Unix Timestamp: 1014508800
Sunday, February 24. 2002, 12:00:00 AM UTC

Arab Spring:

NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory lands in the Pacific Ocean near Antarctica after failing to reach Earth's orbit. //news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Nasa-Climate-Change-Satellite-Fails-To-Make-It-To-Orbit-After-Not-Separting-From-Rocket/Article/200902415228722?lpos=World_News_First_World_News_Article_Teaser_Region_0lid=ARTICLE_15228722_Nasa_Climate_Change_Satellite_Fails_To_Make_It_To_Orbit_After_Not_Separting_From_Rocket (Sky News)

March–April – Rising food and fuel prices trigger riots and unrest in the Third World.

Raúl Castro is unanimously elected as President of Cuba by the National Assembly.

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")

In Athens, Greece, senior U.S. diplomat Brady Kiesling resigned in protest at the Bush administration's policy on Iraq.

LaGrand Case: The State of Arizona executes Karl LaGrand, a German national involved in an armed robbery that led to a death. Karl's brother Walter is executed a week later, in spite of Germany's legal action in the International Court of Justice to attempt to save him.

Cuban fighter jets shoot down 2 American aircraft belonging to the Cuban exile group, Brothers to the Rescue. Cuban officials assert that they invaded Cuban airspace.

In Gloucester, local police begin excavations at 25 Cromwell Street, the home of Fred West, a suspect in multiple murders. On February 28, he and his wife are arrested.

Prime Minister of Canada Brian Mulroney resigns amidst political and economic turmoil. Kim Cbell, his successor, becomes Canada's first female Prime Minister.

The Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic holds the first democratic election in the history of the Soviet Union.

The USSR agrees to withdraw all 73,500 troops from Czechoslovakia by July, 1991.

The Sandinistas are defeated in the Nicaraguan elections, with Violeta Chamorro elected as the new president of Nicaragua, replacing Daniel Ortega.

"Hustler Magazine v. Falwell": The Supreme Court of the United States sides with "Hustler" magazine by overturning a lower court decision to award Jerry Falwell $200,000 for defamation.

In South Africa, 22 National Party MPs led by Andries Treurnicht vote for no confidence in P. W. Botha.

A powerful, magnitude 6.7 earthquake hits Athens, killing 16 people, injuring thousands and destroying several buildings, mostly in Corinth and the nearby towns of Loutraki, Kiato and Xylokastro.

Ethiopia recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).

Cuba's current constitution is enacted.

North Vietnamese negotiators walk out of the Paris Peace Talks to protest U.S. air raids.

"Luna 20" comes back to Earth with 55 grams (1.94 oz) of lunar soil.

A coal sludge spill kills 125 people in Buffalo Creek, West Virginia.

Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive is halted South Vietnam recaptures Hué.

Moscow forbids its satellite states to form diplomatic relations with West Germany.

Britain's second Polaris missile submarine, HMS "Renown", is launched.

The Chinese government announces that it has ordered the army to help in the spring seeding.

Go Dai massacre: Vietnam War.

A military coup in Ghana raises sacked General Ankrah to power while president Kwame Nkrumah is abroad.

A curfew is declared in Jakarta, Indonesia.

In Cuba, Fidel Castro's "Radio Rebelde" begins broadcasting from Sierra Maestra.

Doris Day records her most famous song: Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be). It is from Alfred Hitchcock's "The Man Who Knew Too Much", in which Day co-stars with James Stewart.

Juan Perón is elected president of Argentina.

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

The , carrying Jewish refugees from Axis-allied Romania to British-controlled Palestine, is torpedoed and sunk by the Soviet submarine "Shch 213", killing 768 men, women and children, with only one survivor, a 19 year old man, making it the largest exclusively civilian naval disaster of the war.The actual number of victims, including the ten person crew, is uncertain, although a recent study concludes it may have been as high as 791, of which 785 were Jewish.//www.jewishgen.org/databases/holocaust/0140_Struma.html#P9 Franz Collins' book "Death on the Black Sea: The Untold Story of the Struma and WWII's Holocaust at Sea", calls it simply the largest naval civilian disaster of the war. (page 255)

Propaganda: The "Voice of America" begins broadcasting.

The Santa Ana River in California spills over its banks during a rainy winter, killing 58 people in Orange County and causing trouble as far inland as Palm Springs.

Oil is discovered in Saudi Arabia.

A nylon bristle toothbrush becomes the first commercial product to be made with nylon yarn.

March ndash Italian mathematician Ettore Majorana disappears.

Sir Nevile Henderson, British Ambassador to Germany, presents a proposal to Hitler for an international consortium to rule much of Africa (in which Germany would be assigned a leading role) in exchange for a German promise never to resort to war to change her frontiers Hitler rejects the British offer.

The world's first peaceful establishment of a social democratic government takes place in Sweden. Hjalmar Branting takes over when Nils Edén resigns.

The United States Railroad Administration returns control of American railroads to its constituent railroad companies.

Syrian National Congress proclaim Syria independent with Faisal I of Iraq as king.

Hungarian Admiral and statesman Miklós Horthy becomes the Regent of Hungary.

Adolf Hitler presents his National Socialist program in Munich.

After 7 centuries of foreign rule, Estonia declares its independence from the Russian Empire. Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia also declare their independence from the Russian Empire but as the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic.

WWI: United States ambassador to the United Kingdom, Walter H. Page, is shown the intercepted Zimmermann Telegram, in which Germany offers to give the American Southwest back to Mexico if Mexico declares war on the United States.

Italy makes a surprise attack on the Ottoman port of Beirut, when the cruiser "Giuseppe Garibaldi" and the gunboat "Volturno" bombard the harbour. The attack kills 97 sailors and civilians.

Foundation of Cekan Mekenroff 1897 Bratislava Slovakia.

American University is established by an Act of Congress in Washington, D.C.

The British steamship "Quetia" founders in the Lorres Straits: 124 lives are lost.ref name=The New York Times/

Chicago is selected to host the Columbian Exposition

Léon Bourgeois succeeds Jean Antoine Ernest Constans as French Minister of the Interior.

Anti-Russian demonstrations occur in Hyde Park, London.

Premiere of first stage production of the verse-play Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen with incidental music by Edvard Grieg, in Oslo (then called Christiania), Norway

The "SS Gothenburg" sinks off the Australian east coast with the loss of approximately 102 lives, including a number of high profile civil servants and dignitaries.

February 25 ndashFirst Battle of Somorrostro (Third Carlist War): Determined to raise the siege of Bilbao by the Pretender Don Carlos VII, Republican commander Marshal Francisco Serrano sent General Domingo Moriones with a relief force of 14,000 men. Carlists, under General Nicolás Ollo, entrenched at Somorrostro outside Bilbao drive back a courageous assault by General Fernando Primo de Rivera and then the entire Republican army. The republicans lose 1,200 men, and Moriones loses his nerve demanding reinforcements and a replacement for himself. Moriones men entrenched and waited.

After Andrew Johnson tries to dismiss United States Secretary of WarEdwin M. Stanton, he becomes the first President of the United States to be impeached by the United States House of Representatives. Johnson is later acquitted by the United States Senate.

The first parade to have floats occurs at Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Louisiana.

March ndash French geologistLouis Lartet discovers the first identified skeletons of Cro-Magnon, the first early modern humans (early "Homo sapiens sapiens"), at Abri de Crô-Magnon, a rock shelter at Les Eyzies, Dordogne, France.

Arizona is organized as a United States territory.

Louis Philippe, King of the French, abdicated after days of revolution in France. A republic was later declared.

William Otis receives a patent for the steam shovel.

"Marbury v. Madison": The Supreme Court of the United States establishes the principle of judicial review.

Battle of Karnal: The army of Iranian ruler Nader Shah defeats the forces of the Mughal emperor of India, Muhammad Shah.

May ndash John Law founds the Banque de France.

Execution of the Jacobite leaders James Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater and William Gordon, 6th Viscount of Kenmure.ref name=People's Chronology, politics

"Rinaldo" by George Frideric Handel, the first Italian opera written for the London stage, premieres in that city.

King Christian of Denmark gives an order that all beggars that are able to work must be sent to Brinholmen, to build ships or to work as galley rowers.

February 25—Rebellious soldiers kill Albrecht von Wallenstein.

A commission of Roman Catholic theologians, the Qualifiers, reports that the idea that the Sun is stationary is foolish and absurd in philosophy, and formally heretical since it explicitly contradicts in many places the sense of Holy Scripture....

Pope Gregory XIII implements the Gregorian Calendar.

March ndash The Act of Uniformity imposes the Protestant Book of Common Prayer in England.

The privileges of the Hanseatic League are abolished in England.

Treaty of Nagyvárad: Peace is declared between King Ferdinand and the Turks. John Zapolya is recognized as King of Hungary (Eastern Hungarian Kingdom), while Ferdinand retains the northern and western parts of the Kingdom, and is recognized as heir to the throne.

Battle of Pavia: Spanish forces under Charles de Lannoy and the Marquis of Pescara defeat the French army and capture Francis I of France, after his horse is wounded by Cesare Hercolani.

King Henry VII of England signs the commercial treaty "Magnus Intercursus" with Venice, Florence, and the villes of the Hanse and Pays-Bas.ref name=CBH

Charles VIII of Sweden is declared deposed. Archbishop of Sweden Jöns Bengtsson Oxenstierna and statesman Erik Axelsson Tott become co-regents of Sweden. The throne is then offered to Christian I of Denmark and Norway.

Queen Margaret of Norway and Denmark defeats Albert of Sweden in battle and becomes ruler of all three kingdoms. Albert is deposed from the Swedish throne and taken prisoner.

Mary is reinstated as Queen of Hungary and Croatia.

Elizabeta Kotromanic, the mother of the overthrown Queen Mary of Hungary and Croatia, arranges the assassination of Charles of Durazzo, the ruler of Hungary, Naples, Achaea and Croatia, with the result that:

A period of interregnum begins in Achaea, lasting until 1396. The rule of Achaea is sought by numerous pretenders, none of whom can be considered to have reigned.

Charles' son, Ladislaus, becomes King of Naples.

Battle of Roslin: The Scots defeat the English.

King Huneric removes the Catholic bishops from their offices and banished some to Corsica. A few are martyred, including former proconsul Victorian along with Frumentius and other merchants. They are killed at Hadrumetum after refusing to become Arians.//www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0323.shtml Saint Patrick's Church: Saints of March 23

Galerius publishes his edict that begins the persecution of Christians in his portion of the Empire.