Unix Timestamp: 1077580800
Tuesday, February 24. 2004, 12:00:00 AM UTC

2004 Haitian coup d'état: in the lead-up to the coup, rebels in Haiti have wrested large parts of the island from government control. The capital, Port-au-Prince is still held by supporters of the president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Supporters of the president vowed to defend the city and fight to the death.

A 6.5 Richter scale earthquake in Northern Morocco hits in the Rif mountains near the city of Al Hoceima, killing 400. Ait Kamara is destroyed 517 are killed.

Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski is killed in a plane crash near Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The United States lifts a 23-year travel ban against Libya.

At least 564 people are killed in Morocco, in an earthquake of 6.1–6.5 Richter magnitude, occurring outside the tourist resort Al Hoceima in the middle of the night (0227 UTC). //news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3515803.stm (BBC)

Same-sex marriage in the United States: U.S. President George W. Bush announces his support for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. Bush did not explicitly endorse the Federal Marriage Amendment, proposed by Representative Marilyn Musgrave (RndashColorado), which has been criticised for potentially also denying states the ability to recognise same-sex civil unions and domestic partnerships. However, he said that the FMA "meets his principles" in protecting the "sanctity of marriage" between men and women.//www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/02/24/elec04.prez.bush.marriage/index.html (CNN) ! Broken link //www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,8785839%255E2,00.html//www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-02-24-bush-marriage_x.htm ("USA Today")