MILESFORTIS

Today, January 24

41 – Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus is proclaimed Roman Emperor by the Praetorian Guard after they assassinate the previous emperor, his nephew Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, most commonly known as  ‘Caligula’.

1848 – James W. Marshall finds gold at Sutter’s Mill near Sacramento. California

1908 – The first Boy Scout troop is organized in England by Robert Baden-Powell.

1916 – In the case of Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad Co., the Supreme Court rules that the federal income tax is constitutional.

1933 – The 20th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, changing the beginning and end of terms for all elected federal offices.

1961 – Over Faro, North Carolina, a B-52 bomber based at nearby Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, carrying 2 multimegaton Mark 39 thermonuclear bombs, breaks up in mid-air and crashes with 5 of the 8 crew surviving. The secondary core of one weapon remains too deeply buried to recover.

1972 – Imperial Japanese Army Sergeant Shoichi Yokoi is found hiding in a Guam jungle, where he had been since the end of World War II even having been known to be in the area by certain U.S. Navy personnel stationed at the Guam Naval base over 20 years earlier.

1984 – Apple Computer places the Macintosh personal computer on sale in the U.S.

1989 – Serial killer Ted Bundy, murderer of over 30 known victims, is executed in the electric chair at the Florida State Prison.

1991 –Over Saudi Arabia, Captain Ayhed Saleh al-Shamrani of the Royal Saudi Arabian Airforce, flying an F-15, engages and shoots down 2 Iraqi Mirage F1 fighters attempting a bombing run on coalition naval vessels in the Persian Gulf.

2003 – The United States Department of Homeland Security officially begins operation.

2018 – Former doctor Larry Nassar is sentenced up to 175 years in prison after being found guilty of using his position to sexually abuse female gymnasts.

January 23

1570 – James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, regent for the infant King James VI of Scotland, is killed by James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, in Linlithgow, Scotland, the first head of state known to be assassinated by the use of a firearm.

1849 – Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her M.D. by the Geneva Medical College of Geneva, New York, becoming the first female doctor in the U.S.

1870 – In Montana, on orders of General Phillip Sheridan, a squadron of the 2nd U.S. Cavalry Regiment are sent on a retaliatory raid on the Piegan Blackfeet tribe camped along the Marias river for their attack on the Clarke Ranch.

1900 – During  the Second Boer War, British forces occupy a trench line on the hill Spion Kop, they mistakenly believe to be on the high ground. The Boer forces, on the actual high ground, take the British under artillery and rifle fire and inflict heavy casualties before a British relief column arrives and the Boers withdraw.

1941 – Charles Lindbergh testifies before Congress and recommends that the U.S. negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler.

1950 – The Israeli Knesset resolves that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.

1957 – American inventor Walter Frederick Morrison sells the rights to his flying disc to the Wham-O toy company, which later renames it the “Frisbee”.

1960 – The bathyscaphe USS Trieste crewed by Jacques Piccard and U.S. Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh breaks a depth record by descending to 35,797 feet, to the bottom of the Challenger Deep in the Pacific Ocean.

1964 – The 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibiting the use of poll taxes in national elections, is ratified.

1968 – Off the coast of North Korea, the USS Pueblo is attacked by naval forces of North Korea resulting in the the death of 1 crew member, Petty Officer Duane D. Hodges before being seized and the remaining crew captured.

1986 – The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts its first members: Little Richard, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley.

1997 – Madeleine Albright becomes the first woman to serve as United States Secretary of State.

1998 – Netscape announces Mozilla, with the intention to release the programming code as open source.

2002 – U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl is kidnapped in Karachi, Pakistan and subsequently murdered.

2018 – A 7.9 Mw  earthquake occurs in the Gulf of Alaska. It is tied as the 6th largest earthquake ever recorded in the United States

2020 – The World Health Organization declares the COVID-19 pandemic to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

Today, January 22

1879 – Near Isandlwana hill in Zululand, South Africa, greatly outnumbered British Army, colonial and native troops are defeated in detail and slaughtered by Zulu Impi forces of King Cetshwayo kaMpande .
Later in the day at Rorke’s Drift Station, Natal colony, around 10 miles from Isandlwana, greatly outnumbered British Army and colonial troops, using different defensive tactics, repeatedly repel and defeat a force of Zulus who had been unused reserves at the previous battle.

1901 – Queen Victoria – at the time the then longest ruling British monarch – dies, age 81, at her estate on the Isle of Wight. Her eldest son is proclaimed King Edward VII.

1906 – The Red D Line’s SS Valencia, sailing on the San Francisco–Seattle route, misses the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, strikes a reef off Cape Beale of Vancouver Island, British Columbia and runs aground resulting in the deaths of 136 of the 173 passengers and crew aboard.

1917 – President Woodrow Wilson of the still neutral United States calls for “peace without victory” in Europe, during World War I.

1944 – Allied forces commence Operation Shingle, an assault on Anzio and Nettuno, Italy during World War II.

1946 – President Truman establishes the National Intelligence Authority whose operational division, the Central Intelligence Group, is the direct forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency.

1947 – KTLA, the first commercial television station west of the Mississippi River, begins operation in Hollywood.

1957 – The New York City “Mad Bomber”, George P. Metesky, is arrested in Waterbury, Connecticut and charged with planting more than 30 bombs.

1970 –  Pan American Airways begins intercontinental air service between New York City and London, flying the Boeing 747.

1973 – The same day that former President Lyndon Johnson dies, age 64, at his home in Johnson City Texas, the Supreme Court delivers its decisions in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, legalizing elective abortion in all fifty states for the next 49 years.

1982 – At a live news conference the day before he was to be sentenced for being convicted of bribery as the Treasurer of Pennsylvania, R. Budd Dwyer commits suicide. As he died while still officially in office, per Pennsylvania law, his wife receives his full survivor pension benefits of over $1.28 million.

1984 – The Apple Macintosh computer is introduced

2002 – Kmart becomes the largest retailer in United States history to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

2009 – President Obama signs an executive order to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, which is overridden by Congress.

2018 – Celebrating the 90th anniversary year of her debut, Minerva ‘Minnie’ Mouse receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.