Today in History: January 24, gold discovered at Sutter's Mill in California

Today is Saturday, Jan. 24, the 24th day of 2026. There are 341 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Jan. 24, 1848, James W. Marshall found a gold nugget at Sutter's Mill in northern California, a discovery that sparked the California gold rush.

Also on this date:

In 1835, a major slave rebellion began in Bahia, Brazil, leading to the deaths of dozens of enslaved people in clashes with troops, police and armed civilians in the provincial capital of Salvador. The uprising was seen as influential in helping to bring about an end to slavery in the country decades later.

In 1945, Associated Press war correspondent Joseph Morton was among a group of captives executed by German soldiers at the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp in Austria.

In 1965, Winston Churchill died in London at age 90.

In 1984, Apple Computer began selling its first Macintosh model, which boasted a built-in 9-inch monochrome display, a clock rate of 8 megahertz and 128k of RAM.

In 1989, confessed serial killer Ted Bundy was executed in Florida's electric chair.

In 2003, former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge was sworn as the first secretary of the new Department of Homeland Security.

In 2011, a suicide bomber attacked Moscow's busiest airport, killing 37 people; Chechen separatists claimed responsibility.

In 2013, President Barack Obama's Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced the lifting of a ban on women serving in direct ground combat roles.

In 2023, a farmworker killed seven people in back-to-back shootings in a case of ''workplace violence'' at two Northern California mushroom farms. It marked the state's third mass killing in just over a week.