What Happened On
Two Nuclear Bombs Dropped on North Carolina
January 24, 1961
Two 3-4-megaton nuclear bombs are accidentally dropped when a U.S. B-52 bomber crashed near Goldsboro, North Carolina. The bomber had developed a fuel leak and the pilot wasn't able to maintain control as they approached the landing field and the plane began breaking up. The pilot ordered the crew to eject at 9,000 feet (2,700 m). Three crewmen died and five survived the accident. The two 3-4 megaton Mark 39 thermonuclear bombs separated from the aircraft as it broke up between 1,000 and 2,000 feet (300 and 610 m).
Each bomb had more than 250 times the yield of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The safety devices prevented the bombs from detonating. Had either detonated, each bomb's yield was large enough to create a 100% kill zone within a radius of 8.5 miles (13.7 km).
First Canned Beer
January 24, 1935
The first canned beer is sold; Krueger Beer brewed in New Jersey. The Krueger brewery was reluctant to can their beer at first, but was offered the canning equipment for a free trial by American Can Company, with them only having to pay for it if it was successful. The canned beer was a huge success and other breweries soon adopted the practice.
First Ice Cream Bar
January 24, 1922
The Eskimo Pie is patented by candy store owner Christian Kent Nelson. His patent was "to provide a frozen dainty comprising a form retaining block or brick of ice cream or the like, also to, provide an encasement therefore which facilitates its ready handling." He originally sold them as "I-Scream-Bars", but later partnered with local chocolate producer Russell C. Stover to mass-produce them under the name "Eskimo Pie".
Nelson received the inspiration for his invention when a boy in his store was unable to decide whether to buy ice cream or a chocolate bar, so he ventured forth to find a way to combine the two.
Rubber Heel
January 24, 1899
The rubber heel is patented, by Humphrey O'Sullivan. In 1896, to alleviate his leg fatigue caused by standing at his printing press all day he put a rubber mat in front of it. But, his coworkers kept taking the mat, so he cut off pieces of it and nailed them to the bottom of his shoes. This worked so well that he patented the rubber heel and started the O'Sullivan Rubber Co. His rubber heels were a huge success, making him a very wealthy man.
Sutter's Mill - California Gold Rush
January 24, 1848
Gold is discovered on John Sutter's Mill, by James Marshall, starting the California gold rush. Over 300,000 people, known as "forty-niners" (from year 1849), would go to California to seek their fortune.
Uranus as seen by Voyager II
Uranus as seen by Voyager II
Voyager II
January 24, 1986
Voyager II flies within 50,600 miles (81,500 kilometers) of Uranus, discovering 11 previously unknown moons and two previously unknown rings.
Birthdays
John Belushi
Born January 24, 1949 d. 1982
American Emmy-winning comedian.
In 1971, Belushi joined the Second City comedy group and then joined the off-Broadway cast of National Lampoon's Lemmings, and in 1971 was hired as a writer for the syndicated National Lampoon's Radio Hour. In 1975, he became one of the seven original cast members of TV's Saturday Night Live (1975-81), where his physical style of comedy made him a star.
Belushi died from an overdose of heroin and cocaine at the age of 33. The woman who injected the drugs in him, Cathy Smith, was convicted and spent 15 months in prison for supplying him with the drugs. Smith was the subject of Gordon Lightfoot's 1974 song Sundown. Lightfoot was having an affair with Smith when he wrote the song.
TV: Saturday Night Live (1975-81). Film: National Lampoon's Animal House (1978, Bluto Blutarsky) and The Blues Brothers (1980, "Joliet" Jake Blues).
Mary Lou Retton
Born January 24, 1968
American gymnast. In 1984 she became the first U.S. woman to win an individual Olympic gymnastics medal. She won four that year, including the gold for all-around best gymnast.
Nastassja Kinski (Nastassja Nakszynski)
Born January 24, 1961
German actress. Film: Cat People (1982).
Yakov Smirnoff
Born January 24, 1951
Soviet-born American comedian. His humor portrayed an immigrant from the Soviet Union who was perpetually confused and delighted by life in America. Joke: "And I thought, What a country! You have so many things we never had in Russia - like warning shots. In Soviet Union, they shoot you to warn the other guy."
Gennifer Flowers
Born January 24, 1950
American model, actress. During Bill Clinton's 1992 Presidential campaign she alleged she had a twelve-year affair with Clinton. Clinton initially denied the allegations, but later admitted he had a sexual encounter with her.
Warren Zevon
Born January 24, 1947 d. 2003
American singer, songwriter. Music: Excitable Boy (1978) and Werewolves of London (1978).
Sharon Tate
Born January 24, 1943 d. 1969
American actress. She was murdered by followers of Charles Manson. She was two-weeks from giving birth at the time. Film: Valley of the Dolls (1967, Jennifer North) and The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967).
Neil Diamond
Born January 24, 1941
American singer, songwriter. Music: I'm a Believer (1966, #1 for The Monkees) and Craklin' Rosie (1970, #1).
Ray Stevens
Born January 24, 1939
American Grammy-winning comic singer, Gitarzan (1969), Everything is Beautiful (1970, #1), and The Streak (1974).
Last Surviving Munchkin
Jerry Maren (Gerald Marenghi)
Born January 24, 1920 d. 2018
American 4-foot-6-inch (1.37 m) actor. Film: The Wizard of Oz (1939, Lollipop Kid who gave the lollipop to Dorothy), Buster Brown, the original Oscar Mayer wiener character, and the original McDonald's Mayor McCheese. He was the last surviving Munchkin from The Wizard of Oz. At the time The Wizard of Oz was filmed, he was 18 years old and only 3 foot 6 inches (1.07 m) tall. Hormone treatments allowed him to grow to 4 foot 6 inches (1.37 m).
Oral Roberts
Born January 24, 1918 d. 2009
American evangelist, founder of Oral Roberts University (1965). In 1987 he announced "God will call me home" if he didn't raise $4.5 million in three months. At the end of the three months, he declared he had reached his goal, but that God told him he now had to raise a total of $8 million or "I'm going to call you home in one year". He was able to raise $9.1 million.
Ernest Borgnine (Ermes Effron Borgnino)
Born January 24, 1917 d. 2012
American Oscar-winning actor. Ernest Borgnine enlisted in the U.S. Navy after graduating high school in 1935, was honorably discharged in October of 1941, but reenlisted shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
After the war, his mother encouraged him to go into acting, telling him "You always like getting in front of people and making a fool of yourself, why don't you give it a try?"
Borgnine was married five times, including a brief marriage to Ethel Merman in 1964, which started with a disastrous honeymoon and calling it quits after 42 days.
TV: McHale's Navy (1962-66, Lt. Cdr. Quinton McHale), Airwolf (1984-86, Dominic Santini), All Dogs Go to Heaven: The Series (1996-98, Carface Caruthers), and SpongeBob SquarePants (1999-2012, voice of Mermaid Man). Film: From Here to Eternity (1953, Sergeant "Fatso" Judson), Marty (1955, Oscar win for the title role), Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), The Dirty Dozen (1967, Major Gen. Sam Worden), The Wild Bunch (1969), and The Poseidon Adventure (1972, Detective Rogo).
J. Howard Marshall (Jeremiah Howard Marshall II)
Born January 24, 1905 d. 1995
American oil billionaire. At age 89, he married 26-year-old Playmate of the Year Anna Nicole Smith.
He 176
He 176
Ernst Heinkel
Born January 24, 1888 d. 1958
German aircraft designer/manufacturer. He designed the first rocket airplane powered solely by liquid fuel, the Heinkel He 176. As a member of the Nazi party, his company was a vital part of the Luftwaffe's growing strength in the years leading up to World War II.
Deaths
Ted Bundy (Theodore Robert Cowell)
Died January 24, 1989 b. 1946
American serial killer and rapist. He confessed murdering over 30 women across seven states between 1974 and 1978. Bundy would revisit the corpses of his victims and perform sex acts with them. He also decapitated some of his victims, keeping their severed heads in his apartment as mementos.
One of his own defense lawyers wrote he was "the very definition of heartless evil."
In 1979, he was convicted of two Florida sorority house murders and in 1980 he was convicted for the killing of a 12-year-old girl. Bundy was executed by electric chair in 1989.
Bundy was raised by his grandparents, who raised him as their child and he was told that his mother was his older sister. He did not find out the truth until he was an adult. At about the time he started committing his murders, he worked as Assistant Director of the Seattle Crime Prevention Advisory Commission, where he wrote a pamphlet for women on rape prevention.
Left to right: Moe, Curly, Larry
Left to right: Moe, Curly, Larry
Larry Fine (Louis Feinberg)
Died January 24, 1975 b. 1902
American comedian. One of the original Three-Stooges. He started performing as a violinist and had a brief career as a boxer, winning one professional bout.
Sir Winston Churchill (Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill)
Died January 24, 1965 b. 1874
British statesman, UK Prime Minister (1940-45, 51-55), Nobel-winning author (1953). He coined the expression "Iron Curtain" (1946).
Quote: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat."
Quote: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."
Quote: "You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks."
Elsa the Lioness
Died January 24, 1961 b. 1956
Lioness. The book and movie Born Free were based on her life story. In 1956, George Adamson shot and killed a lion in self-defense. He found that she had attacked to protect her three cubs. George rescued the cubs, giving two to a zoo and he and his wife Joy Adamson kept one they named Elsa. Joy wrote the book Born Free (1960) describing their raising of the cub and setting her free. Elsa and the Adamson's adventures were featured in the 1966 movie of the same title as the book.
First Woman U.S. Senator
Rebecca Latimer Felton
Died January 24, 1930 b. 1835
American politician, first woman U.S. senator (Georgia, Only for 24 hours: November 21-22, 1922). When Senator Thomas E. Watson died in September, 1922, then Governor of Georgia Thomas W. Hardwick had to appoint a replacement. Since Hardwick was running for this Senate seat, he wanted someone who would not be a viable opposing candidate in the upcoming election and who could also help pacify the women voters he had alienated with his opposition to women's right to vote. Congress was not expected to reconvene until after the election, so he didn't think she'd get sworn in. However, Walter F. George won the election and when Congress reconvened, George allowed Felton to be sworn in before he took office the following day.
James Farentino
Died January 24, 2012 b. 1938
American actor. TV: The Bold Ones (Neil Darrell) and Dynasty (Dr. Nick Toscanni).
Pernell Roberts
Died January 24, 2010 b. 1928
American actor. TV: Bonanza (1959-65, Adam Cartwright) and Trapper John, M.D. (1979-86, Trapper John).
Thurgood Marshall
Died January 24, 1993 b. 1908
American civil-rights lawyer. He was the first African-American U.S. Supreme Court justice (1967-91), and legal director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Founder of Scientology
L. Ron Hubbard (Lafayette Ronald Hubbard)
Died January 24, 1986 b. 1911
American author. Founded the Church of Scientology (1954) and author of Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health (1950).
Hubbard lost the rights to Dianetics in a 1952 bankruptcy, and then went on to found the Church of Scientology, which he grew into a worldwide organization.
He had a prolific writing career in the 1930s with numerous stories and articles published in magazines of the day.
Hubbard experienced a near death experience during a tooth extraction in 1938, during which time he was given the inspiration for his manuscript Excalibur. The underlying theme of Excalibur was, "All life is directed by one command and one command only—SURVIVE!" This would become the basis of Dianetics.
Scientology Churches include an office set aside for Hubbard's reincarnation, with a desk plaque bearing his name, and pen and paper for him to continue writing novels.
George Graff
Died January 24, 1973 b. 1886
American lyricist, When Irish Eyes Are Smiling.
Co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous
Bill Wilson (William Griffith Wilson aka Bill W.)
Died January 24, 1971 b. 1895
American co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (1935). He had his first drink in 1917 claiming, "I had found the elixir of life." However, his drinking quickly got out of hand; he failed to graduate from law school because he was too drunk to pick up his diploma. Wilson achieved sobriety when he had a religious experience after asking for God's help to get sober. Wilson then went on to co-found Alcoholics Anonymous, helping thousands of others achieve sobriety. As the proof that the desire to drink never goes away, on his deathbed Wilson asked for a shot of whiskey. His nurse refused his request.
Wilson, a heavy smoker, died of emphysema at the age of 75.
Heinrich Geissler
Died January 24, 1879 b. 1814
German inventor. He invented an electric light in 1858 - 21 years before Edison's incandescent bulb. Now known as the Geissler tube, it consisted of a gas-filled vacuum tube which would light up when electricity was applied.
James Pollard Espy
Died January 24, 1860 b. 1785
American meteorologist. Founder of modern weather predicting.
First to Use Laughing Gas for Dental Anesthesia
Horace Wells
Died January 24, 1848 b. 1815
American dentist. First to use nitrous oxide (laughing gas) for dental anesthesia (1844).
The word anesthesia is from the Greek for "without sensation".
Sir Samuel Argall
Died January 24, 1626 b. circa 1580
English adventurer, deputy governor of Virginia (1617-19). In 1618 he decreed a punishment of one night of imprisonment and a week as a slave for missing church services.
Stephen IV
Died January 24, 817 b. ????
Italian religious leader, 97th Pope (816-817).
Stephen III
Died January 24, 772 b. 723
religious leader, 94th Pope (768-772).