24 January History


Month:                           Date:     

  • 41    -    Shortly after declaring himself a god, Caligula is assassinated by two Praetorian tribunes.
  • 1458    -    Matthias Corvinus, the son of John Hunyadi, is elected king of Hungary.
  • 1639    -    Representatives from three Connecticut towns band together to write the Fundamental Orders, the first constitution in the New World.
  • 1722    -    Czar Peter the Great caps his reforms in Russia with the "Table of Rank" which decrees a commoner can climb on merit to the highest positions.
  • 1848    -    Gold is discovered by James Wilson Marshall at his partner Johann August Sutter's sawmill on the South Fork of the American River, near Coloma, California.
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  • 1903    -    U.S. Secretary of State John Hay and British Ambassador Herbert create a joint commission to establish the Alaskan border.
  • 1911    -    U.S. Cavalry is sent to preserve the neutrality of the Rio Grande during the Mexican Civil War.
  • 1915    -    The German cruiser Blücher is sunk by a British squadron in the Battle of Dogger Bank.
  • 1927    -    British expeditionary force of 12,000 is sent to China to protect concessions at Shanghai.
  • 1931    -    The League of Nations rebukes Poland for the mistreatment of a German minority in Upper Silesia.
  • 1945    -    A German attempt to relieve the besieged city of Budapest is finally halted by the Soviets.
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  • 1946    -    The UN establishes the International Atomic Energy Commission.
  • 1951    -    Indian leader Nehru demands that the UN name Peking as an aggressor in Korea.
  • 1965    -    Winston Churchill dies from a cerebral thrombosis at the age of 90.
  • 1980    -    In a rebuff to the Soviets, the U.S. announces intentions to sell arms to China.
  • 1982    -    A draft of Air Force history reports that the U.S. secretly sprayed herbicides on Laos during the Vietnam War.

  • 24 January Birthdays

  • 1712    -    Frederick II (the Great), King of Prussia, noted for his social reforms and leading Prussia in military victories.
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  • 1732    -    Pierre de Beaumarchais, French dramatist (The Barber of Seville, The Marriage of Figaro).
  • 1862    -    Edith Wharton, U.S. novelist who wrote Ethan Frome and The Age of Innocence.