February 24

What happened that day?

• 2016: Tara Air Flight 193, a de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft, crashed, with 23 fatalities, in Solighopte, Myagdi District, Dhaulagiri Zone, while en route from Pokhara Airport to Jomsom Airport.
• 2015: A Metrolink train derails in Oxnard, California following a collision with a truck, leaving more than 30 injured.
• 2008: Fidel Castro retires as the President of Cuba and the Council of Ministers after 32 years. He remains as head of the Communist Party for another three years.
• 2007: Japan launches its fourth spy satellite, stepping up its ability to monitor potential threats such as North Korea.
• 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.
• 2004: The 6.3 Mw Al Hoceima earthquake strikes northern Morocco with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). At least 628 people are killed, 926 are injured, and up to 15,000 are displaced.
• 1996: Two civilian airplanes operated by the Miami-based group Brothers to the Rescue are shot down in international waters by the Cuban Air Force.
• 1991: [Gulf War](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War#Ground_campaign): Ground troops cross the Saudi Arabian border and enter Iraq, thus beginning the ground phase of the war.
• 1989: United Airlines Flight 811, bound for New Zealand from Honolulu, rips open during flight, blowing nine passengers out of the business-class section.
• 1989: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issues a fatwa and offers a USD $3 million bounty for the death of Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses.
• 1984: Tyrone Mitchell perpetrates the 49th Street Elementary School shooting in Los Angeles, killing two children and injuring 12 more.
• 1983: A special commission of the United States Congress condemns the Japanese American internment during World War II.
• 1981: The 6.7 Ms Gulf of Corinth earthquake affects Central Greece with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). The shock killed 22 people and destroyed buildings in several towns west of Athens.
• 1980: The United States Olympic hockey team completes its Miracle on Ice by defeating Finland 4-2 to win the gold medal.
• 1976: The current constitution of Cuba is formally proclaimed.
• 1971: The All India Forward Bloc holds an emergency central committee meeting after its chairman, Hemantha Kumar Bose, is killed three days earlier. P.K. Mookiah Thevar is appointed as the new chairman.
• 1968: Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive is halted; South Vietnam recaptures Hué.
• 1946: Colonel Juan Perón, founder of the political movement that became known as Peronism, is elected to his first term as President of Argentina.
• 1945: Egyptian Premier Ahmad Mahir Pasha is killed in Parliament after reading a decree.
• 1944: Merrill's Marauders: The Marauders begin their 1,000-mile journey through Japanese occupied Burma.
• 1942: An order-in-council passed under the Defence of Canada Regulations of the War Measures Act gives the Canadian federal government the power to intern all "persons of Japanese racial origin".
• 1942: The Battle of Los Angeles: A false alarm led to an anti-aircraft barrage that lasted into the early hours of February 25.
• 1920: Nancy Astor became the first woman to speak in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom following her election as a Member of Parliament (MP) three months earlier.
• 1920: The Nazi Party is founded.
• 1918: Estonian Declaration of Independence.
• 1917: World War I: The U.S. ambassador Walter Hines Page 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 Mexico declares war on the United States.
• 1916: The Governor-General of Korea establishes a clinic called Jahyewon in Sorokdo to segregate Hansen's disease patients.
• 1895: Revolution breaks out in Baire, a town near Santiago de Cuba, beginning the Cuban War of Independence, that ends with the Spanish-American War in 1898.
• 1881: China and Russia sign the Sino-Russian Ili Treaty.
• 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.
• 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.
• 1863: Arizona is organized as a United States territory.
• 1854: A Penny Red with perforations was the first perforated postage stamp to be officially issued for distribution.
• 1848: King Louis-Philippe of France abdicates the throne.
• 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.
• 1826: The signing of the Treaty of Yandabo marks the end of the First Anglo-Burmese War.
• 1822: The first Swaminarayan temple in the world, Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Ahmedabad, is inaugurated.
• 1821: Final stage of the Mexican War of Independence from Spain with Plan of Iguala.
• 1809: London's Drury Lane Theatre burns to the ground, leaving owner Richard Brinsley Sheridan destitute.
• 1803: In Marbury v. Madison, the Supreme Court of the United States establishes the principle of judicial review.
• 1739: Battle of Karnal: The army of Iranian ruler Nader Shah defeats the forces of the Mughal emperor of India, Muhammad Shah.
• 1711: The London première of Rinaldo by George Frideric Handel, the first Italian opera written for the London stage.
• 1607: L'Orfeo by Claudio Monteverdi, one of the first works recognized as an opera, receives its première performance.
• 1582: With the papal bull Inter gravissimas, Pope Gregory XIII announces the Gregorian calendar.
• 1538: Treaty of Nagyvárad between Ferdinand I and John Zápolya.
• 1525: A Spanish-Austrian army defeats a French army at the Battle of Pavia.
• 1386: King Charles III of Naples and Hungary is assassinated at Buda.
• 1303: Battle of Roslin, of the First War of Scottish Independence.
• 484: King Huneric removes the Christian bishops from their offices and banished some to Corsica. A few are martyred, including former proconsul Victorian along with Frumentius and other merchants. They are killed at Hadrumetum after refusing to become Arians.
• 303: Galerius publishes his edict that begins the persecution of Christians in his portion of the Roman Empire.