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“Habit is necessary; it is the habit of having habits, of turning a trail into a rut, that must be incessantly fought against if one is to remain alive.”
~ Edith Wharton
Wikiquote (Edith Wharton born Edith Newbold Jones, (January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and designer.)
January 24th, 41
Roman Empire:
41 - Roman Emperor Caligula, known for his eccentricity and cruel despotism, is assassinated by his disgruntled Praetorian Guards. The Guard then proclaims Caligula's uncle Claudius as Emperor.
Wikipedia Image: Relief from a 3rd-century sarcophagus depicting a battle between Romans and Germanic warriors; the central figure is perhaps the emperor Hostilian / Depiction of the Menorah on the Arch of Titus in Rome.
January 24th, 1438
Ethiopia:
1438 - Council of Basel suspends Pope Eugene IV as Prelate of Ethiopia, arrives at Massawa from Goa.
Wikipedia Photo: Blue Nile Falls; Ethiopia a magical and timeless land; credit Oklahoma State University, University of California - San Diego School of Medicine, National Geographics.
January 24th, 1679
English Civil War:
1679 - King Charles II of England dissolves the Cavalier Parliament.
Wikipedia Painting: English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians (Roundheads) and Royalists (Cavaliers);
John Milton publishes Areopagitica;
Battle of Naseby, victory of the Parliamentarian New Model Army;
Battle of Marston Moor, 1644;
"Cromwell at Dunbar", by Andrew Carrick Gow; Oliver Cromwell; King Charles I, painted by Van Dyck;
"And when did you last see your father?" by William Frederick Yeames.
January 24th, 1817
1817 - Crossing of the Andes: Action of Picheuta; Many soldiers of Juan Gregorio de las Heras are captured.
Wikipedia Photo: The very nature of Chile's topography made it one of the toughest parts of South America for the Spanish to conquer (Torres del Paine National Park (Spanish: Parque Nacional Torres del Paine) is a national park encompassing mountains, a glacier, a lake, and river-rich areas in southern Chilean Patagonia); Lautaro; The Mapuche were the original inhabitants of central and southern Chile; Chilean and Argentinean troops going to the Battle of Chacabuco (February 12, 1817) led by José de San Martín.
January 24th, 1835
Malê Revolt: Slaves in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil stage a revolt, which is instrumental in ending slavery there 50 years later.
Wikipedia Painting: The Slave Ship, J. M. W. Turner's representation of the mass-murder of slaves, inspired by the Zong Massacre.
January 24th, 1848
California Gold Rush: James W. Marshall finds gold at Sutter's Mill near Sacramento, California.
Wikipedia Map of the Gold Regions of California. Showing the Routes via Chagres and Panama, Cape Horn. California.gov
January 24th, 1857
The University of Calcutta is formally founded as the first fully-fledged university in south Asia.
Wikipedia Image: Map Satellite India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet AR, Bangladesh.
Photo: The University of Calcutta.
January 24th, 1862
Bucharest is proclaimed capital of Romania.
Wikipedia Photo: Bucharest; Palace of the Parliament (Palatul Parlamentului) ● Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy (Universitatea de Medicină şi Farmacie Carol Davila) ● Triumphal Arch (Arcul de Triumf) ● George Enescu Museum (Muzeul George Enescu) ● Victory Avenue, Bucharest (Calea Victoriei) ● Colţea Hospital (Spitalul Colţea) ● Lipscani ● National Arena (Arena Naţională) ● Romanian Athenaeum (Ateneul Român) ● Grozăveşti Bridge (Podul Grozăveşti) ● Basarab Overpass (Pasajul Basarab).
January 24th, 1878
The revolutionary Vera Zasulich shoots at Fyodor Trepov, the Governo Saint Petersburg.
Wikipedia Image: Russian Revolution of 1905: Ilya Repin, 17 October 1905; Bloody Sunday (January 22. Father Gapon near Narva Gate. Unknown painter - Soviet painting - Bloody Sunday massacre in St. Petersburg).
January 24th, 1900
Second Boer War: Siege of Ladysmith; Battle of Spion Kop, Boers stop a British attempt to break the Siege of Ladysmith.
Wikipedia Photo: Second Boer War; (Dutch: Tweede Boerenoorlog, Afrikaans: Tweede Vryheidsoorlog or Tweede Boereoorlog) was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic (Transvaal Republic) and the Orange Free State.
January 24th, 1908
The first Boy Scout troop is organized in England by Robert Baden-Powell.
Wikipedia Painting: Boy Scouts, by Norman Rockwell, 1944.
January 24th, 1911
Japanese anarchist Shūsui Kōtoku is hanged for treason in a case now considered a miscarriage of justice..
Wikipedia Photo: Shūsui Kōtoku and his partner Kanno Suga. (The High Treason Incident ultimately resulted in the execution by hanging of 12 people, and the imprisonment of a further 14).
January 24th, 1916
Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad: The United States Supreme Court declares the federal income tax constitutional.
Wikipedia Photo: United States Supreme Court building; Guardian of Law, by James Earle Fraser, US Supreme Court, Washington, DC, USA.
January 24th, 1918
The Gregorian Calendar is introduced in Russia by decree of the Council of People's Commissars effective February 14 (NS).
Wikipedia Image: Detail of the tomb of Pope Gregory XIII celebrating the introduction of the Gregorian calendar.
January 24th, 1939
Earthquake:
1939 - Chillán earthquake of 1939; The deadliest earthquake in Chilean history strikes Chillán.
Wikipedia Image: Preliminary Determination of Epicenters / Aleppo Syria; Anchorage, Alaska - March 28, 1964 Prince William Sound USA earthquake and tsunami; 8.9 Mega Earthquake Strikes Japan; Tsunami Swirls Japan's Ibaraki Prefecture March 12 2011. credit NOAA / NGDC, NOAA National Geophysical Data Center, USGS, National Geographics.
January 24th, 1942
World War II:
1942 - The Allies bombard Bangkok, leading Thailand to declare war against the United States and United Kingdom.
1943 - Casablanca Conference; Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill conclude a conference in Casablanca.
Post World War II:
1946 - The United Nations General Assembly passes its first resolution to establish the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission.
1947 - Greek banker Dimitrios Maximos becomes Prime Minister of Greece.
Wikipedia Photo: Bombing of Dresden in World War II; August Schreitmüller's sculpture 'Goodness' surveys Dresden after a firestorm started by Allied bombers in 1945.
USS Bunker Hill was hit by kamikazes piloted by Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa and another airman on 11 May 1945. 389 personnel were killed or missing from a crew of 2,600; Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa, who flew his aircraft into the USS Bunker Hill during a Kamikaze mission on 11 May 1945; Kamikaze Missions - Lt Yoshinori Yamaguchi's Yokosuka D4Y3 (Type 33 Suisei) "Judy" in a suicide dive against USS Essex. The dive brakes are extended and the non-self-sealing port wing tank is trailing fuel vapor and/or smoke 25 November 1944.
German V1 flying-bomb and V2 Rockets - Preparations for a Salvo Launch of V-2 Rockets in the Heidelager near Blizna (Poland) (1944), credit German History in Documents and Images GHDI.
Eastern Front (World War II); Germans race towards Stalingrad. August 1942; Soviet children during a German air raid in the first days of the war, June 1941, by RIA Novosti archive; Soviet sniper Roza Shanina in 1944. About 400,000 Soviet women served in front-line duty units Caucasus Mountains, winter 1942/43; Finnish ski patrol: the invisible enemy of the Soviet Army with an unlimited supply of skis; Men of the German Engineers Corps cross a river which is swollen after the first autumn rains, to strengthen bridges linking the German positions on the central front in Russia. by Keystone / Getty Images. October 1942; Russian snipers fighting on the Leningrad front during a blizzard. Photo by Hulton Archive / Getty Images, 1943; German soldiers surrendering to the Russians in Stalingrad, the soldier holding the white flag of surrender is dressed in white so that there could be no doubt of his intentions, a Russian soldier is on the right of the photograph. by Keystone / Getty Images, January 1943.
January 24th, 1960
The Algerian War: Some units of European volunteers in Algiers stage an insurrection known as the "barricades week", during which they seize government buildings and clash with local police.
Wikipedia Image: Africa satellite orthographic; Buildings along the Mediterranean coast of Algiers, ● Martyrs Memorial, ● Notre Dame d'Afrique, ● Ketchaoua Mosque, ● Casbah, ● the Grand Post Office and ● the Ministry of Finance of Algeria.
January 24th, 1972
Japanese Sergeant Shoichi Yokoi is found hiding in a Guam jungle, where he had been since the end of World War II:.
Wikipedia Photo: Shoichi Yokoi (Governor Camacho and Sgt. Shoichi Yokoi); The island of Guam in the Pacific Ocean, Mariana Trench credit Paul Chesley, National Geographic ©.
January 24th, 1978
Soviet satellite Cosmos 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).
Wikipedia Image: The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (artist's impression), credit NASA / CP; Cosmos-954 debris.
January 24th, 1984
Apple Macintosh, the first consumer computer to popularize the computer mouse and the graphical user interface goes on sale.
Wikipedia Photo: Apple Computer, Super Bowl XVIII with its famous "1984" television commercial. 
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January 24th, 1986
Voyager 2 passes within 81,500 kilometres (50,600 mi) of Uranus.
Wikipedia Photo: Voyager 2 Launch, sending back tens of thousands of images. NASA
January 24th, 2003
2003 - United States Department of Homeland Security officially begins operation.
Wikipedia Photo: September 11 Attacks: From top to bottom: the World Trade Center burning; Trinity Cathedral; Statue of Liberty; a section of the Pentagon collapses; 9/11 memorial service.
January 24th, 2009
Cyclone:
2009 - The storm Klaus makes landfall near Bordeaux, France. (It subsequently would cause 26 deaths as well as extensive disruptions to public transport and power supplies.)
Wikipedia Image: In meteorology, a cyclone is an area of closed, circular fluid motion rotating in the same direction as the Earth (This is usually characterized by inward spiraling winds that rotate counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere of the Earth) ● Emergency Management, Australian Government. ● Global tropical cyclone tracks. ● Emergency Information, Burdenkin Shire.
January 24th, 2011
Aircraft hijacking:
2011 - Domodedovo International Airport bombing: at least 35 died and 180 injured in a bombing at Moscow's Domodedovo airport.
Wikipedia Photo: Hijacked Sudan passenger jet lands in Libya, August 27, 2008; Amsterdam false alarm revives airplane hijacking memories, Passengers leave a Vueling plane at a field near Amsterdam Airport after a hijack scare last week that led the Netherlands to scramble F-16 fighter jets, September 2, 2012 Reuters; Egypt Air flight 648 was hijacked in November 1985 by the terrorist Abu Nidal organisation, credit AP; Cockpit section of Pan Am 103 wreckage following a mid-air explosion, December 21, 1988; 747 Pan Am airliner that exploded and crashed over Lockerbie, Scotland, with 259 passengers on board in 1988; Debris lies in a deep gash through the town of Lockerbie, Scotland, caused by the crash of Pan Am flight 103, credit AP; Flight 175 hits the WTC South Tower. The picture was taken from a traffic helicopter. credit: WABC 7/ Salient Stills; Hijacked United Airlines Flight 175 from Boston crashes into the South Tower of the World Trade Center and explodes at 9:03 a.m. on September 11, 2001 in New York City, credit Spencer Platt / Getty Images.