http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Feb 24, 1836: Alamo defenders call for help
On this day in 1836, in San Antonio, Texas, Colonel William Travis issues a call for help on behalf of the Texan troops defending the Alamo, an old Spanish mission and fortress under attack by the Mexican army.
A native of Alabama, Travis moved to the Mexican state of Texas in 1831. He soon became a leader of the growing movement to overthrow the Mexican government and establish an independent Texan republic. When the Texas revolution began in 1835, Travis became a lieutenant-colonel in the revolutionary army and was given command of troops in the recently captured city of San Antonio de Bexar (now San Antonio). On February 23, 1836, a large Mexican force commanded by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana arrived suddenly in San Antonio. Travis and his troops took shelter in the Alamo, where they were soon joined by a volunteer force led by Colonel James Bowie.
Though Santa Ana's 5,000 troops heavily outnumbered the several hundred Texans, Travis and his men determined not to give up. On February 24, they answered Santa Ana's call for surrender with a bold shot from the Alamo's cannon. Furious, the Mexican general ordered his forces to launch a siege. Travis immediately recognized his disadvantage and sent out several messages via couriers asking for reinforcements. Addressing one of the pleas to "The People of Texas and All Americans in the World," Travis signed off with the now-famous phrase "Victory or Death."
Only 32 men from the nearby town of Gonzales responded to Travis' call for help, and beginning at 5:30 a.m. on March 6, Mexican forces stormed the Alamo through a gap in the fort's outer wall, killing Travis, Bowie and 190 of their men. Despite the loss of the fort, the Texan troops managed to inflict huge losses on their enemy, killing at least 600 of Santa Ana's men.
The brave defense of the Alamo became a powerful symbol for the Texas revolution, helping the rebels turn the tide in their favor. At the crucial Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 910 Texan soldiers commanded by Sam Houston defeated Santa Ana's army of 1,250 men, spurred on by cries of "Remember the Alamo!" The next day, after Texan forces captured Santa Ana himself, the general issued orders for all Mexican troops to pull back behind the Rio Grande River. On May 14, 1836, Texas officially became an independent republic.
Feb 24, 1968: Tet offensive halted
On February 24, 1968, the Tet Offensive ends as U.S. and South Vietnamese troops recapture the ancient capital of Hue from communist forces. Although scattered fighting continued across South Vietnam for another week, the battle for Hue was the last major engagement of the offensive, which saw communist attacks on all of South Vietnam's major cities. In the aftermath of Tet, public opinion in the United States decisively turned against the Vietnam War.
As 1968 began--the third year of U.S. ground-troop fighting in Vietnam--U.S. military leadership was still confident that a favorable peace agreement would soon be forced on the North Vietnamese and their allies in South Vietnam, the Viet Cong. Despite growing calls at home for an immediate U.S. withdrawal, President Lyndon Johnson's administration planned to keep the pressure on the communists through increased bombing and other attrition strategies. General William Westmoreland, commander of U.S. operations in Vietnam, claimed to see clearly "the light at the end of the tunnel," and Johnson hoped that soon the shell-shocked communists would stumble out of the jungle to the bargaining table.
However, on January 30, 1968, the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese launched their massive Tet Offensive all across South Vietnam. It was the first day of Tet--Vietnam's lunar new year and most important holiday--and many South Vietnamese soldiers, expecting an unofficial truce, had gone home. The Viet Cong were known for guerrilla tactics and had never launched an offensive on this scale; consequently, U.S. and South Vietnamese forces were caught completely by surprise.
In the first day of the offensive, tens of thousands of Viet Cong soldiers, supported by North Vietnamese forces, overran the five largest cities of South Vietnam, scores of smaller cities and towns, and a number of U.S. and South Vietnamese bases. The Viet Cong struck at Saigon--South Vietnam's capital--and even attacked, and for several hours held, the U.S. embassy there. The action was caught by U.S. television news crews, which also recorded the brutal impromptu street execution of a Viet Cong rebel by a South Vietnamese military official.
As the U.S. and South Vietnamese fought to regain control of Saigon, the cities of Hue, Dalat, Kontum, and Quangtri fell to the communists. U.S. and South Vietnamese forces recaptured most of these cities within a few days, but Hue was fiercely contested by the communist soldiers occupying it. After 26 days of costly house-to-house fighting, the South Vietnamese flag was raised again above Hue on February 24, and the Tet Offensive came to an end. During the communist occupation of Hue, numerous South Vietnamese government officials and civilians were massacred, and many civilians died in U.S. bombing attacks that preceded the liberation of the city.
In many respects, the Tet Offensive was a military disaster for the communists: They suffered 10 times more casualties than their enemy and failed to control any of the areas captured in the opening days of the offensive. They had hoped that the offensive would ignite a popular uprising against South Vietnam's government and the presence of U.S. troops. This did not occur. In addition, the Viet Cong, which had come out into the open for the first time in the war, were all but wiped out. However, because the Tet Offensive crushed U.S. hopes for an imminent end to the conflict, it dealt a fatal blow to the U.S. military mission in Vietnam.
In Tet's aftermath, President Johnson came under fire on all sides for his Vietnam policy. General Westmoreland requested 200,000 more troops to overwhelm the communists, and a national uproar ensued after this request was disclosed, forcing Johnson to recall Westmoreland to Washington. On March 31, Johnson announced that the United States would begin de-escalation in Vietnam, halt the bombing of North Vietnam, and seek a peace agreement to end the conflict. In the same speech, he also announced that he would not seek reelection to the presidency, citing what he perceived to be his responsibility in creating the national division over Vietnam.
Feb 24, 1946: Peron elected in Argentina
Juan Domingo Peron, the controversial former vice president of Argentina, is elected president.
In 1943, as an army officer, he joined a military coup against Argentina's ineffectual civilian government. Appointed secretary of labor, his influence grew and in 1944 he also became vice president and minister of war. In October 1945, Peron was ousted from his positions by a coup of constitutionally minded civilians and officers and imprisoned, but appeals from workers and his charismatic mistress, Eva Duarte, soon forced his release. The night of his release, October 17, he addressed a crowd of some 300,000 people from the balcony of the presidential palace, and promised to lead the people to victory in the coming presidential election. Four days later, Peron, a widower, married Eva Duarte, or "Evita," as she became affectionately known.
As president, Peron constructed an impressive populist alliance, and his vision of self-sufficiency for Argentina won him wide support. However, he also became increasingly authoritarian, jailing political opponents and restricting freedom of the press. In 1952, his greatest political resource, Evita, died, and support for him dissolved. Three years later, he was ousted in a military coup. In 1973, after 18 years of exile, he returned to Argentina and won the presidency again. His third wife, Isabel de Martinez Peron, was elected as vice president and in 1974 succeeded him upon his death.
Feb 24, 1917: British troops recapture Kut in Mesopotamia
The Allied war against Turkish forces gains momentum (and ground) in Mesopotamia as British and Indian troops move along the Tigris River in early 1917, recapturing the city of Kut-al-Amara and taking 1,730 Turkish prisoners on February 24.
Ten months after nearly 12,000 British and Indian troops had been captured there—considered by many the most humiliating surrender in the history of the British army—Kut fell into the hands of a British corps commanded by Sir Frederick Maude. After being appointed commander of the Tigris Corps in Mesopotamia in July 1916 and of the entire Mesopotamian front a month later, Maude had immediately begun to reorganize and re-supply the troops in the region in preparation for a renewed offensive against Kut.
In early January, Maude's 150,000 troops launched their attacks on Khadairi Bend, a heavily fortified town on the Tigris north of Kut. It fell on January 29, and the British troops continued onward to the main offensive, the Second Battle of Kut, which began with attacks on both Turkish flanks on February 17.
Overwhelmed, Turkish forces under commander Karabekir Bey retreated from Kut on February 24. They were pursued by a flotilla of British naval gunboats, including the Mantis, Moth and Tarantula. Outrunning their counterparts on the ground, the crew of the British ships found themselves under fire from four Turkish vessels some 30 kilometers north of Kut at Nahr-al-Kalek. In the gun battle that followed, the British soundly defeated the Turks, destroying three of the Turkish ships and capturing the fourth, the former British monitor ship Firefly.
Encouraged by their victory at Kut, Maude's forces pushed on towards Baghdad, which would fall on March 11.
Feb 24, 1868: President Andrew Johnson impeached
The U.S. House of Representatives votes 11 articles of impeachment against President Andrew Johnson, nine of which cite Johnson's removal of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, a violation of the Tenure of Office Act. The House vote made President Johnson the first president to be impeached in U.S. history.
At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Andrew Johnson, a senator from Tennessee, was the only U.S. senator from a seceding state who remained loyal to the Union. In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln appointed him military governor of Tennessee, and in 1864 he was elected vice president of the United States. Sworn in as president after Lincoln's assassination in April 1865, President Johnson enacted a lenient Reconstruction policy for the defeated South, including almost total amnesty to ex-Confederates, a program of rapid restoration of U.S.-state status for the seceded states, and the approval of new, local Southern governments, which were able to legislate "Black Codes" that preserved the system of slavery in all but its name.
The Republican-dominated Congress greatly opposed Johnson's Reconstruction program and in March 1867 passed the Tenure of Office Act over the president's veto. The bill prohibited the president from removing officials confirmed by the Senate without senatorial approval and was designed to shield members of Johnson's Cabinet like Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, who had been a leading Republican radical in the Lincoln administration. In the fall of 1867, President Johnson attempted to test the constitutionality of the act by replacing Stanton with General Ulysses S. Grant. However, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to rule on the case, and Grant turned the office back to Stanton after the Senate passed a measure in protest of the dismissal.
On February 21, 1868, Johnson decided to rid himself of Stanton once and for all and appointed General Lorenzo Thomas, an individual far less favorable to the Congress than Grant, as secretary of war. Stanton refused to yield, barricading himself in his office, and the House of Representatives, which had already discussed impeachment after Johnson's first dismissal of Stanton, initiated formal impeachment proceedings against the president. On February 24, Johnson was impeached, and on March 13 his impeachment trial began in the Senate under the direction of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase. The trial ended on May 26 with Johnson's opponents narrowly failing to achieve the two-thirds majority necessary to convict him.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
303 - 1st official Roman edict for persecution of Christians
issued
1208 - St Francis of Assisi, 26, received his vocation in
Portiuncula Italy
1296 - Pope Boniface VIII degree Clericis Iaicos
1387 - King Charles III of Naples and Hungary is
assassinated at Buda.
1389 - Battle at Falköping: Danes defeat King Albert of
Sweden
1496 - England's Henry VII ends commercial dispute with
Flanders
1510 - Pope Julius II excommunicates the republic of Venice
1525 - Battle of Pavia: Holy Roman Emperor Charles V's
troops beat the French
1525 - Francois I captured at Battle of Pavia and 8700 killed
1527 - Ferdinand of Austria crowned as king of Bohemia
1528 - Hungarian anti-king Janos Zapolyai & Sultan
Suleiman signs treaty
1530 - 1st imperial coronation by a Pope, Charles V crowned
by Clement V
1538 - Treaty of Nagyvarad/Peace of Grosswardein signed
between Ferdinand I of Austria and John Zápolya of Hungary.
1541 - Santiago, Chile founded by Pedro de Valvidia (or
2/12)
1552 - Privileges of Hanseatic League in England are
abrogated
1582 - Pope Gregory XIII announces New Style (Gregorian)
calendar
1597 - Flemish painter Frederick of Valckenborch becomes
porter of Frankfurt-on-Main
1607 - Claudio Monteverdi's opera "Orfeo,"
premieres in Mantua
1708 - Prince Johan Willem Friso sworn in as viceroy of
Groningen
Composer George Friedrich HandelComposer George Friedrich
Handel 1711 - Handel's opera "Rinaldo" premieres at Haymarket theatre
in London
1739 - Battle of Karnal: The army of Iranian ruler Nadir
Shah defeats the forces of the Mughal emperor of India, Muhammad Shah.
1779 - George Rogers Clark captures Vincennes (Ind) from
British
1786 - Charles Cornwallis appointed governor-general of
India
1793 - French troops conquer Breda
1803 - Supreme Court 1st rules a law unconstitutional
(Marbury v Madison)
1804 - London's Drury Lane Theatre burns to the ground,
leaving owner Richard Brinsley Sheridan destitute.
1807 - 17 die & 15 wounded in a crush to witness
execution of Holloway, Heggerty & Elizabeth Godfrey in England
1821 - Mexico gains independence from Spain
1826 - The signing of the Treaty of Yandaboo marks the end
of the First Burmese War.
1835 - Siwinowe Kesibwi (Shawnee Sun) is 1st Indian lang
monthly mag
1839 - Steam shovel patented by William Otis, Philadelphia
1848 - King Louis-Philippe abdicates, 2nd French republic
declared
1855 - US Court of Claims forms for cases against government
1857 - 1st perforated US postage stamps delivered to
government
The Warrior Pope Julius IIThe Warrior Pope Julius II 1857 -
LA Vineyard Society organized
1863 - Arizona Territory created
1863 - Forrest's raid on Brentwood, Tennessee
1864 - -Feb 25] Battle of Tunnel Hill, GA (Buzzard's Roost)
1868 - 1st US parade with floats (Mardi Gras-Mobile Alabama)
1868 - House of Reps vote 126 to 47, to impeach President
Andrew Johnson
1875 - The SS Gothenburg hits the Great Barrier Reef and
sinks off the Australian east coast, killing approximately 100, including a
number of high profile civil servants and dignitaries.
1876 - Henrik Ibsen's "Peer Gynt," premieres in
Oslo
1881 - De Lesseps' Co begins work on Panama Canal
1881 - China and Russia sign the Sino-Russian Ili Treaty.
1888 - Louisville, Ky becomes 1st government in US to adopt
Australian ballot
1891 - French troops under capt Archinard occupy Diena West
Sudan
1893 - The American University is chartered by an act of the
Congress of the United States of America.
1894 - Nicaragua captures Tegucigalpa, Honduras (National
Day, sort of)
1895 - Cuban war for independence begins
1896 - Victoria all out for 43 vs South Australia, Jones
6-15 Jarvis 4-27
1899 - Western Washington University is established.
1902 - Battle at Yzer Spruit: Boer general De la Rey beats
British
1903 - US signs agreement acquiring a naval station at
Guantanamo Bay Cuba
1905 - Simplon tunnel in Switzerland completed
1909 - The Hudson Motor Car Company is founded.
1914 - Frank Craven's "Too Many Cooks," premieres
in NYC
1917 - German plan to get Mexican help in WW I exposed
(Zimmerman telegram)
1917 - Red Sox sell Smokey Joe Wood, his arm dead at 26, to
Cleve for $15,000
1917 - Russian revolution breaks out (3/8 NS)
1918 - Estonia declares independence from Russia
1918 - Estonian Declaration of Independence.
1920 - NSDAP begins at Hofbrauhaus Munich
1920 - Peace treaty gives Estonia independence
1921 - 1st transcontinental flight in 24 hrs flying time
arrives Florida
1923 - Flying Scotsman goes into service
1923 - Mass arrests in US of mafia
1924 - Greek parliament proclaims republic
1924 - Johnny Weissmuller, swims 100m record (57 2/5 secs)
Pacifist and Spiritual Leader Mahatma GandhiPacifist and
Spiritual Leader Mahatma Gandhi 1924 - Mahatma Gandhi released from jail
1925 - Thermite explosive 1st used to break up ice jam,
Waddington, NY
1927 - John Golden Theater (Theatre Masque) opens at 252 W
45th St NYC
1932 - Malcolm Campbell drives record speed (253.96 mph) at
Daytona
1933 - Final demonstration of German communist party in
Berlin
1933 - League of Nations tells Japanese to pull out of
Manchuria
1937 - 1st US group hospital-medical cooperative authorized,
Wash, DC
1938 - Du Pont begins commercial production of nylon
toothbrush bristles
1939 - Roy Harris' 3rd Symphony, premieres in Boston
1940 - Frances Langford records "When You Wish Upon a
Star"
1941 - 43 Geuzen resistance fighter trial opens in the Hague
1941 - Anti nazi meeting at Noordermarkt Amsterdam
1942 - Voice of America begins broadcasting (in German)
1942 - The "Battle of Los Angeles" takes place,
lasting until the next day.
1943 - Gen-major Bradley flies to Algiers
1943 - Texas League announces it will quit for the duration
of WW II
1944 - Argentina coup by Juan Peron minister of war
1945 - Egypt & Syria declares war on nazi-Germany
1945 - Manila freed from Japanese
1945 - Nazi occupiers begin state of siege
1945 - Egyptian Premier Ahmed Maher Pasha is killed in
Parliament after reading a decree.
1946 - Juan Peron elected President of Argentina
1948 - Communist Party seizes complete control of
Czechoslovakia
1949 - Israel & Egypt sign an armistice agreement
1949 - V-2/WAC-Corporal 1st rocket to outer space, White
Sands, NM, 400 km
1950 - Labour wins British parliamentary election
1951 - "Bless You All" closes at Mark Hellinger
Theater NYC after 84 perfs
1951 - Ice Pairs Championship at Milan won by Ria Baran
& Paul Falk of GER
1951 - Ladies Figure Skating Champion in Milan won by
Jeanette Altwegg of GRB
1951 - Men's Figure Skating Championship in Milan won by
Richard Button USA
1952 - Betty MacKinnon & Sam Snead wins LPGA Orlando
Mixed Golf Tournament
1955 - "Silk Stockings" opens at Imperial Theater
NYC for 461 performances
1955 - Pact of Baghdad between Iraq & Turkey signed
1960 - Italian government of Segni falls
1960 - US beats Germany in Olympic hockey finals round, 9-1
1961 - Explorer (10) fails to reach Earth orbit
1962 - "New Faces of '62" closes at Alvin Theater
NYC after 28 performances
1962 - "Sail Away" closes at Broadhurst Theater
NYC after 167 performances
1962 - General mobilization in Indonesia over New-Guinea
1962 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1965 - Beatles begin filming "Help" in Bahamas
1965 - East German president Ulbricht visits Egypt
1966 - Coup ousts Pres Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana
1966 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1968 - "Darling of the Day" closes at George
Abbott NYC after 31 perfs
1968 - 1st pulsar discovered (CP 1919 by Jocelyn Burnell at
Cambridge)
1968 - Discovery of 1st pulsar announced
1968 - Gary Unger begins NHL consecutive game record of 914
games
1968 - Jocelyn Bell discovers 1st pulsar
1968 - US troops reconquer Hue Vietnam
1969 - Mariner 6 launched for Mars flyby
1970 - 29 Swiss Army officers die in avalanche (Reckingen,
Switzerland)
1970 - Heintje Simons (14) wins 7 gold records
1970 - KVDO TV channel 3 in Salem, OR (IND) begins
broadcasting
1971 - Algeria nationalizes French oil companies
1974 - Atje Keulen-Deelstra becomes world champ all-round
skater
1974 - Pakistan officially recognizes Bangladesh
1976 - Cuba adopts its constitution
1976 - Jules Feiffer's "Knock Knock," premieres in
NYC
1976 - Leonid Brezhnev opens 25th congress of CPSU
1977 - Pres Carter announces US foreign aid will consider
human rights
1978 - Kevin Porter, NJ, sets NBA record with 29 assists in
a game
1979 - Highest price ever paid for a pig, $42,500, Stamford,
Texas
1979 - War between North & South Yemen begins
1980 - "Canterbury Tales" closes at Rialto Theater
NYC after 16 performances
1980 - Joanne Carner Ladies wins LPGA Bent Tree Golf Classic
1980 - Rangers score 5 power-play goals against Islanders
1980 - USA Olympic hockey team defeated Finland, 4-2, to win
the gold medal
Princess of Wales Diana SpencerPrincess of Wales Diana
Spencer 1981 - Britain's Prince Charles announces engagement to Lady Diana
Spencer
1981 - Jean Harris is convicted of murdering Scarsdale diet
doctor Tarnower
1981 - An earthquake registering 6.7 on the Richter scale
hits Athens, killing 16 people and destroying buildings in several towns west
of the city.
1982 - Basketball team Boston Celtics begin 18 NBA game win
streak
1982 - 24th Grammy Awards: Betty Davis Eyes, Double Fantasy
wins
1982 - Wayne Gretzky scores NHL-record 78th goal of season
en route to 92
1983 - Dow Jones closes above 1100 mark for 1st time
1983 - USSR performs underground nuclear test
1983 - A special commission of the U.S. Congress releases a
report that condemns the practice of Japanese internment during World War II.
1984 - Iraq resumes air attack on Iran
1985 - Amy Alcott wins LPGA Circle K Golf Open Tucson
1985 - Birendra, Bir Bikram Shah Dev crowned King of Nepal
1985 - Jim Kelly (Houston USFL) passes for pro football
record 574 yds
1985 - Yul Brynner reprised his role in "The King &
I"
1986 - Texas Air buys Eastern Airlines for $676 million
1986 - Voyager 2, 1st Uranus flyby
1987 - 29th Grammy Awards: Higher Love, Graceland, Bruce
Hornsby wins
1987 - LA Laker Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scores his 36,000th NBA
point
1987 - Radio personality Larry King suffers a heart attack
1988 - Matti Nykanen becomes winter olympics 1st triple gold
medalist
1988 - South African apartheid regime bans the UDF
1988 - Supreme Ct votes 8-0 Jerry Falwell cannot collect for
Hustler parody
1989 - 150-million-year-old fossil egg (oldest dinosaur
embryo) found
1989 - Harold E Ballard sells CFL Hamilton Tiger-Cats to
David Braley
Comedian David LettermanComedian David Letterman 1989 -
Margaret Ray found in David Letterman's home, claims to be his wife
1989 - US Boeing 747 loses parts of roof over Pacific, 9 die
1989 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1989 - Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini offers $1M-$3M
bounty on Salman Rushdie's death due to his novel, "Satanic Verses"
1990 - Beth Daniel wins LPGA Orix Hawaiia Ladies Golf Open
1991 - "Those Were The Days" closes at Edison
Theater NYC after 126 perfs
1991 - End of World League of American Football's (WLAF) 1st
draft
1991 - US & allies begin a ground war assault on Iraqi
troops
1993 - 35th Grammy Awards: Tears in Heaven, Eric Clapton
wins
1994 - Scoreboard is unveiled at new Cleve Indians' park
(Jacobs Field)
1995 - Dow-Jones hits record 4011.74
1995 - The Corona reconnaissance satellite program, in
existence from 1959 to 1972, is declassified.
1996 - Cuba downs 2 US planes
1996 - Meg Mallon wins LPGA Cup o' Noodles Hawaiian Ladies
Golf Open
1996 - The last occurrence of February 24 as a leap day in
the European Union and for the Roman Catholic Church.
Chinese Communist Party Leader Deng XiaopingChinese
Communist Party Leader Deng Xiaoping 1997 - Deng Xiaoping, leader of China,
cremated (died Feb 19th)
1997 - South Africa announces it is constructing largest
modern day blimp
1998 - Elton John knighted
1998 - NHL resumes season since Feb 8th to accomodate the
Olympics
1999 - The State of Arizona executes Karl LaGrand, a German
national involved in an armed robbery, in spite of Germany's legal action to
attempt to save him.
1999 - A China Southern Airlines Tupolev TU-154 airliner
crashes on approach to Wenzhou airport in eastern the People's Republic of
China, killing 61.
1999 - 41st Grammy Awards: My Heart Will Go On (Love Theme
From Titanic), Lauryn Hill wins
2002 - XIX Winter Olympics closes in Salt Lake City, Utah,
United States
2002 - Canada defeats the United States 5-2 to win the men's
ice hockey Olympic Gold Medal
2006 - Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declares
Proclamation 1017 placing the country in a state of emergency in attempt to
subdue a possible military coup.
2008 - Fidel Castro retires as the President of Cuba after
nearly fifty years.
2010 - Sachin Tendulkar scored the the first double century
in One Day International cricket.
2011 - Final Launch of Space Shuttle Discovery (OV-103).
2013 - 10 Chadian soldiers and 28 Muslim insurgents are
killed in conflict in Adrar des Ifoghas, Mali
2013 - 85th Academy Awards: Argo, Ang Lee, Daniel Day-Lewis,
and Jennifer Lawrence win
Actress Jennifer LawrenceActress Jennifer Lawrence 2013 -
Nicos Anastasiades wins the Cypriot presidential election
2013 - Raúl Castro is elected to a second term as the
President of Cuba
2013 - Jimmie Johnson wins the 2013 Daytona 500
1803 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled itself to be the final interpreter of all constitutional issues. 1835 - "Siwinowe Kesibwi" (The Shawnee Sun) was issued as the first Indian language monthly publication in the U.S. 1839 - Mr. William S. Otis received a patent for the steam shovel. 1857 - The Los Angeles Vinyard Society was organized. 1857 - The first shipment of perforated postage stamps was received by the U.S. Government. 1863 - Arizona was organized as a territory. 1866 - In Washington, DC, an American flag made entirely of American bunting was displayed for the first time. 1868 - The first parade to use floats occurred in New Orleans at Mardi Gras. 1868 - The U.S. House of Representatives impeached President Andrew Johnson due to his attempt to dismiss Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. The U.S. Senate later acquitted Johnson. 1886 - Thomas Edison and Mina Miller were married. 1900 - New York City Mayor Van Wyck signed the contract to begin work on New York's first rapid transit tunnel. The tunnel would link Manhattan and Brooklyn. The ground breaking ceremony was on March 24, 1900. 1903 - In Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, an area was leased to the U.S. for a naval base. 1925 - A thermit was used for the first time. It was used to break up a 250,000-ton ice jam that had clogged the St. Lawrence River near Waddington, NY. 1938 - The first nylon bristle toothbrush was made. It was the first time that nylon yarn had been used commercially. 1942 - The U.S. Government stopped shipments of all 12-gauge shotguns for sporting use for the wartime effort. 1942 - The Voice of America (VOA) aired for the first time. 1945 - During World War II, the Philippine capital of Manilla, was liberated by U.S. soldiers. 1946 - Juan Peron was elected president of Argentina. 1956 - The city of Cleveland invoked a 1931 law that barred people under the age of 18 from dancing in public without an adult guardian. 1980 - NBC premiered the TV movie "Harper Valley P.T.A." 1981 - Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of Britain's Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer. 1983 - The Dow Jones industrial average closed above the 1100 mark for the first time. 1983 - A U.S.congressional commission released a report that condemned the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. 1987 - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, of the Los Angeles Lakers, got his first three-point shot in the NBA. 1987 - An exploding supernova was discovered in the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy. 1988 - The U.S. Supreme Court overturned a $200,000 award to Rev. Jerry Falwell that had been won against "Hustler" magazine. The ruling expanded legal protections for parody and satire. 1989 - Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini sentenced Salman Rushdie to death for his novel "The Satanic Verses". A bounty of one to three-million-dollars was also put on Rushidie's head. 1989 - A United Airlines 747 jet rips open in flight killing 9 people. The flight was from Honolulu to New Zealand. 1992 - "Wayne's World" opened in U.S. theaters. 1992 - Tracy Gold began working on the set of "Growing Pains" again. She had left the show due to anorexia. 1994 - In Los Angeles, Garrett Morris was shot during a robbery attempt. He eventually recovered from his injury. 1997 - The U.S. The Food and Drug Administration named six brands of birth control as safe and effective "morning-after" pills for preventing pregnancy. 1997 - Dick Enberg received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 1999 - In southeast China, a domestic airliner crashed killing all 64 passengers. 2007 - The Virginia General Assembly passed a resolution expressing "profound regret" for the state's role in slavery. 2008 - Cuba's parliament named Raul Castro president. His brother Fidel had ruled for nearly 50 years.
1582 Pope Gregory XIII issued a papal bull introducing the Gregorian calendar reform. 1803 The Supreme Court ruled in Marbury v. Madison that any act of Congress which conflicts with the Constitution is null and void. 1821 Mexico declared its independence from Spain. 1868 Andrew Johnson, 17th president of the United States, became the first president to have impeachment proceedings brought against him by the House of Representatives. 1903 The lease for Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was signed. 1920 Adolf Hitler outlined the basic points of the Nazi party at the Hofbrauhaus in Munich. 1968 The discovery of a pulsar was announced. 1980 The U.S. hockey team defeated Finland to win the gold medal at the Lake Placid Olympics. Read more: This Day in History: February 24 | Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory/February-24#ixzz2txVt6jLb
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/feb24.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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