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February 24: Today in History – Historical Events
Early Centuries – February 24 Historic Events – Before the 1700s
1. 24th Feb 1582: Pope Gregory VIII on this day announced a new style of calendar which came to be known as a Gregorian calendar.
18th Century – What Happened on February 24 – The 1700s
2. 24th Feb 1708: Prince John Willem Frisco was on this day sworn in as the viceroy of Groningen.
3. 24th Feb 1739: The forces of Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah of India were on this day defeated by the Iranian ruler Nadir Shah in the Battle of Karnal.
4. 24th Feb 1768: Lithuania and Poland on this day signed an eternal friendship treaty with Russia along with a guarantee of protection. They also agreed not to change their state systems.
5. 24th Feb 1786: George Cornwallis was on this day appointed as the governor-general of India.
6. 24th Feb 1793: French forces on this day conquered Breda.
19th Century – February 24 This Day That Year – The 1800s
7. 24th Feb 1803: The US Supreme Court ruled itself as the final interpreter of constitutional issues. The Court 1st ruled a law unconstitutional (Marbury V Madison).
8. 24th Feb 1804: Drury Lane Theater in London burns down to the ground, which left its owner Richard Brinsley Sheridan destitute.
9. 24th Feb 1807: There was a crash when people tried to witness the execution of Holloway, Heggerty & Elizabeth Godfrey in England, in which 17 people died and 15 others were wounded.
10. 24th Feb 1821: On this day Mexico gained independence from Spain.
11. 24th Feb 1826: The first Burmese war came to an end with the signing of the treaty of Yandaboo on this day.
12. 24th Feb 1839: William Otis of Philadelphia on this day patented the Steam Shovel.
13. 24th Feb 1855: On this day the U.S. Court of Claims was formed to fight cases against the government.
14. 24th Feb 1863: Arizona was on this day organized as a territory.
15. 24th Feb 1868: Impeachment proceedings were started on this day to impeach President Andrew Johnson for his attempt to dismiss Secretary of War Edwin M Stanton. The Senate later acquitted Johnson.
16. 24th Feb 1895: The Cuban War of Independence began on this day.
20th Century – Important Events On This Day February 24th – The 1900s
17. 24th Feb 1903: The United States on this day signed an agreement for the acquisition of a naval station at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. President Roosevelt leased the site for a consideration of 2000 gold coins per year.
18. 24th Feb 1905: The Czar in Russia was on this day offered a new constitution by the Russian Minister of Agriculture Alexi Yarmolov.
19. 24th Feb 1908: Japan on this day officially agreed to restrict immigration to the United States.
20. 24th Feb 1912: In its first act of war against the Ottoman Empire, Italy today bombed Beirut.
21. 24th Feb 1912: “Hadassah”, the Jewish Organization was founded on this day in New York City.
22. 24th Feb 1916: Jules Verne’s “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” opened in New York today.
23. 24th Feb 1917: The British on this day presented the decoded Zimmermann telegram, a German plot for Mexican help, to President Wilson. This led to America formally declaring war against Germany and its allies.
24. 24th Feb 1918: Estonia on this day proclaimed its independence from Russia.
25. 24th Feb 1920: It was announced today that there will be an Atlantic Flight Race. Participants from 18 different nations will take part in the race. The prize money for the 1st place was $100,000/=.
26. 24th Feb 1920: A German political party held its important meeting in Munich today. The party later became known as the Nazi Party and its chief spokesman was Adolf Hitler.
27. 24th Feb 1920: It was reported on this day that regarding the teacher salary problems and supply and demand issues in rural areas, the issue was addressed by A. Floyd, superintendent of Pontotoc country, Oklahoma. Teachers may not always be adequately prepared to teach in rural areas where the pay is also less.
28. 24th Feb 1921: A giant plane was completed at 421, Colyton Street, Los Angeles. The plane which was designed by Donald Douglas was the first to carry a load greater than its weight.
29. 24th Feb 1922: There was a huge explosion of powder magazine in a stone quarry in McCook, southern Illinois. The blast shook southern parts of Chicago city shattering window panes. The blast was so strong that a train passing nearby was thrown off the tracks.
30. 24th Feb 1924: Mahatma Gandhi was on this day released from jail.
31. 24th Feb 1928: The New Gallery of New York exhibited the works of Archibald Motley. This was its first show to feature a Black artist.
32. 24th Feb 1933: The League of Nations on this day told the Japanese to pull out of Manchuria.
33. 24th Feb 1933: The final demonstration of the German communist party took place on this day.
34. 24th Feb 1938: New Jersey-based Due Pont marketed toothbrushes, the first nylon products for the first time.
35. 24th Feb 1939: Hungry on this day signed an anti-communist pact with Italy, Germany, and Japan.
36. 24th Feb 1942: Voice of America went on air for the first time with broadcasts in German.
37. 24th Feb 1942: About 1600 residents of Italian origin of Pittsburg were evacuated. Nationwide millions of Italians were undocumented and deemed “enemy aliens” until Oct 12th the same year.
38. 24th Feb 1942: The ship SS Struma, which was carrying more than 750 Jewish passengers fleeing Romania, was sunk by a Soviet torpedo in the Black Sea. Only one passenger survived.
39. 24th Feb 1944: The specially trained group of American soldiers “Merrill’s Marauders”, under the leadership of Brig Gen Frank Merrill, began their ground campaign against Japan in Burma on this day.
40. 24th Feb 1944: Argentine minister of war, Col Juan Peron staged a coup on this day.
41. 24th Feb 1945: Manila the capital city of the Philippines was liberated on this day from Japanese control by American soldiers in World War II.
42. 24th Feb 1945: The U.S. forces on this day liberated prisoners of war from the Los Baños Prison in the Philippines.
43. 24th Feb 1945: The Prime Minister of Egypt Dr. Ahmed Maher Pasha was on this day assassinated after reading the declaration of War against Axis powers.
44. 24th Feb 1946: Argentina today elected Juan Domingo Peron as its President. His mistress, Eva Duarte, who later became his wife, was his greatest asset.
45. 24th Feb 1949: Israel and Egypt today signed an armistice agreement.
46. 24th Feb 1950: Clement Atlee and his British Labor party won the 1950 general elections with a much smaller majority though.
47. 24th Feb 1952: The French evacuated Hoa Binh in Vietnam to mass for a Tonkin Delta drive.
48. 24th Feb 1955: Ike Eisenhower met with newspaper publisher Roy Howard in his office and expressed his resistance under pressure to commit American troops to Vietnam. The conversation was secretly recorded.
49. 24th Feb 1959: Russian communist party leader Khrushchev rejected the Western plan for a Big Four meeting in Germany.
50. 24th Feb 1962: New York police on this day sized heroin worth $ 20 million.
51. 24th Feb 1966: President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana was on this day overthrown in a military coup. He fled to Guinea.
52. 24th Feb 1968: The city of Hue was on this day recaptured by the American Marines and South Vietnamese soldiers from North Vietnamese forces.
53. 24th Feb 1969: The US Supreme Court on this day ruled that students had the right to express opinions at odds with the government. They were hearing the “Tinker Vs Des Moines School District” case.
54. 24th Feb 1971: A new immigration bill announced today will restrict commonwealth citizens’ automatic rights to remain in the U.K. They will now be treated on par with any other person applying to live and work in the U.K.
55. 24th Feb 1970: 29 officers of the Swiss Army died in an avalanche at Reckingen in Switzerland.
56. 24th Feb 1971: French oil companies in Algeria were on this day nationalized.
57. 24th Feb 1972: President Nixon today visited the Great Wall of China during his visit to China.
58. 24th Feb 1972: As a protest against U.S. air raids in North Vietnam, Hanoi negotiators walked out of peace talks in Paris.
59. 24th Feb 1976: Republican Gerald Ford won the New Hampshire Primary over Ronald Regan 50.1% to 48.6%.
60. 24th Feb 1976: The revised constitution of Cuba went into effect today. It defined the communist party as the “directing force of society and state”.
61. 24th Feb 1977: President Carter on this day announced that the United States was cutting off all military aid to Ethiopia for its human rights violations.
62. 24th Feb 1981: The city of Athens in Greece was struck by an earthquake of magnitude 6.7 on the Richter scale. 16 people died in the quake and many buildings in towns west of the city were destroyed.
63. 24th Feb 1981: Price Charles of Wales on this day announced his engagement to Lady Diana Spencer. This brought to an end months of speculation in the tabloid press.
64. 24th Feb 1981: A Jury in White Plains, New York found Jean Harris guilty of 2nd-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Dr. Herman Turnower, the author of “Scarsdale Diet”.
65. 24th Feb 1983: The internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II was condemned as a “grave injustice” in a report released by a U.S. congregational commission, “Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians”.
66. 24th Feb 1983: U.S.S.R. on this day conducted an underground nuclear test.
67. 24th Feb 1984: Iraq resumes air attack on Iran.
68. 24th Feb 1985: Birendra, Bir Bikram Shah Dev was on this day sworn in as King of Nepal.
69. 24th Feb 1986: Texas Air on this day bought Eastern Airlines for $ 676 million.
70. 24th Feb 1986: The U.S. today launched Voyager 2, the first Uranus flyby.
71. 24th Feb 1988: The apartheid regime of South Africa today banned the UDF.
72. 24th Feb 1989: The U.S. performs the nuclear test at the Nevada test site.
73. 24th Feb 1989: Ayatollah Khomeini issues a religious edict (fatwa) and offers $3 million for the death of Salman Rushdie, author of “Satanic Verses”.
74. 24th Feb 1989: U.S. Boeing 747, lost part of its roof over the Pacific. 9 people died.
75. 24th Feb 1991: A U.S. ground troop invasion of Kuwait and Iraq was on this day initiated by the U.S.
76. 24th Feb 1995: On this day the Corona reconnaissance satellite program was declassified. This program was in existence from 1959 to 1972.
77. 24th Feb 1996: This day was the last occurrence of Feb 24th as a leap day in the European Union and the Roman Catholic Church.
78. 24th Feb 1997: The FDA on this day named six brands of birth control pills as safe and effective “morning after” pills for preventing pregnancy.
79. 24th Feb 1997: Qatar on this day inaugurated the world’s largest Liquefied Natural Gas exporting facility and formally launched the Qatar Liquefied Gas Company.
80. 24th Feb 1998: Singer Elton John was on this day Knighted at the Buckingham Palace by Queen Elizabeth II in London.
81. 24th Feb 1999: Homes in Valzur were buried and 16 people were killed by an avalanche which struck the Austrian Alps on this day.
82. 24th Feb 1999: Karl LaGrand, a German national was on this day executed in the state of Arizona for armed robbery, despite German attempts to save him by legal action.
21st Century – February 24 This Day In History – The 2000s
83. 24th Feb 2002: The 19th Winter Olympic Games close in Salt Lake City in Utah, United States.
84. 24th Feb 2006: The President of the Philippines Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declared a state of emergency on this day in an attempt to avert a possible coup.
85. 24th Feb 2006: The lawmakers of South Dakota on this day approved a ban on nearly all abortions.
86. 24th Feb 2006: The Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities on this day formally requests St Luis Art Museum for the return of a three-thousand-year-old mask known as the mask of Ka-Nefer-Nefer, which dates back to the 19th Dynasty.
87. 24th Feb 2006: Rare paintings by Picasso, Dali, Matisse, and Monet from a Rio de Janeiro museum were stolen by gunmen during Brazil’s carnivals. They stole the paintings at gunpoint slipped into the carnival and escaped.
88. 24th Feb 2008: Fidel Castro who ruled Cuba for fifty years was compelled to retire due to ill health. Raúl Castro succeeded him as President of Cuba.
89. 24th Feb 2008: The first Bio-fuel powered commercial aircraft flew from London to Amsterdam in Holland. It has been hailed as the first step towards cleaner flying. The fuel was derived from babassu nuts and coconuts.
90. 24th Feb 2008: Pakistan on this day blocked access to YouTube on grounds that the content it offers is deemed offensive to Islam.
91. 24th Feb 2010: Sachin Tendulkar, the Indian cricketer scored his first double century in one-day international cricket.
92. 24th Feb 2010: Europe is staring at the face of a risk of a double-dip recession after bad results emerged from France, Germany, and Italy. It was reported that Eurozone only grew by 0.1% in the last quarter of 2009.
93. 24th Feb 2011: In an attempt to reduce the number of unlicensed dogs, China today announced a one-dog policy. Owners who had more dogs can now keep one dog and relinquish the rest to the authorities.
94. 24th Feb 2011: The final launch of space shuttle Discovery (OV-103).
95. 24th Feb 2013: In a conflict in Adrar des Ifoghas in Mali, 10 Canadian soldiers and 28 Muslim insurgents were killed.
96. 24th Feb 2013: The Cypriot Presidential election was won by Nicos Anastasiades today.
97. 24th Feb 2013: Raul Castro on this day was elected for the second term as President of Cuba.
98. 24th Feb 2014: Pope Francis on this day created a second Secretariat with the power to audit any Vatican agency at any time.
99. 24th Feb 2014: A bridge collapsed in Vietnam killing 7 people and injuring 37 people.
100. 24th Feb 2014: Jason Collins on this day became the NBA’s first openly gay player in the United States to play competitively in a professional league.
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