From Historynet: Today in History January 24

41               Shortly after declaring himself a god, 

Caligula  is assassinated by two Praetorian tribunes.

1458          Matthias Corvinus , the son of 

John Hunyadi , is elected king of Hungary.

1639          Representatives from three Connecticut towns band together to write the Fundamental Orders, the first constitution in the New World.

1722          Czar Peter the Great  caps his reforms in Russia with the "Table of Rank" which decrees a commoner can climb on merit to the highest positions.

1848          Gold is discovered by 

James Wilson Marshall  at his partner 

Johann August Sutter's  sawmill on the South Fork of the American River, near Coloma, California.

1903          U.S. Secretary of State John Hay  and 

British Ambassador Herbert  create a joint commission to establish the Alaskan border.

1911          U.S. Cavalry is sent to preserve the neutrality of the Rio Grande during the Mexican Civil War.

1915          The German cruiser Blücher is sunk by a British squadron in the Battle of Dogger Bank.

1927          British expeditionary force of 12,000 is sent to China to protect concessions at Shanghai.

1931          The League of Nations rebukes Poland for the mistreatment of a German minority in Upper Silesia.

1945          A German attempt to relieve the besieged city of Budapest is finally halted by the Soviets.

1946          The UN establishes the International Atomic Energy Commission.

1951          Indian leader Nehru  demands that the UN name Peking as an aggressor in Korea.

1965          Winston Churchill  dies from a cerebral thrombosis at the age of 90.

1980          In a rebuff to the Soviets, the U.S. announces intentions to sell arms to China.

1982          A draft of Air Force history reports that the U.S. secretly sprayed herbicides on Laos during the Vietnam War.