TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS WEDNESDAY, FEB. 24, the 55th day of 2021. There are 310 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1868, the U.S. House of Representatives impeached President Andrew Johnson by a vote of 12647 after his attempted dismissal of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. (Johnson was later acquitted by the Senate.)
In 1803, in its Marbury v. Madison decision, the Supreme Court established judicial review of the constitutionality of statutes.
In 1815, American engineer and inventor Robert Fulton, credited with building the first successful commercial steamboat, died in New York at 49.
In 1938, the first nylon bristle toothbrush, manufactured by DuPont under the name “Dr. West’s Miracle Toothbrush,” went on sale.
In 1942, the SS Struma, a charter ship attempting to carry nearly 800 Jewish refugees from Romania to Britishmandated Palestine, was torpedoed by a Soviet submarine in the Black Sea; all but one of the refugees perished.
In 1961, the Federal Communications Commission authorized the nation’s first full-scale trial of pay television in Hartford, Connecticut.
In 1981, a jury in White Plains, New York, found Jean Harris guilty of seconddegree 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.)
In 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.
In 1989, a state funeral was held in Japan for Emperor Hirohito, who had died the month before at age 87.
In 1993, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney resigned after more than eight years in office.
In 1996, Cuba downed two small American planes operated by the group Brothers to the Rescue that it claimed were violating Cuban airspace; all four pilots were killed.
In 2008, Cuba’s parliament named Raul Castro president, ending nearly 50 years of rule by his brother Fidel.
In 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.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actor-singer Dominic Chianese is 90. Opera singerdirector Renata Scotto is 87. Singer Joanie Sommers is 80. Actor Jenny O’Hara and former Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., are 79. Actor Barry Bostwick is 76. Actor Edward James Olmos and singer-writer-producer Rupert Holmes are 74. Rock singermusician George Thorogood is 71. Actors Debra Jo Rupp and Helen Shaver are 70. News anchor Paula Zahn and Baseball Hall-of-Famer Eddie Murray are 65. Country singer Sammy Kershaw and actor Mark Moses are 63. Actor Beth Broderick is 62. Actor Emilio Rivera is 60. Singer Michelle Shocked is 59. Movie director Todd Field is 57. Actor Billy Zane is 55. Actor Bonnie Somerville is 47. Jazz musician Jimmy Greene is 46. Former boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. is 44. Rock musician Matt McGinley (Gym Class Heroes) is 38. Actor Wilson Bethel is 37. Actor Alexander Koch is 33. Actor Daniel Kaluuya (Film: “Get Out”) is 32. Rapper-actor O’Shea Jackson Jr. is 30.