DAILY ALMANAC
Today is Friday, Feb. 24, the 55th day of 2023. There are 310 days left in the year. On this date in:
1803: In its Marbury v. Madison decision, the Supreme Court established judicial review of the constitutionality of statutes.
1868: The U.S. House of Representatives impeached President Andrew Johnson by a vote of 126-47 following his attempted dismissal of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton; Johnson was later acquitted by the Senate.
1942: The SS Struma, a charter ship attempting to carry nearly 800 Jewish refugees from Romania to British-mandated Palestine, was torpedoed by a Soviet submarine in the Black Sea; all but one of the refugees perished.
1981: A jury in White Plains, New York, found Jean Harris guilty of second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of “Scarsdale Diet” author Dr. Herman Tarnower. (Sentenced to 15 years to life in prison, Harris was granted clemency by New York Gov. Mario Cuomo in December 1992.)
1986: The Supreme Court struck down, 6-3, an Indianapolis ordinance that would have allowed women injured by someone who had seen or read pornographic material to sue the maker or seller of that material.
1988: In a ruling that expanded legal protections for parody and satire, the Supreme Court unanimously overturned a $150,000 award that the Rev. Jerry Falwell had won against Hustler magazine and its publisher, Larry Flynt.
1989: A state funeral was held in Japan for Emperor Hirohito, who had died the month before at age 87.
1993: Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney resigned after more than eight years in office.
2002: The Salt Lake City Olympics came to a close, the same day Canada won its first hockey gold in 50 years (the U.S. won silver) and three cross-country skiers were thrown out of the games for using a performance-enhancing drug.
2008: Cuba’s parliament named Raul Castro president, ending nearly 50 years of rule by his brother Fidel.
2011: Discovery, the world’s most traveled spaceship, thundered into orbit for the final time, heading toward the International Space Station on a journey marking the beginning of the end of the shuttle era.
2015: The Justice Department announced that George Zimmerman, the former neighborhood watch volunteer who fatally shot Trayvon Martin in a 2012 confrontation, would not face federal charges.
Actor Dominic Chianese (“Boardwalk Empire,” “The Sopranos”) is 92. Singer Joanie Sommers is 82. Actor
Jenny O’hara (“Transparent,” “The Mindy Project”) is 81. Actor Barry Bostwick is 78. Singer-producer Rupert Holmes is 76. Actor Edward James Olmos is 76. Musician
George Thorogood is 73. Actor Debra Jo Rupp
(“That ’70s Show”) is 72. Actor Helen Shaver
(“The Color of Money”) is 72. News correspondent Paula Zahn is 67. Country singer Sammy Kershaw is 65. Actor Mark Moses (“Desperate Housewives”) is 65. Actor Beth Broderick (“Sabrina, The Teenage Witch”) is 64. Actor Emilio Rivera (“Mayans M.C.”) is 62. Singer Michelle Shocked is 61.