On This Day … 24 January

Events

  • 41 – Claudius is proclaimed Roman emperor by the Praetorian Guard after they assassinate the previous emperor, his nephew Caligula.
  • 914 – Start of the First Fatimid invasion of Egypt.
  • 1536 – King Henry VIII of England suffers an accident while jousting, leading to a brain injury that historians say may have influenced his later erratic behaviour and possible impotence.
  • 1651 – Arauco War: Spanish and Mapuche authorities meet in the Parliament of Boroa renewing the fragile peace established at the parliaments of Quillín in 1641 and 1647.
  • 1679 – King Charles II of England dissolves the Cavalier Parliament.
  • 1758 – During the Seven Years’ War the leading burghers of Königsberg submit to Elizabeth of Russia, thus forming Russian Prussia (until 1763).
  • 1817 – Crossing of the Andes: Many soldiers of Juan Gregorio de las Heras are captured during the action of Picheuta.
  • 1859 – The United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia (later named Romania) is formed as a personal union under the rule of Domnitor Alexandru Ioan Cuza.
  • 1900 – Second Boer War: Boers stop a British attempt to break the Siege of Ladysmith in the Battle of Spion Kop.
  • 1908 – The first Boy Scout troop is organised in England by Robert Baden-Powell.
  • 1915 – World War I: British Grand Fleet battle cruisers under Vice Admiral Sir David Beatty engage Rear Admiral Franz von Hipper’s battle cruisers in the Battle of Dogger Bank.
  • 1942 – World War II: The Allies bombard Bangkok, leading Thailand, then under Japanese control, to declare war against the United States and United Kingdom.
  • 1943 – World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill conclude a conference in Casablanca.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 1972 – Japanese Sergeant Shoichi Yokoi is found hiding in a Guam jungle, where he had been since the end of World War II.

People (Births)

  • 1672 – Margrave Albert Frederick of Brandenburg-Schwedt, German Lieutenant General (d. 1731).
  • 1739 – Jean Nicolas Houchard, French General of the French Revolution (d. 1793).
  • 1754 – Andrew Ellicott, American soldier and surveyor (d. 1820).
  • 1761 – Louis Klein, French general (d. 1845).
  • 1763 – Louis Alexandre Andrault de Langeron, French-Ukrainian general and politician (d. 1831).
  • 1864 – Gaetano Giardino, Italian soldier and Marshal of Italy (d. 1935).
  • 1888 – Ernst Heinkel, German engineer and businessman, founded the Heinkel Aircraft Manufacturing Company (d. 1958).
  • 1889 – Hermann-Bernhard Ramcke, German general of paratroop forces during World War II (d. 1968).
  • 1891 – Walter Model, German field marshal (d. 1945).
  • 1899 – Hoyt Vandenberg, US Air Force general (d. 1954).
  • 1907 – Maurice Couve de Murville, French soldier and politician, Prime Minister of France (d. 1999).
  • 1912 – Frederick Ashworth, American admiral (d. 2005).
  • 1943 – Peter Struck, German lawyer and politician, 13th German Federal Minister of Defence (d. 2012).
  • 1949 – Nadezhda Ilyina, Russian athlete and mother of Russian tennis player Nadia Petrova (d. 2013).
  • 1955 – Jim Montgomery, American swimmer.
  • 1958 – Frank Ullrich, German biathlete.
  • 1959 – Akira Maeda, Japanese wrestler, mixed martial artist, and actor.
  • 1961 – William Van Dijck, Belgian runner.
  • 1968 – Fernando Escartín, Spanish cyclist.
  • 1975 – Reto Hug, Swiss triathlete.
  • 1976 – Cindy Pieters, Belgian cyclist.
  • 1982 – Aitor Hernández, Spanish racing cyclist.
  • 1983 – Evgeny Drattsev, Russian swimmer.

People (Deaths)

  • 1376 – Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel, English commander (b. 1306).
  • 1626 – Samuel Argall, English captain and politician, Colonial Governor of Virginia (b. 1572).
  • 1709 – George Rooke, English admiral and politician (b. 1650).
  • 1965 – Winston Churchill, English colonel and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1874).
  • 1982 – Alfredo Ovando Candía, Bolivian general and politician, 56th President of Bolivia (b. 1918).
  • 2002 – Elie Hobeika, Lebanese commander and politician (b. 1956).
  • 2007 – Emiliano Mercado del Toro, Puerto Rican-American soldier (b. 1891).
  • 2015 – Otto Carius, German lieutenant and pharmacist (b. 1922).
  • 2016 – Henry Worsley, English colonel and explorer (b. 1960).
  • 2019 – Rosemary Bryant Mariner, American United States Naval Aviator (b. 1953).

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