Today in History : February 24
786 : Pepin the Short of Gaul dies. His dominions are divided between his sons Charles (Charlemagne) and Carloman.
1525 : In the first of the Franco-Habsburg Wars, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V captures the French king Francis I at the Battle of Pavia, Italy.
1538 : Ferdinand of Hapsburg and John Zapolyai, the two kings of Hungary, conclude the peace of Grosswardein.
1803 : Chief Justice John Marshall, by refusing to rule on the case of Marbury vs. Madison, asserts the authority of the judicial branch.
1813 : Off Guiana, the American sloop Hornet sinks the British sloop Peacock.
1821 : Mexico gains independence from Spain.
1836 : Some 3,000 Mexicans launch an assault on the Alamo with its 182 Texan defenders.
1895 : The Cuban War of Independence begins.
1908 : Japan officially agrees to restrict emigration to the U.S.
1912 : Italy bombs Beirut in the first act of war against the Ottoman Empire.
1912 : The Jewish organization Hadassah is founded in New York City.
1914 : Civil War soldier Joshua Chamberlain dies.
1916 : A film version of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea opens in New York.
1921 : Herbert Hoover becomes Secretary of Commerce.
1928 : The New Gallery of New York exhibits works of Archibald Motley, its first show to feature a black artist.
1944 : Merrill’s Marauders, a specially trained group of American soldiers, begin their ground campaign against Japan into Burma.
1945 : U.S. forces liberate prisoners of war in the Los Baños Prison in the Philippines.
1947 : Franz von Papen is sentenced to eight years in a labor camp for war crimes.
1959 : Khrushchev rejects the Western plan for the Big Four meeting on Germany.
1968 : North Vietnamese troops capture the imperial palace in Hue, South Vietnam.
1972 : Hanoi negotiators walk out of the peace talks in Paris to protest U.S. air raids on North Vietnam.
1991 : General Norman Schwarzkopf, commander of the coalition army, sends in ground forces during the Gulf War.
Born on February 24
1500 : Charles V, king of Spain and the last Holy Roman Emperor to be crowned by the Pope.
1786 : Wilhelm Carl Grimm, compiler, with his brother of fairy tales.
1836 : Winslow Homer, American painter.
1841 : John Phillip Holland, inventor of the modern submarine.
1874 : Honus Wagner, baseball shortstop known as “The Flying Dutchman.”
1885 : Chester Nimitz, U.S. admiral who commanded naval forces in the Pacific during WWII.
1887 : Mary Ellen Chase, New England writer.
1909 : August Derleth, writer (Still is the Summer Night, The Shield of the Valiant).
