On this day in History - Jan. 24

• 0041 - Roman Emperor Gaius Caesar, (Caligula) known for his eccentricity and cruel despotism, was assassinated by his disgruntled Praetorian Guards.
• 0076 - Hadrian was born (d. 0138). Roman emperor.
• 0661 - At Kufah in Iraq, Caliph Ali, son-in-law of the prophet Mohammed, was murdered in the mosque at Kufah in Iraq.
• 0772 - Pope Stephen IV dies (b. 0720).
• 1002 - Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor dies (b. 0980).
• 1118 - Giovanni Caetani elected Pope Gelasius II.
• 1125 - King David IV of Georgia dies (b. 1073).
• 1287 - Richard Aungerville was born (d. 1345). English bishop and writer.
• 1366 - King Alfonso IV of Aragon dies (b. 1299).
• 1376 - Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel dies. English military leader.
• 1438 - The Council of Basel suspends Pope Eugene IV as Prelate of Ethiopia, arrives at Massawa from Goa.
• 1444 - Galeazzo Maria Sforza was born (d. 1476). Duke of Milan.
• 1458 - Matthias I Corvinus becomes king of Hungary.
• 1473 - Conrad Paumann dies. German composer.
• 1540 - Edmund Campion was born (d. 1581). English Jesuit.
• 1556 - An earthquake in Shensi (Shaanxi) province, China, killed 830,000 people.
• 1595 - Archduke Ferdinand II of Austria dies (b. 1529).
• 1616 - La isla de los Estados en el Cabo de Hornos es descubierta por la expedición holandesa comandada por William Schouten y Jacob Le Maire.
• 1624 - Alfonso Mendez, appointed by Pope Gregory XV as Prelate of Ethiopia, arrives at Massawa from Goa.
• 1626 - Samuel Argall dies (b. 1580). English adventurer and naval officer.
• 1638 - Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset was born (d. 1706). English poet and courtier.
• 1639 - Georg Jenatsch dies (b. 1596). Swiss politician.
• 1666 - Johann Andreas Herbst dies (b. 1588). German composer.
• 1670 - William Congreve was born (d. 1729). English playwright.
• 1674 - Thomas Tanner was born (d. 1735). English bishop and antiquarian.
• 1679 - King Charles II of England disbands Parliament.
• 1679 - Christian Wolff was born (d. 1754). German philosopher.
• 1705 - Farinelli was born (d. 1782). Italian castrato.
• 1709 - George Rooke dies (b. 1650). English admiral.
• 1712 - Frederick II the Great was born (d. 1786). King of Prussia.
• 1724 - Frances Brooke is baptized (date of birth unknown) (d. 1789). English writer.
• 1732 - Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais was born (d. 1799). French playwright (The Marriage of Figaro; The Barber of Seville)
• 1742 - Charles VII Albert becomes Holy Roman Emperor.
• 1742 - Anne, Duchess of Cumberland and Strathearn was born (d. 1808).
• 1752 - Muzio Clementi was born (d. 1832). Italian composer.
• 1754 - Andrew Ellicott was born (d. 1820). American surveyor.
• 1763 - Louis Alexandre Andrault de Langeron was born (d. 1831). Russian general.
• 1769 - François de Chevert dies (b. 1695). French general.
• 1776 – Henry Knox arrives at Cambridge, Massachusetts with the artillery that he has transported from Fort Ticonderoga.
• 1776 - E.T.A. Hoffmann was born (d. 1822). Poet, composer, and painter.
• 1779 - Elizabeth Alexeievna (Louise of Baden) was born (d. 1826). Russian tsarina.
• 1784 - José de Santa Rita Durão (Frei) dies in Lisbon (b. 1722 at CataPreta, now Santa Rita Durão, Minas Gerais). Theologian and poet.
• 1824 - João Manoel Menna Barreto was born in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul (d. 12 Aug 1869). Brazilian militar.
• 1826 - Mississippi College is founded in Clinton, becoming the first college in the state of Mississippi.
• 1828 - Ferdinand Cohn was born in Breslau, Prussia (d. 25 Jun 1898). German botanist. He is considered a founder of the science of bacteriology.
• 1839 - Juan Cruz Varela dies (b. 1794). Argentine writer and politician.
• 1839 - Charles Darwin elected member of Royal Society.
• 1842 - Leona Vicario (b. 1789). Mexican patriot who had important accion in the Wars of Independency
• 1848 - Gold was first discovered in California, in Sutter's Mill near Sacramento. When President Polk announced the news in December, the gold rush began.
• 1848 - Vasily Surikov was born (d. 1916). Russian painter.
• 1856 - Rabbi Yechezkel of Kuzmir dies (b. 1775). Polish Hasidic leader.
• 1857 - The University of Calcutta is formally founded as the first full-fledged university in south Asia.
• 1859 - Wallachia and Moldavia are united under Alexander John Cuza under the name Romania .
• 1862 - Bucharest proclaimed capital of Romania.
• 1862 - Edith Wharton was born in New York City (d. 11. Aug. 1937). American novelist, Pulitzer Prize winning author.
• 1864 - Marguerite Durand was born (d. 1936). French feminist leader.
• 1872 - Konstantin Bogaevsky was born (d. 1943). Russian painter.
• 1873 - Leon Czolgosz was born (d. 1901). American anarchist, assassin of U.S. President William McKinley.
• 1877 - Johann Christian Poggendorff dies (b. 1796). German physicist.
• 1878 - The revolutionary Vera Zasulich shoots at Fyodor Trepov, the Governor of Saint Petersburg.
• 1878 - João Pessoa was born in Paraíba (d. 26 Jul 1930). Brazilian politician.
• 1882 - Levi Boone dies (b. 1808). Mayor of Chicago.
• 1883 - Friedrich von Flotow dies (b. 1812). German composer.
• 1886 - Henry King was born (d. 1982). American film director.
• 1887 - Battle of Dogali: Abyssinian troops defeat Italians.
• 1888 - Jacob L. Wortman patents the typewriter ribbon.
• 1888 - Vicki Baum was born (d. 1960). Austrian writer.
• 1888 - Ernst Heinkel was born (d. 1958). German aircraft engineer who was the first rocket-powered aircraft.
• 1890 - Jeanne Humbert was born. French pacifist, anarchist militant & companion of Eugene Humbert & author of a biography of their lives. Sent to prison & fined, along with Eugene for spreading neo-Malthusian propaganda.
• 1891 - Walter Model was born (d. 1945). German field marshal.
• 1895 - Eugen Roth was born (d. 1976). German writer.
• 1895 - Lord Randolph Churchill dies (b. 1849). British politician.
• 1898 - Cliff Heathcote was born (d. 1939). American baseball player.
• 1901 - Harry Calder was born (d. 1995). South African cricketer.
• 1902 - Augusto Meyer was born (d. 1970). Brazilian journalist and poet.
• 1902 - Oskar Morgenstern was born (d. 26 Jul 1977). Economist-mathematician who created "game theory" which analyzes behaviour of man or animals in terms of win-loss strategies. With John von Neumann he wrote Theory of Games and Economic Behavior (1944).
• 1902 - E. A. Speiser was born (d. 1965). American Bible scholar.
• 1904 - Colonel Arthur Lynch's death sentence is commuted to life imprisonment.
• 1905 - J. Howard Marshall was born (d. 1995). American billionaire.
• 1907 - Maurice Couve de Murville was born (d. 1999). French politician.
• 1907 - Robert Baden-Powell begins the Boy Scout movement in England.
• 1909 - Ann Todd was born (d. 1993). English actress.
• 1909 - Martin Lings was born (d. 2005). English Islamic scholar.
• 1911 - David Graham Phillips dies (b. 1867). American journalist and novelist.
• 1913 - Norman Dello Joio was born. American composer.
• 1914 - Georges Cravenne was born. Publicist, creator of César.
• 1915 - Robert Motherwell was born (d. 1991). American painter.
• 1916 - In Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad, the Supreme Court of the United States declares the federal income tax void.
• 1916 - Jack Brickhouse was born (d. 1998). American sports broadcaster.
• 1916 - Rafael Caldera was born. Former President of Venezuela.
• 1916 - Tomás Seixas was born in Receife (d. 15 Nov 1993). Brazilian poet.
• 1917 - Ernest Borgnine was born. Academy Award-winning actor, (Marty - 1955, Ice Station Zebra, McHale).
• 1918 - A decree of the Council of People's Commissars, introducing the Gregorian calendar in Russia since February 1, issued.
• 1918 - Oral Roberts was born. American evangelist.
• 1919 - Coleman Francis was born. American film director.
• 1920 - Amedeo Modigliani dies (b. 1884). Italian painter and sculptor.
• 1922 - Christian K. Nelson patents the Eskimo Pie.
• 1922 - Charles Socarides was born (d. 2005). American psychiatrist.
• 1924 - Petrograd, formerly St. Petersburg, Russia, is renamed Leningrad.
• 1924 - Marie-Adélaïde, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg dies (b. 1894).
• 1925 - Maria Tallchief was born. American ballerina.
• 1926 - Georges Lautner was born in Nice. French film director and screenwriter.
• 1927 - Young director Alfred Hitchcock released his first film, The Pleasure Garden, in England.
• 1927 - Sir Patrick Macnaghten, 11th Baronet was born (d. 2007). British aristocrat.
• 1928 - Desmond Morris was born. British anthropologist and writer.
• 1928 - Michel Serrault was born. French actor.
• 1931 - Lars V. Hörmander was born. Swedish mathematician who was awarded the Fields Medal in 1962 for his work on partial differential equations. Spending five years in writing, he produced a text "The analysis of linear partial differential operators", in four volumes (1983-85).
• 1932 - Sir Alfred Yarrow dies (b. 1842). English shipbuilder.
• 1934 - Stanisław Grochowiak was born (d. 1976). Polish poet and dramatist.
• 1935 - The first cans of beer are sold in the US (Krueger's Finest Beer and Krueger's Cream Ale).
• 1935 - Jaime Batalha Reis dies (b. 1847). Portuguese jornalist, writer, economist and diplomat
• 1936 - Albert Sarraut becomes Prime Minister of France.
• 1936 - Doug Kershaw was born. American musician.
• 1939 - Ray Stevens was born. American musician.
• 1939 - 30,000 killed by earthquake in Concepcion, Chile.
• 1939 - Maximilian Bircher-Benner dies (b. 1867). Swiss physician and nutritionist.
• 1941 - Neil Diamond was born in Brooklyn NY. American singer, songwriter.
• 1941 - Aaron Neville was born. American singer.
• 1942 - US submarine S-26 sinks after colliding with another Navy ship off the coast of Panama. 32 die.
• 1943 - Sharon Tate was born in Dallas, Texas (d. 1969). American actress (Valley of the Dolls) .
• 1943 - World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill conclude a conference in Casablanca.
• 1943 - Sharon Tate was born (d. 1969). American actress and Manson murder victim
• 1943 - Subhash Ghai was born. Indian film director.
• 1943 - John Burns dies (b. 1858). English politician.
• 1944 - Klaus Nomi was born (d. 1983). German singer.
• 1945 - Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz, the concentration camp in Poland.
• 1945 - John Garamendi was born. American politician.
• 1946 - The Atomic Energy Commission was established by a United Nations general assembly resolution on this day. The resolution was initiated originally by the United States, Canada and Britain.
• 1946 - Michael Ontkean was born. Canadian actor.
• 1947 - Warren Zevon was born (d. 2003). American musician and songwriter.
• 1947 - Masashi Ozaki was born. Japanese golfer.
• 1948 - Maria Mandel dies (b. 1912). Camp Leader at Auschwitz.
• 1948 - Arthur Liebehenschel dies (b. 1901). Commandant at Auschwitz concentration camp.
• 1949 - John Belushi was born (d. 1982). American actor.
• 1950 - Gerald Brisco was born. American wrestler.
• 1950 - Benjamin Urrutia was born. American scholar.
• 1950 - Daniel Auteuil was born. French actor.
• 1951 - Yakov Smirnoff was born. Russian comedian.
• 1952 - Vincent Massey sworn in as first Canada-born Governor-General of Canada.
• 1954 - Jo Gartner was born (d. 1986). Austrian racing driver.
• 1955 - Ira Hayes dies. She was a Native American hero of World War II's Battle of Iwo Jima.
• 1956 - Hanne Krogh was born. Norwegian singer and Eurovision Song Contest winner (Bobbysocks).
• 1957 - Adrian Edmondson was born. British comedian.
• 1958 - Neil Allen was born. American baseball player.
• 1958 - Jools Holland was born. British musician.
• 1959 - Vic Reeves was born. English comedian.
• 1959 - David Mills was born. American author.
• 1959 - Michel Preud'Homme was born. Belgian footballer (goal-keeper).
• 1959(*) - Nastassja Kinski was born. German-born actress (Tess, Cat People). She played her first character role under director Roman Polanski. In 1980 she received the César for Tess (1979) and then the Golden Globe Award in 1981. (*Some fonts say 1960 and others 1961).
• 1960 - Edwin Fischer dies (b. 1886). Swiss pianist and conductor.
• 1961 - Elsa, the lioness made famous by Joy Adamson's book Born Free, dies in Kenya.
• 1961 - A US B-52 bomber with two 24-megaton nuclear bombs crashed near Goldsboro, North Carolina.
• 1961 - End of the road for Monroe and Miller : Hollywood screen star Marilyn Monroe divorces her husband of five years, playwright Arthur Miller.
• 1961 - Vince Russo was born. American writer.
• 1961 - Alfred Carlton Gilbert dies (b. 1884). American swimmer and inventor.
• 1962 - Jackie Robinson is 1st Black elected to Baseball Hall of Fame.
• 1962 - Brian Epstein signs to manage The Beatles.
• 1962 - Stanley Lord dies (b. 1877). Captain of the SS Californian the night of the Titanic disaster.
• 1962 - André Lhote dies (b. 5 Jul 1885). French Cubist painter and sculptor.
• 1963 - Arnold Vanderlyde was born. Dutch boxer.
• 1963 - John Myung was born. American bassist (Dream Theater).
• 1963 - Martyn Grimley was born. British hockey player.
• 1964 - British troops are flown in to Uganda to an army mutiny over low pay.
• 1965 - Portugal beat Turkey 5-1, in Lisbon, for 1966 World Championship - Qualification phase. Eusébio (3), Jaime Graça, Coluna (Portugal) and Fevzi (Turkey) scored.
• 1965 - Carlos Saldanha was born. Brazilian film director.
• 1965 - Mike Awesome was born (d. 2007). American professional wrestler.
• 1965 - Winston Churchill dies in London (b. 30 Nov 1874). Statesman and historian, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• 1966 - Indira Gandhi, filha de Nehru, assume como primeira-ministra da Índia após a morte de Sri Shastri.
• 1966 - An Air India Boeing 707 jet crashes on Mont Blanc, on the border between France and Italy, killing 117.
• 1966 - Jimeoin was born. Northern Irish-Australian comedian and actor.
• 1966 - Karine Viard was born. French actress.
• 1966 - Homi J. Bhabha dies (b. 1909). Indian physicist.
• 1967 - Promulgada a quinta Constituição da República, pelo Congresso Nacional, elaborada por Carlos Medeiros Silva, ministro da Justiça do governo Castello Branco (Brasil).
• 1967 - John Myung was born. American musician (Dream Theater).
• 1967 - Mark Kozelek was born. American singer/songwriter (Red House Painters, Sun Kil Moon).
• 1967 - Phil LaMarr was born. American voice actor.
• 1967 - Oliverio Girondo dies in Buenos Aires (b. 17 Aug 1891). Argentinean poet.
• 1968 - Mary Lou Retton was born. Gymnast, Olympic Hall of Fame medalist [1 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze: Los Angeles: 1984]; first American woman to win an individual medal in gymnastics.
• 1968 - Michael Kiske was born. German musician.
• 1969 - Hilmir Snær Guðnason was born. Icelandic actor.
• 1969 - António Sérgio dies (b. 1883). Portuguese pedagogue, essayst and thinker / António Sérgio, pedagogo e ensaista, morreu neste dia, um dos pensadores marcantes do Portugal contemporâneo.
• 1969 - O ditador Francisco Franco declara lei marcial na Espanha, após manifestações públicas, nas quais 300 pessoas foram presas.
• 1970 - Matthew Lillard was born. American actor.
• 1970 - Caresse Crosby dies (b. 1891). American poet.
• 1971 - Cory Bailey was born. American baseball player.
• 1971 - Andrea Mackris was born. American television producer.
• 1971 - Bill W. dies (b. 1895). American co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous.
• 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.
• 1972 - Naoshi Mizuta was born. Japanese composer.
• 1973 - J. Carrol Naish dies (b. 1897). American actor.
• 1974 - Shii Ann Huang was born. American game show contestant.
• 1974 - Ed Helms was born. American actor.
• 1975 - Rónald Gómez was born. Costa Rican footballer.
• 1975 - Larry Fine dies (b. 1902). American actor and comedian.
• 1976 - Shae-Lynn Bourne was born. Canadian ice dancer with Victor Kraatz.
• 1977 - Massacre of Atocha in Madrid, during the Spanish transition to democracy.
• 1978 - Soviet satellite Cosmos 954 burns up in Earth's atmosphere, scattering debris over Canada's Northwest Territories.
• 1978 - Rose Dugdale and Eddie Gallagher become the first convicted prisoners to marry in prison in the history of the Republic of Ireland.
• 1978 - Herta Oberheuser dies (b. 1911). Nazi doctor.
• 1979 - Tatyana Ali was born. American actress.
• 1979 - Tom Kostopoulos was born. Canadian ice hockey player.
• 1979 - Johannes De Klerk dies. South-African politician.
• 1980 - Nicole Marie Lenz was born. American actress.
• 1981 - Travis Hanson was born. American baseball player.
• 1982 - Jan Fila was born. Czech composer.
• 1982 - Super Bowl XVI: San Francisco 49ers defeat the Cincinnati Bengals, 26-21 in the first Super Bowl played north of the Mason-Dixon line.
• 1982 - Alfredo Ovando Candía dies (b. 1918). Bolivian president and dictator.
• 1983 - Scott Speed was born. American racecar driver.
• 1983 - Shaun Maloney was born. Scottish footballer.
• 1983 - George Cukor dies (b. 1899). American film director.
• 1984 - The first Apple Macintosh goes on sale.
• 1984 - Benoît Huot was born. Quebec paralympic swimmer.
• 1984 - Scott Kazmir was born. American baseball player.
• 1984 - Witold Kiełtyka was born (d. 2007). Polish drummer (Decapitated).
• 1984 - Scott Kazmir was born. American baseball player.
• 1986 - Voyager 2 passes within 50,679 miles of Uranus.
• 1986 - Wapping dispute: Newspaper workers in London launch ultimately unsuccessful strike against Rupert Murdoch's News International.
• 1986 - Vincente Minnelli dies (b. 1903). Italian film director.
• 1986 - Mischa Barton was born. English-born actress.
• 1986 - Ravivi Ullman was born. American actor.
• 1986 - L. Ron Hubbard dies (b. 1911). American writer and founder of Scientology.
• 1986 - Flo Hyman dies (b. 1954). American volleyball player.
• 1986 - Gordon MacRae dies (b. 1921). American actor and singer.
• 1986 - Vincente Minnelli dies (b. 1903). American film director.
• 1988 - Charles Glen King dies (b. 22 Oct 1896); Biochemist who discovered vitamin C, an aid in the prevention of scurvy and malnutrition.
• 1988 - Werner Fenchel dies (b. 1905). German mathematician.
• 1989 - Calvin Goldspink was born. English singer (S Club 8).
• 1989 - Ted Bundy dies executed in Florida's electric chair (b. 1946). American serial killer.
• 1989 - George Knudson dies (b. 1937). Canadian golfer.
• 1990 - Madge Bellamy dies (b. 1899). American actress.
• 1991 - John M. Kelly dies (b. 1931). Irish politician and academic.
• 1991 - Falece Amador Aguiar, banqueiro paulista e fundador do maior banco privado da América Latina: o Bradesco. Sob a sua administração, o Bradesco foi o primeiro banco brasileiro a empregar computadores, e desde então, continua investindo pesado em informática.
• 1992 - Primeiras eleições presidenciais livres na Mauritânia, onde o vencedor ao cargo de presidente foi Muauiya Uld Taya.
• 1992 - Ignácio Bernal dies (b. 13 Feb 1910). French-born Mexican anthropologist.
• 1992 - Ken Darby dies (b. 1909). American composer, arranger and conductor.
• 1992 - Ricky Ray Rector dies (b. 1950). American murderer.
• 1993 - Polish ferry boat John Heweliusz sinks, 52 killed.
• 1993 - Turkish journalist and writer Uğur Mumcu assassinated by a car bomb in Ankara
• 1993 - Thurgood Marshall dies (b. 1908). U.S. Supreme Court Justice.
• 1994 - Um navio petroleiro explode e se parte em dois, com 23 mil toneladas de petróleo bruto, a 530 quilómetros de Hong Kong.
• 1994 - Yves Navarre dies (b. 1940). French writer.
  1995 - The prosecution delivers its opening statement in the O. J. Simpson murder trial.
• 1996 - Polish Premier Jozef Oleksy resigns amid charge he spied for Moscow.
• 1998 - Walter D. Edmonds dies (b. 1903). American author.
• 1998 - China: A gas explosion in a NE China coal mine kills 77.
• 2000 - Bobby Duncum, Jr. dies (b. 1965). American professional wrestler.
• 2001 - The last two of the Texas 7 are taken into custody in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
• 2001 - Mandelson resigns - again: Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson resigns from the Cabinet over a passports-for-cash scandal.
• 2002 - Enron Congressional hearings begin.
• 2002 - Terrorist suspect John Walker Lindh's hearing begins.
• 2002 - The United States Department of Justice indicts Robert Nicholas Angleton for conspiring to murder his wife, Doris Angleton, along with his brother Roger.
• 2002 - Portugal: António Cunha commits suicide at 61 jumping to the lions area in Lisbon zoo. Three months before the son had commited suicide with a shot.
• 2002 - Elie Hobeika dies (b. 1956). Lebanese Forces militia commander.
• 2002 - Peter Gzowski dies (b. 1934). Canadian broadcaster, writer and reporter.
• 2003 - The United States Department of Homeland Security officially begins operation.
• 2003 -The Department of Homeland Security, under Tom Ridge, became a cabinet department .
• 2003 - Gianni Agnelli dies (b. 1921). Italian auto executive (President of Fiat).
• 2003 - Morreu baleado o rapper Sabotage, de 29 anos, em São Paulo. Sabotage, levava a sua esposa ao trabalho quando foi baleado ao volante.
• 2004 - Olga Ladyzhenskaya dies. Russian matemathicien.
• 2004 - Opportunity's Mars landing : Launched in mid-2003, the six-wheeled robotic rover Opportunity landed on Mars and—like its twin rover, Spirit, which had landed on January 3—analyzed rocks and soils and relayed pictures back to Earth.
• 2004 - Leônidas da Silva dies (b. 1913). Brazilian footballer.
• 2005 - June Bronhill dies (b. 1929). Australian singer.
• 2005 - Vladimir Savchenko dies (b. 1933). Ukrainian writer.
• 2005 - Chalkie White dies (b. 1929). English rugby coach.
• 2006 - Disney agrees to purchase Pixar in an all-cash deal, making Steve Jobs the largest shareholder
• 2006 - Chris Penn dies (b. 1965). American actor.
• 2006 - Fayard Nicholas dies (b. 1914). American tap dancer, one-half of The Nicholas Brothers
• 2006 - Schafik Handal dies. Salvadorean politician.
• 2007 - Krystyna Feldman dies (b. 1920). Polish actress.
• 2007 - Guadalupe Larriva dies (b. 1956). Ecuadorian politician.
• 2007 - Emiliano Mercado del Toro dies (b. 1891). World's Oldest Military Veteran.
• Roman Empire - first day of the Sementivae in honor of Ceres and Terra.
• Roman Catholic Church - Feasts of St. Francis de Sales and Our Lady of Peace.
• Wales - Saint Cadoc.
• International Xenu Praise Day - First Church of Xenu.