Historical Events on February 24

Events 1 - 200 of 206

• 1152 English cleric and writer Geoffrey of Monmouth consecrated as Bishop of St Asaph at Lambeth

• 1296 Pope Boniface VIII decree Clericis Iaicos
• 1387 King Charles III of Naples and Hungary is assassinated at Buda
• 1389 Battle at Falköping: Danes defeat King Albert of Sweden

• 1527 Ferdinand of Austria crowned as king of Bohemia

• 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

• 1597 Flemish painter Frederick of Valckenborch becomes porter of Frankfurt-on-Main
• 1600 Last sighting of Dutch trading ship De Hoop by its sister ship De Liefde near the Mariana islands, it's never seen again
• 1607 Claudio Monteverdi's opera "L'Orfeo" premieres in Mantua, oldest opera still regularly performed

• 1739 Battle of Karnal: 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

• 1793 French troops conquer Breda

• 1803 US 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

• 1826 The signing of the Treaty of Yandaboo marks the end of the First Burmese War
• 1835 Siwinowe Kesibwi (Shawnee Sun) is 1st Indian language monthly magazine
• 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
• 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)

• 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

• 1881 China and Russia sign the Sino-Russian Ili Treaty.
• 1881 De Lesseps' Company begins work on Panama Canal
• 1888 Louisville, Kentucky, becomes 1st government in US to adopt Australian ballot (i.e. secret ballot on standard voting forms)
• 1891 French troops under Captain 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
• 1895 Cuban war for independence begins
• 1899 Western Washington University is established
• 1902 Battle at Yzer Spruit: Boer General De la Rey beats British
• 1905 Simplon railroad tunnel through the Alps in Switzerland achieves breakthrough after 7-1/2 years of construction
• 1906 Tomas Estrada Palma defeats Jose Gomez in the election for president of Cuba, but Gomez and his followers refuse to accept results and sponsor an uprising
• 1908 In 'Muller v Oregon', the US Supreme Court favors an Oregon law limiting maximum hours a woman may work and denies that it curtails 'liberty of contract'
• 1911 Japan and the US conclude a treaty that continues restrictions on Japanese laborers
• 1914 Frank Craven's "Too Many Cooks" premieres in NYC
• 1917 Red Sox sell Smokey Joe Wood, his arm dead at 26, to Cleveland for $15,000

• 1918 Estonia declares independence from Russia

• 1920 Peace treaty gives Estonia independence
• 1921 1st transcontinental flight in 24 hrs flying time arrives in Florida
• 1923 "Flying Scotsman" locomotive of the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER), built at Doncaster Railway Works, goes into service [1]
• 1923 Mass arrests in US of mafia
• 1924 Greek parliament proclaims republic
• 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

• 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, Washington, D.C.
• 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)

• 1943 Texas League announces it will quit for the duration of WW II

• 1945 Egypt & Syria declare war on nazi-Germany
• 1945 Egyptian Premier Ahmed Maher Pasha is killed in Parliament after reading a decree
• 1945 Manila freed from Japanese
• 1946 General Juan Perón first elected President of Argentina
• 1949 Israel & Egypt sign an armistice agreement
• 1949 V-2/WAC-Corporal rocket 1st object to reach 5x the speed of sound at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico
• 1950 Labour wins UK parliamentary election by 5 seats
• 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 Great Britain
• 1952 Canada wins 6th Olympic ice hockey title courtesy of a final round 3-3 tie with the US at the Oslo Winter Games; Canadian center Billy Gibson top scores with 19 points
• 1952 Norway goes 1-2 in the men’s ski jumping event at the Oslo Winter Olympics with Arnfinn Bergmann winning gold ahead of teammate Torbjørn Falkanger
• 1955 Pact of Baghdad signed between Iraq & Turkey

• 1960 Austria goes 1-2 in the men's slalom at the Squaw Valley Winter Olympics; Ernst Hintersteer wins gold ahead of teammate Hias Leitner

• 1961 NASA Explorer S-45 mission; ionosphere beacon satellite fails to reach Earth orbit
• 1962 General mobilization in Indonesia over New Guinea
• 1962 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
• 1963 5th Daytona 500: Tiny Lund driving for Wood Bros Racing, wins on 4 pit stops as first 10 laps run under caution flag because of rain
• 1964 "My Heart Skips a Beat" single released by Buck Owens (Billboard No. 1 U.S. Hot Country Singles, 1964)
• 1965 Beatles begin filming "Help" in Bahamas
• 1965 East German president Ulbricht visits Egypt

• 1966 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

• 1968 Gary Unger begins NHL consecutive game record of 914 games
• 1968 US troops reconquer Hue Vietnam

• 1969 Mariner 6 launched for Mars flyby to study planet's atmosphere
• 1969 Northern Ireland Stormont parliament elections are held; the Unionist party fragments into 'Official Unionist' and 'Unofficial Unionist'
• 1970 29 Swiss Army officers die in avalanche (Reckingen, Switzerland)
• 1970 Dutch schlager singer Heintje Simons (14) wins his 7th gold record
• 1970 KVDO TV channel 3 in Salem, OR (IND) begins broadcasting
• 1971 Algeria nationalizes 51 percent of French oil concessions

• 1974 Dutch speed skater Atje Keulen-Deelstra becomes Women's Allround World Champion at Heerenveen, Netherlands, her third consecutive title and fourth in 5 years
• 1974 Pakistan officially recognizes Bangladesh
• 1976 Cuba adopts its constitution
• 1976 Jules Feiffer's "Knock Knock" premieres in NYC

• 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 Rangers score 5 power-play goals against Islanders

• 1980 XIII Winter Olympic Games close in Lake Placid, New York
• 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.

• 1981 Jean Harris is convicted of murdering Scarsdale diet doctor Tarnower
• 1982 24th Grammy Awards: "Bette Davis Eyes", "Double Fantasy" win
• 1982 Boston Celtics begin an 18 NBA game winning streak

• 1983 A special commission of the U.S. Congress releases a report that condemns the practice of Japanese internment during World War II.
• 1983 Dow Jones closes above 1100 mark for 1st time
• 1983 USSR performs underground nuclear test
• 1984 Iraq resumes air attack on Iran
• 1985 Birendra, Bir Bikram Shah Dev crowned King of Nepal
• 1985 Jim Kelly (Houston USFL) passes for pro football record 574 yds
• 1986 Texas Air buys Eastern Airlines for $676 million

• 1988 South African apartheid regime bans the UDF
• 1988 US Supreme Court votes 8-0 Jerry Falwell cannot collect for Hustler parody
• 1989 150 million year old fossil egg found in Utah with a fossilized dinosaur embryo inside, the oldest dinosaur egg yet found in the Northern Hemisphere
• 1989 Harold E Ballard sells CFL Hamilton Tiger-Cats to David Braley

• 1989 US Boeing 747 loses parts of roof over Pacific, 9 die
• 1989 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
• 1991 End of World League of American Football's (WLAF) 1st draft
• 1991 Gulf War: US-led forces begin Operation Desert Sabre, the ground invasion of southern Iraq and Iraqi-occupied Kuwait

• 1994 Scoreboard is unveiled at new Cleveland Indians' park (Jacobs Field)
• 1995 The Corona reconnaissance satellite program, in existence from 1959 to 1972, is declassified.
• 1996 Cuba downs 2 US planes
• 1996 The last occurrence of February 24 as a leap day in the European Union and for the Roman Catholic Church.

• 1997 Qatar inaugurates the world's largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporting facility and formally launches Qatar Liquefied Gas Co.
• 1997 South Africa announces it is constructing largest modern day blimp

• 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 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.
• 2002 IXX Winter Olympic Games close in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States

• 2010 Europe risks a double-dip recession after bad results emerge from France, Germany and Italy, it is reported today; the Eurozone only grew by 0.1% in the last quarter of 2009

• 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 55th Daytona 500: Jimmie Johnson wins 2nd Great American Race; Danica Patrick first female to start from pole position; also best-ever finish by a woman at Daytona (8th)

• 2013 Nicos Anastasiades wins the Cypriot presidential election

• 2014 7 people are killed & 37 are injured after a bridge collapses in Vietnam
• 2014 A 4.4 billion-year-old Crystal is discovered to be the oldest known fragment from the earth's crust

• 2016 Oldest Muslim graves in Europe, from the 8th century, identified at a burial site in Nimes, France
• 2018 2016 world mass start speed skating champion Lee Seung-hoon of South Korea wins the event at Pyeongchang Winter Olympics; also Olympic 10,000m champion Vancouver (2010)
• 2018 After taking gold in the Olympic team sprint in Sochi (2014), Finnish cross country skier Iivo Niskanen wins the 50k classical event in Pyeongchang
• 2018 Ester Ledecká of the Czech Republic becomes first female to win Olympic gold medals in 2 different sports at a single Winter Games (Pyeongchang); skiing super-G and snowboarding parallel giant slalom
• 2018 Japanese speed skater Nana Takagi wins her 2nd gold medal of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in the women's mass start event; also member Japan's successful pursuit team
• 2018 Men's big air snowboarding event makes Olympic debut at Pyeongchang; Canada's Sébastien Toutant is inaugural gold medallist
• 2018 Swiss alpine skiers Luca Aerni, Denise Feierabend, Wendy Holdener, Daniel Yule & Ramon Zenhäusern win the inaugural Olympic team event at Pyeongchang
• 2018 UN Security Council passes resolution for 30 day ceasefire in Syria

• 2019 At least 133 people have died and 200 treated in hospital after drinking toxic bootleg alcohol in Golaghat district, north-eastern India
• 2019 Roman Catholic Church summit on paedophilia ends with Pope Francis promising more action and calling those guilty "tools of Satan"

• 2020 Memorial service for NBA star Kobe Byrant held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles
• 2020 New York firefighter Daniel Foley, who found his brother's body in ruins of World Trade Center, dies of cancer bringing first responders death toll to 343
• 2020 Scientists identify the first animal that doesn't need oxygen to breathe - a tiny parasite living in salmon tissue, reported in journal PNAS

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