HISTORY AT A GLANCE
TODAY is Friday, February 24, the 55th day of 2017. There are 310 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date: 1942 – The Battle of Los Angeles, one of the largest documented UFO sightings in history; the event lasted into the early hours of February 25. 1944 – Merrill’s Marauders: The Marauders begin their 1,000
mile journey through Japanese occupied Burma. 1945 – Egyptian Premier Ahmad Mahir Pasha is killed in
Parliament after reading a decree. 1946 – Colonel Juan Perón, founder of the political movement that became known as Peronism, elected to his first term as President of Argentina. 1968 – Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive is halted; South
Vietnam recaptures Hué. 1971 – 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. 1980 – The United States Olympic Hockey team completes its Miracle on Ice by defeating Finland 4–2 to win the gold medal. 1983 – A special commission of the U.S. Congress releases a report that condemns the practice of Japanese internment during World War II. 1989 – Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini offers a US$3 million bounty for the death of The Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie. 1989 – United Airlines Flight 811, bound for New Zealand from Honolulu, rips open during flight, blowing nine passengers out of the business-class section. 1999 – The U.S. state of Arizona executes Karl LaGrand, a German national convicted of murder during a botched bank robbery, in spite of Germany’s legal action to attempt to save him. 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 – Fidel Castro retires as the President of Cuba after
nearly fifty years. 2011 – Final Launch of Space Shuttle Discovery (OV-103). 2015 – A Metrolink train derails in Oxnard, California, following a collision with a truck, leaves more than 30 injured.