Today is Friday, Feb. 24, the 55th day of 2017 with 310 to follow.
The moon is waning. Morning stars are Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury. Evening stars are Neptune, Venus, Mars and Uranus.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Pisces. They include Wilhelm Grimm, historian and, with his brother Jacob, compiler of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, in 1786; painter Winslow Homer in 1836; Irish author George Moore in 1852; baseball Hall of Fame member Honus Wagner in 1874; Adm. Chester Nimitz, World War II commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, in 1885; actor Marjorie Main in 1890; actor Abe Vigoda in 1921; composer Michel Legrand in 1932 (age 85); co-founder of Nike, Phil Knight in 1938 (age 79); actor James Farentino in 1938; former U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, Ind-Conn., in 1942 (age 75); actor Barry Bostwick in 1945 (age 72), actor Edward James Olmos in 1947 (age 70); musician George Thorogood in 1950 (age 67); actor Helen Shaver in 1951 (age 66); Steve Jobs, founder of the Apple computer company, in 1955; race car driver Alain Prost in 1955 (age 62); baseball Hall of Fame member Eddie Murray in 1956 (age 61); TV personality Paula Zahn in 1956 (age 61); actor Billy Zane in 1966 (age 51); the Kienast quintuplets of Liberty Corner, N.J., in 1970 (age 47); boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 1977 (age 40); tennis player Lleyton Hewitt in 1981 (age 36).
On this date in history:
In 1803, the U.S. Supreme Court, in its Marbury v. Madison decision, ruled the power of the federal government was no greater than that of any individual state.
In 1868, Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Abraham Lincoln, was impeached by the U.S. House. (ohnson, the first U.S. president to be impeached, was acquitted by a single vote three weeks later, ending a three-week trial in the Senate.
In 1916, under the eyes of the Kaiser, the German Crown Prince Wilhelm and his army smashed their way toward the fortress of Verdun, in France.
In 1922, Henri Landru, better known as Bluebeard, was executed in France for killing 10 of his girlfriends.
In 1933, Japan shocked the world, withdrawing from the League of Nations. “The stunned international conclave, representing almost every nation on earth, sat in silence while the delegation, led by the dapper Yosuke Matsuoka, clad in black, walked from the hall. The crowded galleries broke into mingled hisses and applause.”
In 1945, U.S. troops took the Philippines capital of Manila from the Japanese.
In 1946, Juan Peron was elected president of Argentina.
In 1968, South Vietnam recapture the city of Hue, as the Tet Offensive comes to an end after 25 days of brutal combat.
In 1988, the U.S. Supreme Court defended the right to satirize public figures when it voted 8-0 to overturn a $200,000 settlement awarded the Rev. Jerry Falwell over a parody of him in Hustler magazine.
In 1989, nine people were killed when a 10-by-40-foot section of a United Airlines 747 ripped away from the jetliner’s outer skin on a flight from Hawaii to New Zealand.
In 1992, General Motors announced a record $4.5 billion loss in 1991 and said it would close 21 plants and idle 74,000 workers over four years.
In 1995, diver Greg Louganis, who won four gold medals in the Olympic Games in 1984 and 1988, revealed he had AIDS.
In 2004, an earthquake struck Morocco, killing about 600 people and injuring hundreds more.
In 2006, Emmy-winning comic star Don Knotts, best known as Deputy Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show, died of lung cancer. He was 81.
In 2009, Taliban insurgents in Pakistan’s militarily strategic Swat Valley agreed to a cease-fire, leaving them in charge of the area near the Afghan border.
In 2012, bombers and gunmen in Iraq killed 55 people and injured more than 200 in a series of attacks on civilian and government targets in more than a dozen cities.
In 2013, Raul Castro, 81, beginning a second five-year term as president of Cuba, said, “I would like to make clear … this will be my last term.”
In 2014, the U.S. Defense Department proposed cutting the Army to its smallest size in nearly three-quarters of a century.
A thought for the day: Marian Anderson, in forgiving the Daughters of the American Revolution for withdrawing an invitation to perform because she was African American, said, “You lose a lot of time hating people.”
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.