Calendar for January 24th, 2013

2001: Chinese New Year

Belly Laugh Day

1848: Gold nuggets discovered at Sutter's Mill in northern California, triggered the gold rush of 1849

Born 1862: Edith Wharton (author)

1888: Typewriter "copy" ribbon patented by Jacob L. Wortman

Born 1888: Vicki Baum (novelist)

Born 1919: Leon Kirchner (composer)

1922: Patent 1,404,539 granted for the Eskimo Pie

1925: Moving picture of a solar eclipse taken from dirigible over Long Island, NY

Born 1941: Neil Diamond (singer)

Born 1949: John Belushi (actor)

Born 1961: Nastassja Kinski (actress)

Died 1965: Sir Winston Churchill (British Prime Minister)

Born 1968: Mary Lou Retton (gymnast)

Born 1970: Matthew Lillard (actor)

1978: Soviet satellite Cosmos 954 crashed in Canada's Northwest Territories, leaking radioactive waste

1981: An otter entertained crowds all winter at the mouth of the Ompompanoosuc River in Norwich, Vermont

Died 1983: George Cukor (film director)

1984: Apple Computer, Inc. introduced the Macintosh personal computer

1986: The Voyager 2 spacecraft sent back photographs from the planet Uranus

Born 1986: Mischa Barton (actress)

Died 1986: Vincente Minnelli (film director)

Died 1993: Thurgood Marshall (first African American to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court)

Died 1998: Bob Russell (creator of the Miss America Pageant and Name That Tune)

Died 1998: Jay Monahan (legal analyst for NBC News)

2005: A blizzard that took over New England with blinding snow and blustering wind kept the Cape Cod Times from publishing a print edition for the first time

Died 2006: Chris Penn (actor)