This week in history: Jan. 23-29

California’s gold rush began, Mozart was born, J.D. Salinger died, ‘Dr. Strangelove’ premiered

J.D. Salinger, author of the classic novel “The Catcher in the Rye,” died on Jan. 27, 2010. He was 91. (Amy Sancetta / AP Photo)

Jan. 23

1368: China’s Ming dynasty, which lasted nearly three centuries, began.

1789: Georgetown University was established in present-day Washington, D.C.

1849: Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States.

1870: Approximately 200 Piegan Blackfoot tribe members were killed by US Army troops under the command of Major Eugene Mortimer Baker in Montana, in what became known as the Baker Massacre.

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.

1989: Confessed serial killer Ted Bundy was executed in Florida’s electric chair.

Jan. 25

1924: The first Winter Olympic Games opened in Chamonix, France.

1961: President John F. Kennedy held the first live televised presidential news conference.

1971: Charles Manson and three of his followers were convicted in Los Angeles of murder and conspiracy in the 1969 slayings of seven people, including actor Sharon Tate.

Jan. 26

1788: The first European settlers in Australia, led by Capt. Arthur Phillip landed in present-day Sydney.

1988: The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical “Phantom of the Opera” opened at Broadway’s Majestic Theater and went on to become the longest-running show in Broadway history.

2020: NBA legend Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter and seven others were killed when their helicopter plunged into a steep hillside in dense morning fog in Southern California; the former Lakers star was 41.

Jan. 27

1756: Composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria.

1888: The National Geographic Society was incorporated in Washington, D.C.

1944: During World War II, the Soviet Union announced the complete end of the deadly German siege of Leningrad, which had lasted for more than two years.

1973: A cease-fire officially went into effect in the Vietnam War, a day after the signing of the Paris Peace Accords by the United States, North Vietnam and South Vietnam.

2010: J.D. Salinger, the reclusive author of “The Catcher in the Rye,” died at age 91.

Jan. 28

1547: England’s King Henry VIII died; he was succeeded by his 9-year-old son, Edward VI.

1813: The novel “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen was first published anonymously in London.

1915: The United States Coast Guard was created under President Woodrow Wilson

1956: Elvis Presley made his first national TV appearance on “Stage Show,” a CBS program hosted by Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey.

1980: Six U.S. diplomats who had avoided being taken hostage at their embassy in Tehran flew out of Iran with the help of Canadian diplomats.

1986: The space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, killing all seven crew members, including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe.

Jan. 29

1936: The first inductees of baseball’s Hall of Fame, including Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth, were named in Cooperstown, New York.

1963: Poet Robert Frost died in Boston at age 88.

1964: Stanley Kubrick’s nuclear war satire “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” premiered.