January 24
41 - Roman emperor Gaius Caesar, better known as Caligula (meaning "little boot" as he used to wear military boots as a child), was murdered.
1848 - Gold was first discovered in California, in Sutter's Mill. When President James K. Polk announced the news in December, the gold rush began.
1908 - Robert Baden-Powell organized the first Boy Scout troop in England.
1924 - The Russian city of St. Petersburg was renamed Leningrad in honor of late revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin.
1943 - The Casablanca Conference with President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill concluded.
1945 - Associated Press war correspondent Joseph Morton was among a group of captives executed by the Germans at the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp in Austria.
1965 - Winston Churchill died in London at age 90.
1972 - Japanese soldier Shoichi Yokoi was discovered in Guam, having spent 28 years hiding in the jungle thinking World War II was still going on.
1972 - The U.S. Supreme Court struck down laws that denied welfare benefits to people who had resided in a state for less than a year.
1978 - A nuclear-powered Soviet satellite, Cosmos 954, plunged through Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrated, scattering radioactive debris over parts of northern Canada.
1984 - Apple Computer began selling its first Macintosh model, which boasted a built-in 9-inch monochrome display, a clock rate of 8 megahertz and 128k of RAM.
1986 - The Voyager Two space probe passed within 51,000 miles of Uranus.
1989 - Confessed serial killer Ted Bundy was executed in Florida's electric chair.
1995 - The prosecution gave its opening statement in the O.J. Simpson murder trial.
2003 - The Department of Homeland Security, under Tom Ridge, became a cabinet department.
2004 - NASA's Opportunity rover landed on Mars three weeks after its identical twin, Spirit.
2008 - French bank Societe Generale announced it had uncovered a $7.14 billion fraud by a single futures trader.
2011 - Jared Lee Loughner pleaded not guilty in Phoenix to federal charges he'd tried to kill U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and two of her aides in a Tucson shooting rampage that had claimed six lives.
2016 - A magnitude-7.1 quake knocked items off shelves and walls in Alaska, jolting the nerves of residents in the earthquake-prone region.
2020 - Concluding their opening arguments at President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, House Democrats warned that Trump would persist in abusing his power and endangering democracy unless Congress acted to remove him before the 2020 election.
2020 - After the Chinese city of Wuhan halted outbound flights, trains, buses and ferries in an effort to stop the spread of a deadly new virus, 12 other cities in the province followed suit, bringing more than 36 million people under lockdown. Health officials in Chicago said a woman in her 60s had become the second U.S. patient diagnosed with the new virus; she’d returned from China in mid-January.
2020 - President Donald Trump became the first sitting president to address abortion opponents at the annual March for Life.
Birthdays
35 - Mischa Barton (actress)
37 - Justin Baldoni (actor)
39 - Daveed Diggs (actor)
40 - Carrie Coon (actress)
42 - Tatyana Ali (actress)
43 - Christina Moses (actress)
43 - Kristen Schaal (actress)
43 - Mark Hildreth (actor)
47 - Ed Helms (actor)
49 - Beth Hart (singer)
50 - Merrilee McCommas (actress)
50 - Kenya Moore (reality star)
51 - Matthew Lillard (actor)
53 - Mary Lou Retton (gymnast)
54 - Phil LaMarr (comedian)
60 - Theo Peoples (singer)
60 - Natassja Kinski (actress)
67 - William Allen Young (actor)
70 - Yakov Smirnoff (comedian)
71 - Becky Hobbs (country singer)
71 - Daniel Auteuil (actor)
75 - Michael Ontkean (actor)
80 - Aaron Neville (singer)
80 - Neil Diamond (singer)
82 - Ray Stevens (singer)
==================================
Today in Sports History - January 24
1939 - Eddie Collins, Willie Keeler and George Sisler are elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
1947 - NFL owners voted to allow a sudden-death overtime in playoff games. The rule wasn't used until 1958; NFL also adds a fifth official, the back judge.
1955 - The rules committee of major league baseball announced a plan to strictly enforce the rule that required a pitcher to release the ball within 20 seconds after taking his position on the mound.
1964 - CBS-TV acquired the rights to televise the National Football League's 1964-1965 regular season. The move cost CBS $14.1 million a year. The NFL stayed on CBS for 30 years.
1973 - Warren Spahn is elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
1981 - Mike Bossy (New York Islanders) tied Rocket Richard's record of 50 goals in first 50 games of the season.
1982 - The San Francisco 49ers defeat the Cincinnati Bengals 26-21 to win Super Bowl XVI in Detroit. San Francisco quarterback Joe Montana is named MVP.
1990 - Clarence "Big House" Gaines collected the 800th victory of his college coaching career when Winston-Salem State University beat Livinstone, 79-70.
1990 - Los Angeles' Pat Riley becomes the 13th and fastest coach to reach the 500-victory plateau as the Lakers down the Indiana Pacers, 120-111; Riley (500-184) surpasses Don Nelson (500-317) to reach milestone.
2006 - Mario Lemieux retired from playing in the NHL for the last time. He had previously retired and came back from cancer, a heart problem, agonizing back pain, a rare bone infection, a self-imposed one-season layoff and, five years earlier, from the boredom of retirement.
2018 - Former US Olympic team doctor Larry Nassar found guilty of molesting over 150 girls, sentenced up to 175 years in prison.
41 - Roman emperor Gaius Caesar, better known as Caligula (meaning "little boot" as he used to wear military boots as a child), was murdered.
1848 - Gold was first discovered in California, in Sutter's Mill. When President James K. Polk announced the news in December, the gold rush began.
1908 - Robert Baden-Powell organized the first Boy Scout troop in England.
1924 - The Russian city of St. Petersburg was renamed Leningrad in honor of late revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin.
1943 - The Casablanca Conference with President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill concluded.
1945 - Associated Press war correspondent Joseph Morton was among a group of captives executed by the Germans at the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp in Austria.
1965 - Winston Churchill died in London at age 90.
1972 - Japanese soldier Shoichi Yokoi was discovered in Guam, having spent 28 years hiding in the jungle thinking World War II was still going on.
1972 - The U.S. Supreme Court struck down laws that denied welfare benefits to people who had resided in a state for less than a year.
1978 - A nuclear-powered Soviet satellite, Cosmos 954, plunged through Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrated, scattering radioactive debris over parts of northern Canada.
1984 - Apple Computer began selling its first Macintosh model, which boasted a built-in 9-inch monochrome display, a clock rate of 8 megahertz and 128k of RAM.
1986 - The Voyager Two space probe passed within 51,000 miles of Uranus.
1989 - Confessed serial killer Ted Bundy was executed in Florida's electric chair.
1995 - The prosecution gave its opening statement in the O.J. Simpson murder trial.
2003 - The Department of Homeland Security, under Tom Ridge, became a cabinet department.
2004 - NASA's Opportunity rover landed on Mars three weeks after its identical twin, Spirit.
2008 - French bank Societe Generale announced it had uncovered a $7.14 billion fraud by a single futures trader.
2011 - Jared Lee Loughner pleaded not guilty in Phoenix to federal charges he'd tried to kill U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and two of her aides in a Tucson shooting rampage that had claimed six lives.
2016 - A magnitude-7.1 quake knocked items off shelves and walls in Alaska, jolting the nerves of residents in the earthquake-prone region.
2020 - Concluding their opening arguments at President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, House Democrats warned that Trump would persist in abusing his power and endangering democracy unless Congress acted to remove him before the 2020 election.
2020 - After the Chinese city of Wuhan halted outbound flights, trains, buses and ferries in an effort to stop the spread of a deadly new virus, 12 other cities in the province followed suit, bringing more than 36 million people under lockdown. Health officials in Chicago said a woman in her 60s had become the second U.S. patient diagnosed with the new virus; she’d returned from China in mid-January.
2020 - President Donald Trump became the first sitting president to address abortion opponents at the annual March for Life.
Birthdays
35 - Mischa Barton (actress)
37 - Justin Baldoni (actor)
39 - Daveed Diggs (actor)
40 - Carrie Coon (actress)
42 - Tatyana Ali (actress)
43 - Christina Moses (actress)
43 - Kristen Schaal (actress)
43 - Mark Hildreth (actor)
47 - Ed Helms (actor)
49 - Beth Hart (singer)
50 - Merrilee McCommas (actress)
50 - Kenya Moore (reality star)
51 - Matthew Lillard (actor)
53 - Mary Lou Retton (gymnast)
54 - Phil LaMarr (comedian)
60 - Theo Peoples (singer)
60 - Natassja Kinski (actress)
67 - William Allen Young (actor)
70 - Yakov Smirnoff (comedian)
71 - Becky Hobbs (country singer)
71 - Daniel Auteuil (actor)
75 - Michael Ontkean (actor)
80 - Aaron Neville (singer)
80 - Neil Diamond (singer)
82 - Ray Stevens (singer)
==================================
Today in Sports History - January 24
1939 - Eddie Collins, Willie Keeler and George Sisler are elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
1947 - NFL owners voted to allow a sudden-death overtime in playoff games. The rule wasn't used until 1958; NFL also adds a fifth official, the back judge.
1955 - The rules committee of major league baseball announced a plan to strictly enforce the rule that required a pitcher to release the ball within 20 seconds after taking his position on the mound.
1964 - CBS-TV acquired the rights to televise the National Football League's 1964-1965 regular season. The move cost CBS $14.1 million a year. The NFL stayed on CBS for 30 years.
1973 - Warren Spahn is elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
1981 - Mike Bossy (New York Islanders) tied Rocket Richard's record of 50 goals in first 50 games of the season.
1982 - The San Francisco 49ers defeat the Cincinnati Bengals 26-21 to win Super Bowl XVI in Detroit. San Francisco quarterback Joe Montana is named MVP.
1990 - Clarence "Big House" Gaines collected the 800th victory of his college coaching career when Winston-Salem State University beat Livinstone, 79-70.
1990 - Los Angeles' Pat Riley becomes the 13th and fastest coach to reach the 500-victory plateau as the Lakers down the Indiana Pacers, 120-111; Riley (500-184) surpasses Don Nelson (500-317) to reach milestone.
2006 - Mario Lemieux retired from playing in the NHL for the last time. He had previously retired and came back from cancer, a heart problem, agonizing back pain, a rare bone infection, a self-imposed one-season layoff and, five years earlier, from the boredom of retirement.
2018 - Former US Olympic team doctor Larry Nassar found guilty of molesting over 150 girls, sentenced up to 175 years in prison.
