TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is
Monday, Jan. 24. Today’s highlight:
On Jan. 24, 1989, confessed serial killer Theodore Bundy was executed in Florida’s electric chair.
On this date:
In James W. Marshall discovered a gold nugget at Sutter’s Mill in northern California, a discovery that led to the gold rush of ’49.
In President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill concluded a wartime conference in Casablanca, Morocco.
In Associated Press war correspondent Joseph Morton was among a group of captives executed by the Germans at the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp in Austria.
In British statesman Winston Churchill died in London at age 90.
In a nuclear-powered Soviet satellite, Cosmos 954, plunged through Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrated, scattering radioactive debris over parts of northern Canada.
In 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.
In the space shuttle Discovery was launched from Cape Canaveral on the first secret, all-military shuttle mission.
In gunmen in Lebanon kidnapped educators Alann Steen, Jesse Turner, Robert Polhill and Mitheleshwar Singh. (All were eventually released.)
In former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge was sworn as the first secretary of the new Department of
Homeland Security.
In a suicide bomber attacked Moscow’s busiest airport, killing 37 people; Chechen separatists claimed responsibility.
In Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced the lifting of a ban on women serving in combat.
In health officials in Chicago said a woman in her 60s had become the second U.S. patient diagnosed with a new virus that had emerged in China; she’d returned from that country in mid-January. Fifteen-yearold Coco Gauff upset defending champ Naomi Osaka in the third round of the Australian Open.
Ten years ago: Declaring the American dream under siege, President Barack Obama used his State of the Union address to deliver a populist challenge to shrink the gap between rich and poor, promising to tax the wealthy more and help jobless Americans get work and hang onto their homes. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney released his 2010 tax returns, showing that his annual income topped $20 million and that he had paid about $3 million in federal income taxes.
Five years ago: President Donald Trump moved swiftly to advance the controversial Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipelines, signing executive actions to aggressively overhaul America’s energy policy and deal a sharp blow to Barack Obama’s legacy on climate change. The Academy Awards nominations were announced; the retro musical “La La Land” received a record-tying 14 nods; eight went to eventual best picture winner “Moonlight.”