Today in History - February 24
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1208 Feb 24,
Francis of Assisi (26) decided to become a priest in Portiuncula, Italy.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1500 Feb 24, Charles V, king of
Spain (1516-1556), was born in Ghent, Belgium. He was the last Holy
Roman Emperor to be crowned by the Pope.
(HN, 2/24/99)(SFEC, 11/21/99, p.T10)(MC, 2/24/02)
1525 Feb 24, In the first of the
Franco-Habsburg Wars, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V captured the
French king Francis I at the battle of Pavia, in Italy. This was the
decisive engagement of the Italian War of 1521-26.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Pavia)(Econ,
12/12/09, p.93)
1538 Feb 24, Ferdinand of Hapsburg
and John Zapolyai, the two kings of Hungary, concluded the peace of
Grosswardein.
(HN, 2/24/99)
1582 Feb 24, Pope Gregory XIII
issued a papal bull, or edict, outlining his calendar reforms. The old
Julian Calendar had an error rate of one day in every 128 years. This
was corrected in the Gregorian Calendar of Pope Gregory XIII, but
Protestant countries did not accept the change till 1700 and later.
[see 1552 and Oct 4, 1582]
(HFA, '96, p.22)(TL-MB, 1988, p.23)(HN,
6/7/98)(SFEC, 2/20/00, Par p.7)(AP, 2/24/02)
1595 Feb 24, Mathias
Casimir Sarbievius, poet and prof. at Vilnius Univ., was born in
Sarbev, Poland. He died in Warsaw Apr 2, 1640.
(LHC, 2/23/03)
1607 Feb 24, Claudio Monteverdi's
opera "Orfeo," premiered at the Court Theater in Mantua.
(WSJ, 6/19/97, p.A16)(AP, 2/24/07)
1616 Feb 24, Qualifiers of the
Holy Office concluded that a sun-centered theory was “foolish and
absurd in philosophy, and formally heretical, inasmuch as it expressly
contradicts the teachings of many passages of Holy scriptures.”
(SSFC, 10/31/04, p.B6)
1619 Feb 24, Charles Le Brun,
painter, designer, was born in Paris.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1704 Feb 24, Marc-Antoine
Charpentier, French composer (church music), died.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1766 Feb 24, Samuel Wesley
(d.1837), composer, organist (Exultate Deo), was born in Bristol,
England. He studied, played, and preached Bach.
(LGC-HCS, p.32)(MC, 2/24/02)
1768 Feb 24,
Lithuania-Poland signed an eternal friendship treaty with Russia along
with a guarantee of protection. Lithuania and Poland agreed not to
change their state system.
(LHC, 2/23/03)
1785 Feb 24, Carlo Bonaparte (39),
Corsican attorney, died.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1786 Feb 24, Wilhelm Carl Grimm
(d.1859), compiler of "Grimm's Fairytales,” was born in Germany.
(HN, 2/24/98)(WUD, 1994, p.623)
1786 Feb 24, Charles Cornwallis,
whose armies had surrendered to US at Yorktown, was appointed
governor-general of India.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1803 Feb 24, The Supreme Court
ruled itself the final interpreter of constitutional issues. Chief
Justice John Marshall, by refusing to rule on the case of Marbury vs.
Madison, asserted the authority of the judicial branch. The US Supreme
Court 1st ruled a law unconstitutional (Marbury v Madison).
(AP, 2/24/98)(HN, 2/24/98)(MC, 2/24/02)
1807 Feb 24, In a crush to witness
the hanging of Holloway, Heggerty and Elizabeth Godfrey in England 17
died and 15 were wounded.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1813 Feb 24, Off Guiana, the
American sloop Hornet sank the British sloop Peacock.
(HN, 2/24/98)
1815 Feb 24, Robert Fulton
(b.1765), steamboat pioneer, died at age 49. In 2001 Kirkpatrick Sale
authored the biography: “The Fire of His Genius.”
(WSJ, 9/24/01, p.A22)(MC, 2/24/02)
1821 Feb 24, Mexico rebels
proclaimed the "Plan de Iguala," their declaration of independence from
Spain, and took over the mission lands in California.
(HT, 3/97, p.61)(AP, 2/24/98)(HN, 2/24/98)
1825 Feb 24, Thomas Bowdler,
self-appointed Shakespearean censor, died. His expurgated Shakespeare
edition was published in 1818.
(MC, 2/24/02)(SFC, 1/21/04, p.D2)
1836 Feb 24, Winslow Homer
(d.1910), American painter, was born. He began his career as an
illustrator for Harper's Weekly during America's Civil War. He is
believed to have died a virgin and took up a hermit’s life in his mid
40s.
(WSJ, 4/2/96, p.A-12)(HN, 2/24/99)
1836 Feb 24, Some 3,000 Mexicans
under Gen. Santa Ana launched an assault on the Alamo, with its 182
Texan defenders. The siege lasted 13 days.
(HN, 2/24/98)(MC, 2/24/02)
1838 Feb 24, Thomas Benton Smith,
Brig. General (Confederate Army), was born in Mechanicsville,
Tennessee. He was wounded at Stone’s River/Murfreesboro and again at
Chickamauga. He was captured at the Battle of Nashville (1864) where he
was beaten over the head with a sword by Col. William Linn McMillen of
the 95th Ohio Infantry. His brain was exposed and it was believed he
would die. He recovered partially and spent the last 47 years of his
life in the State Asylum in Nashville, Tennessee, where he died on May
21, 1923. He’s buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery, Nashville, Davidson
County, Tennessee.
(MC, 2/24/02)(Internet)
1839 Feb 24, A steam shovel was
patented by William Otis, Philadelphia.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1841 Feb 24, John Phillip Holland,
inventor of the modern submarine, was born.
(HN, 2/24/98)
1842 Feb 24, Arrigio Enrico Boito,
composer (Mefistofele), was born.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1846 Feb 24, Luigi Denza,
composer, was born.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1848 Feb 24, King Louis-Philippe
abdicated and the 2nd French republic was declared. [see Feb 26]
(MC, 2/24/02)
1855 Feb 24, US Court of Claims
was formed for cases against the government.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1863 Feb 24, Arizona was organized
as a territory.
(AP, 2/24/98)
1863 Feb 24, Confederate Gen.
Nathan Bedford Forrest made a raid on Brentwood, Tennessee.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1864 Feb 24-25, Battle of Tunnel
Hill, GA (Buzzard's Roost).
(MC, 2/24/02)
1868 Feb 24, Impeachment
proceedings against President Andrew Johnson began. The House of
Representatives voted vote 126 to 47 to impeach President Andrew
Johnson following his attempt to dismiss Secretary of War Edwin M.
Stanton; the Senate later acquitted Johnson. Sen. Edmund G. Ross of
Kansas cast the last deciding vote against impeachment. Democrats
defended Johnson. 7 Republicans cast “no” votes.
(HN, 2/24/98)(AP, 2/24/98)(WSJ, 12/11/98,
p.A14)(SFC, 12/21/98, p.A3)(MC, 2/24/02)
1868 Feb 24, The 1st US parade
with floats was at the Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1874 Feb 24, Honus Wagner,
baseball shortstop, was born. He later became known as "The Flying
Dutchman."
(HN, 2/24/01)
1876 Feb 24, Henrik Ibsen's "Peer
Gynt," premiered in Oslo.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1885 Feb 24, Chester Nimitz, was
born. He was the U.S. admiral who commanded naval forces in the Pacific
during WWII.
(HN, 2/24/99)
1887 Feb 24, Mary Ellen Chase
(d.1973), New England writer, was born. “Suffering without
understanding in this life is a heap worse than suffering when you have
at least the grain of an idea what it’s all for.”
(AP, 6/23/97)(HN, 2/24/01)
1895 Feb 24, The Cuban War of
Independence began. [see Oct 10, 1868]
(HN, 2/24/98)
1903 Feb 24, The United States
signed an agreement acquiring a naval station at Guantanamo Bay in
Cuba. Pres. Roosevelt leased the site for 2,000 gold coins a year,
about $4,080 in 2002.
(AP, 2/24/98)(SSFC, 1/20/02, p.A7)
1905 Feb 24, Russian Minister of
Agriculture, Alexi Yermolov offered the Czar a new constitution.
(HN, 2/24/98)
1908 Feb 24, Japan officially
agreed to restrict immigration to the U.S.
(HN, 2/24/98)
1909 Feb 24, August Derleth,
writer (Still is the Summer Night, The Shield of the Valiant), was born.
(HN, 2/24/01)
1912 Feb 24, The Jewish
organization Hadassah was founded in New York City.
(HN, 2/24/01)
1912 Feb 24, Italy bombed Beirut
in the first act of war against the Ottoman Empire.
(HN, 2/24/98)
1914 Feb 24, Joshua Chamberlain
(85) died. He was the Bowdoin College Maine professor whose incredible
defense of Little Round Top at Gettysburg and other heroics earned him
promotion to Major General and the Congressional Medal of Honor.
(HN, 2/24/98)(MC, 2/24/02)
1916 Feb 24, Jules Verne's "20,000
Leagues Under the Sea" opened in New York.
(HN, 2/24/98)
1917 Feb 24, The British presented
the decoded Zimmermann telegram, a German plot for Mexican help, to
Pres. Wilson and an enraged Wilson released the document to the
American public on March 1. On April 6, 1917, America formally declared
war on Germany and her Allies.
(HNPD, 2/24/99)(MC, 2/24/02)
1918 Feb 24, Estonia's
Independence Day. Estonia proclaimed independence from Russia.
(LHC, 2/23/03)
1920 Feb 24, A fledgling German
political party held its first meeting of importance at Hofbrauhaus in
Munich; it became known as the Nazi Party, and its chief spokesman was
Adolf Hitler.
(AP, 2/24/00)
1921 Feb 24, Herbert Hoover became
Secretary of Commerce. In a January 1926 letter to then Secretary of
Commerce Herbert Hoover, the senior Guggenheim announced the
establishment of the Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of
Aeronautics.
(HN, 2/24/98)
1924 Feb 24, Mahatma Gandhi was
released from jail.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1928 Feb 24, In its first show to
feature a Black artist, the New Gallery of New York exhibited works of
Archibald Motley.
(HN, 2/24/98)
1932 Feb 24, Michel Legrand,
composer (Summer of '42, Windmills of Your Mind), was born.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1933 Feb 24, Final demonstration
of German communist party in Berlin took place.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1933 Feb 24, The League of Nations
told the Japanese to pull out of Manchuria.
(www.indiana.edu/~league/1933.htm)
1934 Feb 24, Renata Scotto,
soprano (Violetta, La Traviata), was born in Savona, Italy.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1938 Feb 24, The first nylon
products, toothbrushes, were marketed in New Jersey by Du Pont.
(HN, 2/24/98)(MC, 2/24/02)
1939 Feb 24, Hungary signed an
anti-Communist pact with Italy, Germany and Japan.
(HN, 2/24/98)
1942 Feb 24, The Voice of America
went on the air for the first time with broadcasts in German. The US
State Dept. made William Winter (d.1999) its first Voice of America
three months before the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
(AP, 2/24/98)(SFC, 11/9/99, p.A23)(MC, 2/24/02)
1942 Feb 24, Some 1,600 Pittsburg,
Ca., residents of Italian descent were evacuated. Nationwide some
600,000 of 5 million Italians were undocumented and deemed “enemy
aliens” until Oct 12.
(SSCM, 10/21/01, p.11,19)
1944 Feb 24, Barry Bostwick, actor
(Rocky Horror Show, Megaforce), was born in San Mateo, Ca.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1944 Feb 24, Merrill's Marauders,
a specially trained group of American soldiers, began their ground
campaign against Japan into Burma. The were led by Brigadier General
Frank Merrill (b.1903-1955), the first US infantry combat force to
fight the Japanese on the mainland of Asia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merrill%27s_Marauders)(www.marauder.org/history.htm)
1944 Feb 24, Col. Juan Peron,
Argentine minister of war, staged a coup.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1945 Feb 24, U.S. forces liberated
prisoners of war in the Los Baños Prison in the Philippines.
(HN, 2/24/99)
1945 Feb 24, American soldiers
liberated the Philippine capital of Manila from Japanese control during
World War II.
(AP, 2/24/98)
1945 Feb 24, Egyptian Premier
Ahmed Maher Pasha was killed in Parliament after reading a decree.
(HN, 2/24/98)
1946 Feb 24, Argentinians went to
the polls to elect Juan D. Peron (50) their president. He held the
office until 1955.
(PCh, 1992, p.899)(AP, 2/24/08)
1947 Feb 24, Franz von Papen was
sentenced to eight years in a labor camp for war crimes. Pompous scion
of an old aristocratic family, he became chancellor of Germany in 1932.
(HN, 2/24/98)
1949 Feb 24, A V-2 WAC-Corporal
was the 1st rocket to outer space. It was fired at White Sands, NM, and
reached 400 km.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1949 Feb 24, Israel and Egypt
signed an armistice agreement.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1952 Feb 24, The French evacuated
Hoa Binh in Vietnam in order to mass for the Tonkin Delta drive.
(HN, 2/24/99)
1953 Feb 24, Karl R.G. von
Rundstedt (77), German general and field marshal at Ardennes, died.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1955 Feb 24, Steven Jobs,
co-founder (Apple Computer), was born.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1955 Feb 24, The Cole Porter
musical "Silk Stockings" opened at the Imperial Theater on Broadway for
461 performances.
(AP, 2/24/99)(MC, 2/24/02)
1955 Feb 24, Ike Eisenhower met
with newspaper publisher Roy Howard and expressed his resistance under
pressure to commit American troops to Vietnam. The conversation was
recorded on a dictabelt machine that Eisenhower had secretly installed
in the president’s office.
(SFEC, 6/15/97, p.A14)
1959 Feb 24, Khrushchev rejected
the Western plan for the Big Four meeting on Germany.
(HN, 2/24/98)
1962 Feb 24, New York police
seized $20 million worth of heroin.
(HN, 2/24/98)
1965 Feb 24, Beatles began filming
"Help" in Bahamas.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1966 Feb 24, A military coup
overthrew Ghana’s Pres. Kwame Nkrumah. He fled to Guinea.
(http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/09/19/150104.php)
1969 Feb 24, The US Supreme Court
in the Tinker vs. Des Moines School District case ruled that students
had the right to express opinions at odds with the government.
(WSJ, 5/4/99,
p.A22)(www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/comm/free_speech/tinker.html)
1970 Feb 24, 29 Swiss Army
officers died in avalanche at Reckingen, Switzerland.
(http://library.thinkquest.org/C003603/english/avalanches/casestudies.shtml#54)
1971 Feb 24, Algeria nationalized
French oil companies.
(www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Africa/Algeria-ENERGY-AND-POWER.html)
1972 Feb 24, Hanoi negotiators
walked out of the peace talks in Paris to protest U.S. air raids on
North Vietnam.
(HN, 2/24/98)
1975 Feb 24, Hans Bellmer
(b.1902), German surrealist artist, died in Paris. He made paper-mache
female dolls and photographed them in skewed configurations.
(NW, 2/18/02,
p.70)(www.artnet.com/Magazine/reviews/oisteanu/oisteanu3-14-05.asp)
1976 Feb 24, Republican Gerald
Ford won the New Hampshire primary over Ronald Reagan 50.1 to 48.6%.
Democrat Jimmie Carter won over Mo Udall and Birch Bayh 28.7 to 23 to
15.3%.
(SSFC, 1/25/04,
p.A19)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Hampshire_primary)
1976 Feb 24, H. Allen Smith
(b.1907), author, TV host (Armchair Detective), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._Allen_Smith)
1976 Feb 24, Cuba's revised
socialist constitution went into effect. Article 88 of this year’s
Cuban Constitution said any citizen who collects the signatures of at
least 10,000 registered voters can petition the National Assembly for a
referendum on any subject.
(http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/news/aa041300a.htm)(WSJ, 5/13/02,
p.A1)
1977 Feb 24, Pres. Carter
announced the US was cutting off all military aid to Ethiopia because
of its human rights violations. The unstated reason was the US desire
to cooperate with Saudi Arabia to lure Somalia from the Soviet camp, an
effort which was ultimately successful.
(www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Politics/africa.html)
1980 Feb 24, The U.S. hockey team
defeated Finland, 4-2, to clinch the gold medal at the Winter Olympic
Games in Lake Placid, N.Y.
(AP, 2/24/98)
1981 Feb 24, A jury in White
Plains, New York, found Jean Harris guilty of second-degree murder in
the fatal shooting of “Scarsdale Diet” author Dr. Herman Tarnower.
(AP, 2/24/01)
1981 Feb 24, Buckingham Palace
announced the engagement of Britain's Prince Charles to Lady Diana
Spencer.
(AP, 2/24/98)
1983 Feb 24, A US congressional
commission, the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of
Civilians, released a report condemning the internment of
Japanese-Americans during World War II as a "grave injustice."
(AP, 2/24/98)(SFEC, 8/9/98, p.A10)
1983 Feb 24, Tennessee Williams,
US playwright born as Thomas Lanier Williams (1911), died in NYC. He
left a $10 million estate to support his sister and directed that
anything left go to support aspiring writers at the Univ. of the South
of Sewanee. His plays included “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and “The Rose
Tattoo” originally titled "The Eclipse of May 29, 1919." In 1995 Lyle
Leverich (d.1999 at 79) published "Tom: The Unknown Tennessee
Williams," a definitive work on the playwright's formative years. In
2007 editor Margaret Bradham Thornton published “Notebooks: Tennessee
Williams.”
(http://tinyurl.com/s8zm5)(SFC, 12/25/99,
p.B4)(SSFC, 5/13/07, p.M6)
1986 Feb 24, Sherri Rasmussen (29)
was beaten, shot and killed at her condominium in Los Angeles. In 2009
Police detective Stephanie Lazarus (49) was charged with the murder
following DNA evidence linking her to the murder of her former
boyfriend’s wife.
(SFC, 6/10/09,
p.B5)(http://celebrity.rightpundits.com/?p=6093)
1987 Feb 24, Fawn Hall, former
personal secretary to fired National Security Council aide Oliver L.
North, posed for news photographers outside her attorney's office,
calling the attention "a little overwhelming."
(AP, 2/24/07)
1987 Feb 24, Ian Shelton,
astronomer, found a new fierce light in the sky created by the titanic
explosion of a nearby star in the Large Magellanic Cloud, Supernova
1987A. This was the first time since 1604 that such an event could be
seen with the naked eye. It was the first supernova of the year. It is
located 170,000 light-years away.
(NG, 5/88, p.619-620)(NH, 10/1/04, p.30)
1988 Feb 24, In a 8-0 ruling that
expanded legal protections for parody and satire, the US Supreme Court
overturned a $200,000 award that the Rev. Jerry Falwell had won against
"Hustler" magazine and publisher Larry Flynt.
(AP, 2/24/98)
1988 Feb 24, A week of tropical
rainstorms left at least 275 people dead in Rio de Janeiro state,
Brazil.
{Brazil, WeatherSA}
(http://tinyurl.com/r629d)
1989 Feb 24, A cargo door blew off
a United Air Lines Boeing 747-100 flying near Hawaii; the explosive
release of pressure pulled nine passengers to their deaths.
(AP, 2/24/99)
1989 Feb 24, In Utah a
150-million-year-old fossil egg, still inside the mother, was found by
CAT scan to contain the oldest dinosaur embryo.
(http://tinyurl.com/fme92)
1989 Feb 24, Writer Salman Rushdie
was sentenced to death by the Iranian government for writing Satanic
Verses.
(HN, 2/24/99)
1989 Feb 24, A state funeral was
held in Japan for Emperor Hirohito, who died the month before at age 87.
(AP, 2/24/99)
1990 Feb 24, Malcolm Forbes (70),
magazine publisher died in Far Hills, N.J.
(AP, 2/24/00)
1990 Feb 24, Johnnie Ray (63),
fifties balladeer (Cry), died in Los Angeles of liver failure.
(AP, 2/24/00)
1991 Feb 24, The United States and
its Gulf War allies launched a large-scale ground assault against Iraqi
troops, many of whom surrendered to the advancing forces. General
Norman Schwarzkopf, commander of the coalition army, sent in ground
forces to liberate Kuwait from the Iraqis.
(HN, 2/24/98)(AP, 2/24/01)
1992 Feb 24, Secretary of State
James A. Baker III told a House subcommittee that Israel should stop
building settlements in the occupied territories, or forfeit $10
billion in U.S. loan guarantees. A fourth round of Mideast peace talks
began in Washington, D.C.
(AP, 2/24/02)
1992 Feb 24, General Motors
reported a record $4.5 billion loss for 1991.
(AP, 2/24/02)
1993 Feb 24, At the Grammy Awards
in Los Angeles, Eric Clapton won six trophies, including album of the
year for "Unplugged" and record and song of the year for "Tears in
Heaven."
(AP, 2/24/98)
1993 Feb 24, Canadian Prime
Minister Brian Mulroney announced he was stepping down.
(AP, 2/24/98)
1994 Feb 24, US Surgeon General
Joycelyn Elders labeled smoking an "adolescent addiction" and accused
the tobacco industry of trying to convince teen-agers that cigarettes
will make them sexy and successful.
(AP, 2/24/99)
1994 Feb 24, Entertainer Dinah
Shore died in Beverly Hills, Calif., at age 76.
(AP, 2/24/99)
1994 Feb 24, Jean Sablon (87),
French crooner, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Sablon)
1995 Feb 24, Under pressure from
farm-state Republicans, House leaders abandoned a campaign promise to
disband the food stamp program.
(AP, 2/24/00)
1996 Feb 24, Steve Forbes won the
Delaware presidential primary.
(AP, 2/24/01)
1996 Feb 24, Cuban war planes shot
down two unarmed private planes flown by a refugee group in Florida.
Cuba claimed the planes violated its airspace. 4 men were killed
including 3 US citizens. In 2001 Gerardo Hernandez (36) was convicted
of conspiracy in the deaths of the aviators. Antonio Guerrero (43),
convicted for spying while working a Navy base in Florida, was
sentenced to life in prison on Dec 27. In 2009 Guerrero’s sentence was
reduced to 20 years.
(WSJ, 2/23/96, p.A-1)(SFC,12/18/97, p.A6)(AP,
2/24/98)(WSJ, 12/13/01, p.A1)(SFC, 10/14/09, p.A4)
1997 Feb 24, Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright met in Beijing with Chinese officials, telling them
to improve their country's record on human rights or face condemnation
by the United States and its allies.
(AP, 2/24/98)
1997 Feb 24, The Food and Drug
Administration named six brands of birth control as safe and effective
"morning-after" pills for preventing pregnancy.
(AP, 2/24/98)
1997 Feb 24, In Romania a new
economic package, introduced last week, planned to reduce state
subsidies, deregulate food and energy prices, close unprofitable state
enterprises and private others.
(SFC, 2/24/97, p.A10)
1997 Feb 24, In unrecognized
Somaliland Mohammed Ibrahim Egal was re-elected by clan leaders as
president.
(SFC, 2/25/97, p.a14)
1998 Feb 24, It was reported that
German researchers used human fibroblast growth factor, FGF-1, to grow
new blood vessels around clogged coronary arteries.
(WSJ, 2/24/98, p.B1)
1998 Feb 24, Henny Youngman died
in New York City at age 91-92. He was a tireless comic who quipped
"Take my wife -- please" and countless other one-liners during a career
that spanned seven decades.
(SFC, 2/25/98, p.C2)(AP, 2/24/99)
1998 Feb 24, In Columbia Victor
Manuel Carranza, aka the “Emerald King,” was arrested near Bogota on
charges of financing right-wing paramilitary death squads.
(SFC, 2/26/98, p.A9)
1998 Feb 24, In Germany 6
service-sector unions agreed to merge by year 2000 to create the
world’s largest union with 4 million members.
(WSJ, 2/25/98, p.A1)
1998 Feb 24, In Israel Mossad
chief Danny Yatom resigned over the agency’s botched attempt to poison
a Hamas leader in Jordan on Sep 25.
(SFC, 2/27/98, p.D2)
1998 Feb 24, In Turkey the former
Welfare Party changed its name to the Virtue Party and elected Recai
Kutan as leader. Separately university students protested a ban
on Islamic dress.
(WSJ, 2/25/98, p.A1)
1999 Feb 24, The Senate voted
overwhelmingly to give the nation's military the biggest benefits
increase since the early 1980s.
(AP, 2/24/00)
1999 Feb 24, Lauryn Hill won a
record five awards at the 41st annual Grammys, including album of the
year and best new artist, on the strength of her solo debut album, "The
Miseducation of Lauryn Hill."
(SFC, 2/25/99, p.D1)(AP, 2/24/00)
1999 Feb 24, The US and 5 other
agricultural countries (Canada, Australia, Chile, Argentina and
Uruguay) rejected a proposal supported by 130 nations that would have
required countries to approve in advance any imports of agricultural
commodities that had been genetically altered.
(SFC, 2/25/99, p.A10)
1999 Feb 24, Andre Dubus, short
story writer, died in Haverhill, Mass., at age 62. His work included
the novel: "The Lieutenant" (1967), the short story collection "Dancing
after Hours" and essays "Meditations from a Movable Chair." Dubus
became crippled in 1986 when he stopped to help a motorist and was hit
by a passing car.
(WSJ, 2/26/99, p.A1)(SFC, 2/27/99, p.C2)
1999 Feb 24, In Arizona Karl
LaGrand (35), a German citizen, was executed by lethal injection for
the 1982 murder of a bank manager.
(SFC, 3/4/99, p.A3)
1999 Feb 24, In Kosovo ethnic
Albanians planned a provisional government, but Adem Demaci, a leader
in the rebel army, said that he would not recognize it.
(SFC, 2/25/99, p.A10)
1999 Feb 24, China announced that
it would veto a Security Council resolution to renew a UN peacekeeping
force in Macedonia, which had recently established relations with
Taiwan.
(SFC, 2/25/99, p.A10)
1999 Feb 24, A China Southwest
Airlines jet crashed near Ruian and all 61 people onboard were killed.
The jet was a Russian-made Tupelov-154.
(SFC, 2/25/99, p.A11)
1999 Feb 24, In England a
government report that found London's police force to be "riven with
pernicious and institutionalized racism" was made public. The report
was born out of the 1993 killing of Stephen Lawrence and a subsequent
trial.
(SFC, 2/23/99, p.A8)
1999 Feb 24, Eritrea said that it
had destroyed 31 Ethiopian tanks, captured 3 others and shot down a
Mi-24 helicopter gunship.
(SFC, 2/27/99, p.A14)
1999 Feb 24, In Iran 3 Kurds died
while fighting police during a protest over the capture of Ocalan.
(WSJ, 2/25/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 24, Latvia became the
first Baltic state to be a full member of the World Trade Organization
(WTO).
(BN, 3/99, p.1)
2000 Feb 24, In Arizona Salvatore
Gravano, "Sammy the Bull," was arrested for financing a drug ring led
by Michael Papa, the founding member of a white supremacist gang.
(SFC, 2/25/00, p.A2)
2000 Feb 24, The state of Texas
executed Betty Lou Beets, 62, by injection for the 1983 murder of her
fifth husband. Governor George W. Bush refused to intervene. She was
the 2nd woman executed in Texas since the Civil War.
(SFC, 2/25/00, p.A3)(AP, 2/24/01)
2000 Feb 24, The Brunei government
began legal proceedings against Prince Jefri Bolkiah and froze his
assets. He was accused of improper use of embezzling nearly $16 million
from state coffers while serving as finance minister from 1986-1998.
Jefri reached an out-of-court settlement with the government agreeing
to pay the money back, which he allegedly used to buy hotels and other
expensive assets.
(SFC, 2/25/00, p.D4)(SSFC, 12/2/07, p.A31)
2000 Feb 24, In Bogota, Colombia,
an auto-free day to reduce smog was observed as declared by Mayor
Enrique Penalosa.
(SFC, 2/25/00, p.D3)
2000 Feb 24, The UN Security
Council approved a proposal to send as many as 5,537 observers and
peace-keeping troops to the Congo to monitor a fragile cease-fire.
(SFC, 2/25/00, p.A16)(AP, 2/24/01)
2000 Feb 24, In East Timor
Australian peacekeepers handed control of the region over to a UN force.
(WSJ, 2/24/00, p.A1)
2000 Feb 24, Pope John Paul the
Second arrived in Egypt on a pilgrimage to retrace some of the most
epic passages from the Bible.
(SFC, 2/25/00, p.A18)(WSJ, 2/24/00, p.A1)(AP,
2/24/01)
2000 Feb 24, In the Philippines
the Mayon volcano erupted on Luzon.
(SFC, 2/25/00, p.A16)
2000 Feb 24, In Sudan some 160 aid
workers began leaving the southern region following a rebel ultimatum
to comply with new terms for aid deliveries or face expulsion. At least
11 int'l. aid organizations refused demands for higher taxes and more
control.
(SFC, 2/29/00, p.A12)
2001 Feb 24, US Sec. of State
Colin Powell met [in Jerusalem, in Cairo] with Igor Ivanor, the Russian
foreign minister, and pledged a constructive approach to dealing with
Iraq, missile defenses and other points of policy discord.
(SSFC, 2/25/01, p.A14)(AP, 2/24/02)
2001 Feb 24, Fugitive financier
Marc Rich, whose 11th-hour pardon by former President Clinton caused a
wave of controversy, spoke out for the first time, describing the
pardon as a “humanitarian act.”
(AP, 2/24/02)
2001 Feb 24, The US Navy and Coast
Guard captured 10 men and 8.8 tons of cocaine on a Belize-flagged
fishing boat 250 miles west of Acapulco.
(SFC, 3/5/01, p.A3)
2001 Feb 24, A tornado in Pontotoc
County, Mississippi, left 5 people dead.
(SFC, 2/26/01, p.A3)
2001 Feb 24, Mathematician and
computer scientist Claude Shannon, whose theories about binary code
became the basis for modern mass communications networks, died in
Medford, Mass., at age 84.
(AP, 2/24/02)
2001 Feb 24, In Borneo naval
vessels began evacuating some 24,000 refugees from the island of
Medura, where the death toll had risen to 210.
(SSFC, 2/25/01, p.A14)
2001 Feb 24, It was reported that
Japanese physicists created a superconductor using magnesium dibromide
at minus 389º F.
(SFC, 2/24/01, p.A7)
2001 Feb 24, Ugyen Thinley Dorje
(15), the 17th Karmapa Lama, led prayers to mark the Tibetan year of
the iron snake in northern India.
(SSFC, 2/25/01, p.A16)
2001 Feb 24, In Mexico Zapatista
rebel leader Subcommander Marcos began a 2,000-mile caravan to Mexico
City to lobby for Indian rights.
(SSFC, 2/25/01, p.A14)
2002 Feb 24, The XIX Winter
Olympics in Salt Lake City came to a close. In one of the last events
Canada beat the US hockey team 5-2 for the gold. Cross-country skiers
from Spain and Russia were stripped of gold medals for failing drug
tests.
(SFC, 2/25/02, p.A1)(WSJ, 2/25/02, p.A1)
2002 Feb 24, Leo Ornstein
(b.1893), Russian-born Futurist composer, died in Green Bay, Wisc. In
1918 Frederick H. Martens authored “Leo Ornstein: The Man, His Ideas,
His Work.” In 1990 Ornstein composed his last work: the Eighth Piano
Sonata.
(SFC, 3/8/02,
p.A31)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Ornstein)
2002 Feb 24, In La Macarena,
Colombia, 7 civilians were reported killed by retreating rebels.
(SFC, 2/27/02, p.A7)
2002 Feb 24, In India the BJP
party was defeated in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Manipur and the new state
of Uttaranchal. It retained control in only 4 of the 28 states.
(SFC, 2/25/02, p.A7)
2002 Feb 24, A Palestinian woman
(27) gave birth after being shot by Israeli troops as she was being
driven to a hospital.
(SFC, 2/26/02, p.A11)
2002 Feb 24, In Mexico the PRI
held its 1st ever open election for party leadership.
(SFC, 2/25/02, p.A7)
2003 Feb 24, Seeking U.N. approval
for war against Iraq, the United States, Britain and Spain submitted a
resolution to the Security Council declaring that Saddam Hussein had
missed "the final opportunity" to disarm peacefully and indicating that
he had to face the consequences.
(SFC, 2/25/03, A1)(AP, 2/24/04)
2003 Feb 24, Dan Rather
interviewed Saddam Hussein via satellite and Hussein proposed a live
debate with Pres. Bush. Hussein said he would rather die than leave his
country and that he would not destroy its wealth by setting fire to its
oil wells in the event of a U.S.-led invasion.
(SFC, 2/25/03, A10)(AP, 2/26/03)
2003 Feb 24, Afghanistan's
minister of mines and industry died along with seven other people when
their plane crashed in the Arabian Sea shortly after takeoff from the
southern Pakistan port city of Karachi.
(AP, 2/24/03)
2003 Feb 24, Historian
Christopher Hill (91), a Marxist whose reinterpretation of the 17th
century changed the way Britons regard the English revolution, died.
His books included "The World Turned Upside Down" (1972).
(AP, 2/26/03)(SFC, 2/27/03, A20)
2003 Feb 24, In China
accidents in 3 coal mines killed at least 49 miners and left 10 others
missing.
(AP, 2/25/03)
2003 Feb 24, A devastating
earthquake shook western China, killing at least 268 people, injuring
some 2,000 and flattening homes, schools and other buildings near the
Silk Road oasis of Kashgar. The death toll soon rose to at least 266
people, with another 2,000 injured.
(SFC, 2/26/03, A8)(AP, 2/25/04)
2003 Feb 24, In
northeastern Congo hundreds of civilians were killed and hundreds more
were missing after Congolese rebels allied with the government seized a
key town and launched a two-day campaign of murder, rape, looting and
destruction. In 2009 Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo faced trial
for planning and directing the massacre of more than 200 villagers in
Bogoro.
(AP, 3/1/03)(AP, 11/25/09)
2003 Feb 24, Bernard
Loiseau (52), a celebrated French chef whose Cote D'Or restaurant in a
small Burgundy town became a mecca for the world's gourmets, died of
apparent suicide. In 2005 Rudolph Chelminski authored “The
Perfectionist: Life and Death in Haute Cuisine.”
(AP, 2/25/03)(SSFC, 6/12/05, p.B5)
2003 Feb 24, In Indonesia a
fire sparked by an explosion caused a small ferry to sink off northern
Sumatra, killing 8 people and leaving 19 others missing.
(AP, 2/24/03)
2003 Feb 24, The UN
indicted former Indonesia military chief Wiranto, 6 generals and an
ex-governor for the bloodbath preceding East Timor independence.
(WSJ, 2/25/03, p.A1)
2003 Feb 24, Turkey's
Cabinet agreed to the deployment of tens of thousands of U.S. combat
troops ahead of a possible war in Iraq. The measure is expected to face
a vote in Turkey's parliament Feb 25.
(AP, 2/24/03)
2003 Feb 24, In Zambia
former President Frederick Chiluba (59) was arrested and charged with
stealing from the government while in office. In August Chiluba was
charged with stealing over $40 million during his rule.
(AP, 2/24/03)(WSJ, 8/6/03, p.A1)
2004 Feb 24, Pres. Bush called for
a constitutional amendment to ban marriage between members of the same
sex.
(SFC, 2/25/04, p.A1)
2004 Feb 24, Democrat John Kerry
defeated John Edwards by large margins in Utah and Florida, and also
won in Hawaii, where Edwards ran third behind Dennis Kucinich.
(AP, 2/24/05)
2004 Feb 24, Alan Greenspan warned
of too much concentration of financial risk in the books of mortgage
giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
(WSJ, 2/25/04, p.A1)
2004 Feb 24, The 1st charges were
filed against 2 detainees in Guantanamo. Slimane Hadj Abderrahmane, a
Danish citizen, was released from Guantanamo after being held for 747
days. In 2007 he was arrested in Denmark on suspicion of withdrawing
$18,900 from other people's accounts using stolen debit cards and PIN
codes.
(WSJ, 2/25/04, p.A1)(AP, 8/17/07)
2004 Feb 24, John Randolph (88),
character actor, died in Hollywood.
(AP, 2/24/05)
2004 Feb 24, An earthquake shook
Burundi, killing three people and destroying at least two dozen homes.
(AP, 2/24/04)
2004 Feb 24, A 5.1 earthquake
struck northern Morocco near Al Hoceima, toppling houses and killing
629 people.
(AP, 2/25/04)(SFC, 2/25/04, p.A3)(AP, 3/5/04)
2004 Feb 24, In central Nigeria
suspected Muslim militants armed with guns and bows and arrows killed
at least 48 people in an attack on a farming village. Most of the
victims died as they sought refuge in a church.
(AP, 2/25/04)
2004 Feb 24, In Russia Pres.
Vladimir Putin dismissed PM Mikhail Kasyanov and all other Cabinet
ministers, in preparation for next month's presidential vote. Putin
named Viktor Khristenko, a former finance official, as acting prime
minister.
(AP, 2/24/04)(WSJ, 2/25/04, p.A1)(Econ, 7/16/05,
p.48)
2004 Feb 24, In Sardinia a small
plane carrying a medical team and a heart for a transplant patient
crashed, killing all six people aboard.
(AP, 2/24/04)
2004 Feb 24, In Switzerland Vitaly
Kaloyev of Russia killed Pieter Nielsen, a Danish air traffic
controller with the Swiss company Skyguide. Nielsen had been on duty
during the July 1, 2002, collision between a Bashkirian Airlines plane
and a DHL cargo jet. Kolayev’s family was killed in the crash. In 2007
Switzerland's highest court ordered Kolayev’s release because he had
served more than two-thirds of his sentence with good behavior.
(AP, 11/8/07)
2004 Feb 24, An Uzbek court
ordered the release of Fatima Mukadirova (62), a woman convicted of
anti-constitutional activity after publicizing her son's death in
prison from torture.
(AP, 2/24/04)
2005 Feb 24, In Ohio Rosemarie
Essa was killed in a car crash after losing consciousness from a
cyanide pill. Her husband Dr. Yazeed Essa vanished in 2006 and was
arrested months later in Cyprus. In 2009 he returned to Cleveland to
face murder charges.
(SSFC, 1/11/09,
p.A4)(www.amw.com/fugitives/case.cfm?id=37583)
2005 Feb 24, In southeastern
Afghanistan Taliban insurgents launched 3 separate attacks, killing 9
Afghan troops and wounding an American soldier while sustaining heavy
casualties themselves.
(AP, 2/25/05)
2005 Feb 24, Australian PM John
Howard dismissed as "alarmist" a warning by his government's chief
economic adviser that the US was heading for a financial crash that
could ravage the global economy.
(AP, 2/25/05)
2005 Feb 24, Anglican leaders
forced a suspension of the US Episcopal Church and Canadian adherents
due to same sex marriages and ordaining gay clergy.
(WSJ, 2/25/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb 24, PM Paul Martin said
that Canada would not join the contentious US ballistic missile defense
(BMD) program.
(AP, 2/24/05)(Econ, 3/5/05, p.38)
2005 Feb 24, India’s cabinet
lifted restraints on foreign ownership of some real estate projects. A
minimum of 25 acres was established with requirements for development
of infrastructure prior to resale.
(WSJ, 2/25/05, p.A16)
2005 Feb 24, A suicide bomber
wearing a police uniform blew up his car at police headquarters in
Tikrit, killing at least 15 people in Saddam Hussein's hometown in the
bloodiest of several attacks that claimed 30 lives. Two American
soldiers were among the dead.
(AP, 2/24/05)
2005 Feb 24, In Indian-controlled
Kashmir 2 armed militants stormed a government office complex,
prompting a four-hour gunbattle that left seven people dead, including
the attackers.
(AP, 2/24/05)
2005 Feb 24, Lebanon's defense
minister said Syria will withdraw troops from mountain and coastal
areas in Lebanon in line with a 1989 agreement.
(AP, 2/24/05)
2005 Feb 24, In western Mexico an
executive jet crashed, killing the governor of Colima state and all
five other people aboard.
(AP, 2/24/05)
2005 Feb 24, The Palestinian
parliament approved a 24-member Cabinet dominated by professional
appointees, including nearly half with doctoral degrees, in a major
move toward long-promised government reform.
(AP, 2/24/05)
2005 Feb 24, The Serbian
government said retired Bosnian Serb General Milan Gvero surrendered to
the UN war crimes tribunal at The Hague.
(AP, 2/21/05)(SFC, 2/25/05, p.A3)
2005 Feb 24, In Slovakia Pres.
Bush and Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin sought common ground on keeping
conventional and nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists. The US
and Russia agreed to enhance nuclear security cooperation and to try to
complete negotiations on Russia's entry into the World Trade
Organization (WTO) this year.
(AP, 2/24/05)
2005 Feb 24, Pope John Paul II
underwent an operation to insert a tube in his throat to relieve his
breathing problems, hours after he was rushed back to the hospital for
the second time in a month with flu-like symptoms.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, Mitchell Wade, a US
defense contractor, pleaded guilty to conspiring with former Rep. Randy
Cunningham of San Diego County with bribes and help in evading taxes in
exchange for over $150 million in government contracts since 2002.
(SFC, 2/25/06, p.A4)
2006 Feb 24, Judge Walter Steed, a
small-town judge with three wives, was ordered removed from the bench
by the Utah Supreme Court for violating the state's bigamy law.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, In Georgia Judge T.
Jackson Bedford Jr. of Fulton County Superior Court issued a bench
warrant for Kirk S. Wright (35), a hedge fund manager, for fraud.
Wright’s Int’l. Management Associates LLC was suspected of up to $185
million in losses.
(WSJ, 3/9/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 24, California’s Gov.
Schwarzenegger issued an emergency declaration to speed improvement on
24 severely eroded portions of Bay Area delta levees.
(SFC, 2/25/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 24, In North Carolina
more than a thousand flounder, spot and pin fish beached themselves at
the Marine Corps' New River air base, and then swam away. State and
local wildlife experts believed it was related to a popular phenomenon
known in coastal Alabama as "jubilee." Scientists know that a jubilee
occurs when variety of factors deoxygenate the water, forcing fish to
the shore.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 24, South Dakota
lawmakers approved a ban on nearly all abortions.
(AP, 2/24/07)
2006 Feb 24, Octavia Butler
(b.1947), African-American sci-fi writer, died in Seattle. Her 12 books
included “Kindred” (1979).
(SFC, 3/2/06,
p.B5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octavia_Butler)
2006 Feb 24, Michael Joyce (63),
conservative US Catholic Democrat, died. He ran 2 of the right’s
biggest treasure troves, the John Olin Foundation (1979-1985). And the
Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation (1985-2001).
(Econ, 3/4/06, p.30)
2006 Feb 24, Don Knotts (81),
comedian and film star, died in Los Angeles. His half-century career
included more than 25 films and seven TV series.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 24, Dennis Weaver
(b.1924), TV and film actor, died in Colorado. He played Chester Goode
in the “Gunsmoke” TV series and Sam McCloud in “McCloud” (1970-1977).
(SFC, 2/28/06, p.A2)
2006 Feb 24, In Afghanistan
Canadian troops officially took over the fight on the front lines of
Kandahar province from their American allies.
(CP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, began its yearly carnival. Officials expected some 600,000
tourists for this year's celebrations. Gunmen overpowered museum
security guards and stole four paintings by European masters, using the
cover of Rio's Carnival to make their getaway,
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, London Mayor Ken
Livingstone was suspended from office for four weeks for bringing his
office into disrepute. In Feb 2005 Livingstone compared Oliver
Finegold, a Jewish reporter from the Evening Standard to a Nazi
concentration camp guard: “You are just doing it because you’re paid
to, aren’t you?”
(AP, 2/24/06)(SFC, 2/25/06, p.A3)
2006 Feb 24, Detectives
investigating what could the biggest cash robbery in British history
recovered a "significant amount" of the money from a van just miles
from the heist site in Tonbridge in Kent.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, Rodney MacDonald
(34), Canada's youngest premier, was sworn into office in Nova Scotia.
(AP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 24, Colombia suspended
arrest warrants for leaders of the National Liberation Army, the South
American nation's second-largest rebel group, as part of preliminary
peace talks in Cuba.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, In northwest Colombia
Pedro Juan Moreno, a leading senatorial candidate and former adviser to
President Alvaro Uribe, was killed along with three other people in a
helicopter crash in a mountainous rainforest region.
(AP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 24, The EU opened an
in-depth antitrust probe into mining company Inco Ltd.'s $11 billion
planned purchase of Falconbridge Ltd., a deal that would create the
world's largest nickel producer.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, French legal
authorities refused to extradite to Lebanon Zouheir Mohammad Assediq,
an ex-Syrian intelligence officer, to answer questions about the murder
of former Lebanese PM Rafiq el-Hariri.
(AFP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 24, India and the United
States said they had made some progress toward a landmark nuclear deal
but more work was needed to try and clinch it in time for President
George W. Bush's visit to New Delhi next week.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, In Iraq Abu Asma,
(aka Abu Anas and Akram Mahmud al-Mushhadani), Al-Qaida in Iraq's
leader in northern Baghdad, was killed in a raid. Gunmen stormed a
house south of Baghdad and shot dead five Shiite men.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, Israel's air force
fired a missile at a group of Palestinian militants firing rockets at
Israeli targets.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, Julia Mancuso won
gold in the women's giant slalom at the Turin Olympics.
(AP, 2/24/07)
2006 Feb 24, Japan suspended all
French poultry imports and threatened a similar ban on the Netherlands
following reported cases of H5N1 bird flu.
(Reuters, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 24, A prominent Malaysian
newspaper avoided punishment for publishing a cartoon about the Prophet
Muhammad drawings controversy, offering an apology that was accepted by
the government.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, Christian youths
armed with machetes, stones and clubs attacked Muslims in the
southeastern Nigerian city of Enugu. A Reuters witness saw a mob beat
one man to death. Sectarian violence spread to three more Nigerian
cities, claiming at least seven lives and pushing up the death toll in
days of killings to at least 127.
(Reuters, 2/24/06)(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, A Nigerian court
ordered Royal Dutch Shell PLC to pay southern communities $1.5 billion
(1.2 billion euros) in compensation for environmental pollution and
degradation in the oil-rich Niger Delta. Shell appealed against
the court's decision.
(AFP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 24, In Northern Ireland a
gang stole $350,000 from a bank in Belfast. The tactics used were
similar to the Feb 22 robbery in London.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, In Pakistan thousands
of Muslims defied a ban on rallies in Islamabad, joining protesters
across the country in condemning the Prophet Muhammad cartoons printed
by some Western newspapers.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, In the Philippines
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared a state of emergency, saying
she had quashed a coup plot, and the military confined troops to their
camps to keep them from joining growing protests against her rule.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, Polish TV reported
that police had arrested about 30 people in several countries across
Europe in a sting operation against a suspected child-porn ring.
(Reuters, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, Suicide bombers in
explosives-laden cars attempted to attack an oil processing facility at
the Abqaiq facility that handles about two-thirds of Saudi
Arabia's petroleum output, but were stopped when guards opened fire on
them, causing the cars to explode.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, South Korea’s Fair
Trade Commission released its report formalizing its preliminary ruling
against Microsoft late last year. MS vowed to appeal the decision which
concluded that MS had abused its market dominance. The commission
ordered MS to offer alternative versions of Windows.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, Thailand's embattled
PM Shinawatra dissolved parliament, a move forcing national elections
three years early and guaranteeing a showdown with his political
opponents.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, It was reported that
Uruguay’s Pres. Tabare Vazquez backed two enormous plants that would
produce the raw material for paper on Uruguay's border with Argentina
while protesters, worried about the plants' impact on Argentina's
environment, have repeatedly blockaded border bridges, stalling crucial
truck and tourist traffic.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2007 Feb 24, In the 27th annual
Razzie Awards the film “Basic Instinct 2” was named worst picture of
the year.
(SSFC, 2/25/07, p.A2)
2007 Feb 24, The Virginia General
Assembly, meeting in Richmond on the grounds of the former Confederate
Capitol, voted unanimously to express "profound regret" for the state's
role in slavery.
(AP, 2/25/07)
2007 Feb 24, In Arkansas tornado
winds injured 40 people and damaged dozens of homes and businesses.
Much of the town of Dumas was destroyed. The Midwest storm system was
blamed for 8 traffic deaths, 7 in Wisconsin and one in Kansas.
(SFC, 2/26/07, p.A4)(Econ, 4/7/07, p.30)
2007 Feb 24, Herman Brix (b.1906),
Olympic medalist (1928) and former film star, died. His film work
included playing Tarzan in “The News Adventures of Tarzan” (1935). In
his later film roles he worked under the name Bruce Bennet.
(SFC, 3/1/07, p.B5)
2007 Feb 24, Broncos running back
Damien Nash (24) collapsed and died after a charity basketball game in
suburban St. Louis, less than two months after the slaying of teammate
Darrent Williams.
(AP, 2/25/07)
2007 Feb 24, Paul Secon (b.1916),
co-founder of Pottery Barn, died. He and his brother Morris opened
their first store in Manhattan in 1950. Pottery Barn was later acquired
by Williams-Sonoma.
(WSJ, 3/10/07, p.A4)
2007 Feb 24, Bermuda was cited as
the world’s richest country with a GDP per person estimated at $70,000.
(Econ, 2/24/07, SR p.4)
2007 Feb 24, Thousands of anti-war
protesters converged on London, calling on PM Tony Blair to withdraw
all of Britain's troops from Iraq and voicing fears over a potential
conflict with Iran.
(AP, 2/24/07)
2007 Feb 24, In Burkina Faso the
Fespaco film festival began. Hundreds of films made by Africans and
people of African descent competed for the Yennenga stallion, a golden
statue of a prancing horse.
(Econ, 3/3/07, p.54)
2007 Feb 24, A tentative deal was
reached to end a two-week-old strike by about 2,800 Canadian National
Railway Co. employees that had provoked a threat of government
intervention.
(AP, 2/25/07)
2007 Feb 24, The Cayman Islands
were cited as the world’s 5-th largest banking center with $1.4
trillion in assets.
(Econ, 2/24/07, SR p.4)
2007 Feb 24, Eq. Guinea was cited
as the world’s 3rd richest country with a GDP per person estimated at
$50,000.
(Econ, 2/24/07, SR p.4)
2007 Feb 24, In India 16 police
officers were killed when suspected rebels ambushed their patrol in
northeast Manipur. In eastern India an ill Sabita Behera (30), was
beaten to death by her in-laws. They suspected she had AIDS and feared
she would infect the rest of the family.
(Reuters, 2/26/07)(Econ, 3/3/07, p.50)
2007 Feb 24, Thousands of Shiites
rallied in Najaf to protest the nearly 12-hour detention of the eldest
son of Iraq's most influential Shiite politician as he crossed back
from Iran. Iraqi commandos backed by US aircraft raided a Sunni
insurgent base north of Baghdad, killing dozens. Local authorities said
six children and their father were among the dead. Attacks in Baghdad
killed at least seven civilians. A suicide truck bombing in Anbar
province left 52 dead and 74 injured. The attack was on worshippers
leaving a mosque in Habbaniyah. An arsenal was discovered north of
Baghdad containing components for so-called EFPs, explosively formed
projectiles that fire a slug of molten metal capable of penetrating
armored vehicles. The weapons cache contained more than two dozen
mortars and 15 rockets. There were enough metal disks to make 130 EFPs.
(AP, 2/24/07)(AP, 2/25/07)(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 24, Israel denied a
report in a British daily that it is seeking permission from the United
States to fly its bombers over Iraq to attack Iran's nuclear facilities.
(AFP, 2/24/07)
2007 Feb 24, Italy's president
asked Romano Prodi to stay on as premier and put his center-left
government to a new vote of confidence in parliament.
(AP, 2/24/07)
2007 Feb 24, In southern Nepal
police arrested at least 14 people after violence broke out between
Maoists and supporters of ethnic groups.
(AP, 2/24/07)
2007 Feb 24, The foreign ministers
of seven key Muslim nations started arriving in Pakistan for talks on a
collective push to end the turmoil in the Middle East. Three Islamic
militants died in eastern Pakistan when a powerful bomb they were
carrying on a bicycle accidentally exploded in Cheecha Watni, Punjab
province. Pakistani police arrested two men in southern Sindh province
and accused them of hacking two young women to death for allegedly
having sex outside marriage.
(AP, 2/24/07)(AFP, 2/24/07)
2007 Feb 24, Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas ended his European tour without persuading any country to
end crippling economic sanctions based on his power-sharing deal with
the rival Islamic militant Hamas.
(AP, 2/24/07)
2007 Feb 24, In Spain thousands of
people waving red-and-yellow Spanish flags protested in Madrid against
a court ruling that shortened the prison sentence for one of the Basque
separatist group ETA's most notorious killers.
(AP, 2/25/07)
2008 Feb 24, Joel and Ethan Coen’s
crime saga "No Country for Old Men" won a leading four Academy Awards,
including best picture. All four acting prizes went to Europeans:
Frenchwoman Marion Cotillard, the best-actress winner for "La Vie En
Rose"; Spaniard Javier Bardem, who took supporting actor for "No
Country"; and Brits Daniel Day-Lewis and Tilda Swinton, he claiming his
second best-actor honor for "There Will Be Blood," she winning
supporting actress for "Michael Clayton."
(AP, 2/25/08)
2008 Feb 24, Ralph Nader, consumer
activist, launched an independent campaign for the White House.
(SFC, 2/25/08, p.A4)
2008 Mar 24, Hal Riney (b.1932), a
leading figure in the advertising world, died in San Francisco. He
created the brand and image of General Motors’ Saturn automobile
division.
(SFC, 3/26/08, p.A1)
2008 Feb 24, In southern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb tore through a convoy carrying Kandahar
governor Asadullah Khalid, missing the official but killing three
policemen.
(AFP, 2/24/08)
2008 Feb 24, The first flight by a
commercial airline to be partly powered by biofuels took off from
London on a short trip to Amsterdam billed as heralding a new
eco-friendlier era of airline travel.
(AFP, 2/24/08)
2008 Feb 24, Pearl Cornioley,
British spy (nom de guerre was Genevieve Touzalin), died. She
parachuted into France during WWII posing as a cosmetics saleswoman to
deliver coded messages to Resistance members.
(AP, 4/1/08)
2008 Feb 24, In China’s Hubei
province water plant workers from Jianli County found that the Dongjing
River, a tributary of the Han, had turned red and foamy. The pollution
forced authorities to cut water supplies to as many as 200,000 people.
(AP, 2/27/08)
2008 Feb 24, Greek Cypriots
elected Dimitris Christofias, leader of the Communist Akel Party, as
its new president with just over 53 percent of the vote, ahead of
conservative former Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides with 46.6
percent. Christofias had campaigned on a pledge to act quickly to
restart long-stalled talks to reunify the island.
(AP, 2/25/08)(Econ, 3/1/08, p.53)
2008 Feb 24, In Cuba Raul Castro
became the new president. The island's parliament tapped revolutionary
leader Jose Ramon Machado (77) for the government's No. 2 spot.
(AP, 2/25/08)
2008 Feb 24, Iran said that it has
started using new centrifuges that can churn out enriched uranium at
more than double the rate of the machines that now form the backbone of
the Islamic nation's nuclear program.
(AP, 2/24/08)
2008 Feb 24, In Iraq a suicide
bomber struck Shiite pilgrims as they were resting in Iskandariyah
during a days-long walk to a Shiite shrine in Karbala, killing at least
56 people and wounding 68. Earlier, extremists attacked another group
of pilgrims in the predominantly Sunni Baghdad neighborhood of Dora,
killing three and wounding 36. In Hawija, about 30 miles southwest of
Kirkuk, a parked car bomb went off next to a patrol of Sunni tribesmen
who aligned with US forces to fight al-Qaida in Iraq. One civilian
bystander was killed and 10 people were wounded.
(AP, 2/24/08)(AP, 2/25/08)
2008 Feb 24, In Milan, Italy,
masked thieves drilled a tunnel and broke into a jewelry showroom as
employees were preparing for a VIP showing by Damiani, making off with
gold, diamonds and rubies in a brazen daylight heist.
(AP, 2/28/08)
2008 Feb 24, The LGT Group,
Liechtenstein’s largest financial group, confirmed that stolen client
data, believed to be fueling a major German tax-evasion probe, included
confidential information on thousands of customers and beneficiaries in
other countries.
(WSJ, 2/25/08, p.A6)
2008 Feb 24, Turkey's military
said that eight more soldiers were killed in combat during its
cross-border ground operation in northern Iraq, raising the death toll
to 15. Turkish troops and Kurdish PKK rebels fought close battles in
northern Iraq that left scores dead on the fourth day of a major ground
offensive Baghdad and Washington fear could further destabilize Iraq.
(AP, 2/24/08)(Reuters, 2/24/08)
2008 Feb 24, In Venezuela a blast
near the entrance of the Fedecamaras business chamber headquarters in
Caracas killed a 44-year-old man suspected of trying to plant the bomb.
The next day Venezuela's justice minister blamed "anarchists" for the
explosion and vowed to capture those responsible.
(AP, 2/25/08)
2008 Feb 24, A rights group said
Zimbabwe's biggest state hospital has stopped surgical operations
because of a breakdown of equipment and shortages of drugs.
(AFP, 2/24/08)
2009 Feb 24, Pres. Obama addressed
the US Congress and the American people to tap the deep well of
American optimism. Themes of responsibility, accountability and, above
all, national community rang throughout an address carefully balanced
by the gravity of its times. Republican leaders calling his plan
irresponsible and certain to increase taxes and federal debt.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 24, President Barack
Obama told Japanese PM Taro Aso that his nation was the cornerstone of
US security policy in East Asia and America's links to the world
economy.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 24, In NYC Monzer
al-Kassan, a Syrian-born arms dealer, was sentenced to 30 years in
prison for conspiring to sell weapons to Colombian militants in 2007.
(SFC, 2/25/09, p.A4)
2009 Feb 24, A rocket carrying a
NASA satellite crashed near Antarctica after a failed launch, ending a
$280 million mission to track global warming from space.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 24, In southern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb killed four US troops in the deadliest
single attack on international forces this year. Japan said it will pay
the salaries of Afghanistan's 80,000 police officers for six months as
part of its ongoing financial support for the country. Afghan soldiers
killed 18 militants targeting a poppy eradication force in Helmand
province. Two soldiers were also killed in the battle. Afghan and
coalition forces killed 10 militants in Uruzgan province. A "precision"
airstrike was called in, killing most of the militants.
(AP, 2/24/09)(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 24, British mining group
Lonmin announced up to 5,500 job cuts in South Africa, dealing a new
blow to the continent's biggest economy as it contracted for the first
time in a decade.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 24, China’s state media
reported that a Chinese delegation will buy as much as $15 billion
worth of machinery, automobiles and food products while on a trip to
Europe this week.
(WSJ, 2/25/09, p.A11)
2009 Feb 24, Tour agencies and
other industry people reported that China has closed Tibet to foreign
tourists ahead of next month's highly sensitive 50th anniversary of a
failed uprising against Chinese rule.
(AFP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 24, France’s Pres.
Sarkozy and Italy’s Premier Berlusconi signed a deal pairing utilities
from each nation to study the feasibility of building nuclear power
plants in Italy.
(WSJ, 2/25/09, p.A11)
2009 Feb 24, A Paris appeals court
overturned five men's terror convictions, ruling that French
intelligence officials improperly questioned them while they were
detained at the US prison in Guantanamo Bay. Lawyers for the men:
Brahim Yadel, Khaled ben Mustafa, Nizar Sassi, Mourad Benchellali and
Ridouane Khalid, hailed the decision. During their 2007 Paris trial,
the five acknowledged having spent time in military training camps in
Afghanistan but they said they had never put their combat skills to use.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 24, In Guinea Ousmane
Conte, the son of Guinea's late longtime dictator, was arrested on
allegations of drug trafficking.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 24, Two Iraqi police
officers opened fire on 4 American soldiers and two interpreters inside
a police station in Mosul. One US soldier and an interpreter were
killed. The assailants, believed to be associated with Al-Qaida,
escaped. The two policemen an officer and a sergeant, were arrested in
June by US and Iraqi forces and handed over to Iraqi custody.
(SFC, 2/25/09, p.A2)(AP, 6/18/09)
2009 Feb 24, The Kenya National
commission on Human Rights released a video showing a Kenyan policeman,
who was later killed, saying he saw other officers execute 58 suspects
instead of arresting them.
(SFC, 2/25/09, p.A2)
2009 Feb 24, Iran’s Pres.
Ahmadinejad arrived in Kenya with a delegation of nearly 100 officials
and business people. He soon struck a deal to export 4 million tons of
crude oil a year, to open direct flights between Tehran and Nairobi,
and to provide scholarships for study in Iran.
(http://tinyurl.com/yewhqnk)(Econ, 2/6/10, p.49)
2009 Feb 24, In Michoacan state,
Mexico, Vista Hermosa Mayor Octavio Carrillo was arriving at his home
when four gunmen waiting for him opened fire. He became the 6th elected
local official killed in Michoacan since June.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 24, In Nigeria 2 days of
clashes between rival gangs in the southern state of Edo left at least
eight people dead.
(AFP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 24, North Korea said it
is preparing to shoot a satellite into orbit, its clearest reference
yet to an impending launch that neighbors and the US suspect will be a
provocative test of a long-range missile.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 24, Taliban militants
extended a cease-fire in northwestern Pakistan's Swat valley, granting
more time for peace talks with the government that the US worries could
create a haven for insurgents in the nuclear-armed country.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 24, South Korea signed a
$3.55 billion deal with Iraq to help rebuild the war-ravaged country in
return for oil and gas. The deal was inked by South Korean President
Lee Myung-bak and his Iraqi counterpart Jalal Talabani.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 24, Sri Lanka’s
government troops advanced on the last urban area in the north still in
the hands of Tamil Tiger rebels. The defense ministry said 13 bodies of
rebel fighters were recovered. The LTTE said 10 civilians were
killed and 25 injured when troops fired artillery guns at the densely
populated Puttumattalan.
(AFP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 24, In Sudan fighting
erupted in the key southern city of Malakal. Some 50 people were killed
and another 100 wounded in 2 days of fighting.
(AFP, 2/27/09)
2009 Feb 24, Syria's nuclear chief
told the UN's nuclear agency that his nation has built a new missile
facility on the site of what the US says was a nearly finished nuclear
reactor bombed by Israel in Sep 2007.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 24, In Thailand thousands
of protesters surrounded the prime minister's office demanding that
parliament be dissolved and new elections held, the latest challenge to
the two-month old coalition government.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 24, A Kurdish politician
spoke to lawmakers in Turkey's parliament in the Kurdish language,
openly defying the law, to celebrate UNESCO world languages week.
State-run television immediately cut off the live broadcast.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 24, The United Arab
Emirates' official news agency said US firms Boeing Co. and Lockheed
Martin Corp. have been awarded almost $3 billion in contracts to supply
transport aircraft for the country's military.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 24, Four Yemenis were
convicted and sentenced up to seven years in prison on for forming an
al-Qaida cell and plotting to attack government and foreign targets in
the country.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 24, Officials said
Zimbabwe's teachers have agreed to end a strike that emptied classrooms
for a year, after the government promised to review salaries and
appealed for 458 million dollars' aid for schools.
(AFP, 2/24/09)
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