On Jan. 24, 1848, James W. Marshall discovered a gold nugget at Sutter’s Mill in northern California, a discovery that led to the gold rush of ’49.
In 1862 novelist Edith Wharton was born in New York.
In 1918 evangelist Oral Roberts was born outside Ada, Okla.
In 1924 the Russian city of St. Petersburg was renamed Leningrad in honor of the late revolutionary leader. (It has since reverted to the name St. Petersburg.)
In 1941 singer Neil Diamond was born in Brooklyn, N.Y.
In 1943 President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill concluded a wartime conference in Casablanca, Morocco.
In 1965 Winston Churchill died in London; he was 90.
In 1972 the Supreme Court struck down laws that denied welfare benefits to people who had resided in a state for less than a year.
In 1978 a nuclear-powered Soviet satellite plunged through Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrated, scattering radioactive debris over parts of northern Canada.
In 1983 film director George Cukor (“The Philadelphia Story,” “A Star Is Born,” “My Fair Lady”) died in Los Angeles; he was 83.
In 1985 the space shuttle Discovery was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on the first secret, all-military shuttle mission.
In 1986 the Voyager II space probe swept past Uranus, coming within 50,679 miles of the seventh planet of the solar system.
In 1987 gunmen in Lebanon kidnapped educators Alann Steen, Jesse Turner and Robert Polhill and Mitheleshwar Singh. (All were later released.)
In 1989 confessed serial killer Theodore Bundy was put to death in Florida’s electric chair.
In 1993 retired Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall died in Bethesda, Md.; he was 84.
In 1994 President Bill Clinton promoted William Perry, the Pentagon’s No. 2 man, to defense secretary.
In 1995 President Bill Clinton appealed for common ground as he delivered his second State of the Union address, this time before a Republican-led Congress.
In 1996 the FDA approved Olestra, the nation’s first zero-calorie artificial fat.
In 2000 Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore posted victories in the Iowa caucuses.
In 2001 Lucent Technologies said it would eliminate up to 16,000 jobs.
In 2003 the new Department of Homeland Security officially opened as its chief, Tom Ridge, was sworn in.
In 2004 NASA’s Opportunity rover landed on Mars, arriving at the Red Planet exactly three weeks after its identical twin’s landing.
In 2005 the United Nations broke with years of protocol and commemorated the 60-year anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camps, directly linking its own founding with the end of the Holocaust in some of the strongest language ever.
