This is a list of selected January 24 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.
Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article, featured list or picture of the day.
To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.
| ← January 23 | January 25 → |
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Images
Use only ONE image at a time
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Peter I of Russia -
Vladimir Lenin -
Sutter's Mill -
James W. Marshall -
Bust of Caligula -
University of Calcutta shortly after its founding
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Ineligible
| Blurb | Reason |
|---|---|
| 1438 – The Council of Basel suspended Pope Eugene IV and pronounced him deposed the following year, giving rise to a new schism by electing Amadeus VIII of Savoy as an antipope. | needs more footnotes, neutrality issues |
| 1639 – The Fundamental Orders, the first written constitution in North American history, were adopted in Connecticut. | unreferenced section |
| 1891 – Prime minister John Ballance began his term with his Liberal Party, the first political party in power in New Zealand. | needs more footnotes; lead too short |
| 1900 – Second Boer War: Boer forces stopped a British attempt to break the Siege of Ladysmith in the Battle of Spion Kop. | refimprove section |
| 1924 – Three days after the death of Vladimir Lenin, the City of Petrograd, founded by Peter the Great of Russia in 1703, was renamed Leningrad. | refimprove section; best moved to May 27 (date of founding) |
| 1961 – A Boeing B-52 Stratofortress carrying two Mark 39 nuclear weapons broke up in mid-air near Goldsboro, North Carolina; one bomb was recovered intact, the other disintegrated. | refimprove section |
| 1990 – Japan launched the Hiten spacecraft, the first lunar probe launched by a country other than the Soviet Union or the United States. | "or the United States" portion is unsourced |
| 1993 – Turkish journalist and writer Uğur Mumcu was assassinated by a car bomb outside his home in Ankara. | improve references |
| 2009 – Klaus, the most damaging European storm since Lothar and Martin in December 1999, made landfall near Bordeaux, France. | refimprove section |
| 2011 – A North Caucasian jihadist carried out a suicide bombing at Moscow Domodedovo Airport, killing 37 people. | improve references |
Eligible
- AD 41 – Cassius Chaerea and disgruntled members of the Praetorian Guard murdered the Roman emperor Caligula, who was succeeded by his uncle Claudius.
- 771 – Kʼakʼ Tiliw Chan Yopaat dedicated a 65-ton stele, the largest stone known to be quarried by the Maya civilization, at his city of Quiriguá.
- 1458 – The Estates unanimously proclaimed 14-year-old Matthias Corvinus King of Hungary after being persuaded to do so by his uncle Michael Szilágyi.
- 1857 – The University of Calcutta was established as the first modern university in the Indian subcontinent.
- 1913 – Greek military aviators Michael Moutoussis and Aristeidis Moraitinis performed the first naval air mission in history, with a Farman MF.7 hydroplane.
- 1915 – First World War: British ships of the Grand Fleet intercepted and surprised a German High Seas Fleet squadron in the North Sea, sinking a cruiser and damaging several other vessels.
- 1966 – Air India Flight 101, en route from Bombay to London, crashed into Mont Blanc in France, killing all 117 people on board.
- 1968 – Vietnam War: The 1st Australian Task Force launched Operation Coburg against the North Vietnamese army and the Viet Cong.
- 1978 – The Soviet nuclear-powered satellite Kosmos 954 burned up during atmospheric reentry, scattering radioactive debris across Canada's Northwest Territories.
- Born/died: | Richard de Bury |b|1287| George Rooke |d|1709| Charles James Fox |b|17496| Signe Rink |b|1836| Vasily Surikov |b|1848| Edith Wharton |b|1862| Charles Boardman Hawes |b|1889| Maximilian Bircher-Benner |d|1939| August Meyszner |d|1947| Mark Eaton |b|1957 Mary Lou Retton |b|1968 | |Peter Settman |b|1969| Elie Hobeika |d|2002|
Notes
- 1968 Thule Air Base B-52 crash appears on January 21, so 1961 crash should not appear in the same year.
January 24: Day of the Unification of the Romanian Principalities (1859)
- 914 – The Fatimid Caliphate began their first invasion of Egypt, against the Abbasids, which eventually ended in failure.
- 1536 – King Henry VIII of England (pictured) suffered a serious accident while jousting, receiving injuries which may have caused his later obesity and erratic personality.
- 1848 – James W. Marshall discovered gold at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California, leading to the California gold rush.
- 1972 – Japanese soldier Shoichi Yokoi was found in the jungles of Guam, where he had been hiding since the end of World War II.
- 1977 – During the Spanish transition to democracy, neo-fascists attacked an office in Madrid, killing five people and injuring four others.
- Pope Stephen IV (d. 817)
- Charles James Fox (b. 1749)
- Luis Suárez (b. 1987)
- Rosemary Bryant Mariner (d. 2019)