TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – FEB 24
1525 Battle of Pavia: Holy Roman Emperor Charles V’s troops beat the French. French King Francois I captured, 15,000 killed or wounded
1803 The Supreme Court ruled in Marbury v. Madison that any act of Congress which conflicts with the Constitution is null and void.
1821 Mexico gains independence from Spain.
1839 Steam shovel patented by William Otis, Philadelphia
1863 Arizona Territory created
1868 US House of Representatives vote 126 to 47 to impeach 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.
1903 The lease for Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was signed.
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’
1912 The Jewish organization Hadassah is founded in New York City.
1916 A film version of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea opens in New York.
1920 Adolf Hitler outlined the basic points of the Nazi party at the Hofbrauhaus in Munich.
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.
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.
1968 The discovery of a pulsar was announced.
1972 Hanoi negotiators walk out of the peace talks in Paris to protest U.S. air raids on North Vietnam.
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.
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.
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.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
