Here are 31 newsworthy and notable historical anniversaries in January 2024 (listed six months in advance so you have time to write about them)
Historical anniversaries are great for ‘On This Day in History’ features, articles, biographies and other anniversary tie-ins. They’re popular with newspaper and magazine readers and radio stations, and editors, producers and presenters love them. They’re easy to research too. You can also turn them into movies, documentaries, novels, use them to plan events and exhibitions, and much more. (Find out more at the end of this article.)
We’ve randomly picked one anniversary for each day of the month from The Date-A-Base Book 2024, which lists more than 3,000 anniversaries.
1 Jan 1874 – 150 years ago
The Bronx was annexed by New York City.
2 Jan 1974 – 50 years ago
The maximum national speed limit in the USA was reduced to 55 MPH to conserve fuel during the OPEC oil embargo. The oil embargo was lifted in March 1974, but the speed limit remained in force and was made permanent in January 1975. It was repealed in 1995.
3 Jan 1624 – 400 years ago
Birth of William Tucker, the first African-American born in America.
4 Jan 1944 to 30 Apr 1945 – 80 years ago
World War II: Operation Carpetbagger. The U.S. Army Air Forces dropped weapons and supplies to resistance fighters in France, Italy and the Low Countries.
5 Jan 1949 – 75 years ago
U.S. President Harry S. Truman unveiled his Fair Deal programme in his State of the Union address.
6 Jan 1949 – 75 years ago
Genes were photographed for the first time, by Daniel C. Pease and Richard F. Baker at the University of Southern California, USA.
7 Jan 1934 – 90 years ago
The first Flash Gordon comic strip was published. It was created by Alex Raymond to compete with the Buck Rogers comic strip.
8 Jan 1324 – 700 years ago
Death of Marco Polo, Venetian/Italian merchant, explorer and writer. Best known for his book The Travels of Marco Polo, which details his travels along the Silk Road in Asia.
9 Jan 1949 – 75 years ago
Death of Tommy Handley, British radio comedian. Best known for It’s That Man Again (ITMA).
10 Jan 1924 – 100 years ago
Columbia Pictures, the American film studio and production company, was established. The company was originally founded as the Cohn-Brandt-Cohn Film Sales Corporation in 1918.
11 Jan 1964 – 60 years ago
The U.S. Surgeon General, Luther L. Terry, published a report which concluded that cigarette smoking caused lung cancer and chronic bronchitis. This was the first official U.S. government report on the health issues of smoking. Warnings were placed on packaging from January 1965. (An earlier report, published in the UK in March 1962, had reached the same conclusion.)
12 Jan 1959 – 65 years ago
The Motown record label was founded in Detroit, Michigan, USA by Berry Gordy. (It was initially known as Tamla Records.)
13 Jan 1964 – 60 years ago
Bob Dylan’s album The Times They Are A-Changin’ was released.
14 Jan 1994 – 30 years ago
U.S. President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed the Kremlin Accords. They agreed to stop pre-targeting nuclear missiles at any nation, and to dismantle Russia’s nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
15 Jan 1924 – 100 years ago
The BBC broadcast the first play written specifically for radio: A Comedy of Danger by Richard Hughes.
16 Jan 1874 – 150 years ago
Birth of Robert W. Service, (‘the Bard of the Yukon’), British-born Canadian poet, writer and traveller. Best known for his poems about the Klondike Gold Rush.
17 Jan 1874 – 150 years ago
Death of Chang and Eng Bunker, Thai-American conjoined twins. The original Siamese twins.
18 Jan 1974 – 50 years ago
The first regular episode of the science fiction-action television series The Six Million Dollar Man was broadcast on ABC in the USA. It ran for five seasons until March 1978.
19 Jan 1949 – 75 years ago
Birth of Robert Palmer, British rock singer. His songs included Addicted to Love, Simply Irresistible and Bad Case of Loving You. (Died 2003.)
20 Jan 1964 – 60 years ago
The first Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue was published.
21 Jan 1924 – 100 years ago
Death of Vladimir Lenin, Russian communist leader. Architect and first head of the Soviet Union.
22 Jan 1984 – 40 years ago
The first Apple Macintosh computer went on sale.
23 Jan 1849 – 175 years ago
Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in the USA to receive a medical degree.
24 Jan 1949 – 75 years ago
Birth of John Belushi, American comedian and actor (Saturday Night Live, The Blues Brothers). (Died 1982.)
25 Jan to 5 Feb 1924 – 100 years ago
The first Winter Olympics were held in Chamonix, France.
26 Jan 1934 – 90 years ago
The Apollo Theatre in Harlem, New York City, USA re-opened and began accepting black performers for the first time. It launched the careers of many popular singers and entertainers.
27 Jan 1984 – 40 years ago
American pop singer Michael Jackson suffered serious burns to his scalp when his hair caught fire while filming a Pepsi commercial.
28 Jan 1999 – 25 years ago
Yahoo! acquired the web hosting service GeoCities. The acquisition was hugely unpopular with users, and many of them left. The U.S. service shut down in 2009.
29 Jan 1944 – 80 years ago
The U.S. Navy battleship USS Missouri was launched. It was the last battleship built by the USA. Japan signed its surrender document on board it at the end of WWII in September 1945.
30 Jan to 2 Feb 1944 – 80 years ago
World War II – the Battle of Cisterna (Italy). German victory.
31 Jan 1954 – 70 years ago
Death of Edwin H. Armstrong, American inventor and electrical engineer who developed FM radio. (Suicide, aged 63.)
More anniversaries:
You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for this month in The Date-A-Base Book 2024. The 2025, 2026, 2027 and 2028 editions are also available if you work further ahead. The anniversaries are available as PDF ebooks, Excel spreadsheets, and printed paperback books.
How to use the anniversaries:
If you’d like to know more about how to turn the anniversaries listed here and in The Date-A-Base Books into articles for magazines and newspapers, take a look at our free 68-page guide, Ditch Your Day Job: the easiest way to make a living (or earn some extra cash) as a writer.
It has some terrific bonuses too, including a complete month of anniversaries from The Date-A-Base Book 2023, hundreds of article-writing tips and ideas, plus a 25 percent discount when you buy two or more editions of The Date-A-Base Book.