February 24 ...

In 1803 the US Supreme Court decision in Marbury v. Madison established the principle of judicial review. In 1821 Mexico declared its independence from Spain. In 1863 Arizona was organized as a territory. In 1868 the US 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 what became known as the Nazi Party, led by a chief spokesman named Adolph Hitler, held its first meeting of importance in Munich. In 1942 the Voice of America went on the air for the first time. In 1945 American soldiers liberated the Philippine capital of Manila from Japanese control during World War II. In 1980 the US hockey team defeated Finland, 4-2, to clinch the gold medal at the Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, NY. In 1981 Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of Britain's Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer. In 1987 an exploding supernova was discovered in the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy. In 1989 Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who ten days before had issued a fatwa sentencing Salman Rushdie to death for his novel The Satanic Verses, placed a bounty of $3 million on Rushidie's head. In 2001 mathematician and computer scientist Claude Shannon, whose theories about binary code became the basis for modern mass communications networks, died in Medford, MA, at age 84.