TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2018
On this day in history:
1802 - Flinders arrives at names Port Lincoln in South Australia.
1875 - The steamship SS Gothenburg is wrecked off the north Queensland coast, with the loss of over 100 lives.
1903 - In Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, an area was leased to the U.S. for a naval base.
1946 - Juan Peron was elected president of Argentina.
1981 - Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of Britain’s Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer.
1983 - A US congressional commission released a report that condemned the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.
1984 - Australia’s first completely successful heart transplant operation is performed, under the direction of Dr Victor Chang.
1989 - Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini sentenced Salman Rushdie to death for his novel The Satanic Verses. A bounty of one to three-million-dollars was also put on Rushidie’s head.
1989 - A United Airlines 747 jet rips open in flight killing 9 people. The flight was from Honolulu to New Zealand.
1999 - In southeast China, a domestic airliner crashed killing all 64 passengers.
2004 - The 6.3 Mw Al Hoceima earthquake strikes northern Morocco with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). At least 628 people are killed, 926 are injured, and up to 15,000 are displaced.
2006 - Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declares Proclamation 1017 placing the country in a state of emergency in attempt to subdue a possible military coup.
2007 - Japan launches its fourth spy satellite, stepping up its ability to monitor potential threats such as North Korea.
2008 - Cuba’s parliament named Raul Castro president. His brother Fidel had ruled for nearly 50 years.
2015 - A Metrolink train derails in Oxnard, California following a collision with a truck, leaving more than 30 injured.
2016 - Tara Air Flight 193, a de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft, crashed, with 23 fatalities, in Solighopte, Myagdi District, Dhaulagiri Zone, while en route from Pokhara Airport to Jomsom Airport.