February 24

is the 55th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 310 days remaining, 311 in leap years. By Roman custom is the day added to a leap year, and the occurrence of February 29 is merely a consequence of this.

Events

303 - Galerius, Roman Emperor, publishes his edict that begins the persecution of Christians in his portion of the Empire.
1387 - King Charles III of Naples and Hungary is assassinated at Buda.
1538 - Treaty of Nagyvarad between Ferdinand I and John Zápolya.
1582 - Pope Gregory XIII announces the Gregorian calendar.
1711 - The London premiere of Rinaldo by George Friderich Handel, the first Italian opera written for the London stage.
1739 - Battle of Karnal: The army of Iranian ruler Nadir Shah defeats the forces of the Mughal emperor of India, Muhammad Shah.
1803 - The Supreme Court of the United States, in Marbury v. Madison, establishes the principle of judicial review.
1804 - London's Drury Lane Theatre burns to the ground, leaving owner Richard Brinsley Sheridan destitute.
1826 - The signing of the Treaty of Yandaboo marks the end of the First Burmese War.
1831 - The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, the first removal treaty in accordance with the Indian Removal Act, is proclaimed. The Choctaws in Mississippi cede land east of the river in exchange for payment and land in the West.
1839 - William Otis receives a patent for the steam shovel.
1848 - King Louis-Philippe of France abdicates the throne.
1863 - Arizona is organized as a United States territory.
1868 - The first parade to have floats is staged at Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Louisiana.
1868 - Andrew Johnson becomes the first President of the United States to be impeached by the United States House of Representatives. He is later acquitted in the Senate.
1881 - China and Russia sign the Sino-Russian Ili Treaty.
1899 - Western Washington University is established.
1909 - The Hudson Motor Car Company is founded.
1917 - World War I: The U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom is given the Zimmermann Telegram, in which Germany pledges to ensure the return of New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona to Mexico if that country declares war on the United States.
1918 - Estonia: Declaration of independence from Russia.
1925 - A thermite (magnesium) bomb is used for the first time to break up a 250,000-ton ice jam clogging the St. Lawrence River near Waddington, New York.
1938 - A nylon-bristle toothbrush becomes the first commercial product (DuPont) to be made with nylon yarn.
1942 - The Voice of America begins broadcasting.
1945 - Egyptian Premier Ahmed Maher Pasha is killed in Parliament after reading a decree.
1946 - Juan Perón is elected president of Argentina.
1948 - Cold War: The Communist Party seizes control of Czechoslovakia.
1968 - Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive is halted; South Vietnam recaptures Hué.
1970 - National Public Radio is founded.
1975 - Hard rock band Led Zeppelin release the classic double album Physical Graffiti.
1976 - Cuba : national Constitution proclaimed.
1981 - Buckingham Palace announces the engagement of The Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer.
1981 - Jean Harris is convicted of murdering Dr. Herman Tarnower, the author of the bestselling The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet.
1983 - A special commission of the U.S. Congress releases a report that condemns the practice of Japanese internment during World War II.
1988 - The Supreme Court of the United States sides with Larry Flynt's Hustler magazine by overturning a lower court decision to award Jerry Falwell $200,000 for defamation.
1989 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini offers a USD $3 million bounty for the death of The Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie.
1989 - United Airlines Flight 811, bound for New Zealand from Honolulu, Hawaii, rips open during flight, sucking 9 passengers out of the business-class section.
1992 - Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain marries Courtney Love.
1995 - The Corona reconnaissance satellite program, in existence from 1959 to 1972, is declassified.
1996 - The last occurrence of February 24 as a leap day in the European Union and for the Roman Catholic Church.
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 China, killing 61.
2002 - The Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah end.
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.

Births

1103 - Emperor Toba of Japan (d. 1156)
1304 - Ibn Battuta, explorer
1463 - Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Italian humanist (d. 1494)
1500 - Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1558)
1547 - Don John of Austria, military leader (d. 1578)
1557 - Mathias, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1619)
1597 - Vincent Voiture, French poet (d. 1648)
1619 - Charles Le Brun, French artist (d. 1690)
1622 - Johannes Clauberg, German theologian and philosopher (d. 1665)
1684 - Matthias Braun, Czech sculptor (d. 1738)
1693 - James Quin, English actor (d. 1766)
1709 - Jacques de Vaucanson, French inventor (d. 1782)
1723 - John Burgoyne, British general (d. 1792)
1774 - Prince Adolphus, 1st Duke of Cambridge (d. 1850)
1786 - Martin W. Bates. U.S. Senator from Delaware (d. 1869)
1786 - Wilhelm Grimm, German philologist and folklorist (d. 1859)
1831 - Leo von Caprivi, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1899)
1836 - Winslow Homer, American artist (d. 1910)
1842 - Arrigo Boito, Italian composer (d. 1918)
1846 - Luigi Denza, Italian composer (d. 1922)
1848 - Andrew Inglis Clark, Tasmanian politician (d. 1907)
1852 - George Moore, English writer (d. 1933)
1866 - Pyotr Nikolaevich Lebedev, Russian physicist (d. 1912)
1874 - Honus Wagner, baseball player (d. 1955)
1877 - Ettie Rout, New Zealand activist (d. 1936)
1885 - Chester Nimitz, U.S. admiral (d. 1966)
1885 - Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Polish writer and painter (d. 1939)
1890 - Marjorie Main, American actress (d. 1975)
1909 - August Derleth, American writer (d. 1971)
1914 - Zachary Scott, American actor (d. 1965)
1914 - Ralph Erskine, British architect (Byker Wall) (d. 2005)
1919 - Árpád Bogsch, Hungarian turned American international civil servant (d. 2004)
1921 - Abe Vigoda, American actor
1921 - Douglass Watson, American actor (d. 1989)
1922 - Richard Hamilton, English painter
1922 - Steven Hill, American actor
1923 - David Soyer, American cellist
1932 - Michel Legrand, French composer
1932 - John Vernon, Canadian actor (d. 2005)
1934 - Bettino Craxi, Prime Minister of Italy (d. 2000)
1934 - Renata Scotto, Italian soprano
1934 - Linda Cristal, Argentina-born actress
1938 - James Farentino, American actor
1938 - Phil Knight, American sportswear manufacturer
1938 - Kathleen Margaret Richardson, Baroness Richardson of Calow, British Baroness and Methodist reverend
1940 - Denis Law Scottish footballer
1942 - Joseph Lieberman, American politician and vice presidential candidate
1943 - George Harrison, British musician (d. 2001)
1943 - Hristo Prodanov, Bulgarian mountaineer
1943 - Terry Semel, chairman and CEO of Yahoo!
1944 - Nicky Hopkins, British musician (d. 1994)
1946 - Barry Bostwick, American actor
1947 - Rupert Holmes, English musician
1947 - Edward James Olmos, American actor
1948 - J. Jayalalithaa, Indian politician
1948 - Walter Smith, Scottish football manager
1948 - Dennis Waterman, British actor
1950 - Pete Duel, American actor (d. 1971)
1951 - Debra Jo Rupp, American actress
1951 - Helen Shaver, Canadian actress
1955 - Steve Jobs, American computer pioneer
1955 - Alain Prost, French race car driver
1956 - Paula Zahn, American journalist
1956 - Eddie Murray, former baseball player
1958 - Sammy Kershaw, American musician
1958 - Plastic Bertrand, Belgian singer
1962 - Michelle Shocked, American musician
1962 - Teri Weigel, American pornography actress
1963 - Mike Vernon, Canadian ice hockey goalie
1964 - Andy Crane, British children's television presenter
1966 - Billy Zane, American actor
1968 - Mitch Hedberg, American comedian (d. 2005)
1970 - Jeff Garcia, American football player
1973 - Chris Fehn, American percussionist (Slipknot)
1973 - Jordan Jovtchev, Bulgarian gymnast
1973 - Alexei Kovalev, Russian hockey player
1974 - Chad Hugo, American musician and producer (The Neptunes)
1974 - Karim Bagheri, Iranian football (soccer) player
1975 - Ashley MacIsaac, Canadian fiddler
1976 - Matt Skiba, Alkaline Trio
1976 - Eric Griffin, American rock guitarist
1977 - Floyd Mayweather Jr, American boxer
1977 - Jason Akermanis, Australian footballer
1981 - Lleyton Hewitt, Australian tennis player
1981 - Mohammad Sami, Pakistani cricketer (fast bowler)
1982 - Klára Koukalová, Czech tennis player
1987 - Daniel Reilly, British entrepreneur
1987 - Mayuko Iwasa, Japanese entertainer and model

Deaths

616 - King Ethelbert of Kent
1525 - Guillaume Gouffier, seigneur de Bonnivet, French soldier
1563 - Francis, Duke of Guise, French soldier and politician (b. 1519)
1588 - Johann Weyer, Dutch physician and occultist
1666 - Nicholas Lanier, English composer (b. 1588)
1674 - Matthias Weckmann, German composer (b. 1616)
1685 - Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Carlisle, English politician and military leader (b. 1629)
1704 - Marc-Antoine Charpentier, French composer (b. 1643)
1714 - Edmund Andros, English governor in North America (b. 1637)
1721 - John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby, English statesman and poet (b. 1648)
1732 - Colonel Francis Charteris, known as "The Rape-Master General". (b. 1675)
1777 - King Joseph I of Portugal (b. 1714)
1779 - Paul Daniel Longolius, German encylopedist (b. 1704)
1781 - Edward Capell, English critic (b. 1713)
1799 - Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, German physicist (b. 1742)
1810 - Henry Cavendish, English scientist (b. 1756)
1812 - Etienne-Louis Malus, French physicist and mathematician (b. 1775)
1815 - Robert Fulton, American inventor (b. 1765)
1825 - Thomas Bowdler, English physician and editor (b. 1754)
1856 - Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky, Russian mathematician (b. 1792)
1914 - Joshua Chamberlain, Civil War hero for the Union on Little Round Top at the Battle of Gettysburg
1925 - Hjalmar Branting, Prime Minister of Sweden, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1860)
1953 - Gerd von Rundstedt, German field marshal (b. 1875)
1970 - Conrad Nagel, American actor (b. 1897)
1975 - Nikolai Bulganin, Premier of the Soviet Union (b. 1895)
1984 - Helmut Schelsky, German sociologist (b. 1912)
1990 - Tony Conigliaro, baseball player (b. 1945)
1990 - Malcolm Forbes, American publisher (b. 1917)
1990 - Sandro Pertini, Italian politician (b. 1896)
1990 - Johnnie Ray, American singer (b. 1927)
1991 - John Daly, South African game show host (b. 1914)
1991 - George Gobel, American comedian (b. 1919)
1993 - Bobby Moore, English footballer (b. 1941)
1994 - Dinah Shore, American actress and singer (b. 1916)
1998 - Antonio Prohias, Cuban-born cartoonist (b. 1921)
1998 - Henny Youngman, English-born comedian (b. 1906)
1999 - Andre Dubus, American writer (b. 1936)
2001 - Claude E. Shannon, American information theorist (b. 1916)
2002 - Leo Ornstein, Russian-born composer and pianist (b. 1912)
2003 - John Edward Christopher Hill, English historian (b. 1912)
2003 - Bernard Loiseau, French chef (b. 1951)
2004 - John Randolph, American actor (b. 1915)
2006 - Octavia Butler, American author and MacArthur Foundation Fellow (b. 1947)
2006 - Don Knotts, American actor (b. 1924)
2006 - John Martin, Canadian broadcaster (b. 1947)
2006 - Dennis Weaver, American actor (b. 1924)

Holidays and observances

Regifugium, in the Roman calendar.
Independence Day in Estonia (1918; the Soviet period is considered illegal annexation).
Flag Day in México.
Dragobete in Romania.

Liturgical feasts

External links