond, VA. 1942 - "Abie’s Irish Rose" was first heard on NBC radio. 1955 - The rules committee of major league baseball announced a plan to strictly enforce the rule that required a pitcher to release the ball within 20 seconds after taking his position on the mound. 1964 - CBS-TV acquired the rights to televise the National Football League’s 1964-1965 regular season. The move cost CBS $14.1 million a year. The NFL stayed on CBS for 30 years. 1972 - The U.S. Supreme Court struck down laws that denied welfare benefits to people who had resided in a state for less than a year. 1978 - A nuclear-powered Soviet satellite plunged through Earth's atmosphere and disintegrated. The radioactive debris was scattered over parts of Canada's Northwest Territory. 1980 - The United States announced intentions to sell arms to China. 1985 - Penny Harrington became the first woman police chief of a major city. She assumed the duties as head of the Portland, Oregon, force of 940 officers and staff. 1986 - The Voyager 2 space probe flew past Uranus. The probe came within 50,679 miles of the seventh planet of the solar system. 1987 - In Lebanon, gunmen kidnapped educators Alann Steen, Jesse Turner, Robert Polhill and Mitheleshwar Singh. They were all later released. 1989 - Ted Bundy, the confessed serial killer, was put to death in Florida's electric chair for the 1978 kidnap-murder of 12-year-old Kimberly Leach. 1990 - Japan launched the first probe to be sent to the Moon since 1976. A small satellite was placed in lunar orbit. 1995 - The prosecution gave its opening statement at the O.J. Simpson murder trial. 1996 - Polish Premier Jozef Oleksy resigned due to allegations that he had spied for Moscow. 2000 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Missouri law that limited the contributions that individuals could donate to a candidate during a single election. 2001 - In Colorado Springs, CO, Patrick Murphy Jr. and Donald Newbury were taken into custody after a 5-minute phone interview was granted with a TV station. They were the remaining fugitives of the "Texas 7." 2002 - The U.S. Congress began a hearing on the collapse of Enron Corp. 2002 - John Walker Lindh appeared in court for the first time concerning the charges that he conspired to kill Americans abroad and aided terrorist groups. Lindh had been taken into custody by U.S. Marines in Afghanistan. 2003 - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security began operations under Tom Ridge.
41 Roman emperor, Gaius Caesar, better known as Caligula (meaning Little Boot—he used to wear military boots as a child), was murdered. 1848 Gold was first discovered in California, in Sutter's mill. When President Polk announced the news in December, the gold rush began. 1908 Robert Baden-Powell organized the first Boy Scout troop in England. 1943 The Casablanca Conference with Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill concluded. 1965 Winston Churchill died in London at age 90. 1972 Japanese soldier Shoichi Yokoi was discovered in Guam, having spent 28 years hiding in the jungle thinking World War II was still going on. 1986 Voyager Two space probe passes within 51,000 miles of Uranus. 1993 The first African-American to sit on the Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall, died. 2003 The Department of Homeland Security, under Tom Ridge, became a cabinet department.
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/jan24.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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