5 Bahman 1387 | Saturday 24 January 2009

This day in four calendars

1848 (178 years ago) California Gold Rush: James W. Marshall finds gold at Sutter's Mill near Sacramento.
1915 (111 years ago) World War I: British Grand Fleet battle cruisers under Vice-Admiral Sir David Beatty engage Rear-Admiral Franz von Hipper's battle cruisers in the Battle of Dogger Bank.
1918 (108 years ago) The Gregorian calendar is introduced in Russia by decree of the Council of People's Commissars effective February 14 (New Style).
1942 (84 years ago) World War II: The Allies bombard Bangkok, leading Thailand, then under Japanese control, to declare war against the United States and United Kingdom.
1943 (83 years ago) World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill conclude a conference in Casablanca.
1978 (48 years ago) Soviet satellite Kosmos 954, with a nuclear reactor on board, burns up in Earth's atmosphere, scattering radioactive debris over Canada's Northwest Territories. Only 1% is recovered.
1986 (40 years ago) The Voyager 2 space probe makes its closest approach to Uranus.
1990 (36 years ago) Japan launches Hiten, the country's first lunar probe, the first robotic lunar probe since the Soviet Union's Luna 24 in 1976, and the first lunar probe launched by a country other than Soviet Union or the United States.

76 (1950 years ago) Hadrian, Roman emperor (died 138)
1712 (314 years ago) Frederick the Great, Prussian king (died 1786)
1732 (294 years ago) Pierre Beaumarchais, French playwright and financier (died 1799)
1776 (250 years ago) E. T. A. Hoffmann, German jurist, author, and composer (died 1822)
1862 (164 years ago) Edith Wharton, American novelist and short story writer (died 1937)
1940 (86 years ago) Joachim Gauck, German pastor and politician, 11th President of Germany
1953 (73 years ago) Moon Jae-in, South Korean politician, 19th President of South Korea
1987 (39 years ago) Luis Suárez, Uruguayan footballer

41 (1985 years ago) Caligula, Roman emperor (born 12)
817 (1209 years ago) Pope Stephen IV,
1920 (106 years ago) Amedeo Modigliani, Italian painter and sculptor (born 1884)
1965 (61 years ago) Winston Churchill, English statesman, soldier, and writer, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1874)
1983 (43 years ago) George Cukor, American director and producer (born 1899)
1986 (40 years ago) L. Ron Hubbard, American religious leader and author, founded the Church of Scientology (born 1911)
1989 (37 years ago) Ted Bundy, American serial killer (born 1946)
2016 (10 years ago) Marvin Minsky, American computer scientist and academic (born 1927)