Today in History.....January 24

On this day in …

* 1848, James W. Marshall discovered a gold nugget at Sutter's Mill in northern California, a discovery that led to the gold rush of '49

* 1908, the first Boy Scout troop was organized in England by Robert Baden-Powell

* 1924, the Russian city of St. Petersburg was renamed Leningrad in honor of the late revolutionary leader (however, it has since been re-named St. Petersburg)

* 1943, President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill concluded a wartime conference in Casablanca, Morocco

* 1972, the Supreme Court struck down laws that denied welfare benefits to people who had resided in a state for less than a year

* 1978, a nuclear-powered Soviet satellite plunged through Earth's atmosphere and disintegrated, scattering radioactive debris over parts of northern Canada

* 1985, the space shuttle Discovery was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on the first secret, all-military shuttle mission

* 1989, confessed serial killer Ted Bundy was put to death in Florida's electric chair

* 1995, the FDA approved Olestra, the nation's first zero-calorie artificial fat. ALSO: Specialist Michael New was discharged from the U.S. Army after a court-martial jury convicted him for refusing to wear a UN beret for a peacekeeping mission in the former Yugoslavia

* 2003, the new Department of Homeland Security officially opened and its chief, Tom Ridge, was sworn in

* 2004, the United Nations for the fist time commemorated the 60-year anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi, ym"sh, death camps, directly linking its own founding with the end of the Holocaust in some of the strongest language ever