A few of the great historical events that happened today in history, January 24th!
| 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.
 Czar Peter the Great |
| 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. |
| 1903 | U.S. Secretary of State John Hay and British Ambassador Herbert create a joint commission to establish the Alaskan border. |
| 1908 | The first Boy Scout troop was organized in England by Robert Baden-Powell. |
| 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.
 German cruiser Blücher, yep…it is sinking! |
| 1924 | The Russian city of St. Petersburg was renamed Leningrad in honor of late revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin. |
| 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. |
| 1943 | President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill concluded a wartime conference in Casablanca, Morocco. |
| 1945 | A German attempt to relieve the besieged city of Budapest is finally halted by the Soviets. |
| 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 | Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill died in London at age 90.
 Funeral of Winston Churchill |
| 1972 | The Supreme Court struck down laws that denied welfare benefits to people who had resided in a state for less than a year. |
| 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. |
| 1986 | The Voyager 2 space probe swept past Uranus, coming within 50,679 miles of the seventh planet from the sun. |
| 1987 | Gunmen in Lebanon kidnapped educators Alann Steen, Jesse Turner, Robert Polhill and Mitheleshwar Singh. (All were later released.) |
| 1989 | Confessed serial killer Ted Bundy was executed in Florida’s electric chair. |
| 1993 | Retired Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall died at age 84.
 Justice Thurgood Marshall’s Grave |
| 1995 | The prosecution gave its opening statement in the O.J. Simpson murder trial. |
| 2003 | The new federal Department of Homeland Security officially opened as Tom Ridge was sworn in as secretary. |
| 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. |
Today in history facts are from various sites including, but not limited too: the History Channel, The New York Times, WHG Historynet.com, and HistoryOrb.com.
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