1942 – The “Battle of Los Angeles” takes place, a series of anti-aircraft engagements over the city in response to a rumored but false Japanese attack. It would last until the morning of the following day.
1387 – King Charles III of Naples and Hungary is assassinated at Buda
1510 – Pope Julius II excommunicates the republic of Venice
1525 – In the first of the Franco-Habsburg Wars, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V captures the French king Francis I at the Battle of Pavia, Italy.
1582 – Pope Gregory XIII orders the introduction of the Gregorian calendar, Luigi Lilio’s reform of the Julian calendar was first introduced in some European countries and is now the world’s most widely used calendar.
1739 – Battle of Karnal: Army of Iranian ruler Nadir Shah defeats the forces of the Mughal emperor of India, Muhammad Shah
1797 – Colonel William Tate and his force of 1,000-1,500 soldiers surrender after the Last Invasion of Britain (according to legend, to Welsh women in tall black hats, mistaken for elite guards regiment)
1803 – Chief Justice John Marshall, by refusing to rule on the case of Marbury vs. Madison, asserts the authority of the judicial branch.
1807 – 17 die & 15 wounded in a crush to witness execution of Holloway, Heggerty & Elizabeth Godfrey in England
1821 – Agustín de Iturbide and Vicente Guerrero agree to the Plan of Iguala, stating that Mexico will become a constitutional monarchy, Roman Catholicism the official religion and that Peninsulares and Creoles will enjoy equal political and social rights
1835 – “Siwinowe Kesibwi” (The Shawnee Sun) was issued as the first Indian language monthly publication in the U.S.
1839 – Mr. William S. Otis received a patent for the steam shovel.
1863 – Arizona was organized as a territory.
1866 – In Washington, DC, an American flag made entirely of American bunting was displayed for the first time.
1868 – The U.S. House of Representatives impeached President Andrew Johnson due to his attempt to dismiss Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. The U.S. Senate later acquitted Johnson.
1895 – The Cuban War of Independence begins.
1900 – New York City Mayor Van Wyck signed the contract to begin work on New York’s first rapid transit tunnel. The tunnel would link Manhattan and Brooklyn. The ground breaking ceremony was on March 24, 1900.
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 – Japan officially agrees to restrict emigration to the U.S.
1912 – Italy bombs Beirut in the first act of war against the Ottoman Empire.
1920 – The German nazi party is founded, Adolf Hitler became the party’s leader in 1921.
1923 – Mass arrests in US of mafia
1925 – A thermit was used for the first time. It was used to break up a 250,000-ton ice jam that had clogged the St. Lawrence River near Waddington, NY.
1938 – The first nylon bristle toothbrush was made. It was the first time that nylon yarn had been used commercially.
1942 – The “Battle of Los Angeles” takes place, a series of anti-aircraft engagements over the city in response to a rumored but false Japanese attack. It would last until the morning of the following day. https://cal170.library.ca.gov/february-24-1942-the-battle-of-los-angeles-2/
1942 – The U.S. Government stopped shipments of all 12-gauge shotguns for sporting use for the wartime effort.
1942 – The Voice of America (VOA) aired for the first time.
1944 – Merrill’s Marauders, a specially trained group of American soldiers, begin their ground campaign against Japan into Burma.
1945 – During World War II, the Philippine capital of Manilla, was liberated by U.S. soldiers.
1946 – Juan Peron was elected president of Argentina.
1955 – Pact of Baghdad signed between Iraq & Turkey
1956 – The city of Cleveland invoked a 1931 law that barred people under the age of 18 from dancing in public without an adult guardian.
1959 – Khrushchev rejects the Western plan for the Big Four meeting on Germany.
1968 – North Vietnamese troops capture the imperial palace in Hue, South Vietnam.
1972 – Hanoi negotiators walk out of the peace talks in Paris to protest U.S. air raids on North Vietnam.
1974 – Pakistan officially recognizes Bangladesh
1977 – US President Jimmy Carter announces US foreign aid will consider human rights
1980 – US ice hockey team clinches gold medal with 4-2 win over Finland at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics; comes after 4-3 “Miracle on Ice” victory against hot favorite Soviet Union
1981 – Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of Britain’s Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer.
1983 – A U.S.congressional commission released a report that condemned the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.
1987 – An exploding supernova was discovered in the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy.
1988 – The U.S. Supreme Court overturned a $200,000 award to Rev. Jerry Falwell that had been won against “Hustler” magazine. The ruling expanded legal protections for parody and satire.
1989 – Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini sentenced Salman Rushdie to death for his novel “The Satanic Verses”. A bounty of one to three-million-dollars was also put on Rushidie’s head.
1989 – United Airlines Flight 811 rips open in flight killing 9 people. The flight was from Honolulu to New Zealand.
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
1991 – General Norman Schwarzkopf, commander of the coalition army, sends in ground forces during the Gulf War.
1997 – The U.S. The Food and Drug Administration named six brands of birth control as safe and effective “morning-after” pills for preventing pregnancy.
2006 – President of the Philippines Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declares Proclamation 1017 placing the country in a state of emergency in attempt to subdue possible military coup.
2007 – The Virginia General Assembly passed a resolution expressing “profound regret” for the state’s role in slavery.
2008 – Cuba’s parliament named Raul Castro president. His brother Fidel had ruled for nearly 50 years.
2013 – 10 Chadian soldiers and 28 Muslim insurgents are killed in conflict in Adrar des Ifoghas, Mali
2014 – A 4.4 billion-year-old Crystal is discovered to be the oldest known fragment from the earth’s crust
2018 – UN Security Council passes resolution for 30 day ceasefire in Syria
2019 – Roman Catholic Church summit on paedophilia ends with Pope Francis promising more action and calling those guilty “tools of Satan”
2020 – Scientists identify the first animal that doesn’t need oxygen to breathe – a tiny parasite living in salmon tissue, reported in journal PNAS
2022 – Russian leader Vladimir Putin announces the start of a “special military operation” in Ukraine to “demilitarize” the country moments before Russia launches a full-scale pre-dawn invasion by land, air and sea, with bombings in several cities amid international condemnation
2022 – Zahir Zakir Jaffer sentenced to death in Islamabad, Pakistan for the rape, murder and beheading of Noor Muqaddam after she refused to marry him, highlighting violence towards women in the country
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
