February 24 in history — What Happened Today in History

Gulf War: Ground troops cross the Saudi Arabian border and enter Iraq, thus beginning the ground phase of the war.

United Airlines Flight 811, bound for New Zealand from Honolulu, rips open during flight, blowing nine passengers out of the business-class section.

A child and an adult man are killed and 12 others are injured in the 49th Street Elementary School shooting in Los Angeles.

A special commission of the United States Congress condemns the Japanese American internment during World War II.

The 6.7 Ms Gulf of Corinth earthquake affects Central Greece with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). Twenty-two people are killed, 400 are injured, and damage totals $812 million.

The Yuba County Five disappear in California. Four of their bodies are found four months later.

The 1976 constitution of Cuba is formally proclaimed.

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.

Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive is halted; South Vietnamese forces led by Ngô Quang Trưởng recapture the citadel of Hué.

Cultural Revolution: Zhang Chunqiao announces the dissolution of the Shanghai People's Commune, replacing its local government with a revolutionary committee.

Ghanaian coup d'état by National Liberation Council overthrows Kwame Nkrumah's Government

The Armistice Agreements are signed, to formally end the hostilities of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

Colonel Juan Perón, founder of the political movement that became known as Peronism, is elected to his first term as President of Argentina.

Egyptian Premier Ahmad Mahir Pasha is killed in Parliament after reading a decree.

World War II: First large-scale protest march resulting in clashes with the Axis occupation forces and collaborationist police in Athens against rumours of forced mobilization of Greek workers for work in Germany.

Seven hundred ninety-one Romanian Jewish refugees and crew members are killed after the MV Struma is torpedoed by the Soviet Navy.

Voice of America makes its first broadcast.

The Battle of Los Angeles: A false alarm leads to an anti-aircraft barrage that lasts into the early hours of February 25.

Nancy Astor becomes 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.

The Nazi Party (NSDAP) is founded by Adolf Hitler in the Hofbräuhaus beer hall in Munich, Germany.

Estonian Declaration of Independence.

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.

The Governor-General of Korea establishes a clinic called Jahyewon in Sorokdo to segregate Hansen's disease patients.

Revolution breaks out in Baire, a town near Santiago de Cuba, beginning the Cuban War of Independence; the war ends along with the Spanish–American War in 1898.

China and Russia sign the Sino-Russian Ili Treaty.

The stage première of Peer Gynt, a play by Henrik Ibsen with incidental music by Edvard Grieg, takes place in Christiania (Oslo), Norway.

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.

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.

Madison Hubbell, American ice dancer

O'Shea Jackson Jr., American actor and rapper

Semih Kaya, Turkish footballer

Christian Kabasele, Congolese-born Belgian footballer

Dwayne Allen, American football player

Derek Wolfe, American football player

Trace Cyrus, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

Daniel Kaluuya, English actor

Kosta Koufos, Greek-American basketball player

Rodrigue Beaubois, French basketball player

Alexander Koch, American actor

Connie Ramsay, Scottish judoka

Maksym Radziwill, Polish-Canadian mathematician

Franny Beecher, American guitarist (born 1921)

Alexis Hunter, New Zealand-English painter and photographer (born 1948)

Carlos Páez Vilaró, Uruguayan painter and sculptor (born 1923)

Harold Ramis, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1944)

Virgil Johnson, American singer (born 1935)

Con Martin, Irish footballer and manager (born 1923)

Agnes Allen, American baseball player and therapist (born 1930)

Oliver Wrong, English nephrologist and academic (born 1925)

Anant Pai, Indian author and illustrator (born 1929)

Dawn Brancheau, senior animal trainer at SeaWorld (born 1969)

Larry Norman, American singer-songwriter and producer (born 1947)

Bruce Bennett, American shot putter and actor (born 1906)

Damien Nash, American football player (born 1982)