On This Day 2026
Hello, … Welcome to day 24 of the year.

Saturday, January 24th

Today is Global Belly Laugh Day, National Peanut Butter Day, International Day of Education and National Lobster Thermidor Day. Your star sign is Aquarius and your birthstone is Garnet.

2023 – The Doomsday Clock was set at 90 seconds to midnight after new escalations in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the escalating nuclear risks, with the clock remaining at that setting in January 2024 due to continued dangers like climate change and AI threats.
The Doomsday Clock was set at 90 seconds to midnight after new escalations in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
From left: Members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Siegfried S. Hecker, Daniel Holz, Sharon Squassoni, Mary Robinson and Elbegdorj Tsakhia
Famous deaths
2018 – Chas Hodges (b. 1943), English musician and singer. He was the lead vocalist, pianist and guitarist of the musical duo Chas & Dave.
Today’s birthdays
1941 – Neil Diamond (85), American singer-songwriter (“Sweet Caroline”, “Love On The Rocks”, “Forever In Blue Jeans”), born in New York, United States.
1957 – Adrian Edmondson (69), English actor and comedian (Bottom, The Young Ones, Guest House Paradiso), born in Bradford, West Yorkshire.
1958 – Jools Holland (68), English pianist, singer, television presenter (Later… With Jools Holland) and former member of The Squeeze, born in Blackheath, London.
1959 – Vic Reeves (67), English comedian (Shooting Stars, Vic and Bob’s Big Night Out), born in Leeds, West Yorkshire.
1970 – Matthew Lillard (56), American actor (Scream, Thirteen Ghosts, Five Nights at Freddy’s, Scooby Doo), born in Lansing, Michigan, United States.
1987 – Luis Suarez (39), Uruguayan professional footballer (Uruguay National Team) who currently plays for MLS club Inter Miami, born in Salto, Uruguay.
Famous deaths
1965 – Winston Churchill (b. 1874), English statesman, military officer and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (WWII) and again from 1951 to 1955.
The day today
1930 – The birth, in Norfolk, of Bernard Matthews, the poultry industry figure. He won a scholarship to the City of Norwich School, but found it difficult to settle, regularly failed his exams and left school with no qualifications. Nevertheless, when he died, aged 80, in November 2010 he had amassed a fortune estimated at over £300m.
1935 – Krueger’s Cream Ale, along with Krueger’s Finest Beer, was the first canned beer sold to the public by American company Krueger Brewing Company in Richmond, Virginia, marking a revolutionary moment in beer packaging and convenience.

1942 – World War II: The Allies bombarded Bangkok, leading Thailand to declare war against the United States and the United Kingdom.

1943 – Adolf Hitler orders German troops at Stalingrad to fight to the death issuing a formal order to General Friedrich Paulus stating, “Surrender is forbidden. 6 Army will hold their positions to the last man and the last round…”. Despite these commands, Paulus surrendered on January 31, 1943, followed by the final remnants of the 6th Army on February 2, 1943. Roughly 91,000 German soldiers went into Soviet captivity, including 22 generals. Hitler was reportedly furious at the surrender, viewing Paulus’s decision to live as a personal and national betrayal.
1961 – A B-52 bomber carrying two nuclear bombs broke up mid-air over North Carolina. The pilots lost control of the plane due to a fuel leak, forcing the crew to eject at 9,000 feet (2,700 m). Both bombs were dislodged from the plane and fell to the ground. One of them came incredibly close to detonation. Of the eight crew members aboard the bomber, five survived the landing.
1965 – Death of Sir Winston Churchill, aged 90, a world famous politician, soldier, historian and Prime Minister of Britain. He was First Lord of the Admiralty at the time of the battle of Dogger Bank. He had correctly predicted that he would die on the same date as his father, Lord Randolph Churchill, who had died exactly 70 years previously.
1969 – The protest against the erection of steel gates around the London School of Economics (LSE) occurred. Students, some using pickaxes and crowbars, tore down the newly installed gates, leading to the temporary closure of the school and legal action against several individuals.
1972 – Japanese Sgt. Shoichi Yokoi was found hiding by local farmers in Guam in the western Pacific Ocean. He had been hiding in the jungles for a total of 28 years and was completely unaware that WWII had ended.
1976 – Margaret Thatcher, leader of the Conservative Party, was dubbed ‘The Iron Lady’ in the Soviet newspaper ‘Red Star’ after her speech on the threat of Communism.
1986 – The beginning of the end for London’s Fleet Street, home to most of Britain’s national newspapers, when staff of the ‘Sun’ and ‘News of the World’ were told that they were moving to new premises at Wapping, in London’s Docklands.
1986 – NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft discovered 10 new moons during its close flyby of Uranus in January 1986. An eleventh moon, Perdita, was later confirmed in 1999 from a re-analysis of the original Voyager 2 images. The moons discovered by Voyager 2 are small, inner moons named after characters from Shakespeare’s plays and Alexander Pope’s poem ‘The Rape of the Lock’. They include: Puck, Cordelia, Ophelia, Bianca, Cressida, Desdemona, Juliet, Portia, Rosalind, Belinda and Perdita.
2014 – Somerset County Council and Sedgemoor District Council declared a major incident throughout much of the Somerset Levels. The village of Muchelney was cut off by flood water from the River Parrett for almost 10 weeks.
2015 – A racehorse named Sir Winston Churchill netted a win, on the 50th anniversary of the wartime leader’s death, in the 3:25pm race at Uttoxeter racecourse.
2019 – Thierry Henry was dismissed as head coach of AS Monaco after just three months in charge, with Leonardo Jardim returning to replace him, due to poor results and a failure to turn around the struggling Ligue 1 club. His dismissal followed a suspension and came after a dismal record of only two league wins in 12 games.
2023 – The Doomsday Clock was set at 90 seconds to midnight after new escalations in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the escalating nuclear risks, with the clock remaining at that setting in January 2024 due to continued dangers like climate change and AI threats. The Doomsday Clock represents how close the world is to a major catastrophe or all-out nuclear war. This adjustment brought the clock the closest it had ever been to midnight since its creation in 1947.
Today in music
1953 – Eddie Fisher was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Outside Is Heaven’. The American singer and entertainer divorced his first wife, Debbie Reynolds to marry his best friend’s widow, Elizabeth Taylor, which gave him too much unwelcome publicity at the time. Eddie is father of actress Carrie Fisher who died in 2016.
1958 – Elvis Presley was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Jailhouse Rock’. It became the first ever single to enter the chart at No.1 and was Presley’s second UK No.1. It went on to sell over 4 million copies in the US.
1958 – The Quarry Men performed at The Cavern Club in Liverpool, (this was the bands only performance at the club). It was three years later when they appeared again at the Cavern but under their new name as The Beatles.
1962 – Brian Epstein signed a management deal with The Beatles. Epstein was to receive 25 per cent of the bands gross earnings, the normal management deal was 10 per cent.
1981 – Adam And The Ants started a 10-week run at No.1 on the UK chart with their album ‘Kings Of The Wild Frontier’ featuring hits like “Antmusic” and “Dog Eat Dog,” becoming a defining album of the new wave era and winning the Best British Album at the 1982 Brit Awards.
1998 – Oasis went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘All Around The World’. The longest running-time for a UK No.1 with a total duration of 9 minutes 38 seconds. It was one of the first songs to be written by Noel Gallagher, with the band rehearsing it as early as 1992.
1999 – The Offspring went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Pretty Fly, For A White Guy’.
2008 – Amy Winehouse was admitted into rehab in a battle to kick her addiction to drugs. A statement from her record company, Universal said “she entered the facility after talks with her record label, management, family and doctors to continue her ongoing recovery against drug addiction.”
2016 – David Bowie was at No.1 on both the UK & US album charts with his twenty-fifth and final studio album Blackstar, Bowie’s only album to top the Billboard 200 in the US. Bowie was the biggest-selling vinyl artist of 2016 in the UK, with five albums in the vinyl Top 30, including Blackstar as the No.1 selling vinyl album of the year.

2022 – American rapper Cardi B won a million-dollar defamation verdict against YouTuber Latasha Kebe (Tasha K) for waging a “malicious campaign” to hurt her reputation by posting false rumours. She stated that the lies had led her to contemplate suicide in 2019. The jury issued a verdict that Cardi B had been defamed and awarded $1.25 million in damages. Further proceedings brought the total fine against Kebe to $3.82 million.

Today in history
76 AD – The birth, in Spain, of Hadrian, Roman Emperor whose defensive policies led to the building of Hadrian’s Wall on the border between Scotland and England.
1121 – King Henry I of England married his second wife, Adeliza of Louvain. At the time, King Henry I was 53 years old, and Adeliza was 18.
1264 – In the conflict between King Henry III of England and his rebellious barons led by Simon de Montfort, King Louis IX of France issues the Mise of Amiens, a one-sided decision in favour of Henry that later leads to the Second Barons’ War.
1839 – Charles Darwin was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society for his revolutionary role in developing science. At the age of 30, he was recognised for his contribution as a naturalist on the Beagle and for being ‘well acquainted with geology, botany, zoology & many other branches of natural knowledge’.
1857 – The University of Calcutta is formally founded as the first fully fledged multidisciplinary university in South Asia and the Indian subcontinent, founded under the British East India Company, modeled after the University of London, and serving a vast area from Lahore to Myanmar at its inception.
1908 – Lieutenant General Robert Baden-Powell publishes “Scouting for Boys” as a manual for self-instruction in outdoor skills and self-improvement. The book becomes the inspiration for the Scout Movement.