This Week In History
Feb 24, 2018
Indian actress Sridevi Kapoor, regarded as Bollywood’s first female superstar, died from accidental drowning in a Dubai hotel bathtub, aged just 54
2009: Iraq’s national Museum opened for the first time since being looted during the uS-led invasion in 2003 2010: Toyota apologised for vehicle safety issues that led to a number of fatal accidents and worldwide recalls 2010: India’s Sachin Tendulkar became the first ever player to score a double century in OdI cricket 2011: President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria lifted a state of emergency that had been in force for 19 years
Feb 25, 1964
Muhammad Ali, then known as Cassius Clay, won the world heavyweight boxing title for the first time after he knocked out Sonny Liston in Miami
1899: Paul Julius reuter, German founder of the news agency that bears his name, died 1956: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev denounced Stalin as a demigod and a tyrant
2009: Scientists completed mapping antarctica’s subglacial Gamburtsev Mountain range, the size of the alps 2014: The largest Bitcoin exchange, Mt. Gox, announced it was filing for bankruptcy following a major theft
Feb 26, 1919
The Grand Canyon National Park was established in Arizona. The horizontal strata, carved out by the Colorado River, retrace two billion years of geological history
1980: egypt and Israel established diplomatic relations, marking the end of 30 years of war between them 1984: The last American marines in the multinational peacekeeping force in Lebanon left Beirut
1996: a uS$442mil satellite floated away into space when the 20km tether linking it to the space shuttle snapped 2009: The Royal Bank of Scotland reported losses of £24.1bil, the largest loss in British corporate history
Feb 27, 2014
Protests against the ousting of Ukraine’s pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovich broke out in the pro-Russian region of Crimea, the base of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet 1879: The accidental discovery of the artificial sweetener saccharin was reported 1974: A new constitution was approved in Sweden, reducing the status of the monarch to a figurehead
1999: eritrea accepted a un peace plan to resolve the conflict with ethiopia over a contested border 1999: Olusegun Obasanjo was elected president as Nigeria continued its transition from military to civilian rule
Feb 28, 1844
As the US Navy demonstrated its new frigate, Princeton, one of its guns exploded, killing the Secretary of State, Navy Secretary and other government officials
1973: The legal voting age in australia was dropped from 21 to 18 1994: Moldova’s main independence party claimed a clear victory in the first post-Soviet parliamentary elections
1994: naTO jets shot down four warplanes violating bosnia's no-fly zone 1999: German scientists claimed global warming was causing Spring to begin an average six days earlier in Europe
March 1, 1999
Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones took off from Switzerland in Breitling Orbiter 3 on what would become the first successful flight around the world in a balloon
1954: The uS conducted its second hydrogen bomb test, on bikini atoll in the Pacific 1959: Archbishop Makarios returned to Cyprus from exile
1974: Former White House officials were indicted for obstructing the investigation into the Watergate scandal 2004: Thousands of Shiite Muslims gathered in the holy city of Karbala in Iraq for the festival of Ashura, previously banned by Saddam Hussein
March 2, 1939
Pope Pius XII was elected. He remains a controversial figure due to his public silence over the fate of the Jews during the Holocaust in World War II
1949: The first non-stop flight round the world was completed in a boeing b-50a Superfortress, refuelled in mid air 1989: The first Vietnamese boat people to volunteer to return home left Hong Kong
1995: uS physicists isolated the “top quark”, a vital sub-proton particle hitherto unobserved 2004: Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft was launched on a 10-year mission to land a probe on the surface of a comet