On This Day in History - January 24th - Almanac

Today is Friday, Jan. 24, the 24th day of 2020 with 342 to follow.

The moon is new. Morning stars are Jupiter, Mars, Saturn and Uranus. Evening stars are Mercury, Neptune, Uranus and Venus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aquarius. They include English dramatist William Congreve in 1670; British social reformer Edwin Chadwick in 1800; author Edith Wharton in 1862; abstract painter Robert Motherwell in 1915; actor Ernest Borgnine in 1917; evangelist Oral Roberts in 1918; ballet dancer Maria Tallchief Paschen in 1925; musician Doug Kershaw in 1936 (age 84); musician Ray Stevens in 1939 (age 81); singer Neil Diamond in 1941 (age 79); singer Aaron Neville in 1941 (age 79); actor Sharon Tate in 1943; comedian John Belushi in 1949; actor Michael Ontkean in 1946 (age 74); actor Nastassja Kinski in 1961 (age 59); Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Mary Lou Retton in 1968 (age 52); actor Matthew Lillard in 1970 (age 50); actor Ed Helms in 1974 (age 46); actor Kristen Schaal in 1978 (age 42); actor Tatyana Ali in 1979 (age 41); rapper/actor Daveed Diggs in 1982 (age 38); actor Justin Baldoni in 1984 (age 36); actor Mischa Barton in 1986 (age 34).

On this date in history:

In 1848, gold was discovered at John Sutter's mill near Sacramento. The discovery touched off the great gold rush of 1849.

In 1908, the first Boy Scout troop was organized in England by Robert Baden-Powell, a general in the British army.

In 1916, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that an income tax was constitutional.

In 1939, 20 divisions of General Francisco Franco's Fascist armies smashed through the Llobregat River defense line west of Barcelona, closing in on Spain's most important city.

In 1963, President John F. Kennedy denied that the United States had planned to provide air cover for the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, a charge made by Anti-Castro refugee leaders, including Antonio de Varona, vice president of the Cuban Revolutionary Council, but later withdrawn.

In 1965, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill died at age 90.

In 1984, Apple's Macintosh computer went on sale. Price tag: $2,495.

In 1993, retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first African American to serve on the nation's highest court, died of cardiac arrest at age 84.

In 2008, Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi resigned after losing a confidence vote in the Senate.

In 2011, a suicide bomb attack at Moscow's Domodedovo airport international arrival gate killed 37 people and injured more than 170 others.

In 2013, a federal judge in Chicago sentenced U.S. citizen David Coleman Headley to 35 years in prison for his role in a 2008 terror attack that killed 160 people in Mumbai.

In 2018, a Michigan judge sentenced former Team USA gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar to up to 175 years in prison for molesting some 168 women and girls.

A thought for the day: "A child born to a black mother in a state like Mississippi has exactly the same rights as a white baby born to the wealthiest person in the United States. It's not true, but I challenge anyone to say it is not a goal worth working for." -- Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall