Post by Evon on Jan 23, 2015 21:33:08 GMT -5
January 24 is the 24th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar.
There are 341 days remaining until the end of the year
Days left until elections:
daysuntil.com/Election-Day/index.html
U.S. Debt Clock: www.usdebtclock.org/
Bust of Caligula at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek museum in Copenhagen
41 Roman Emperor Caligula, known for his eccentricity and sadistic despotism, is assassinated by his disgruntled Praetorian Guards. The Guard then proclaims Caligula's uncle Claudius as Emperor
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caligula
Henry IV
1076 German King Henry IV (1050–1106) convened the Synod of Worms to secure the deposition of Pope Gregory VII (ca. 1020/1025–1085).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_IV,_Holy_Roman_Emperor
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Gregory_VII
1438 Pope Eugene IV (1383–1447) was suspended by the Council of Basel (Florence).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Eugene_IV
1624 Afonso Mendes, appointed by Pope Gregory XV as Prelate of Ethiopia, arrives at Massawa from Goa.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afonso_Mendes
1679 King Charles II of England dissolves the Cavalier Parliament.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_II_of_England#Conflict_with_Parliament
1722 In Cambridge, Mass., Edward Wigglesworthwas named to fill the newly created Thomas Hollis chair at Harvard College. Mr. Wigglesworth thereby became the first divinity professor commissioned in the American colonies.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Wigglesworth
1738 Four months before his celebrated Christian conversion, Anglican missionary John Wesley wrote in his journal: 'I went to America to convert the Indians. But oh! who shall convert me? I have a fair summer religion... But let death look me in the face, and my spirit is troubled.'
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wesley
1742 Charles VII Albert becomes Holy Roman Emperor.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_VII,_Holy_Roman_Emperor
1758 During the Seven Years' War the leading burghers of Königsberg submit to Elizabeth I of Russia, thus forming Russian Prussia (until 1763)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_of_Russia#Seven_Years.27_War
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Years%27_War
Francis Marion
1781 Light Horse and Swamp Fox raid Georgetown, South Carolina On this day in 1781, Patriot commanders Lieutenant Colonel Light Horse Henry Lee and Brigadier General Francis Swamp Fox Marion of the South Carolina militia combine forces and conduct a raid on Georgetown, South Carolina, which is defended by 200 British soldiers.
Marion won fame and the Swamp Fox moniker for his ability to strike and then quickly retreat into the South Carolina swamps without a trace. His military strategy is considered an 18th-century example of guerilla warfare and served as partial inspiration for the film The Patriot, starring Mel Gibson.
Marion took over the South Carolina militia force first assembled by Thomas Sumter in 1780. Sumter, the other inspiration for Mel Gibson's character in the film, returned Carolina Loyalists' terror tactics in kind after Loyalists burned his plantation. When Sumter withdrew from active fighting to care for a wound, Marion replaced him and strategized with Major General Nathaniel Greene, who had recently arrived in the Carolinas to lead the Continental forces. On January 24, the Patriots under Marion and Lee managed to arrive at Georgetown undetected and captured at least three officers, including the British commander.
The following month, Lee's cavalry was able to defeat a band of Loyalist cavalry at Haw River, North Carolina, by taking advantage of the extreme similarity of Patriot uniforms to those of British Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton's troops. British Colonel John Pyle's men at Haw River were surprised to discover that the horsemen approaching them were not friends, as they appeared from a distance, but foes. Losing three fingers and blinding one eye in the course of combat, Colonel Pyle, a doctor by profession, survived by hiding in what is now known as Pyle's Pond.
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/light-horse-and-swamp-fox-raid-georgetown-south-carolina
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/light-horse-and-swamp-fox-raid-georgetown-south-carolina
1835 Slaves in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, stage a revolt, which is instrumental in ending slavery there 50 years later.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery#South_America_and_Caribbean
James Wilson Marshall
1848 California Gold Rush: James W. Marshall finds gold at Sutter's Mill near Sacramento. A tributary to the South Fork of the American River in the Sacramento Valley east of San Francisco, Sutter's Creek was named for a Swiss immigrant who came to Mexican California in 1839. John Augustus Sutter became a citizen of Mexico and won a grant of nearly 50,000 acres in the lush Sacramento Valley, where he hoped to create a thriving colony. He built a sturdy fort that became the center of his first town, New Helvetia, and purchased farming implements, livestock, and a cannon to defend his tiny empire. Copying the methods of the Spanish missions, Sutter induced the local Indians to do all the work on his farms and ranches, often treating them as little more than slaves. Workers who dared leave his empire without permission were often brought back by armed posses to face brutal whippings or even execution.
In the 1840s, Sutter's Fort became the first stopping-off point for overland Anglo-American emigrants coming to California to build farms and ranches. Though sworn to protect the Mexican province from falling under the control of the growing number of Americans, Sutter recognized that his future wealth and influence lay with these Anglo settlers. With the outbreak of the Mexican War in 1846, he threw his support to the Americans, who emerged victorious in the fall of 1847.
With the war over and California securely in the hands of the United States, Sutter hired the millwright James Marshall to build a sawmill along the South Fork of the American River in January 1848. In order to redirect the flow of water to the mill's waterwheel, Marshall supervised the excavation of a shallow millrace. On the morning of January 24, 1848, Marshall was looking over the freshly cut millrace when a sparkle of light in the dark earth caught his eye. Looking more closely, Marshall found that much of the millrace was speckled with what appeared to be small flakes of gold, and he rushed to tell Sutter. After an assayer confirmed that the flakes were indeed gold, Sutter quietly set about gathering up as much of the gold as he could, hoping to keep the discovery a secret. However, word soon leaked out and, within months, the largest gold rush in the world had begun.
Ironically, the California gold rush was a disaster for Sutter. Though it brought thousands of men to California, the prospectors had no interest in joining Sutter's despotic agricultural community. Instead, they overran Sutter's property, slaughtered his herds for food, and trampled his fields. By 1852, New Helvetia was ruined, and Sutter was nearly wiped out. Until his death in 1880, he spent his time unsuccessfully petitioning the government to compensate him for the losses he suffered as a result of the gold rush he unintentionally ignited.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_W._Marshall
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Gold_Rush
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/gold-discovered-at-sutters-creek
Seal of the University of Calcutta
1857 The University of Calcutta is formally founded as the first fully-fledged university in South Asia.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Calcutta
1862 Bucharest is proclaimed the capital of Romania.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucharest
1865 Confederate Congress agrees to resume prisoner exchanges On this day in 1865, the Confederate Congress agrees to continue prisoner exchanges, opening a process that had operated only sporadically for three years.
In the first year of the Civil War, prisoner exchanges were conducted primarily between field generals on an ad hoc basis. The Union was reluctant to enter any formal agreements, fearing that it would legitimize the Confederate government. But the issue became more important as the campaigns escalated in 1862. In July 1862, Union General John Dix and Confederate General Daniel H. Hill reached an agreement in which each soldier was assigned a value according to rank. For example, one private was worth another private; corporals and sergeants were worth two privates; and lieutenants were worth three privates. A commanding general was worth 60 privates. Under this system, thousands of soldiers were exchanged rather than languishing in prisons like those in Andersonville, Georgia, or Elmira, New York.
The system was really a gentlemen's agreement, relying on the trust of each side. It broke down in 1862 when Confederates refused to exchange black Union soldiers. From 1862 to 1865, prisoner exchanges were rare. When they did happen, it was usually because two local commanders came to a workable agreement. The result of the breakdown was the swelling of prisoner-of-war camps in both the North and South. The most notorious of all the camps was Andersonville, where one-third of the approximately 46,000 Union troops incarcerated died of disease, exposure, or starvation.
Though the prisoner exchanges resumed in January 1865, the end of the war was so close that it did not make much difference.
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/confederate-congress-to-resume-prisoner-exchanges
The town hall at Ladysmith, showing shell damage to the tower
1900 Second Boer War: Boers stop a British attempt to break the Siege of Ladysmith in the Battle of Spion Kop.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Boer_War
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Ladysmith
1908 The first Boy Scout troop is organized in England by Robert Baden-Powell. The Boy Scouts movement began 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.
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/boy-scouts-movement-begins
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scouting
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Baden-Powell,_1st_Baron_Baden-Powell
1911 Japanese anarchist Shūsui Kōtoku is hanged for treason in a case now considered a miscarriage of justice.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh%C5%ABsui_K%C5%8Dtoku
1913 Eduard Louis Arndt (1864–1929) and his family left Saint Paul, Minnesota, for China to begin mission work there.
lutheranhistory.org/collections/fa/m-0005.htm
1916 In Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad, the Supreme Court of the United States declares the federal income tax constitutional.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brushaber_v._Union_Pacific_Railroad_Co.
1918 The Gregorian calendar is introduced in Russia by decree of the Council of People's Commissars effective February 14(NS)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar
1933 The 20th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, changing the beginning and end of terms for all elected federal offices.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twentieth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
1935 First canned beer goes on sale. Canned beer makes its debut on this day in 1935. In partnership with the American Can Company, the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company delivered 2,000 cans of Krueger's Finest Beer and Krueger's Cream Ale to faithful Krueger drinkers in Richmond, Virginia. Ninety-one percent of the drinkers approved of the canned beer, driving Krueger to give the green light to further production.
By the late 19th century, cans were instrumental in the mass distribution of foodstuffs, but it wasn't until 1909 that the American Can Company made its first attempt to can beer. This was unsuccessful, and the American Can Company would have to wait for the end of Prohibition in the United States before it tried again. Finally in 1933, after two years of research, American Can developed a can that was pressurized and had a special coating to prevent the fizzy beer from chemically reacting with the tin.
The concept of canned beer proved to be a hard sell, but Krueger's overcame its initial reservations and became the first brewer to sell canned beer in the United States. The response was overwhelming. Within three months, over 80 percent of distributors were handling Krueger's canned beer, and Krueger's was eating into the market share of the "big three" national brewers--Anheuser-Busch, Pabst and Schlitz. Competitors soon followed suit, and by the end of 1935, over 200 million cans had been produced and sold.
The purchase of cans, unlike bottles, did not require the consumer to pay a deposit. Cans were also easier to stack, more durable and took less time to chill. As a result, their popularity continued to grow throughout the 1930s, and then exploded during World War II, when U.S. brewers shipped millions of cans of beer to soldiers overseas. After the war, national brewing companies began to take advantage of the mass distribution that cans made possible, and were able to consolidate their power over the once-dominant local breweries, which could not control costs and operations as efficiently as their national counterparts.
Today, canned beer accounts for approximately half of the $20 billion U.S. beer industry. Not all of this comes from the big national brewers: Recently, there has been renewed interest in canning from microbrewers and high-end beer-sellers, who are realizing that cans guarantee purity and taste by preventing light damage and oxidation.
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-canned-beer-goes-on-sale
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer#Packaging
1939 The deadliest earthquake in Chilean history strikes Chillán, killing approximately 28,000 people. An 8.3-magnitude earthquake centered in south central Chile leaves 50,000 people dead and 60,000 injured on this day in 1939. 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 to help protect residents from future earthquakes.
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/chile-suffers-killer-quake
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939_Chill%C3%A1n_earthquake
1942 World War II: The Allies bombard Bangkok, leading Thailand, then under Japanese control, to declare war against the United States and United Kingdom.
United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and their advisors in Casablanca, 1943
1943 World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill conclude a conference in Casablanca.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casablanca#World_War_II
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casablanca_Conference
1946 The United Nations General Assembly passes its first resolution to establish the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Atomic_Energy_Commission
1960 Algerian War: Some units of European volunteers in Algiers stage an insurrection known as the "barricades week", during which they seize government buildings and clash with local police.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algerian_War#The_week_of_barricades
One of the Mk 39 nuclear weapons at Goldsboro, largely intact, with its parachute still attached.
1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash: A bomber carrying two H-bombs breaks up in mid-air over North Carolina. The uranium core of one weapon remains lost.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Goldsboro_B-52_crash
An Australian digger searching the body of a dead Viet Cong soldier following an ambush
1968 Vietnam War: The 1st Australian Task Force launches Operation Coburg against the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong during wider fighting around Long Bình and Biên Hòa
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Coburg
1972 Japanese Sgt. Shoichi Yokoi is found hiding in a Guam jungle, where he had been since the end of World War II.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoichi_Yokoi
Donald Coggan, Archbishop of York and his wife calling on P.M. David Ben Gurion and his wife during a visit in Israel, August 1961
1975 Rev. F. Donald Coggan, 66, was consecrated the 101st Archbishop of Canterbury (primate of Anglicanism). In the audience was Johannes Cardinal Willebrands -- the first Vatican representative to attend this Anglican ceremony since the time of the Reformation.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Coggan
Monument for the killed lawyers, located in Antón Martín square, Madrid
1977 Massacre of Atocha in Madrid, during the Spanish transition to democracy.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1977_Massacre_of_Atocha
1978 Soviet satellite Cosmos 954, with a nuclear reactor on board, burns up in Earth's atmosphere, scattering radioactive debris over Canada's Northwest Territories. Only 1% is recovered.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosmos_954
The original Macintosh, released in January 1984.
1984 The first Apple Macintosh goes on sale.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh
1986 Voyager 2 passes within 81,500 kilometres (50,600 mi) of Uranus.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_2
1989 The Rev. Barbara C. Harris, 55, of Boston, was confirmed as the first female bishop in the 450-year history of the Anglican Church.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Harris_(bishop)
1990 Japan launches Hiten, the country's first lunar probe, the first robotic lunar probe since the Soviet Union's Luna 24 in 1976, and the first lunar probe launched by a country other than Soviet Union or the United States.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiten
1993 Turkish journalist and writer Uğur Mumcu is assassinated by a car bomb in Ankara.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U%C4%9Fur_Mumcu
2003 The United States Department of Homeland Security officially begins operation.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Homeland_Security
Klaus at 0328 UTC on 24 January over the Bay of Biscay
2009 The storm Klaus makes landfall near Bordeaux, France. It subsequently would cause 26 deaths as well as extensive disruptions to public transport and power supplies.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Klaus
Domodedovo Airport's passenger terminal (2007)
2011 At least 35 die and 180 are injured in a bombing at Moscow's Domodedovo airport.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riyad-us_Saliheen_Brigade_of_Martyrs
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domodedovo_International_Airport_bombing
2014 Three bombs explode in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, killing about seven people and injuring over 100 others.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_2014_Cairo_bombings
Births
76 Hadrian, Roman emperor (d. 138)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadrian
1287 Richard Aungerville, English bishop, writer, bibliophile, Benedictine monk, patron of learning and one of the first English collectors of books, (d. 14 April 1345).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_de_Bury
1540 Edmund Campion, English Jesuit priest who was executed on a charge of conspiring to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I, (d. 1 December 1581).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Campion
1674 Thomas Tanner, English bishop and antiquarian who published an account of all the religious houses of England and Wales, (d. 14 December 1735).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Tanner_(bishop)
1712 Frederick the Great, Prussian king Frederick's achievements during his reign included his military victories, his reorganization of Prussian armies, his patronage of the Arts and the Enlightenment in Prussia, and his final success against great odds in the Seven Years' War. He became known as Frederick the Great (Friedrich der Große) and was nicknamed Der Alte Fritz ("Old Fritz") by the Prussian people. (d. 1786)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_the_Great
1754 Andrew Ellicott, American surveyor who helped map many of the territories west of the Appalachians, surveyed the boundaries of the District of Columbia, continued and completed Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant's work on the plan for Washington, D.C., and served as a teacher in survey methods for Meriwether Lewis. (d. 1820)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Ellicott
1818 John Mason Neale, Anglican clergyman, who was one of the first to translate ancient Greek and Latin hymns into English. Neale thus rendered the hymns known today as "All Glory, Laud, and Honor," "Good Christian Men, Rejoice" and "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mason_Neale
1827 John Albert Broadus, American Baptist New Testament professor and president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, Kentucky), in Virginia (d. 16 March 1895).
1918 Oral Roberts, American evangelist, in Ada, Oklahoma (d. 15 December 2009, Newport Beach, California).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_Roberts
1820 John Milton Thayer Brevet Major General (Union volunteers) and a postbellum United States Senator from Nebraska. Thayer served as Governor of Wyoming Territory and Governor of Nebraska. (d 1906)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Milton_Thayer
1827 John Albert Broadus, American Baptist New Testament professor and president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, Kentucky), in Virginia (d. 16 March 1895).
www.reformedreader.org/rbb/broadus/broaduspreacher.htm
1828 Adam Jacoby Slemmer Brigadier General (Union volunteers), (d 1868)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_J._Slemmer
1832 John Pegram Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1865
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Pegram_(general)
1841 Robert Williams, American archer (d. 1914)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Williams_(archer)
1843 Josip Štadler, Croatian archbishop (d. 1918)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josip_Stadler
1862 Edith Wharton, Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and designer. She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1927, 1928 and 1930. Wharton combined her insider's view of America's privileged classes with a brilliant, natural wit to write humorous, incisive novels and short stories of social and psychological insight. She was well acquainted with many of her era's other literary and public figures, including Theodore Roosevelt.(d. 1937)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Wharton
1871 Albert Erskine, Studebaker chief who headed up the pioneering American automaker Studebaker before it went bankrupt during the Great Depression, in Huntsville, Alabama.
During the late 1800s and early 1900s, Erskine worked for such companies as American Cotton and Underwood Typewriter, before joining South Bend, Indiana-based Studebaker in 1911. The origins of the Studebaker Corporation date back to 1852, when brothers Henry and Clement Studebaker opened a blacksmith shop in South Bend. Studebaker eventually became a leading manufacturer of horse-drawn wagons and supplied wagons to the U.S. Army during the Civil War. Around the turn of the century, the company entered America's burgeoning auto industry, launching an electric car in 1902 and a gas-powered vehicle two years later that was marketed under the name Studebaker-Garford. After partnering with other automakers, Studebaker began selling gas-powered cars under its own name in 1913, while continuing to make wagons until 1920.
Erskine became the president of Studebaker in 1915. Under his leadership, the company acquired luxury automaker Pierce-Arrow in the late 1920s and launched the affordably priced but short-lived Erskine and Rockne lines, the latter of which was named for the famous University of Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne (1888-1931). During the early 1930s, Studebaker was hit hard by the Great Depression and Erskine was accused of financial mismanagement. In March 1933, the company was forced into bankruptcy. Erskine, who was saddled with personal debt and health problems, killed himself on July 1, 1933, at the age of 62.
New management got the company back on track, dropping the Rockne brand in July 1933 and selling Pierce-Arrow, among other consolidation moves. In January 1935, the new Studebaker Corporation was incorporated. In the late 1930s, the French-born industrial designer Raymond Loewy began working for Studebaker and would be credited with popular models including the bullet-nosed 1953 Starliner and Starlight coupes and the 1963 Avanti sports coupe.
By the mid-1950s, Studebaker, which didn't have the resources of its Big Three competitors, had merged with automaker Packard and was again facing financial troubles. By the late 1950s, the Packard brand was dropped. In December 1963, Studebaker shuttered its South Bend plant, ending the production of its cars and trucks in America. The company's Hamilton, Ontario, facilities remained in operation until March 1966, when Studebaker shut its doors for the final time after 114 years in business.
In April 2009, Chrysler became the first major American automaker since Studebaker to declare bankruptcy.
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/albert-erskine-studebaker-chief-is-born
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Russel_Erskine
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/albert-erskine-studebaker-chief-is-born
1883 Philip Schuster, American gymnast (d. 1926)
1886 Henry King, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1982)
1888 Hedwig "Vicki" Baum Austrian/US author -- considered one of the first modern bestselling authors, and her books are reputed to be among the first examples of contemporary mainstream literature.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicki_Baum
1889 Charles Hawes, American author (d. 1923)
1898 Cliff Heathcote, American baseball player (d. 1939)
1900 Theodosius Dobzhansky, Ukrainian-American geneticist and biologist (d. 1975)
1902 E. A. Speiser, American scholar (d. 1965)
1902 Oskar Morgenstern German/US economist -- In collaboration with mathematician John von Neumann, he founded the mathematical field of game theory and its application to economics (see von Neumann–Morgenstern utility theorem).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oskar_Morgenstern
1905 J. Howard Marshall, American lawyer and businessman (d. 1995)
1907 Tuts Washington, American pianist (d. 1984)
1910 Doris Haddock, American activist (d. 2010)
1911 C[atherine] L[ucille] Moore US, sci-fi author (Judgment Night)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._L._Moore
1912 Frederick Ashworth, American admiral (d. 2005)
1913 Norman Dello Joio, American composer (d. 2008)
1915 Robert Motherwell, American painter (d. 1991)
1916 Jack Brickhouse, American sportscaster (d. 1998)
1916 Gene Mako, Hungarian-American tennis player (d. 2013)
1917 Ernest Borgnine, American actor (d. 2012)
1918 Oral Roberts, American evangelist, in Ada, Oklahoma (d. 15 December 2009, Newport Beach, California).founded Oral Roberts University and Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association (d. 2009)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_Roberts
1919 Coleman Francis, American director (d. 1973)
1919 Leon Kirchner Brooklyn NY, opera composer (Lily)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Kirchner
1920 Jerry Maren, American actor
1922 Charles Socarides, American psychiatrist (d. 2005)
1924 Joe Albany, American pianist (d. 1988)
1925 Maria Tallchief, American ballerina (d. 2013)
1926 Ruth Asawa, American sculptor (d. 2013)
1930 John Romita, Sr., American illustrator
1931 Leonard Baker, American historian and author (d. 1984)
1932 Jaan Puhvel, Estonian-American linguist and mythographer
1934 Ann Cole, American singer (d. 1986)
1936 William Bogert, American actor
1936 Doug Kershaw, American singer-songwriter and fiddler
1939 Ray Stevens, American singer-songwriter
1941 Neil Diamond, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1941 Aaron Neville, American singer (Neville Brothers)
1941 Gary K. Wolf, American author and humorist
1942 Gary Hart, American wrestler and manager (d. 2008)
1943 Julie Bennett, American voice actress
1943 Sharon Tate, American actress (d. 1969)
1944 David Gerrold, American author and screenwriter
1945 D. Todd Christofferson, American religious leader
1945 John Garamendi, American politician, 46th Lieutenant Governor of California
1946 Haji, Canadian-American actress (d. 2013)
1946 Gerald Floyd Brisco (born January 24, 1946) American retired professional wrestler, currently employed by the professional wrestling promotion WWE as a talent scout.
Debuting in 1969, Brisco wrestled for multiple National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) territories throughout the 1970s and ealry-1980s, in particular Championship Wrestling from Florida and Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, winning dozens of championships. Throughout his career, he teamed with his elder brother Jack as The Brisco Brothers. After retiring in 1985, Brisco moved into a backstage role with the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE). He had a late career resurgence between 1997 and 2000 alongside fellow veteran wrestler Pat Patterson as the onscreen "stooge" of WWE chairman Vince McMahon. Both Briscos were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2008. The Briscos were inducted into the Chickasaw Nation Hall Of Fame in June 2016
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Brisco
1947 Michio Kaku, Japanese-American physicist
1947 Warren Zevon, American singer-songwriter (Hindu Love Gods and lyme and cybelle) (d. 2003)
1949 John Belushi, American actor (d. 1982)
1950 Gennifer Flowers, American actress and model
1950 Benjamin Urrutia, Ecuadorian-American author and scholar
1951 Yakov Smirnoff, Ukrainian-American comedian and actor
1953 Tim Stoddard, American baseball player
1953 Matthew Wilder, American musician, composer and record producer
1955 Jim Montgomery, American swimmer
1957 Mark Eaton, American basketball player
1958 Neil Allen, American baseball player
1959 David Mills, American author
1960 Rick Leventhal, American journalist
1961 Vince Russo, American wrestling manager and journalist
1965 Mike Awesome, American wrestler (d. 2007)
1967 Mark Kozelek, American singer-songwriter and producer (Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon)
1967 Phil LaMarr, American actor
1967 John Myung, American bass player (Dream Theater, Platypus, The Jelly Jam, and Explorers Club)
1968 Mary Lou Retton, American gymnast
1970 Matthew Lillard, American actor, director, and producer
1971 Cory Bailey, American baseball player
1972 Beth Hart, American singer-songwriter
1972 Ayanna Howard, American roboticists
1974 Ed Helms, American actor
1977 Johann Urb, Estonian-American actor, producer, and model
1978 Kristen Schaal, American actress and author
1979 Tatyana Ali, American actress and singer
1979 Nik Wallenda, American acrobat and daredevil
1980 Rocky Boiman, American football player
1980 Nicole Marie Lenz, American model and actress
1981 Travis Hanson, American baseball player
1983 Diane Birch, American singer-songwriter and pianist
1983 Scott Speed, American race car driver
1984 Jay Briscoe, American wrestler
1984 Scott Kazmir, American baseball player
1986 Mischa Barton, English-American actress
1986 Ricky Ullman, Israeli-American actor and singer
1997 Dylan Riley Snyder, American actor, singer, and dancer
Deaths
41 Caligula, Roman emperor (b. 12)
1595 Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria (b. 1529)
1626 Samuel Argall, English captain and politician, Colonial Governor of Virginia (b. 1572)
1871 Britton Johnson, black freighter and teamster who hauled goods between Weatherford and Fort Griffin, Texas. On January 24, 1871, about twenty-five Kiowas attacked a wagontrain manned by Johnson and two black teamsters four miles east of Salt Creek in Young County. A group of nearby teamsters from a larger train of wagons reported that Johnson died last in a desperate defense behind the body of his horse. Teamsters who buried the mutilated bodies of Johnson and his men counted 173 rifle and pistol shells in the area where Johnson made his stand. He was buried with his men in a common grave beside the wagon road.
tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fjo07
1882 Levi Boone, American politician, 17th Mayor of Chicago (b. 1808)
1895 Lord Randolph Churchill, English politician (b. 1849)
1911 David Graham Phillips, American journalist and author (b. 1867)
1918 George Arthur Crump, American architect, designed the Pine Valley Golf Club (b. 1871)
1936 Harry T. Morey, American actor (b. 1873)
1955 Ira Hayes, American marine, member of the Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima (b. 1923)
1955 Henry Potter, American golfer (b. 1881)
1960 Arthur Murray Chisholm, American author (b. 1872)
1961 Alfred Carlton Gilbert, American pole vaulter and businessman, founded the A. C. Gilbert Company (b. 1884)
1965 Winston Churchill, English colonel and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1874) 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.
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/winston-churchill-dies
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill
1969 Saud of Saudi Arabia (b. 1902)
1970 Caresse Crosby, American poet (b. 1891)
1971 Bill W., American activist, co-founded of Alcoholics Anonymous (b. 1895)
1973 J. Carrol Naish, American actor (b. 1897)
1975 Larry Fine, American actor and singer (b. 1902)
1981 Orville Brown, American wrestler (b. 1908)
1983 George Cukor, American director and producer (b. 1899)
1986 L. Ron Hubbard, American religious leader and author, founded the Church of Scientology (b. 1911)
1986 Flo Hyman, American volleyball player (b. 1954)
1986 Gordon MacRae, American actor and singer (b. 1921)
1989 Ted Bundy, American serial killer (b. 1946)
1990 Madge Bellamy, American actress (b. 1899)
1990 Kevin James, American porn actor (b. 1954)
1991 Jack Schaefer, American author (b. 1907)
1992 Ken Darby, American composer and conductor (b. 1909)
1992 Ricky Ray Rector, American murderer (b. 1950)
1993 Thurgood Marshall, American lawyer and jurist, 32nd United States Solicitor General, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving from October 1967 until October 1991. Marshall was the Court's 96th justice and its first African-American justice. (b. 1908)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thurgood_Marshall
1997 Dr. Jerry Graham, American wrestler (b. 1921)
1998 Walter D. Edmonds, American author (b. 1903)
2000 Bobby Duncum, Jr., American wrestler (b. 1965)
2006 Fayard Nicholas, American actor, dancer, and choreographer (b. 1914)
2006 Chris Penn, American actor (b. 1965)
2008 Lee Embree, American sergeant and photographer (b. 1915)
2008 Randy Salerno, American journalist (b. 1963)
2009 Kay Yow, American basketball player and coach (b. 1942)
2010 Pernell Roberts, American stage, film and television actor, as well as a singer. In addition to guest starring in over 60 television series, he was best known for his roles as Ben Cartwright's eldest son Adam Cartwright on the Western TV series Bonanza (1959–1965), and as chief surgeon Dr. John McIntyre, the title character on Trapper John, M.D. (1979–1986). He was also known for his lifelong activism, which included participation in the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965 and pressuring NBC to refrain from hiring whites to portray minority characters (b. 1928)
2012 James Farentino, American actor. . He appeared in nearly 100 television, film, and stage roles, among them The Final Countdown, Jesus of Nazareth, and Dynasty. (b. 1938)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Farentino
2012 J. Joseph Garrahy, American soldier and politician, 69th Governor of Rhode Island (b. 1930)
2012 Delma Kollar, American super-centenarian (b. 1897)
2012 Patricia Neway, American soprano and actress (b. 1919)
2013 Barbara Leonard, American politician (b. 1924)
2013 Richard G. Stern, American author and educator (b. 1928)
2013 Harry Taylor, American baseball player (b. 1935)
2014 Curt Brasket, American chess player (b. 1932)
Holidays and observances
Christian Feast Day:
Cadoc (Wales)
Francis de Sales
January 24 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Saints
Hieromartyr Babylas of Sicily and his two disciples martyrs Timothy and Agapius (3rd century)
Martyrs Paul, Pausirius, and Theodotian, brothers, of Egypt (3rd century)
Martyrs Barsimos of Syria, and his two brothers, by the sword, in Persia.
Martyr Philippicus the Presbyter.
Martyr Chrysoploki (Chrysoploca).
Saint Helladios the Commentarisius (prison warden). (see also: January 18)
Martyrs Hermogenes and Menas (Mamas, Mamatos). (see also: December 10)
Saints Hermogenes and Philemon, Bishop of Karpathos.
Venerable Macedonius of Syria, hermit of Mt. Silpius, near Antioch (ca. 420)
Saint Saint Xenia the Righteous of Rome and her two female slaves (5th century)
Saint Philon (Philonas), Wonderworking Bishop of Karpasia on Cyprus (5th century)
Venerable Zosimas, ascetic of the desert.
Saint Zosimas of Cilicia, Bishop of Babylon in Egypt (6th century)
Pre-Schism Western Saints
Saint Felician of Foligno, Bishop of Foligno in Italy (254)
Saint Zamas, first Bishop of Bologna in Italy (ca. 268)
Saint Artemius (Arthemius), Bishop of Clermont (396)
Saint Exuperantius of Cingoli, Bishop of Cingoli near Ancona in Italy (5th century)
Saint Guasacht, converted by Patrick, whom he helped as Bishop of Granard in Ireland (5th century)
Saint Lupicinus of Lipidiaco (Gaul) (500)
Venerable martyr Cadoc (Docus, Cathmael, Cadvaci), founder of the monastery of Llancarfan not far from Cardiff in Wales, and hermit (ca.580)
Saint Suranus, Abbot of a monastery at Sora near Caserta, martyred by the Lombards (ca. 580)
Saint Bertrand (Bertram, Bertran, Ebertram), a disciple of St Bertinus, helped St. Omer enlighten the north of France and Flanders, later became Abbot of Saint-Quentin (7th century)
Saint Erembert I, Abbot of Kremsmünster Abbey in Austria (ca. 1050)
Post-Schism Orthodox Saints
Venerable Neophytus the Recluse, of Cyprus, Wonderworker (1204)
Saint Gerasimus of Perm, Bishop of Perm (1441)
Martyr John of Kazan (1529)
Venerable Dionysius of Olympus, and Mt. Athos, Wonderworker (1541) (see also: January 23)
Blessed Xenia of St. Petersburg, Fool-for-Christ (1806)
Saint Sophia, first Abbess of Shamordino Convent (1888)
New Martyrs and Confessors
Martyr Nicholas Tsikury (1918)
Other Commemorations
Translation of the relics (632) of Monk-martyr Anastasius the Persian (628)
Dedication of the Church of St. Zacharias, in Constantinople, founded by St. Domnica of Constantinople (5th century)
Dedication of the Church of the Holy Prophet and Forerunner John the Baptist, near Taurus.
Repose of Bishop Nektary (Kontzevitch) of Seattle (1983)
Commemoration of the Seven Venerable Saints of Philotheou monastery:
Philotheos, master builder of the monastery; Theodosius, Igumen and Metropolitan of Trebizond; Dionysius and Symeon; Dometios the Hesychast; Damianos; and hieromartyr Cosmas of Aetolia, Equal to the Apostles.
Li Tim-Oi (Episcopal Church (USA))
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Tim-Oi
St. Timothy and St. Titus, Apostolic men, (commemoration, Anglicanism)
Earliest day on which Saturday of Souls can fall, while February 27 (or 28 during Leap Year) is the latest; observed 57 days before Easter. (Eastern Orthodox)
Feast of Our Lady of Peace (Roman Catholic Church), and its related observances: Feria de Alasitas (La Paz)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_24
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_24_(Eastern_Orthodox_liturgics)
www.scopesys.com/cgi-bin/today2.cgi
www.lutheranhistory.org/history/tih0124.htm
www.history.com/this-day-in-history
There are 341 days remaining until the end of the year
Days left until elections:
daysuntil.com/Election-Day/index.html
U.S. Debt Clock: www.usdebtclock.org/
Bust of Caligula at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek museum in Copenhagen
41 Roman Emperor Caligula, known for his eccentricity and sadistic despotism, is assassinated by his disgruntled Praetorian Guards. The Guard then proclaims Caligula's uncle Claudius as Emperor
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caligula
Henry IV
1076 German King Henry IV (1050–1106) convened the Synod of Worms to secure the deposition of Pope Gregory VII (ca. 1020/1025–1085).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_IV,_Holy_Roman_Emperor
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Gregory_VII
1438 Pope Eugene IV (1383–1447) was suspended by the Council of Basel (Florence).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Eugene_IV
1624 Afonso Mendes, appointed by Pope Gregory XV as Prelate of Ethiopia, arrives at Massawa from Goa.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afonso_Mendes
1679 King Charles II of England dissolves the Cavalier Parliament.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_II_of_England#Conflict_with_Parliament
1722 In Cambridge, Mass., Edward Wigglesworthwas named to fill the newly created Thomas Hollis chair at Harvard College. Mr. Wigglesworth thereby became the first divinity professor commissioned in the American colonies.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Wigglesworth
1738 Four months before his celebrated Christian conversion, Anglican missionary John Wesley wrote in his journal: 'I went to America to convert the Indians. But oh! who shall convert me? I have a fair summer religion... But let death look me in the face, and my spirit is troubled.'
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wesley
1742 Charles VII Albert becomes Holy Roman Emperor.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_VII,_Holy_Roman_Emperor
1758 During the Seven Years' War the leading burghers of Königsberg submit to Elizabeth I of Russia, thus forming Russian Prussia (until 1763)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_of_Russia#Seven_Years.27_War
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Years%27_War
Francis Marion
1781 Light Horse and Swamp Fox raid Georgetown, South Carolina On this day in 1781, Patriot commanders Lieutenant Colonel Light Horse Henry Lee and Brigadier General Francis Swamp Fox Marion of the South Carolina militia combine forces and conduct a raid on Georgetown, South Carolina, which is defended by 200 British soldiers.
Marion won fame and the Swamp Fox moniker for his ability to strike and then quickly retreat into the South Carolina swamps without a trace. His military strategy is considered an 18th-century example of guerilla warfare and served as partial inspiration for the film The Patriot, starring Mel Gibson.
Marion took over the South Carolina militia force first assembled by Thomas Sumter in 1780. Sumter, the other inspiration for Mel Gibson's character in the film, returned Carolina Loyalists' terror tactics in kind after Loyalists burned his plantation. When Sumter withdrew from active fighting to care for a wound, Marion replaced him and strategized with Major General Nathaniel Greene, who had recently arrived in the Carolinas to lead the Continental forces. On January 24, the Patriots under Marion and Lee managed to arrive at Georgetown undetected and captured at least three officers, including the British commander.
The following month, Lee's cavalry was able to defeat a band of Loyalist cavalry at Haw River, North Carolina, by taking advantage of the extreme similarity of Patriot uniforms to those of British Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton's troops. British Colonel John Pyle's men at Haw River were surprised to discover that the horsemen approaching them were not friends, as they appeared from a distance, but foes. Losing three fingers and blinding one eye in the course of combat, Colonel Pyle, a doctor by profession, survived by hiding in what is now known as Pyle's Pond.
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/light-horse-and-swamp-fox-raid-georgetown-south-carolina
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/light-horse-and-swamp-fox-raid-georgetown-south-carolina
1835 Slaves in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, stage a revolt, which is instrumental in ending slavery there 50 years later.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery#South_America_and_Caribbean
James Wilson Marshall
1848 California Gold Rush: James W. Marshall finds gold at Sutter's Mill near Sacramento. A tributary to the South Fork of the American River in the Sacramento Valley east of San Francisco, Sutter's Creek was named for a Swiss immigrant who came to Mexican California in 1839. John Augustus Sutter became a citizen of Mexico and won a grant of nearly 50,000 acres in the lush Sacramento Valley, where he hoped to create a thriving colony. He built a sturdy fort that became the center of his first town, New Helvetia, and purchased farming implements, livestock, and a cannon to defend his tiny empire. Copying the methods of the Spanish missions, Sutter induced the local Indians to do all the work on his farms and ranches, often treating them as little more than slaves. Workers who dared leave his empire without permission were often brought back by armed posses to face brutal whippings or even execution.
In the 1840s, Sutter's Fort became the first stopping-off point for overland Anglo-American emigrants coming to California to build farms and ranches. Though sworn to protect the Mexican province from falling under the control of the growing number of Americans, Sutter recognized that his future wealth and influence lay with these Anglo settlers. With the outbreak of the Mexican War in 1846, he threw his support to the Americans, who emerged victorious in the fall of 1847.
With the war over and California securely in the hands of the United States, Sutter hired the millwright James Marshall to build a sawmill along the South Fork of the American River in January 1848. In order to redirect the flow of water to the mill's waterwheel, Marshall supervised the excavation of a shallow millrace. On the morning of January 24, 1848, Marshall was looking over the freshly cut millrace when a sparkle of light in the dark earth caught his eye. Looking more closely, Marshall found that much of the millrace was speckled with what appeared to be small flakes of gold, and he rushed to tell Sutter. After an assayer confirmed that the flakes were indeed gold, Sutter quietly set about gathering up as much of the gold as he could, hoping to keep the discovery a secret. However, word soon leaked out and, within months, the largest gold rush in the world had begun.
Ironically, the California gold rush was a disaster for Sutter. Though it brought thousands of men to California, the prospectors had no interest in joining Sutter's despotic agricultural community. Instead, they overran Sutter's property, slaughtered his herds for food, and trampled his fields. By 1852, New Helvetia was ruined, and Sutter was nearly wiped out. Until his death in 1880, he spent his time unsuccessfully petitioning the government to compensate him for the losses he suffered as a result of the gold rush he unintentionally ignited.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_W._Marshall
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Gold_Rush
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/gold-discovered-at-sutters-creek
Seal of the University of Calcutta
1857 The University of Calcutta is formally founded as the first fully-fledged university in South Asia.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Calcutta
1862 Bucharest is proclaimed the capital of Romania.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucharest
1865 Confederate Congress agrees to resume prisoner exchanges On this day in 1865, the Confederate Congress agrees to continue prisoner exchanges, opening a process that had operated only sporadically for three years.
In the first year of the Civil War, prisoner exchanges were conducted primarily between field generals on an ad hoc basis. The Union was reluctant to enter any formal agreements, fearing that it would legitimize the Confederate government. But the issue became more important as the campaigns escalated in 1862. In July 1862, Union General John Dix and Confederate General Daniel H. Hill reached an agreement in which each soldier was assigned a value according to rank. For example, one private was worth another private; corporals and sergeants were worth two privates; and lieutenants were worth three privates. A commanding general was worth 60 privates. Under this system, thousands of soldiers were exchanged rather than languishing in prisons like those in Andersonville, Georgia, or Elmira, New York.
The system was really a gentlemen's agreement, relying on the trust of each side. It broke down in 1862 when Confederates refused to exchange black Union soldiers. From 1862 to 1865, prisoner exchanges were rare. When they did happen, it was usually because two local commanders came to a workable agreement. The result of the breakdown was the swelling of prisoner-of-war camps in both the North and South. The most notorious of all the camps was Andersonville, where one-third of the approximately 46,000 Union troops incarcerated died of disease, exposure, or starvation.
Though the prisoner exchanges resumed in January 1865, the end of the war was so close that it did not make much difference.
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/confederate-congress-to-resume-prisoner-exchanges
The town hall at Ladysmith, showing shell damage to the tower
1900 Second Boer War: Boers stop a British attempt to break the Siege of Ladysmith in the Battle of Spion Kop.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Boer_War
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Ladysmith
1908 The first Boy Scout troop is organized in England by Robert Baden-Powell. The Boy Scouts movement began 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.
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/boy-scouts-movement-begins
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scouting
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Baden-Powell,_1st_Baron_Baden-Powell
1911 Japanese anarchist Shūsui Kōtoku is hanged for treason in a case now considered a miscarriage of justice.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh%C5%ABsui_K%C5%8Dtoku
1913 Eduard Louis Arndt (1864–1929) and his family left Saint Paul, Minnesota, for China to begin mission work there.
lutheranhistory.org/collections/fa/m-0005.htm
1916 In Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad, the Supreme Court of the United States declares the federal income tax constitutional.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brushaber_v._Union_Pacific_Railroad_Co.
1918 The Gregorian calendar is introduced in Russia by decree of the Council of People's Commissars effective February 14(NS)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar
1933 The 20th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, changing the beginning and end of terms for all elected federal offices.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twentieth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
1935 First canned beer goes on sale. Canned beer makes its debut on this day in 1935. In partnership with the American Can Company, the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company delivered 2,000 cans of Krueger's Finest Beer and Krueger's Cream Ale to faithful Krueger drinkers in Richmond, Virginia. Ninety-one percent of the drinkers approved of the canned beer, driving Krueger to give the green light to further production.
By the late 19th century, cans were instrumental in the mass distribution of foodstuffs, but it wasn't until 1909 that the American Can Company made its first attempt to can beer. This was unsuccessful, and the American Can Company would have to wait for the end of Prohibition in the United States before it tried again. Finally in 1933, after two years of research, American Can developed a can that was pressurized and had a special coating to prevent the fizzy beer from chemically reacting with the tin.
The concept of canned beer proved to be a hard sell, but Krueger's overcame its initial reservations and became the first brewer to sell canned beer in the United States. The response was overwhelming. Within three months, over 80 percent of distributors were handling Krueger's canned beer, and Krueger's was eating into the market share of the "big three" national brewers--Anheuser-Busch, Pabst and Schlitz. Competitors soon followed suit, and by the end of 1935, over 200 million cans had been produced and sold.
The purchase of cans, unlike bottles, did not require the consumer to pay a deposit. Cans were also easier to stack, more durable and took less time to chill. As a result, their popularity continued to grow throughout the 1930s, and then exploded during World War II, when U.S. brewers shipped millions of cans of beer to soldiers overseas. After the war, national brewing companies began to take advantage of the mass distribution that cans made possible, and were able to consolidate their power over the once-dominant local breweries, which could not control costs and operations as efficiently as their national counterparts.
Today, canned beer accounts for approximately half of the $20 billion U.S. beer industry. Not all of this comes from the big national brewers: Recently, there has been renewed interest in canning from microbrewers and high-end beer-sellers, who are realizing that cans guarantee purity and taste by preventing light damage and oxidation.
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-canned-beer-goes-on-sale
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer#Packaging
1939 The deadliest earthquake in Chilean history strikes Chillán, killing approximately 28,000 people. An 8.3-magnitude earthquake centered in south central Chile leaves 50,000 people dead and 60,000 injured on this day in 1939. 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 to help protect residents from future earthquakes.
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/chile-suffers-killer-quake
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939_Chill%C3%A1n_earthquake
1942 World War II: The Allies bombard Bangkok, leading Thailand, then under Japanese control, to declare war against the United States and United Kingdom.
United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and their advisors in Casablanca, 1943
1943 World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill conclude a conference in Casablanca.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casablanca#World_War_II
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casablanca_Conference
1946 The United Nations General Assembly passes its first resolution to establish the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Atomic_Energy_Commission
1960 Algerian War: Some units of European volunteers in Algiers stage an insurrection known as the "barricades week", during which they seize government buildings and clash with local police.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algerian_War#The_week_of_barricades
One of the Mk 39 nuclear weapons at Goldsboro, largely intact, with its parachute still attached.
1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash: A bomber carrying two H-bombs breaks up in mid-air over North Carolina. The uranium core of one weapon remains lost.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Goldsboro_B-52_crash
An Australian digger searching the body of a dead Viet Cong soldier following an ambush
1968 Vietnam War: The 1st Australian Task Force launches Operation Coburg against the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong during wider fighting around Long Bình and Biên Hòa
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Coburg
1972 Japanese Sgt. Shoichi Yokoi is found hiding in a Guam jungle, where he had been since the end of World War II.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoichi_Yokoi
Donald Coggan, Archbishop of York and his wife calling on P.M. David Ben Gurion and his wife during a visit in Israel, August 1961
1975 Rev. F. Donald Coggan, 66, was consecrated the 101st Archbishop of Canterbury (primate of Anglicanism). In the audience was Johannes Cardinal Willebrands -- the first Vatican representative to attend this Anglican ceremony since the time of the Reformation.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Coggan
Monument for the killed lawyers, located in Antón Martín square, Madrid
1977 Massacre of Atocha in Madrid, during the Spanish transition to democracy.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1977_Massacre_of_Atocha
1978 Soviet satellite Cosmos 954, with a nuclear reactor on board, burns up in Earth's atmosphere, scattering radioactive debris over Canada's Northwest Territories. Only 1% is recovered.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosmos_954
The original Macintosh, released in January 1984.
1984 The first Apple Macintosh goes on sale.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh
1986 Voyager 2 passes within 81,500 kilometres (50,600 mi) of Uranus.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_2
1989 The Rev. Barbara C. Harris, 55, of Boston, was confirmed as the first female bishop in the 450-year history of the Anglican Church.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Harris_(bishop)
1990 Japan launches Hiten, the country's first lunar probe, the first robotic lunar probe since the Soviet Union's Luna 24 in 1976, and the first lunar probe launched by a country other than Soviet Union or the United States.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiten
1993 Turkish journalist and writer Uğur Mumcu is assassinated by a car bomb in Ankara.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U%C4%9Fur_Mumcu
2003 The United States Department of Homeland Security officially begins operation.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Homeland_Security
Klaus at 0328 UTC on 24 January over the Bay of Biscay
2009 The storm Klaus makes landfall near Bordeaux, France. It subsequently would cause 26 deaths as well as extensive disruptions to public transport and power supplies.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Klaus
Domodedovo Airport's passenger terminal (2007)
2011 At least 35 die and 180 are injured in a bombing at Moscow's Domodedovo airport.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riyad-us_Saliheen_Brigade_of_Martyrs
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domodedovo_International_Airport_bombing
2014 Three bombs explode in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, killing about seven people and injuring over 100 others.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_2014_Cairo_bombings
Births
76 Hadrian, Roman emperor (d. 138)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadrian
1287 Richard Aungerville, English bishop, writer, bibliophile, Benedictine monk, patron of learning and one of the first English collectors of books, (d. 14 April 1345).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_de_Bury
1540 Edmund Campion, English Jesuit priest who was executed on a charge of conspiring to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I, (d. 1 December 1581).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Campion
1674 Thomas Tanner, English bishop and antiquarian who published an account of all the religious houses of England and Wales, (d. 14 December 1735).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Tanner_(bishop)
1712 Frederick the Great, Prussian king Frederick's achievements during his reign included his military victories, his reorganization of Prussian armies, his patronage of the Arts and the Enlightenment in Prussia, and his final success against great odds in the Seven Years' War. He became known as Frederick the Great (Friedrich der Große) and was nicknamed Der Alte Fritz ("Old Fritz") by the Prussian people. (d. 1786)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_the_Great
1754 Andrew Ellicott, American surveyor who helped map many of the territories west of the Appalachians, surveyed the boundaries of the District of Columbia, continued and completed Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant's work on the plan for Washington, D.C., and served as a teacher in survey methods for Meriwether Lewis. (d. 1820)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Ellicott
1818 John Mason Neale, Anglican clergyman, who was one of the first to translate ancient Greek and Latin hymns into English. Neale thus rendered the hymns known today as "All Glory, Laud, and Honor," "Good Christian Men, Rejoice" and "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mason_Neale
1827 John Albert Broadus, American Baptist New Testament professor and president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, Kentucky), in Virginia (d. 16 March 1895).
1918 Oral Roberts, American evangelist, in Ada, Oklahoma (d. 15 December 2009, Newport Beach, California).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_Roberts
1820 John Milton Thayer Brevet Major General (Union volunteers) and a postbellum United States Senator from Nebraska. Thayer served as Governor of Wyoming Territory and Governor of Nebraska. (d 1906)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Milton_Thayer
1827 John Albert Broadus, American Baptist New Testament professor and president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, Kentucky), in Virginia (d. 16 March 1895).
www.reformedreader.org/rbb/broadus/broaduspreacher.htm
1828 Adam Jacoby Slemmer Brigadier General (Union volunteers), (d 1868)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_J._Slemmer
1832 John Pegram Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1865
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Pegram_(general)
1841 Robert Williams, American archer (d. 1914)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Williams_(archer)
1843 Josip Štadler, Croatian archbishop (d. 1918)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josip_Stadler
1862 Edith Wharton, Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and designer. She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1927, 1928 and 1930. Wharton combined her insider's view of America's privileged classes with a brilliant, natural wit to write humorous, incisive novels and short stories of social and psychological insight. She was well acquainted with many of her era's other literary and public figures, including Theodore Roosevelt.(d. 1937)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Wharton
1871 Albert Erskine, Studebaker chief who headed up the pioneering American automaker Studebaker before it went bankrupt during the Great Depression, in Huntsville, Alabama.
During the late 1800s and early 1900s, Erskine worked for such companies as American Cotton and Underwood Typewriter, before joining South Bend, Indiana-based Studebaker in 1911. The origins of the Studebaker Corporation date back to 1852, when brothers Henry and Clement Studebaker opened a blacksmith shop in South Bend. Studebaker eventually became a leading manufacturer of horse-drawn wagons and supplied wagons to the U.S. Army during the Civil War. Around the turn of the century, the company entered America's burgeoning auto industry, launching an electric car in 1902 and a gas-powered vehicle two years later that was marketed under the name Studebaker-Garford. After partnering with other automakers, Studebaker began selling gas-powered cars under its own name in 1913, while continuing to make wagons until 1920.
Erskine became the president of Studebaker in 1915. Under his leadership, the company acquired luxury automaker Pierce-Arrow in the late 1920s and launched the affordably priced but short-lived Erskine and Rockne lines, the latter of which was named for the famous University of Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne (1888-1931). During the early 1930s, Studebaker was hit hard by the Great Depression and Erskine was accused of financial mismanagement. In March 1933, the company was forced into bankruptcy. Erskine, who was saddled with personal debt and health problems, killed himself on July 1, 1933, at the age of 62.
New management got the company back on track, dropping the Rockne brand in July 1933 and selling Pierce-Arrow, among other consolidation moves. In January 1935, the new Studebaker Corporation was incorporated. In the late 1930s, the French-born industrial designer Raymond Loewy began working for Studebaker and would be credited with popular models including the bullet-nosed 1953 Starliner and Starlight coupes and the 1963 Avanti sports coupe.
By the mid-1950s, Studebaker, which didn't have the resources of its Big Three competitors, had merged with automaker Packard and was again facing financial troubles. By the late 1950s, the Packard brand was dropped. In December 1963, Studebaker shuttered its South Bend plant, ending the production of its cars and trucks in America. The company's Hamilton, Ontario, facilities remained in operation until March 1966, when Studebaker shut its doors for the final time after 114 years in business.
In April 2009, Chrysler became the first major American automaker since Studebaker to declare bankruptcy.
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/albert-erskine-studebaker-chief-is-born
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Russel_Erskine
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/albert-erskine-studebaker-chief-is-born
1883 Philip Schuster, American gymnast (d. 1926)
1886 Henry King, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1982)
1888 Hedwig "Vicki" Baum Austrian/US author -- considered one of the first modern bestselling authors, and her books are reputed to be among the first examples of contemporary mainstream literature.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicki_Baum
1889 Charles Hawes, American author (d. 1923)
1898 Cliff Heathcote, American baseball player (d. 1939)
1900 Theodosius Dobzhansky, Ukrainian-American geneticist and biologist (d. 1975)
1902 E. A. Speiser, American scholar (d. 1965)
1902 Oskar Morgenstern German/US economist -- In collaboration with mathematician John von Neumann, he founded the mathematical field of game theory and its application to economics (see von Neumann–Morgenstern utility theorem).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oskar_Morgenstern
1905 J. Howard Marshall, American lawyer and businessman (d. 1995)
1907 Tuts Washington, American pianist (d. 1984)
1910 Doris Haddock, American activist (d. 2010)
1911 C[atherine] L[ucille] Moore US, sci-fi author (Judgment Night)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._L._Moore
1912 Frederick Ashworth, American admiral (d. 2005)
1913 Norman Dello Joio, American composer (d. 2008)
1915 Robert Motherwell, American painter (d. 1991)
1916 Jack Brickhouse, American sportscaster (d. 1998)
1916 Gene Mako, Hungarian-American tennis player (d. 2013)
1917 Ernest Borgnine, American actor (d. 2012)
1918 Oral Roberts, American evangelist, in Ada, Oklahoma (d. 15 December 2009, Newport Beach, California).founded Oral Roberts University and Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association (d. 2009)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_Roberts
1919 Coleman Francis, American director (d. 1973)
1919 Leon Kirchner Brooklyn NY, opera composer (Lily)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Kirchner
1920 Jerry Maren, American actor
1922 Charles Socarides, American psychiatrist (d. 2005)
1924 Joe Albany, American pianist (d. 1988)
1925 Maria Tallchief, American ballerina (d. 2013)
1926 Ruth Asawa, American sculptor (d. 2013)
1930 John Romita, Sr., American illustrator
1931 Leonard Baker, American historian and author (d. 1984)
1932 Jaan Puhvel, Estonian-American linguist and mythographer
1934 Ann Cole, American singer (d. 1986)
1936 William Bogert, American actor
1936 Doug Kershaw, American singer-songwriter and fiddler
1939 Ray Stevens, American singer-songwriter
1941 Neil Diamond, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1941 Aaron Neville, American singer (Neville Brothers)
1941 Gary K. Wolf, American author and humorist
1942 Gary Hart, American wrestler and manager (d. 2008)
1943 Julie Bennett, American voice actress
1943 Sharon Tate, American actress (d. 1969)
1944 David Gerrold, American author and screenwriter
1945 D. Todd Christofferson, American religious leader
1945 John Garamendi, American politician, 46th Lieutenant Governor of California
1946 Haji, Canadian-American actress (d. 2013)
1946 Gerald Floyd Brisco (born January 24, 1946) American retired professional wrestler, currently employed by the professional wrestling promotion WWE as a talent scout.
Debuting in 1969, Brisco wrestled for multiple National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) territories throughout the 1970s and ealry-1980s, in particular Championship Wrestling from Florida and Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, winning dozens of championships. Throughout his career, he teamed with his elder brother Jack as The Brisco Brothers. After retiring in 1985, Brisco moved into a backstage role with the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE). He had a late career resurgence between 1997 and 2000 alongside fellow veteran wrestler Pat Patterson as the onscreen "stooge" of WWE chairman Vince McMahon. Both Briscos were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2008. The Briscos were inducted into the Chickasaw Nation Hall Of Fame in June 2016
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Brisco
1947 Michio Kaku, Japanese-American physicist
1947 Warren Zevon, American singer-songwriter (Hindu Love Gods and lyme and cybelle) (d. 2003)
1949 John Belushi, American actor (d. 1982)
1950 Gennifer Flowers, American actress and model
1950 Benjamin Urrutia, Ecuadorian-American author and scholar
1951 Yakov Smirnoff, Ukrainian-American comedian and actor
1953 Tim Stoddard, American baseball player
1953 Matthew Wilder, American musician, composer and record producer
1955 Jim Montgomery, American swimmer
1957 Mark Eaton, American basketball player
1958 Neil Allen, American baseball player
1959 David Mills, American author
1960 Rick Leventhal, American journalist
1961 Vince Russo, American wrestling manager and journalist
1965 Mike Awesome, American wrestler (d. 2007)
1967 Mark Kozelek, American singer-songwriter and producer (Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon)
1967 Phil LaMarr, American actor
1967 John Myung, American bass player (Dream Theater, Platypus, The Jelly Jam, and Explorers Club)
1968 Mary Lou Retton, American gymnast
1970 Matthew Lillard, American actor, director, and producer
1971 Cory Bailey, American baseball player
1972 Beth Hart, American singer-songwriter
1972 Ayanna Howard, American roboticists
1974 Ed Helms, American actor
1977 Johann Urb, Estonian-American actor, producer, and model
1978 Kristen Schaal, American actress and author
1979 Tatyana Ali, American actress and singer
1979 Nik Wallenda, American acrobat and daredevil
1980 Rocky Boiman, American football player
1980 Nicole Marie Lenz, American model and actress
1981 Travis Hanson, American baseball player
1983 Diane Birch, American singer-songwriter and pianist
1983 Scott Speed, American race car driver
1984 Jay Briscoe, American wrestler
1984 Scott Kazmir, American baseball player
1986 Mischa Barton, English-American actress
1986 Ricky Ullman, Israeli-American actor and singer
1997 Dylan Riley Snyder, American actor, singer, and dancer
Deaths
41 Caligula, Roman emperor (b. 12)
1595 Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria (b. 1529)
1626 Samuel Argall, English captain and politician, Colonial Governor of Virginia (b. 1572)
1871 Britton Johnson, black freighter and teamster who hauled goods between Weatherford and Fort Griffin, Texas. On January 24, 1871, about twenty-five Kiowas attacked a wagontrain manned by Johnson and two black teamsters four miles east of Salt Creek in Young County. A group of nearby teamsters from a larger train of wagons reported that Johnson died last in a desperate defense behind the body of his horse. Teamsters who buried the mutilated bodies of Johnson and his men counted 173 rifle and pistol shells in the area where Johnson made his stand. He was buried with his men in a common grave beside the wagon road.
tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fjo07
1882 Levi Boone, American politician, 17th Mayor of Chicago (b. 1808)
1895 Lord Randolph Churchill, English politician (b. 1849)
1911 David Graham Phillips, American journalist and author (b. 1867)
1918 George Arthur Crump, American architect, designed the Pine Valley Golf Club (b. 1871)
1936 Harry T. Morey, American actor (b. 1873)
1955 Ira Hayes, American marine, member of the Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima (b. 1923)
1955 Henry Potter, American golfer (b. 1881)
1960 Arthur Murray Chisholm, American author (b. 1872)
1961 Alfred Carlton Gilbert, American pole vaulter and businessman, founded the A. C. Gilbert Company (b. 1884)
1965 Winston Churchill, English colonel and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1874) 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.
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/winston-churchill-dies
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill
1969 Saud of Saudi Arabia (b. 1902)
1970 Caresse Crosby, American poet (b. 1891)
1971 Bill W., American activist, co-founded of Alcoholics Anonymous (b. 1895)
1973 J. Carrol Naish, American actor (b. 1897)
1975 Larry Fine, American actor and singer (b. 1902)
1981 Orville Brown, American wrestler (b. 1908)
1983 George Cukor, American director and producer (b. 1899)
1986 L. Ron Hubbard, American religious leader and author, founded the Church of Scientology (b. 1911)
1986 Flo Hyman, American volleyball player (b. 1954)
1986 Gordon MacRae, American actor and singer (b. 1921)
1989 Ted Bundy, American serial killer (b. 1946)
1990 Madge Bellamy, American actress (b. 1899)
1990 Kevin James, American porn actor (b. 1954)
1991 Jack Schaefer, American author (b. 1907)
1992 Ken Darby, American composer and conductor (b. 1909)
1992 Ricky Ray Rector, American murderer (b. 1950)
1993 Thurgood Marshall, American lawyer and jurist, 32nd United States Solicitor General, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving from October 1967 until October 1991. Marshall was the Court's 96th justice and its first African-American justice. (b. 1908)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thurgood_Marshall
1997 Dr. Jerry Graham, American wrestler (b. 1921)
1998 Walter D. Edmonds, American author (b. 1903)
2000 Bobby Duncum, Jr., American wrestler (b. 1965)
2006 Fayard Nicholas, American actor, dancer, and choreographer (b. 1914)
2006 Chris Penn, American actor (b. 1965)
2008 Lee Embree, American sergeant and photographer (b. 1915)
2008 Randy Salerno, American journalist (b. 1963)
2009 Kay Yow, American basketball player and coach (b. 1942)
2010 Pernell Roberts, American stage, film and television actor, as well as a singer. In addition to guest starring in over 60 television series, he was best known for his roles as Ben Cartwright's eldest son Adam Cartwright on the Western TV series Bonanza (1959–1965), and as chief surgeon Dr. John McIntyre, the title character on Trapper John, M.D. (1979–1986). He was also known for his lifelong activism, which included participation in the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965 and pressuring NBC to refrain from hiring whites to portray minority characters (b. 1928)
2012 James Farentino, American actor. . He appeared in nearly 100 television, film, and stage roles, among them The Final Countdown, Jesus of Nazareth, and Dynasty. (b. 1938)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Farentino
2012 J. Joseph Garrahy, American soldier and politician, 69th Governor of Rhode Island (b. 1930)
2012 Delma Kollar, American super-centenarian (b. 1897)
2012 Patricia Neway, American soprano and actress (b. 1919)
2013 Barbara Leonard, American politician (b. 1924)
2013 Richard G. Stern, American author and educator (b. 1928)
2013 Harry Taylor, American baseball player (b. 1935)
2014 Curt Brasket, American chess player (b. 1932)
Holidays and observances
Christian Feast Day:
Cadoc (Wales)
Francis de Sales
January 24 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Saints
Hieromartyr Babylas of Sicily and his two disciples martyrs Timothy and Agapius (3rd century)
Martyrs Paul, Pausirius, and Theodotian, brothers, of Egypt (3rd century)
Martyrs Barsimos of Syria, and his two brothers, by the sword, in Persia.
Martyr Philippicus the Presbyter.
Martyr Chrysoploki (Chrysoploca).
Saint Helladios the Commentarisius (prison warden). (see also: January 18)
Martyrs Hermogenes and Menas (Mamas, Mamatos). (see also: December 10)
Saints Hermogenes and Philemon, Bishop of Karpathos.
Venerable Macedonius of Syria, hermit of Mt. Silpius, near Antioch (ca. 420)
Saint Saint Xenia the Righteous of Rome and her two female slaves (5th century)
Saint Philon (Philonas), Wonderworking Bishop of Karpasia on Cyprus (5th century)
Venerable Zosimas, ascetic of the desert.
Saint Zosimas of Cilicia, Bishop of Babylon in Egypt (6th century)
Pre-Schism Western Saints
Saint Felician of Foligno, Bishop of Foligno in Italy (254)
Saint Zamas, first Bishop of Bologna in Italy (ca. 268)
Saint Artemius (Arthemius), Bishop of Clermont (396)
Saint Exuperantius of Cingoli, Bishop of Cingoli near Ancona in Italy (5th century)
Saint Guasacht, converted by Patrick, whom he helped as Bishop of Granard in Ireland (5th century)
Saint Lupicinus of Lipidiaco (Gaul) (500)
Venerable martyr Cadoc (Docus, Cathmael, Cadvaci), founder of the monastery of Llancarfan not far from Cardiff in Wales, and hermit (ca.580)
Saint Suranus, Abbot of a monastery at Sora near Caserta, martyred by the Lombards (ca. 580)
Saint Bertrand (Bertram, Bertran, Ebertram), a disciple of St Bertinus, helped St. Omer enlighten the north of France and Flanders, later became Abbot of Saint-Quentin (7th century)
Saint Erembert I, Abbot of Kremsmünster Abbey in Austria (ca. 1050)
Post-Schism Orthodox Saints
Venerable Neophytus the Recluse, of Cyprus, Wonderworker (1204)
Saint Gerasimus of Perm, Bishop of Perm (1441)
Martyr John of Kazan (1529)
Venerable Dionysius of Olympus, and Mt. Athos, Wonderworker (1541) (see also: January 23)
Blessed Xenia of St. Petersburg, Fool-for-Christ (1806)
Saint Sophia, first Abbess of Shamordino Convent (1888)
New Martyrs and Confessors
Martyr Nicholas Tsikury (1918)
Other Commemorations
Translation of the relics (632) of Monk-martyr Anastasius the Persian (628)
Dedication of the Church of St. Zacharias, in Constantinople, founded by St. Domnica of Constantinople (5th century)
Dedication of the Church of the Holy Prophet and Forerunner John the Baptist, near Taurus.
Repose of Bishop Nektary (Kontzevitch) of Seattle (1983)
Commemoration of the Seven Venerable Saints of Philotheou monastery:
Philotheos, master builder of the monastery; Theodosius, Igumen and Metropolitan of Trebizond; Dionysius and Symeon; Dometios the Hesychast; Damianos; and hieromartyr Cosmas of Aetolia, Equal to the Apostles.
Li Tim-Oi (Episcopal Church (USA))
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Tim-Oi
St. Timothy and St. Titus, Apostolic men, (commemoration, Anglicanism)
Earliest day on which Saturday of Souls can fall, while February 27 (or 28 during Leap Year) is the latest; observed 57 days before Easter. (Eastern Orthodox)
Feast of Our Lady of Peace (Roman Catholic Church), and its related observances: Feria de Alasitas (La Paz)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_24
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_24_(Eastern_Orthodox_liturgics)
www.scopesys.com/cgi-bin/today2.cgi
www.lutheranhistory.org/history/tih0124.htm
www.history.com/this-day-in-history