January 24 in History

Significant events that happened on this day.

Today

Historical Events

2016

Wal-Mart announced it would close 269 stores worldwide, including all 102 of its experimental small-format stores

The retail giant's "Walmart Express" experiment lasted only three years before the company admitted defeat and refocused on supercenters. The closures...

2003

The Department of Homeland Security officially began operations in the United States

Major

Created in response to the September 11 attacks, it became the third-largest Cabinet department by combining 22 different federal agencies. The massiv...

1986

Voyager 2 became the first spacecraft to fly past Uranus

The probe came within 50,600 miles of the planet's cloud tops, discovering 10 new moons and a bizarre magnetic field tilted 60 degrees from its axis....

1984

Apple introduced the Macintosh computer with a famous Super Bowl commercial directed by Ridley Scott

Major

The dystopian "1984" ad, which only aired once during the Super Bowl, depicted a woman throwing a hammer at Big Brother and cost $900,000 to produce....

1972

Japanese soldier Shoichi Yokoi was discovered hiding in the Guam jungle, unaware World War II had ended

Yokoi had been living in a cave for 28 years, surviving on frogs, rats, and mangoes. When found by local hunters, his first words were reportedly an a...

1961

A B-52 bomber broke apart over North Carolina, dropping two nuclear bombs that nearly detonated

Major

The Goldsboro incident involved two 3-4 megaton bombs, one of which went through all but one of its arming sequences. A single low-voltage switch prev...

1943

Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first U.S. president to fly in an airplane while in office

FDR secretly flew to the Casablanca Conference during World War II aboard a Boeing 314 Clipper flying boat. The trip was so unprecedented that even El...

1935

The first canned beer was sold in Richmond, Virginia by the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company

After three years of secret testing, Krueger's Finest Beer and Krueger's Cream Ale hit shelves in flat-top steel cans. The brewery was so nervous abou...

1922

Christian K. Nelson patented the Eskimo Pie ice cream bar

The Iowa candy maker invented the chocolate-covered ice cream treat after watching a boy in his shop struggle to choose between a chocolate bar and ic...

1908

Robert Baden-Powell began the Boy Scout movement with the publication of the first installment of 'Scouting for Boys'

The British Army officer's handbook became one of the best-selling books of the 20th century. He based it on his military scouting experiences and nev...

1888

Jacob L. Wortman patented the typewriter ribbon

Before this invention, early typewriters either used sheets of carbon paper placed between pages or had characters that struck directly onto carbon-co...

1848

James W. Marshall discovered gold at Sutter's Mill in California, sparking the Gold Rush

Major

A carpenter found shiny flakes in a water channel while building a sawmill, accidentally triggering one of the largest migrations in American history....

Fun Facts from January 24