TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS FRIDAY, FEB. 24, the 55th day of 2017. There are 310 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY:
On this date in 1942, the SS Struma, a charter ship attempting to carry nearly 800 Jewish refugees from Romania to British-mandated Palestine during World War II, sank in the Black Sea off Turkey after it was torpedoed by a Soviet submarine; all but one of the refugees on board perished.
In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII issued an edict outlining his calendar reforms. (The Gregorian Calendar is the calendar in general use today.)
In 1868, the U.S. House of Representatives impeached President Andrew Johnson following his attempted dismissal of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton; Johnson was later acquitted by the Senate.
In 1920, the German Workers Party, which later became the Nazi Party, met in Munich to adopt its platform.
In 1938, the first nylon bristle toothbrush, manufactured by DuPont under the name “Dr. West’s Miracle Toothbrush,” went on sale.
In 1955, the Cole Porter musical “Silk Stockings” opened at the Imperial Theater on Broadway.
In 1966, Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana, was overthrown in a military coup while he was visiting Beijing; he was replaced by Joseph Arthur Ankrah.
In 1975, the Congressional Budget Office, charged with providing independent analyses of budgetary and economic issues, began operating under
its first director, Alice Rivlin.
In 1983, a congressional commission released a report condemning the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II as a “grave injustice.”
In 1987, Fawn Hall, former personal secretary to fired National Security Council aide Oliver L. North, posed for news photographers outside her attorney’s office, calling the attention “a little overwhelming.” In 1992, Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain married Hole lead vocalist Courtney Love in Hawaii.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actor-singer Dominic Chianese is 86. Movie composer Michel Legrand is 85. Opera singer-director Renata Scotto is 83. Singer Joanie Sommers is 76. Former Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., is 75. Actor Barry Bostwick is 72. Actor Edward James Olmos and singer-writerproducer Rupert Holmes are 70. Rock singer-musician George Thorogood is 67. Actresses Debra Jo Rupp and Helen Shaver are 66. News anchor Paula Zahn and Baseball Hall-of-Famer Eddie Murray are 61. Country singer Sammy Kershaw and actor Mark Moses are 59. Actress Beth Broderick is 58. Singer Michelle Shocked is 55. Movie director Todd Field is 53. Actor Billy Zane is 51. Actress Bonnie Somerville is 43. Jazz musician Jimmy Greene is 42. Rhythmand-blues singer Brandon Brown (Mista) and rock musician Matt McGinley (Gym Class Heroes) are 34. Actor Wilson Bethel is 33. Actor Alexander Koch is 29. Rapper-actor O’Shea Jackson Jr. is 26.