January 24 ...

In 76 AD the Roman emperor Hadrian was born in Seville, Spain. In 1712 Prussian King Frederick the Great was born in Berlin. In 1848 gold was discovered by James Wilson Marshall at Sutter's sawmill near Coloma, CA, on the South Fork of the American River, sparking the Gold Rush of 1849. In 1862 novelist Edith Wharton was born in New York City. In 1888 Jacob L. Wortman of Philadelphia, PA, patented the typewriter ribbon. In 1916 broadcaster Jack Brickhouse was born in Peoria, IL. In 1924 the Russian city of St. Petersburg was renamed Leningrad. The name has since been changed back to St. Petersburg. In 1942 a special court of inquiry into the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor placed most of the blame for America's unpreparedness on Rear Adm. Husband E. Kimmel and Lt. Gen. Walter C. Short, the Navy and Army commanders there. This judgment was later found to be grossly unfair. In 1943 President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill concluded a wartime conference in Casablanca, Morocco; also on this day, Adolf Hitler ordered his Nazi troops at Stalingrad to fight to death. In 1962 Jackie Robinson became the first African-American player to be elected to baseball's Hall of Fame. In 1965 Winston Churchill died in London from a cerebral thrombosis at age 90. In 1966 Nehru's daughter Indira Gandhi was sworn in as Indian prime minister. In 1972 Japanese soldier Shoichi Yokoi was discovered on Guam, having spent 28 years hiding in the jungle thinking World War II was still going on. In 1976 British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was dubbed "The Iron Lady" by the Soviet newspaper Red Star, after a speech about the Communist threat. In 1983 director George Cukor died in Los Angeles. In 1984 Apple Computer launched the Macintosh, containing virtually unknown features, including simple icons, and the now ubiquitous mouse. In 1986 the Voyager 2 space probe flew past Uranus. The probe came within 50,679 miles of the seventh planet of the solar system. In 1998 Drums Along the Mohawk author Walter D. Edmonds died at age 94. In 2000 former Soviet spy Stanislav Lunev testified at a congressional hearing that Soviet operatives had placed weapons and communications caches in California and other states during and after the Cold War in order to destabilize the US in the event of war. In 2002 Cuba ordered a ban on sales of any computer equipment unless otherwise authorized by government officials. In 2003 the US Department of Homeland Security officially became the government's 15th Cabinet department.