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Events, deaths, births, of FEB 24
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• Gregorian Calendar is promulgated... • Gulf War ground offensive... • Right to satirize... • “Victory or death” at the Alamo ... • Perón elected president of Argentina... • Finns counterattack against Soviet aggressors... • Mass deportation of Chechens... • Germany seeks Mexican alliance against US... • Impeachment of US president... • Pétain at Verdun... • Wilhelm Grimm is born... • Winslow Homer is born... • Apple Computer co~founder is born... • Hudson Motor Car Company is founded... • US anti~Communist aid in Carribean... • Hue recaptured... • Tariff Act of 1869... • US guerillas in Burma... • Talkies demonstated...
AHO price chartOn a February 24:
2003 The world's third largest retailer, Dutch global operator of supermarkets Royal Ahold NV, (AHO) announces that its earnings for 2002 and earlier were grossly overestimated and that its President and Chief Executive Officer, Cees van der Hoeven, and Chief Financial Officer, Michael Meurs, will resign. On the NYSE 16 million of the 931 million AHO shares are traded, dropping from their previous close of $10.69 to an intraday low of $3.60 and closing at $4.16. The next day they close at $3.47. They had traded as high as $26.69 as recently as 03 April 2002 and $41.56 on 12 April 1999. [5~year price chart >]
2002 Shadiya Shehadah, Palestinian about to give birth, being driven to the hospital by her husband, Esam, 31, is shot in the shoulder by Israeli soldiers, after the car has been searched at a checkpoint. The Israelis say that they had moved a temporary roadblock, which the Shehadahs say they did not notice. The baby is born unharmed.
2001 From their jungle strongholds in Chiapas, Zapatista leaders start a well-publicized 16-day caravan to Mexico City, with 33 public events planned along the way, to pressure the Mexican Congress to adopt constitutional amendments that would extend indigenous rights.
2000 The U.N. Security Council approved a US-drafted plan to send an observer force into Congo to monitor a fragile cease-fire.
2000 Pope John Paul II arrived in Egypt on a pilgrimage to retrace some of the most epic passages from the Bible.
^ 1999 Clinton impeachment aftermath
(1) NBC finally airs its interview with Juanita Broaddrick, 56, the woman who alleges Bill Clinton raped her in an Arkansas hotel room in 1978.
  • Broaddrick, then a registered nurse who had started a nursing home in Van Buren, Arkansas, says the two met for the first time earlier in the year when Clinton made a campaign stop at the nursing home.
  • According to Broaddrick, Clinton invited her to "please stop by our campaign office" on her next visit to Little Rock.
  • Broaddrick says she called Clinton's campaign office when she arrived in Little Rock for a nursing administrators' conference and was given the phone number of his apartment. At first, she says, he offered to meet her at the hotel coffee shop, but then suggested he come to her room because there were reporters in the coffee shop.
  • Broaddrick says she felt no danger when she let Clinton into her Little Rock hotel room. But she says once Clinton was in the room, he forced himself on her even though she rejected his advances by pushing him away and saying "no."
  • Broaddrick says, "I first pushed him away and just told him, No, please don't do that ... I said, I'm married, and I have other things going on in my life, and this is something that I'm not interested in."
  • She tells Myers, "...I tried to get away from him and I told him, No, that I didn't want this to happen, but he wouldn't listen to me."
  • Broaddrick is asked: "You're saying that Bill Clinton sexually assaulted you, that he raped you?" "Yes," she answers.
    "It was a real panicky, panicky situation," Broaddrick tells Myers. "I was even to the point where I was getting very noisy, you know, yelling, to — you know — to please stop. But that's when he would press down on my right shoulder and he would bite on my lip."
    MYERS: You're saying that Bill Clinton sexually assaulted you, that he raped?
    Ms. BROADDRICK: Yes.
    MYERS: And you have no — there's no doubt in your mind that that's what happened?
    Ms. BROADDRICK: No doubt whatsoever.
  • Broaddrick says she didn't report the alleged incident at the time because she didn't think she would be believed. Since Clinton was the attorney general of Arkansas at the time, "I didn't think anyone would believe me in the world," she says.
  • She says she went to a fund-raising event for Clinton weeks after the alleged assault. "I think I was still in denial," she says. "And I still felt very guilty at that time that it was my fault by letting him come to the room."
  • In the NBC interview, Broaddrick cries briefly as she details the alleged assault. Asked what she now thought of Clinton, she replies: "My hatred for him is overwhelming."
  • Broaddrick tells NBC nobody tried to intimidate her to remain silent and no one paid her to keep quiet or to speak out.
  • She says she had filed an affidavit in the Jones case denying she'd had any unwelcome advances from Clinton because she was unwilling to tell her story at that time.
  • "I just couldn't hold it inside any longer," Broaddrick says in trying to explain why she is finally coming forward with her account. She says she didn't want her granddaughters and nieces asking her, "Why didn't you tell what this man did to you?" Broaddrick says, "... I don't want to do anything. I do not have an agenda. I want to put all these rumors to rest."

    (2) Clinton refuses comment earlier in the day on Broaddrick's allegations, saying he stands by the statement of his attorney, David Kendall.

    (3) The NBC interview of Broaddrick was taped January 20 but held by NBC until tonight's airing.
  • Clinton opponents accuse NBC of sitting on the interview in order to protect the president and say that the interview, had it appeared earlier, could have had an impact on the Senate impeachment trial that ended with Clinton's acquittal February 12.
  • NBC says it had needed time to complete reporting on a complicated story.
  • While the network tried to check out Broaddrick's account, The Wall Street Journal did its own interview with Broaddrick, and other media organizations followed.
    • (4) The question of whether Attorney General Janet Reno has authority to investigate allegations of misconduct by Ken Starr's office may be decided by the three-judge panel that appointed him. CNN reports that the panel has given Reno and Starr 15 days to outline their positions on the question of whether the Justice Department should investigate the independent counsel. The three-judge panel is headed by David Sentelle of Washington.
  • The panel's action is in response to a motion filed by the Landmark Legal Foundation, a conservative public interest law firm. The foundation has asked the court to bar Reno from probing allegations of wrongdoing by Starr's staff. "We hope the court's order is the first step towards stopping the attorney general's persistent efforts to undermine Judge Starr's authority and independence," says Mark Levin, president of Landmark Legal Foundation.
  • Originally, Reno had proposed that the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility conduct the investigation of Starr and his staff.
  • However, Starr expressed concerns about the agency's involvement in a potential probe in a recent letter to Reno. Since that time, Justice officials have been struggling to construct a plan that would appear fair to Starr.
  • Reno now is considering bringing in an outside investigator to look into allegations of misconduct by Starr's office.
  • Among the options being discussed is having someone from a US attorney's office outside of the Justice Department headquarters lead the investigation.
  • Also under consideration is choosing someone completely outside of the Justice Department, such as a former or retired judge.
  • According to sources, the ideal situation would be to appoint someone with a Republican background or an independent.
  • There are two primary allegations of misconduct against Starr's office:
  • The first concerns the discussion of an immunity deal by members of Starr's team with Monica Lewinsky without her attorney present during the January 1998 sting operation set up by the independent counsel's office with the help of Linda Tripp. That would have been against Justice Department guidelines.
  • The other allegation concerns whether the Office of the Independent Counsel withheld information about its contact with attorneys affiliated with Paula Jones, who had filed a sexual harassment claim against President Clinton, when Starr approached Reno for authorization to expand his investigation into the Lewinsky matter. The key question there is whether the attorney general would have thought contacts with Jones' associates would have presented a conflict of interest as Starr investigated the harassment claim.
  • In addition, the Justice Department also is awaiting the results of an investigation into alleged leaks of grand jury material. That investigation was set in motion by Judge Norma Holloway Johnson, who oversees the Starr grand jury.

    (5) Created in the wake of the Watergate scandal, but increasingly under assault from Republican and Democratic lawmakers, the Independent Counsel Act will likely undergo a major overhaul, if it survives at all. Battered by years of criticism first by Republican administrations under investigation, and now by Democrats in the wake of Kenneth Starr's five-year investigation of President Bill Clinton, the statute has few fans on Capitol Hill.
  • Mechanics of the OIC law:
  • The law requires the attorney general to seek the appointment of an independent counsel when there is substantial and credible evidence of a crime by any one of 49 top federal officials, including the president.
  • A panel of three federal judges then picks an attorney for the job. The prosecutor has an unlimited budget to hire aides and investigate his target — a frequent point of criticism. Starr has spent nearly $50 million on the Clinton investigation.
  • With approval from the attorney general and the appointing judges, the independent counsel can broaden investigations far beyond the original mandate, another target of the law's critics. Starr's mandate, for example, began with inquiries into Clinton's Whitewater land deals and widened repeatedly, finally to the Monica Lewinsky scandal that led to his impeachment and trial.
  • Congress' frosty regard for the law began when Starr was still on the bench of the US Court of Appeals in the 1980s. Republicans were the first to complain of the law's abuse during Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh's seven-year Iran-Contra investigation. The controversy prompted Congress to let the law lapse for 18 months during the early 1990s.
  • Ironically, it was Clinton who successfully campaigned for the law's renewal in 1994. But two years ago, already under investigation by Starr, Clinton said that the its costs had outweighed the benefits.
    		•
    1998 El FBI y la policía de EE.UU destapan una red dedicada a la venta de órganos humanos procedentes de presos chinos ejecutados en su país.
    1998 La Asamblea Nacional de Poder Popular (Parlamento) elige por unanimidad a Fidel Castro Ruz como presidente del Consejo de Estado, el máximo órgano de poder en Cuba.
    1997 US Robotics ships its 56K modems, a week later than expected. Shortly after, Rockwell would announce its own 56K modem, which worked on a different standard than the US Robotics version. Many confused consumers hold off purchasing higher-speed modems until the two companies agree on a standard in early 1998.
    1997 South Africa announces that it is constructing largest modern day blimp
    1996 Cuba downs two small American planes that it claims were violating Cuban airspace.
    1995 The Dow-Jones Industrial Average reaches a record 4011.74
    ^ 1991 Gulf War ground offensive begins
          After six weeks of intensive bombing against Iraq and its armed forces, US-led coalition forces launch a ground invasion of Kuwait and Iraq. On 02 August 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait, its tiny, oil rich neighbor, and within hours Iraqi forces had occupied most strategic positions in the country. One week later, Operation Shield, the American defense of Saudi Arabia, began as US forces massed in the Persian Gulf. On 29 November 1990, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq if it failed to withdraw from Kuwait by 15 January 1991.
          At 16:30 EST on 16 January 1991, Operation Desert Storm, a massive US-led offensive against Iraq, began as the first fighter aircraft were launched from Saudi Arabia and off of US and British aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf. All evening, aircraft from the US-led military coalition pounded targets in and around Baghdad as the world watched the events transpire in television footage transmitted live via satellite from Baghdad and elsewhere. Operation Desert Storm was conducted by an international coalition under the command of US General Norman Schwarzkopf and featured forces from thirty-two nations, including Britain, Egypt, France, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. Over the next six weeks, the allied force engaged in a massive air war against Iraq's military and civil infrastructure, encountering little effective resistance from the Iraqi air force. Iraqi ground forces were also helpless during this stage of the war, and Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's only significant retaliatory measure was the launching of SCUD missile attacks against Israel and Saudi Arabia. Saddam hoped that the missile attacks would provoke Israel, and thus other Arab nations, to enter the conflict; however, at the request of the US, Israel remained out of the war.
          On 24 February, a massive coalition ground offensive begins and Iraq's outdated and poorly supplied armed forces are rapidly overwhelmed. By the end of the day, the Iraqi army had effectively folded, 10'000 of its soldiers were held as prisoners, and a US air base had been established deep inside Iraq. After less than four days, Kuwait was liberated and the majority of Iraq's armed forces had either been destroyed, surrendered, or retreated to Iraq. On 28 February US President George Bush (Sr.) declared a cease-fire, and Iraq pledged to honor future coalition and U.N. peace terms. 125 US soldiers were killed in the Persian Gulf War with another 21 regarded as missing in action.
    1989 150-million-year-old fossil egg (oldest dinosaur embryo) found.
    ^ 1988 Supreme Court affirms right to satirize public figures
          The US Supreme Court votes eight to zero to overturn the $200'000 settlement awarded to the Reverend Jerry Falwell for his emotional distress at being parodied in Hustler, a pornographic magazine. In 1983, Hustler ran a piece parodying Falwell's first sexual experience as a drunken, incestuous, childhood encounter with his mother in an outhouse. Falwell, an important religious conservative and founder of the Moral Majority political party, sued Hustler, and its publisher, Larry Flynt, for libel. Falwell won the case, but Flynt appealed, leading the Supreme Court to hear the case due to its constitutional implications. On 24 February, the Supreme Court unanimously overturns the lower court's decision, ruling that, although in poor taste, Hustler's parody fell within the First Amendment's protection of freedom of speech and the press.
    1988 South African apartheid regime bans the UDF
    1985 Birendra, Bir Bikram Shah Dev crowned King of Nepal
    1984 Iraq resumes air attack on Iran.
    1984 Brunei celebra su independencia de la Corona británica.
    1983 Dow Jones closes above 1100 mark for first time
    1983 A US congressional commission releases a report condemning the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II as a "grave injustice."
    ^ 1982 US anti-Communist aid to Caribbean governments.
         US President Ronald Reagan announces a new program of economic and military assistance to nations of the Caribbean designed to "prevent the overthrow of the governments in the region" by the "brutal and totalitarian" forces of Communism. The Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) was part of the Reagan administration's effort to curb what it perceived to be the dangerous rise in communist activity in Central America and the Caribbean. In the course of an address to the Organization of American States, Reagan argued that a massive new aid program to the Caribbean region was vitally necessary. "If we do not act promptly and decisively in defense of freedom, new Cubas will arise from the ruins of today's conflicts. We will face more totalitarian regimes tied militarily to the Soviet Union, more regimes exporting subversion, more regimes so incompetent yet so totalitarian that their citizens' only hope becomes that of one day migrating to other American nations as in recent years they have come to the United States."
          Specifically, the President called for increases of $350 million in economic aid and $60 million in military assistance to the Caribbean. He also pledged US assistance in increasing Caribbean trade with the United States and encouraging private investment in the Caribbean. Reagan's proposal was in response to what he and his advisors believed to be an increasing Soviet presence in the Caribbean and Central America. In Nicaragua, the leftist Sandinista regime had come to power in 1979. El Salvador was involved in a bloody and brutal conflict between government forces supported by the United States and leftist rebels. And on the island nation of Grenada, the government of Maurice Bishop was establishing close ties to Cuba and Fidel Castro. The CBI, however, had little impact on improving the economic situation of the nations it was trying to aid. Eventually the entire concept was allowed to simply fade away, and the Reagan administration chose to employ more forceful anti-communist measures in the region. These included support of the anti-Sandinista Contras, massive military aid to the Salvadoran government, and, in 1983, the invasion of Grenada to remove its leftist government.
    1981 El teniente coronel Antonio Tejero Molina , tras mantener secuestrado al Gobierno y a los diputados españoles casi 20 horas, se entrega. Es detenido, también, el general Jaime Milans del Bosch y otros colaboradores en el fallido golpe de Estado.
    1979 War between North and South Yemen begins.
    1979 Highest price ever paid for a pig, $42'500, Stamford TX
    1978 Enrique Fuentes Quintana, vicepresidente segundo y ministro de Asuntos Económicos de España, presenta su dimisión, circunstancia que aprovecha Adolfo Suárez González para realizar otros cambios en el Gabinete formado hace un año.
    1977 President Carter announces US foreign aid will consider human rights
    1976 Cuba adopts its constitution. — Entra en vigor la actual Constitución cubana, aprobada un año antes por el Comité Central del Partido Comunista de Cuba.
    1974 Pakistan officially recognizes Bangladesh.
    1971 Algeria nationalizes French oil companies.
    1968 first pulsar discovered (CP 1919 by Jocelyn Burnell at Cambridge)
    ^ 1968 Tet offensive halted as Hue is reconquered.
          The Imperial Palace in Hue is recaptured by South Vietnamese troops. Although the Battle of Hue was not officially declared over for another week, it was the last major engagement of the Tet Offensive. At dawn on the first day of the Tet holiday truce, Viet Cong forces, supported by large numbers of North Vietnamese troops, launched the largest and best-coordinated offensive of the war, driving into the center of South Vietnam's seven largest cities and attacking 30 provincial capitals ranging from the Delta to the DMZ. Among the cities taken during the first four days of the offensive were Hue, Dalat, Kontum, and Quang Tri; in the north, all five provincial capitals were overrun. At the same time, enemy forces shelled numerous allied airfields and bases.
          Nearly 1000 Viet Cong were believed to have infiltrated Saigon, and it required a week of intense fighting by an estimated 11'000 US and South Vietnamese troops to dislodge them. By February 10, the offensive was largely crushed, but with heavy casualties on both sides. The former Imperial capital of Hue took almost a month of savage house-to-house combat to regain. The city had come under attack by two North Vietnamese regiments on January 31 and eventually elements of three North Vietnamese divisions were involved in the fight. The main battle centered on the Citadel, a five-square-kilometer fortress with walls 10 m high and 6 m thick built in 1802. It took eight battalions of US Marines and troopers from the 1st Cavalry Division plus eleven South Vietnamese battalions to evict the communists from the city. It was a costly battle. The US Army suffered 74 dead and 507 wounded; the US Marines lost 142 dead and 857 wounded. South Vietnamese losses totaled 384 dead and 1830 wounded. North Vietnamese casualties included 5000 dead and countless more wounded.
         The Tet Offensive ends as US and South Vietnamese troops recapture the ancient capital of Hué from communist forces. Although scattered fighting continued across South Vietnam for another week, the battle for Hué was the last major engagement of the offensive, which saw communist attacks on all of South Vietnam's major cities. In the aftermath of Tet, public opinion in the United States decisively turned against the Vietnam War. As 1968 began — the third year of US ground-troop fighting in Vietnam — US military leadership was still confident that a favorable peace agreement would soon be forced on the North Vietnamese and their allies in South Vietnam, the Viet Cong. Despite growing calls at home for an immediate US withdrawal, President Lyndon Johnson's administration planned to keep the pressure on the communists through increased bombing and other attrition strategies. General William Westmoreland, commander of US operations in Vietnam, claimed to see clearly "the light at the end of the tunnel," and Johnson hoped that soon the shell-shocked communists would stumble out of the jungle to the bargaining table. However, on January 30, 1968, the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese launched their massive Tet Offensive all across South Vietnam. It was the first day of Tet — Vietnam's lunar new year and most important holiday — and many South Vietnamese soldiers, expecting an unofficial truce, had gone home.
          The Viet Cong were known for guerrilla tactics and had never launched an offensive on this scale; consequently, US and South Vietnamese forces were caught completely by surprise. In the first day of the offensive, tens of thousands of Viet Cong soldiers, supported by North Vietnamese forces, overran the five largest cities of South Vietnam, scores of smaller cities and towns, and a number of US and South Vietnamese bases. The Viet Cong struck at Saigon — South Vietnam's capital — and even attacked, and for several hours held, the US embassy there. The action was caught by US television news crews, which also recorded the brutal impromptu street execution of a Viet Cong rebel by a South Vietnamese military official. As the US and South Vietnamese fought to regain control of Saigon, the cities of Hué, Dalat, Kontum, and Quangtri fell to the communists. US and South Vietnamese forces recaptured most of these cities within a few days, but Hué was fiercely contested by the communist soldiers occupying it.
          After 26 days of costly house-to-house fighting, the South Vietnamese flag is raised again above Hué on 24 February, and the Tet Offensive came to an end. During the communist occupation of Hué, numerous South Vietnamese government officials and civilians were massacred, and many civilians died in US bombing attacks that preceded the liberation of the city. In many respects, the Tet Offensive was a military disaster for the communists: They suffered 10 times more casualties than their enemy and failed to control any of the areas captured in the opening days of the offensive. They had hoped that the offensive would ignite a popular uprising against South Vietnam's government and the US occupation. This did not occur. In addition, the Viet Cong, which had come out into the open for the first time in the war, were all but wiped out.
          However, because the Tet Offensive crushed US hopes for an imminent end to the conflict, it dealt a fatal blow to the US military mission in Vietnam. In Tet's aftermath, President Johnson came under fire on all sides for his Vietnam policy. General Westmoreland requested 200'000 more soldiers to overwhelm the communists, and a national uproar ensued after this request was disclosed, forcing Johnson to recall Westmoreland to Washington. On 31 March, Johnson announced that the United States would begin de-escalation in Vietnam, halt the bombing of North Vietnam, and seek a peace agreement to end the conflict. In the same speech, he also announced that he would not seek reelection to the presidency, citing what he perceived to be his responsibility in creating the national division over Vietnam.
    1967 Swiss Reformed theologian Karl Barth writes in a letter: 'The statement that God is dead comes from Nietzsche and has recently been trumpeted abroad by some German and American theologians. But the good Lord has not died of this; He who dwells in the heaven laughs at them.' [as well as anyone who notices that it is Nietzsche that is dead!]
    1967 El Cantar de Mio Cid, el manuscrito más valioso de la Biblioteca Nacional de España, es adquirido en 10 millones de pesetas por la Fundación Juan March.
    1966 Coup ousts President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana (celebrated as Liberation Day) — El general Joseph A. Ankrah encabeza un golpe de Estado en Ghana, aprovechando que el presidente Kwame Nkrumah se encuentra de viaje por Asia.
    1965 East German President Ulbricht visits Egypt.
    1962 General mobilization in Indonesia over New-Guinea.
    1960 Italian government of Segni falls.
    1955 Pact of Baghdad between Iraq and Turkey signed
    1950 Labour wins British parliamentary election.
    1949 Israel and Egypt sign an armistice agreement. — Se firma en la isla de Rodas el armisticio que pone fin a la primera guerra árabe-israelí.
    1949 El líder sionista Chaim Weizmann es elegido presidente de Israel.
    1948 Communist Party seizes complete control of Czechoslovakia.
    ^ 1946 Perón elected Argentine President in landslide victory
          In Argentina, Juan Domingo Perón, who led a military coup in 1943, is elected president by a wide electoral majority. The year before, Perón was imprisoned after declaring himself a presidential candidate, but mass demonstrations by Argentine workers and public appeals from his charismatic wife, Eva Duarte de Perón, forced his release. After becoming president, Perón constructs an impressive populist alliance that includes workers, the military, nationalists, clerics, and industrialists. Perón's vision of self-sufficiency for his country wins wide support from the Argentine people, but over the next decade he becomes increasingly authoritarian, jailing political opponents, restricting freedom of the press, and organizing trade unions into a militant groups along Fascist lines. In 1952, the president's greatest political resource, Eva Perón, dies, and his unusual social coalition collapses, leading to a military coup in September of 1955 that forces him to flee the country. However, his economic reforms remain popular with the majority of Argentineans long after his departure, and in 1973 he returns triumphantly to Argentina, called back by the military to end factional violence. Perón subsequently wins another overwhelming electoral victory, and his third wife, Isabelita Perón, is elected as vice president. After his sudden death in the following year, Isabelita succeeds him, becoming the Western Hemisphere's first female head of state.
    1945 US soldiers liberate Manila from Japanese control during World War II.
    1945 Egypt and Syria declares war on Nazi-Germany.
    ^ 1944 US guerrillas attack in northern Burma
          Maj. Gen. Frank Merrill's guerrilla force, nicknamed "Merrill's Marauders," begin a campaign in northern Burma. In August 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill agreed to create an American ground unit whose sole purpose would be to engage in a "long-range penetration mission" in Japanese-occupied Burma. This mission would consist of cutting Japanese communications and supply lines and otherwise throwing the enemy's positions into chaos. It was hoped that this commando force could thus prepare the way for Gen. Joseph Stillwell's Chinese American Force to reopen the Burma Road, which was closed in April 1942 by the Japanese invaders, and once again allow supplies and war material into China through this route.
          Within the military, a type of "Help Wanted" ad was put up with the president's authority, an appeal for applicants to participate in a "dangerous and hazardous mission." About 3000 soldiers volunteered from stateside units to create what was officially called the 5307th Composite Unit, code named "Galahad." It would go into history as Merrill's Marauders, after Brig. Gen. Frank Merrill, their commander.
          Brigadier General Merrill trained his men in the art of guerrilla warfare in the jungles of India, for secrecy's sake. The commando force was formed into six combat units — Red, White, Blue, Green, Orange, and Khaki — with 400 men in each (the remaining 600 men or so were part of a rear-echelon headquarters that remained in India to coordinate the air-drops of equipment to the men in the field).
          The Marauders' mission began with a 1600-km walk through dense jungle, without artillery support, into Burma. On 24 February 1944, they began their Burmese campaign, which, when done, consisted of five major and 30 minor engagements with a far more numerous Japanese enemy. They had to carry their supplies on their backs and on pack mules, and were resupplied only with airdrops in the middle of the jungle. Merrill's Marauders succeeded in maneuvering behind Japanese forces to cause the disruptions necessary to throw the enemy into confusion. They were so successful, the Marauders managed even to capture the Myitkyina Airfield in northern Burma.
          When their mission was completed, all surviving Merrill's Marauders had to be evacuated to hospitals to be treated for everything from exhaustion and various tropical diseases to malnutrition or A.O.E. ("Accumulation of Everything"). They were awarded the Distinguished Unit Citation in July 1944, which was re-designated the Presidential Unit Citation in 1966. Every member of the commando force also received the Bronze Star, a very rare distinction for an entire unit. Merrill remained in the Far East and was made an aide to General Stillwell.
    1944 Argentina coup by Juan Perón minister of war
    ^ 1944 Mass deportation of Chechens and Ingush.    ^top^
          On February 23-24, the Chechens and their neighbors the Ingush are systematically rounded up by Russian troops and shipped off to the east in freight trains. The Soviet census of 1939 had counted 407,690 Chechens and 92,074 Ingush; altogether some 400,000 Chechens and Ingush are deported to Soviet Central Asia, the majority to Kazakhstan. It is estimated that 30% or more died during their detention and transport from the Caucasus or within the first year of their forcible resettlement.
          This action was reasoned as follows: "During the Great Patriotic War, and especially during the time the German-Fascist army was operating in the Caucasus, many Chechens and Ingush betrayed their motherland, went over to the side of the fascist occupiers, enlisted in detachments of saboteurs and spies sent by the Germans into the rear of the Red Army, in response to German orders formed armed bands to fight against Soviet power, for several years have also taken part in armed actions against the Soviet authorities, and for a long time without engaging in honest work have conducted bandit raids against the collective farms of neighboring regions, robbing and killing Soviet people. Therefore, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet orders: Deportation to other regions of the USSR of all Chechens and Ingush living on or adjacent to the territory of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR, and liquidation of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR."
          The behavior of the Chechens in exile in Kazakhstan has been described in "The Gulag Archipelago" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: "there was one nation that would not give in, would not acquire the mental habits of submission — and not just individual rebels among them, but the whole nation to a man. These were the Chechens. They were capable of rustling cattle, robbing a house, or sometimes simply taking what they wanted by force. They respected only rebels. And here is an extraordinary thing — everyone was afraid of them. No one could stop them from living as they did. The regime which had ruled the land for thirty years could not force them to respect its laws."
          On February 25, 1956, in Khrushchev's speech to the 20th Party Congress exposing Stalin's crimes, he mentioned the Chechens among the peoples deported toward the close of World War II, commenting: "no reasonable man can grasp how it is possible to make whole nations responsible for hostile activity, including women, children, old people, Communists and Komsomols, to use mass repression against them, and to expose them to misery and suffering for the hostile acts of individuals or groups of individuals." On July 16, 1956, the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet issued a decree abolishing the legal restrictions that had been imposed on the deported Chechens, but specifically ruled out claims for return to their homeland and restitution of confiscated property.
          On January 8, 1957, a further decree of the Presidium reconstituted the Chechen-Ingush ASSR, and cancelled the ban on the return of Chechens and Ingush. The horror of their mass deportation and the misery of their resettlement regimen in Kazakhstan and Kirghizstan have not been forgotten or forgiven by the Chechens
    1942 Voice of America begins broadcasting (in German)
    1942 El embajador alemán Franz Von Papen sufre un atentado en Ankara.
    1938 Du Pont begins commercial production of nylon toothbrush bristles.
    1937 La Unión Soviética prohíbe el envío de voluntarios a la Guerra Civil Española.
    1933 Final demonstration of German Communist party in Berlin.
    1933 League of Nations tells Japanese to pull out of Manchuria (Japan does nothing of the sort).
    1933 Las Cortes españolas ratifican la confianza al Gobierno por 173 votos contra 130 en el debate de los sucesos de Casas Viejas.
    1932 Las Cortes de la Segunda República Española aprueban la Ley del Divorcio.
    1932 Malcolm Campbell consigue en Daytona, con un Napier-Campbell, un nuevo récord de velocidad sobre tierra: 408,714 km/h.
    1924 Greek parliament proclaims republic.
    1924 Mahatma Gandhi released from jail.
    1923 Mass arrests in US of Mafia.
    1922 Alemania concede la extradición de Nicolau, asesino del presidente del Consejo español Eduardo Dato Iradier.
    1920 Peace treaty gives Estonia independence (celebrated as National Day).
    1920 A fledgling German political party holds its first meeting of importance in Munich; it would become known as the Nazi Party, and its chief spokesman is Adolf Hitler. — Hitler da a conocer en Múnich los veinticinco puntos del Partido Obrero Alemán.
    1918 Estonia declares independence from Russia.
    ^ 1917 US is informed that Germany incites Mexico to war against the US.
         British authorities give to the US ambassador to Britain a copy of the "Zimmermann Note," a coded message from German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmermann to Count Johann von Bernstorff, the German ambassador to Mexico. In the telegram, intercepted and deciphered by British intelligence, Zimmermann stated that, in the event of war with the United States, Mexico should be asked to enter the conflict as a German ally. In return, Germany promised to restore to Mexico the lost territories of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. On March 1, the US State Department would publish the note, and American public opinion would be galvanized against Germany.
          On 22 February, the US Congress had passed a $250 million arms appropriations bill intended to make the United States ready for war with Germany, which, on 31 January had announced the renewal of unlimited submarine warfare in the Atlantic German torpedo-armed submarines were prepared to attack any and all ships, including civilian passenger carriers, said to be sited in war-zone waters. On 3 February, the United States broke diplomatic relations with Germany, and just hours after that the American liner Housatonic was sunk by a German U-boat. None of the 25 Americans on board were killed, and all were later picked up by a British steamer.
          When World War I erupted in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson had pledged neutrality for the United States, a position that the vast majority of Americans favored. Britain, however, was one of America's closest trading partners, and tension soon arose between the United States and Germany over the latter's attempted quarantine of the British isles. Several US ships traveling to Britain were damaged or sunk by German mines, and in February 1915 Germany announced unrestricted warfare against all ships, neutral or otherwise, that entered the war zone around Britain.
          One month later, Germany announced that a German cruiser had sunk the William P. Frye, a private American vessel that was transporting grain to England when it disappeared. President Wilson was outraged, but the German government apologized and called the attack an unfortunate mistake. The Germans' most formidable naval weapon was the U-boat, a submarine far more sophisticated than those built by other nations at the time. The typical U-boat was 65 m long, carried 35 men and 12 torpedoes, and could travel underwater for two hours at a time. In the first few years of World War I, the U-boats took a terrible toll on Allied shipping. In early May 1915, several New York newspapers published a warning by the German embassy in Washington that Americans traveling on British or Allied ships in war zones did so at their own risk. The announcement was placed on the same page as an advertisement of the imminent sailing of the British-owned Lusitania ocean liner from New York to Liverpool.
          On 07 May, the Lusitania was torpedoed without warning just off the coast of Ireland. Of the 1959 passengers, 1198 were killed, including 128 Americans. The German government maintained that the Lusitania was carrying munitions, but the US demanded reparations and an end to German attacks on unarmed passenger and merchant ships. In August, Germany pledged to see to the safety of passengers before sinking unarmed vessels but in November sunk an Italian liner without warning, killing 272 people, including 27 Americans. Public opinion in the United States began to turn irrevocably against Germany. In 1917, Germany, determined to win its war of attrition against the Allies, announces the resumption of unrestricted warfare.
          In late March, Germany sunk four more US merchant ships, and on April 2 President Wilson appeared before Congress and called for a declaration of war against Germany. On 04 April, the Senate voted 82 to six to declare war against Germany. Two days later, the House of Representatives endorsed the declaration by a vote of 373 to 50, and America formally entered World War I. On 26 June, the first 14'000 US infantrymen landed in France to begin training for combat. After four years of bloody stalemate along the western front, the entrance of America's well-supplied forces into the conflict was a major turning point in the war. When the war finally ended, on 11 November 1918, more than two million American soldiers had served on the battlefields of Western Europe, and some 50'000 of these men had lost their lives.
     —    During World War I, British authorities give Walter H. Page, the US ambassador to Britain, a copy of the "Zimmermann Note," a coded message from German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmermann to Count Johann von Bernstorff, the German ambassador to Mexico. In the telegram, intercepted and deciphered by British intelligence in late January, Zimmermann states that, in the event of war with the United States, Mexico should be asked to enter the conflict as a German ally. In return, Germany promised to restore to Mexico the lost territories of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. After receiving the telegram, Ambassador Page promptly sends a copy to US President Woodrow Wilson, who, on 01 March 1917, allows the US State Department to publish the note. The press initially treats the telegram as a hoax, but Arthur Zimmermann himself confirms its authenticity. The Zimmermann Note helps turn US public opinion, already severely strained by repeated German attacks on US ships, firmly against Germany. On 02 April, President Wilson, who had initially sought a peaceful resolution to end World War I, urges the immediate US entrance into the war. Four days later, Congress formally declares war against Germany.
    1917 Russian revolution breaks out.
    1914 El primer ministro británico Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill consigue créditos suplementarios para la armada.
    1911 Se produce la dimisión del primer ministro francés Aristide Briand, al que sucede Monis, que recibe el apoyo de radicales y radicalsocialistas.
    1909 Se presenta, en la localidad inglesa de Brighton, por primera vez al público el cine en color.
    1905 El ministro de Agricultura ruso, Alexei Yermolov, somete al zar Nicolás II la idea de una Constitución.
    1905 Simplon tunnel in Switzerland completed.
    1903 US signs agreement acquiring a naval station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
    1902 Battle at Yzer Spruit Boer General De la Rey beats British.
    1896 El físico francés Antoine Henri Becquerel anuncia el descubrimiento de una radiación emitida por el uranio.
    1895 Cuban war of independence begins. — Comienza la sublevación independentista en Cuba con el llamado Grito de Baire.
    1894 Nicaragua captures Tegucigalpa, Honduras (National Day, sort of).
    1891 Se promulga una Constitución Federal en Brasil.
    1891 French troops under Captain Archinard occupy Diéna West Sudan.
    1881 De Lesseps' Company begins work on Panama Canal.
    ^ 1869 Morrill's Tariff increase 
          The US Congress passes the Morrill Tariff Act, which increases duties on imports to an average rate of 47%. The legislation was also another victory for Congressman Justin Morrill, who, starting in 1861, had drafted a series of tariffs designed to protect US industry from the specter of international competition. However, as some historians have noted, overseas rivals didn't pose much of a threat to American manufacturers in 1869; Morrill's latest tariff seemingly padded industrialists’ pocketbooks at the expense of the poor, who were forced to pay ever-higher prices for import goods. Over the next few years, though, lawmakers reversed course and rolled back some of the protectionist duties. The Tariff of 1870 placed 130 items — primarily raw materials — on the "free list," while tariff law passed in 1872 effectively slashed rates on manufacturing goods by 10%.
    ^ 1868 US President Andrew Johnson impeached
          The US House of Representatives votes, 126 to 47, eleven articles of impeachment against President Andrew Johnson, nine of which cite Johnson's removal of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton in violation of the Tenure of Office Act. The House vote makes President Johnson the first president to be impeached in US history. At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Andrew Johnson, a senator from Tennessee, was the only US senator from a seceding state who remained loyal to the Union. In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln appointed him military governor of Tennessee, and in 1864, he was elected vice president of the United States. Inaugurated after Lincoln's assassination in April of 1865, President Johnson enacted a lenient Reconstruction policy for the defeated South, including almost total amnesty to ex-Confederates, a program of rapid restoration of US state status for the seceded states, and the approval of new, local Southern governments, which were able to legislate "Black Codes" that preserved the system of slavery in all but its name.
          The Republican-dominated Congress greatly opposed Johnson's Reconstruction program, and on 02 March 1867, passed the Tenure of Office Act over the president's veto. The bill prohibited the president from removing officials confirmed by the Senate without senatorial approval, and was designed to shield members of Johnson's cabinet like Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton who had been a leading Republican radical in the Lincoln administration. In the fall of 1867, President Johnson attempted to test the constitutionality of the act by replacing Stanton with General Ulysses S. Grant. However, the US Supreme Court refused to rule on the case and Grant turned the office back to Stanton after the Senate passed a measure refusing the dismissal. On 21 February 1868, Johnson decided to rid himself of Stanton once and for all and appointed General Lorenzo Thomas, an individual far less favorable to the Congress than Grant, as Secretary of War. Stanton refused to yield, barricading himself in his office, and the House of Representatives, which had already discussed impeachment after Johnson's first dismissal of Stanton, initiated formal impeachment proceedings against the president. On 24 February the House votes eleven impeachment articles against Johnson, and on 13 March, the Senate impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson began under the direction of US Supreme Court Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase. On 26 May, the trial ended with Johnson's opponents narrowly failing to achieve the two-thirds majority necessary to convict him.
    1864 Skirmish near Canton, Mississippi.
    1864 Battle of Tunnel Hill GA (Buzzard's Roost)
    1863 Forrest's raid on Brentwood TN.
    1863 Arizona Territory created
    1852 Between January 15th and February 24th a total of 1378 railroad cars were drawn by horses across the frozen Susquehanna River (the ferry could not pass) to engines waiting at Havre De Grace MD.
    1848 King Louis-Philippe abdicates, 2nd French republic declared. — Tras la revuelta de 1848, la familia real borbónica huye y jamás vuelve a reinar en Francia.
    ^ 1836 Travis vows victory or death in besieged Alamo.
          During the Texas War for Independence, on 23 February 1836, Mexican president and general Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna orders the first assault on the fortified Alamo mission in San Antonio, Texas, held by 144 Texans and Americans under the leadership of Colonel William B. Travis, Jim Bowie, and Davy Crockett. [flag flown by the Texans at the Alamo >]
         On 24 February 1836, Texan Colonel William Travis sends a desperate plea for help for the besieged defenders of the Alamo, ending the message with the famous last words, "Victory or Death." Travis' path to the Alamo began five years earlier when he moved to the Mexican state of Texas to start fresh after a failed marriage in Alabama. Trained as a lawyer, he established a law office in Anahuac, where he quickly gained a reputation for his willingness to defy the local Mexican officials. In 1832, a minor confrontation with the Mexican government landed Travis in jail. When he was freed a month later, many Anglo settlers hailed him as a hero. As Anglo-American resentment toward the Mexican government grew, Travis was increasingly viewed as a strong leader among those seeking an independent Texan republic.
          When the Texas revolution began in 1835, Travis joined the revolutionary army. In February 1936, he was made a lieutenant colonel and given command of the regular Texas troops in San Antonio. On 23 February, the Mexican army under Santa Ana arrived in the city unexpectedly. Travis and his troops retreated to the Alamo, an old Spanish mission and fortress, where they were soon joined by James Bowie's volunteer force. The Mexican army of 5000 soldiers badly outnumbered the several hundred defenders of the Alamo. Their determination was fierce, though, and when Santa Ana asked for their surrender the following day, Travis answered with a cannon shot.
          Furious, Santa Ana began a siege. Recognizing he was doomed to defeat without reinforcements, Travis dispatched via couriers several messages asking for help. The most famous was addressed to "The People of Texas and All Americans in the World" and was signed "Victory or Death." Unfortunately, it was to be death for the defenders: only 32 men from nearby Gonzales responded to Travis' call for reinforcements. On March 6, the Mexicans stormed the Alamo and Travis, Bowie, and about 190 of their comrades were killed. The Texans made Santa Ana pay for his victory, though, having claimed at least 600 of his men during the attack.
          Although Travis' defense of the Alamo was a miserable failure militarily, symbolically it was a tremendous success. "Remember the Alamo" quickly became the rallying cry for the Texas revolution. By April, Travis' countrymen had beaten the Mexicans and won their independence. Travis' daring defiance of the overwhelmingly superior Mexican forces has since become the stuff of myth, and a facsimile of his famous call for help is on permanent display at the Texas State Library in Austin.
          Texan Colonel William Travis sends a desperate plea for help for the besieged defenders of the Alamo, ending the message with the famous last words, "Victory or Death." Travis' path to the Alamo began five years earlier when he moved to the Mexican state of Texas to start fresh after a failed marriage in Alabama. Trained as a lawyer, he established a law office in Anahuac, where he quickly gained a reputation for his willingness to defy the local Mexican officials. In 1832, a minor confrontation with the Mexican government landed Travis in jail. When he was freed a month later, many Anglo settlers hailed him as a hero. As Anglo-American resentment toward the Mexican government grew, Travis was increasingly viewed as a strong leader among those seeking an independent Texan republic. When the Texas revolution began in 1835, Travis joined the revolutionary army. In February 1936, he was made a lieutenant colonel and given command of the regular Texas troops in San Antonio. On 23 February, the Mexican army under Santa Ana arrived in the city unexpectedly. Travis and his troops retreated to the Alamo, an old Spanish mission and fortress, where they were soon joined by James Bowie's volunteer force. The Mexican army of 5000 soldiers badly outnumbered the several hundred defenders of the Alamo. Their determination was fierce, though, and when Santa Ana asked for their surrender the following day, Travis answered with a cannon shot. Furious, Santa Ana began a siege. Recognizing he was doomed to defeat without reinforcements, Travis dispatched via couriers several messages asking for help. The most famous was addressed to "The People of Texas and All Americans in the World" and was signed "Victory or Death." Unfortunately, it was to be death for the defenders: only 32 men from nearby Gonzales responded to Travis' call for reinforcements. On 06 March, the Mexicans stormed the Alamo and Travis, Bowie, and about 190 of their comrades were killed. The Texans made Santa Ana pay for his victory, though, having claimed at least 600 of his men during the attack. Although Travis' defense of the Alamo was a miserable failure militarily, symbolically it was a tremendous success. "Remember the Alamo" quickly became the rallying cry for the Texas revolution. By April, Travis' countrymen had beaten the Mexicans and won their independence. Travis' daring defiance of the overwhelmingly superior Mexican forces has since become the stuff of myth, and a facsimile of his famous call for help is on permanent display at the Texas State Library in Austin.
          After gaining independence from Spain in 1821, Mexico welcomed foreign settlers to sparsely populated Texas, and a large group of Americans led by Stephen F. Austin settled along the Brazos River. The Americans soon outnumbered the resident Mexicans, and by the 1830s, attempts by the Mexican government to regulate these semi-autonomous communities were, in their opinion, against the 1824 Mexican constitution, and led them to rebellion. In October of 1835, residents of Gonzales, eighty kilometers east of San Antonio, responded to Santa Anna’s demand that they return a cannon loaned for defense against Indian attack by discharging it against the Mexican troops sent to reclaim it.
          Two months later, Texas volunteers commanded by Ben Milam drove Mexican troops out of San Antonio and settled in around the Alamo, a mission compound adapted to military purposes after the 1790s.
          In January of 1836, Santa Anna concentrated a force of several thousand men south of the Rio Grande and General Sam Houston, the commander of the Texas revolutionary troops, ordered the Alamo abandoned.
          However, Colonel Jim Bowie realized that the Alamo’s twenty-five captured cannons could not be removed before Santa Anna’s arrival, so he remained entrenched with his men in order to give Houston time to raise a revolutionary army. On 02 February, Bowie and his twenty-five men were joined by a small cavalry company under Colonel William Travis, bringing the total number of Alamo defenders to about one hundred and thirty. One week later, Davy Crockett arrived in command of fourteen Tennessee Mounted Volunteers.
          On 23 February, Santa Anna and some 4000 Mexican troops besieged the Alamo, and the Mexican leader ordered the former mission bombarded with cannon and rifle fire for twelve days. The next day, in the chaos of the siege, Colonel Travis smuggled out a letter that read:
    Commandancy of the Alamo
    Bexar, Feby. 24th, 1836
    To the People of Texas and all Americans in the World —
    Fellow Citizens and Compatriots —

    I am besieged by a thousand or more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna — I have sustained a continual Bombardment and cannonade for 24 hours and have not lost a man — The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion, otherwise the garrison are to be put to the sword, if the fort is taken — I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, and our flag still waves proudly from the walls — I shall never surrender or retreat. Then, I call on you in the name of Liberty, of patriotism and everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid with all despatch — The enemy is receiving reinforcements daily and will no doubt increase to three or four thousand in four or five days. If this call is neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible and die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor and that of his country — Victory or Death.

               William Barret Travis Lt. Col. comdt.

    P.S. The Lord is on our side — When the enemy appeared in sight we had not three bushels of corn — We have since found in deserted houses 80 or 90 bushels, and got into the walls 20 or 30 head of Beeves —
                                                                                Travis

    Send this to San Felipe by Express night and day —
         On 02 March, the last Texan reinforcements from nearby Gonzales broke through the enemy’s lines and into the Alamo, bringing the total defenders to one hundred and eighty-five. The same day, Texas’ revolutionary government formally declared its independence from Mexico.
          In the early morning of 06 March, Santa Anna ordered the first assault on the Alamo. Travis’s artillery decimated the first and then the second Mexican charge, but within ninety minutes the Texans were overwhelmed, and the Alamo was taken. All 188 Texan defenders were killed, along with some 1544 of Santa Anna’s troops. The only survivors of the Alamo were a mother, her child, and an African-American slave.
          Six weeks later, a large Texan army under Sam Houston surprised Santa Anna’s army at San Jacinto. Shouting "Remember the Alamo!" the Texans defeated the Mexicans and captured Santa Anna. Texas independence was won.
    1821 Mexico declares its independence from Spain. — Se proclama el Plan de Iguala, documento redactado por Agustín de Iturbide que contiene las bases de la Independencia de México.
    1803 The US Supreme Court rules itself to be the final interpreter of constitutional issues, in Marbury v. Madison.
    1793 French troops conquer Breda
    1786 Charles Cornwallis appointed Governor-General of India
    ^ 1582 Gregorian Calendar is promulgated.
          Pope Gregory XIII publishes a bull which announces the New Style (Gregorian) calendar which corrects the errors of the Julian (or Old Style) calendar created by Julius Caesar in 46 BC.
    — The Julian calendar year of 365.25 was too long, since the “tropical” year is 365.242199 days. The papal bull decrees that, in order to bring the vernal equinox back to 21 March, 05 October 1582 (Julian) will be followed by 15 October 1582 (Gregorian). The years divisible by 100 but not by 400 will no longer be leap years. The bull also promulgates rules for calculating the date of Easter.
        The new calendar was adopted on the date set by the bull only in some of the Catholic countries: the Italian countries, Spain, Portugal, France, and Luxembourg. In Great Britain and its possessions, the Gregorian calendar came into use on 14 September 1752 (Gregorian), the day following 02 September 1752 (Julian). Among the last countries to make the switch were the Soviet Union in 1918 and Greece in 1923 (resulting in much confusion about their dates since 15 October 1582. On this site an attempt is made to list those events only their Gregorian dates while mentioning the Julian date. Please report any errors which you may find)
    1581 Pope Gregory XIII approves the results of his calendar reform commission whose principal members are the Neapolitan astronomer Luigi Lilio Ghiraldi (died in 1576) and the German Jesuit mathematician Christopher Clavius (1537-1612).
    1538 King Ferdinand of Austria and King János Zápolyai of Hungary sign Peace of Grosswardein.
    1530 first imperial coronation by a Pope, Charles V crowned by Clement V.
    1528 János Zápolyai, Hungarian king, recognizes Sultan Suleiman's suzerainty.
    1527 Ferdinand of Austria crowned as king of Bohemia — Tras el fallecimiento de Luis II de Mohács, su cuñado Fernando y su esposa Ana de Hungría son coronados reyes de Hungría y de Bohemia.
    1525 Las tropas imperiales de Carlos I de España y V de Alemania vencen a las francesas de François I en la batalla de Pavía, con lo que se pone fin a la primera guerra hispano-francesa.
    1524 El papa Clemente VII concede a la Inquisición de Aragón poder jurisdiccional sobre la sodomía, conlleve o no herejía.
    1510 Pope Julius II excommunicates the republic of Venice
    1389 Battle at Falköping Danes defeat King Albert of Sweden.
    1296 Pope Boniface VIII degree Clericis Iaicos
    1208 St Francis of Assisi, 26, received his vocation in the Italian village of Portiuncula. He founded the Franciscans the following year, and is regarded by some Catholics as the greatest of all Christian saints.
    0303 The first official Roman edict for the persecution of Christians was issued by Roman Emperor Galerius Valerius Maximianus.
    TO THE TOP
    LoiseauDeaths which occurred on a February 24:

    2003 Bernard Loiseau, 52 [1999 photo >], suicide by hunting rifle, in Saulieu (Côte d'Or), France. His rating as a chef dropped from 19/20 to 17/20 in the GaultMillau guide published earlier in February 2003.

    2003 Billy Dewayne Copeland, 26, shot by police at about 10:30 (15:30 UT) in a gunfight during an 8-km chase on I-65 southbound in Fultondale, Alabama, where Copeland and his accomplice who drives the stolen car had just robbed the town's only bank, the Bank of Alabama on Decatur Highway. The driver takes exit 263 at 33rd Avenue North in Birmingham and crashes two blocks away in the 3200 block of 17th Street North (zip 35207-4210), where he resumes the gunfight and is wounded and arrested.

    2003 At least 260 persons in magnitude 6.3 earthquake at 10:04 (02:04 UT) with epicenter 33-km-deep at 39º38'N 77º12'E, near Chongku Qiake in the southwest of Xinjiang province, China, near the Kyrgyzstan border. Over 1000 are injured. More than 30'000 are homeless. The temperature drops to –10ºC at night.

    2001 Charles Fletcher-Cooke, político británico.
    2000 Betty Lou Beets, 62, executed by lethal injection, in Texas, for murdering her fifth husband. Gov. George W. Bush had refused to intervene.
    1990 Sandro Pertini, político y presidente de Italia.
    1990 Malcolm Forbes, 70, CEO (Forbes Publishing), of a heart attack.
    1983 Tennessee Williams, 71, US playwright (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof)
    1975 Nikolai A Bulganin, 79, marshal/premier of USSR (1955-58)
    1964 Alexander Archipenko, escultor ruso nacionalizado estadounidense.
    ^ 1940 Day 86 of Winter War: USSR aggression against Finland.
    More deaths due to Stalin's desire to grab Finnish territory.
    Finnish troops take Reuhkavaara 'motti'
           Karelian Isthmus: the Finnish 23rd Division takes advantage of a momentary lull in enemy pressure to attempt a counterattack to improve their defensive positions to the east of Lake Näykkijärvi. The counterattack is launched at 02:30, but almost immediately breaks down. At daybreak the Finnish troops withdraw to their defensive positions. Enemy attacks on the intermediary defensive positions are unsuccessful.
          In the north, the Finnish guerrillas operating in Salla are suffering from stiffer countermeasures by the Soviet troops in the area. The independent Company Kojonen pulls off a successful surprise attack on a Red Army logistics centre at Kuusivaara in Salla, causing considerable losses among the Soviet troops.
          In Petsamo, a 180-strong enemy ski company attacks Heteoja, bringing to an end a phase of guerrilla activity which had lasted almost two months. They are surrounded by Finnish troops, but half their strength manage to break out.
          In Kuhmo, Finnish troops take the Reuhkavaara 'motti'. Enemy dead total 174. Finnish casualties are three dead and five wounded. The Finns capture a considerable amount of materiel, including two tanks, four lorries and over 200 small arms.
          Finland's Foreign Minister meets the new British diplomatic representative in Finland, Mr. Vereker, and the military envoy, General Ling, who has just visited General Headquarters in Mikkeli. According to Vereker, the Allies are ready to send 20'000 soldiers to Finland on March 15.
          The exhibition of captured war materiel in Helsinki Exhibition Hall is a great success. 13'000 persons have visited the exhibition during the first week alone.
          The foreign ministers of Norway, Denmark and Sweden meet in Copenhagen. The Nordic countries make a joint decision not to give military assistance to Finland nor to allow foreign troops to pass through their territory. Finland therefore stands alone.
    ^ Suomalaiset kukistavat Reuhkavaaran motin Talvisodan 87. päivä, 24.helmikuuta.1940
           Vihollisen paineen hetkeksi hellittäessä Suomen 23. Divisioonan joukot yrittävät vastahyökkäyksellä parantaa puolustusasemiaan Näykkijärven itäpuolella Karjalan kannaksella. Vastahyökkäys alkaa klo 2.30, mutta tyrehtyy miltei heti. Aamun valjetessa suomalaiset vetäytyvät takaisin puolustus-asemiin. Vihollisen hyökkäykset väliasemaan torjutaan.
          Sissisota Sallassa on vaikeutunut neuvostojoukkojen vastatoimientehostuessa. Erillinen Komppania Kojonen tekee menestyksekkään yllätys-hyökkäyksen vihollisen Sallan Kuusivaarassa sijaitsevaan huoltokeskukseen aiheuttaen huomattavia tappioita.
          Petsamossa vihollisen 180-miehinen hiihtokomppania hyökkää Heteojalle päättäen näin lähes kaksi kuukautta kestäneen sissisotavaiheen. Viholliskomppania saarrostetaan, mutta puolet siitä onnistuu murtautumaan ulos.
          Kuhmossa suomalaiset kukistavat Reuhkavaaran motin. Taistelualueelle jää 174 kaatunutta vihollista. Omat tappiot ovat kolme kaatunutta ja viisi haavoittunutta. Sotasaalista saadaan runsaasti, mm. kaksi pansarivaunua, neljä autoa ja yli 200 käsiasetta.
          Ulkoministeri Tanner tapaa Englannin uuden lähettilään Verekerin ja Päämajassa Mikkelissä vierailleen kenraali Lingin. Englannin lähettilään mukaan liittoutuneet ovat valmiit lähettämään Suomeen maaliskuun 15. päivä 20 000 sotilasta.
          Sotasaalisnäyttely Helsingin Messuhallissa on menestys. Ensimmäisen viikon aikana näyttelyyn on tutustunut jo 13 000 ihmistä.
          Kööpenhaminassa kokoontuvat Ruotsin, Tanskan ja Norjan ulkoministerit. Yhteisellä päätöksellä Pohjoismaat eivät anna Suomelle sotilaallista tukea, eivätkä salli vieraiden joukkojen läpikulkua alueillaan. - Suomi on yksin.
    ^ Finnarna slår mottin i Reuhkavaara Vinterkrigets 87 dag, den 24 februari 1940
          När fiendens tryck tillfälligt lättar försöker trupperna i den finska 23. Divisionen genom en motattack förbättra sina försvarsställningar öster om Näykkijärvi på Karelska näset. Motoffensiven startar kl. 2.30 men kvävs nästan omedelbart. När morgonen gryr tvingas finnarna retirera till försvarsställningarna. Fiendens anfall mot mellanställningen avvärjs.
          Gerillakriget i Salla har försvårats av de allt effektivare ryska motåtgärderna. Det avdelta kompaniet Kojonen gör ett överraskande anfall mot fiendens försörjningscentrum i Kuusivaara, Salla. Anfallet är framgångsrikt och förorsakar betydande förluster för fienden.
          I Petsamo anfaller ett fientligt skidlöparkompani på 180 man i Heteoja och avslutar därmed ett gerillakrigsskede som har räckt nästan två månader. Fiendens kompani omringas, men hälften av soldaterna lyckas bryta ut.
          I Kuhmo slår finnarna mottin i Reuhkavaara. Kvar på stridsområdet blir 174 stupade ryska soldater. De egna förlusterna är tre stupade och fem sårade. Finland får ett rejält krigsbyte, bl.a. två pansarvagnar, fyra bilar och över 200 handvapen.
          Utrikesminister Tanner träffar Englands nye ambassadör Vereker och general Ling som har besökt huvudkvarteret i S:t Michel. Enligt den engelske ambassadören är de allierade redo att sända 20 000 soldater till Finland den 15 mars.
          Krigsutställningen i Helsingfors Mässhall är en framgång. Under den första veckan har utställningen 13 000 besökare.
          Sveriges, Danmarks och Norges utrikesministrar samlas i Köpenhamn. De nordiska länderna fattar gemensamt beslutet att inte sända militärt stöd till Finland och tillåter inte heller att främmande trupper reser igenom deras territorier. - Finland är ensamt.
    1933 Bertini, mathematician.
    1920 Paul Albert Girard, French artist born on 13 December 1839.

    ^ 1916 More casualties at Verdun as Pétain takes command.
          During the First World War Verdun was a fortified French garrison town on the River Meuse 200 km east of Paris. In December 1915, General Erich von Falkenhayn, Chief of Staff of the German Army, decided to attack Verdun. Although he admitted he would be unable to break through at these point on the Western Front, he argued that in defending Verdun, the Germans would "bleed the French army white".
          The German attack on Verdun started on 21 February 1916. A million troops, led by Crown Prince Wilhelm, faced only about 200'000 French defenders. The following day the French was forced to retreat to their second line of trenches. By 24 February the French had moved back to the third line and were only 8km from Verdun.
          On 24th February, General Henri-Philippe Pétain was appointed commander of the Verdun sector. He gave orders that no more withdrawals would take place. He arranged for every spare French soldier to this part of the Western Front. Of the 330 infantry regiments of the French Army, 259 eventually fought at Verdun.
          The German advance was brought to a halt at the end of February. On 6 March, the German Fifth Army launched a new attack at Verdun. The Germans advanced 3km before they were stopped in front of the area around Mort Homme Hill. The French held this strategic point until it was finally secured by the Germans on 29 May, and Fort Vaux fell on 7th June, after a long siege.
          Further attacks continued throughout the summer and early autumn. However, the scale of the German attacks were reduced by the need to transfer troops to defend their front-line at the Somme. The French now counter-attacked and General Charles Mangin became a national hero when the forts at Douaumont and Vaux were recaptured by 2 November 1916. Over the next six weeks the French infantry gained another 2 km at Verdun.
          Verdun, the longest battle of the First World War, ended on the 18th December. The French Army lost about 550'000 men at Verdun. It is estimated that the German Army suffered 434'000 casualties. About half of all casualties at Verdun were killed.

    1911 Jules-Joseph Lefebvre, French Academic painter born on 14 March 1836. — MORE ON LEFEBVRE AT ART “4” FEBRUARY — LINKS — Flora — Girl with a Mandolin — Mary Magdalen in the Grotto — Ophelia — Truth — Chloé — The Language of the Fan (1882)
    1910 Osman Edhem Pacha Zadeh Hamby-Bey, Turkish artist born in 1842.
    1871 Julius Weisbach, mathematician.
    1856 Nikolay Lobachevsky, 63, mathematician.
    1844 Reynaud, mathematician.
    1839 Caspar Johann Schneider, German artist born on 19 April 1753.
    1819 Jean François Sablet “le Romain”, Swiss artist born on 23 November 1745.
    1815 Robert Fulton, US steamboat pioneer.
    1812 Malus, mathematician.
    1810 Henry Cavendish physicist/chemist
    1785 Carlo Bonaparte, 39, Corsican attorney
    1728 Reyneau, mathematician.
    1704 Marc-Antoine Charpentier French composer (church music)
    1563 François de Lorraine 2ème duc de Guise , 44, French General/duke, assassinated.
    1525 Some 8700 dead in Battle at Pavia: Emperor Charles V's troops beat French king, François I captured
    Births which occurred on a February 24:
    ^ 1955 Steven Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computer.
          Jobs, the controversial co-founder of Apple Computer, started out selling his friend Stephen Wozniak's computers door-to-door at electronic hobbyist shops. By 1979, Apple Computer had become the fastest growing company in history, worth more than $1 billion. That year, Jobs led a team of several Apple developers, working on a new project called Lisa, on a visit to Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, where the team saw the Alto, an early computer with a graphical user interface using icons, a mouse, and built-in networking capacity. Both the Lisa and the Macintosh adopted key elements of the Alto. Jobs, whose impulsive personal style irritated some of Apple's key managers, was forced to leave Apple in 1985. He formed NeXT Inc., became president of Pixar animation studios, and returned to Apple in 1997 as acting president.
    1950 Miguel Arias Cañete, político español, ministro de Agricultura.
    1946 Margulis, mathematician.
    1934 Bettino Craxi, político socialista italiano.
    1929 Luis Carandell Robuste, escritor y periodista español.
    1928 Michael Harrington St Louis, socialist/author (Fragments of Century)
    1927 Mark Lane (attorney, author: Rush to Judgment, Eyewitness Chicago; conspiracy theorist: the Kennedy assassination)
    ^ 1927 Movietone sound movies demonstrated.
          Fox demonstrated its new Movietone sound process to the media by filming a group of reporters in the morning, then showing the film, with sound, at night. In 1927, movie studios and theaters had developed competing sound systems, which caused a problem for silent movie theaters. Fitting a movie theater for sound systems proved extremely costly-to wire a movie house for Warner Brothers' Vitaphone sound system, for example, cost about $20'000. Several studios, including MGM, Paramount, and Universal, had agreed to wait to make talkies until they agreed on a single audio standard, but Warner Brothers, not part of the agreement, released the first feature-length film to use sound, The Jazz Singer, in October 1927. Only about 200 theaters nationwide were equipped for Warner Brothers' Vitaphone, so a silent version of the movie was also distributed.
          Through Vitaphone, a recording could be played alongside a film, synchronized with the onscreen action. However, synchronizing a recording with a film could be tricky, and integrated sound systems like Movietone, where sound was recorded onto the film itself, quickly replaced Vitaphone.
          Fox began making feature films with the Movietone system in 1928, and other major film studios followed suit. Movietone was best known for its newsreels, which captured newsworthy events on film and created a living historical record.
          Though five companies competed for newsreel scoops, Movietone prided itself on having the exclusive footage of several of the world's most significant news stories. Movietone was the only newsreel producer to capture the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and its aftermath, though that footage was kept secret for more than a year. And Movietone executive Truman Talley was so sure that the Hindenburg would explode one day that he ordered cameramen to cover it constantly, ensuring that its 1937 explosion was captured on film.
          Some 20 million meters of Movietone newsreels were stored in New Jersey warehouses until the Smithsonian and the University of South Carolina launched a campaign to save the priceless footage by converting it to a more modern and stable film format.
    1920 Pillai, mathematician.
    1919 Earl Kitchener of Khartoum
    1909 La esfinge, primer drama de Miguel de Unamuno Jugo, se estrena en el teatro Galdós de Las Palmas.
    ^ 1909 Hudson Motor Car Company is incorporated
          The Hudson Motor Car Company, founded by Joseph Hudson, in Detroit, Michigan, was incorporated on this day. Hudson is perhaps most famous for its impact on NASCAR racing, which it accomplished thanks to a revolutionary design innovation. In 1948 Hudson introduced the Monobuilt design. The Monobuilt consisted of a chassis and frame that were combined in a unified passenger compartment, producing a strong, lightweight design with a beneficial lower center of gravity that did not affect road clearance. Hudson called the innovation the "step-down design" because, for the first time, drivers had to step down to get into their cars. In 1951, Hudson introduced the Hornet. Fitted with a bigger engine than previous Hudson models, the Hudson Hornet became a dominant force on the NASCAR circuit. Because of its lower center of gravity, the Hornet glided around corners with relative ease, leaving its unstable competitors in the dust. For the first time a car not manufactured by the Big Three was winning big. In 1952 Hudson won twenty-nine of thirty-four events. Excited by their success on the track, Hudson executives began directly backing their racing teams, providing the team cars with everything they needed to increase success. The Big Three responded, and in doing so brought about the system of industry-backed racing that has become such a prominent marketing tool today. The Hudson Hornet would dominate NASCAR racing until 1955 when rule changes led to an emphasis on horsepower over handling.
    1887 Mary Ellen Chase, US scholar and writer who died on 28 July 1973.
    1885 Admiral Chester Nimitz US Admiral (commanded Pacific fleet in WWII) 1885 - Chester Nimitz (US Navy Admiral: WWII Commander of all Allied Forces in the SW Pacific, signed the Japanese surrender papers). He died on 20 February 1966.
    1885 Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz, Polish painter who died in September 1939. — LINKS
    1884 Josef Stoitzer, Austrian artist who died in 1951.
    1878 Felix Bernstein, mathematician.
    1870 Jules-Géraud Saliège, French, ordained a priest on 21 September 1895, appointed Bishop of Gap on 29 October 1925 and consecrated a bishop on 06 January 1926; appointed Archbishop of Toulouse on 17 December 1928; made a cardinal on 18 February 1946; died on 05 November 1956.
    1848 El Manifiesto comunista es publicado por Karl Heinrich Marx y Friedrich Engels.
    1844 Raffaelo Sorbi, Italian artist who died on 19 December 1931.
    ^ Arrigo caricature1842 Arrigo Boito, Italian poet, novelist, composer, and librettist who died on 10 June 1918. ArrigoHe was the 6-years-younger brother of Camillo Boito.
         Arrigo Boito's opera Mefistofele (1868, rev. 1875), influenced by Wagner's music-drama, helped to bring about a new dramatic style in Italian opera. Its first performance, at La Scala, Milan, caused a riot, but it subsequently became very popular. Another opera, Nerone, was posthumously finished and produced by Toscanini in 1924. Many consider Boito's masterpieces to be the librettos for Verdi's Otello and Falstaff. He also was librettist for Ponchielli's La Gioconda and wrote novels and poems.
         Arrigo Boito is known for the single opera he completed, Mefistofele, inspired by Goethe's Faust. Like Gioacchino Rossini, who wrote three dozen operas by his mid-thirties, and spent the next forty years of his life unable or unwilling to complete another, Boito underwent some kind of crisis early, and worked 54 years unsuccessfully at completing his second opera.
          As a student at the Milan Conservatory, Boito was awarded a stipend after winning composition prizes that enabled him to travel and study abroad for two years. He took advantage of the prize to visit Poland, his mother's birthplace, as well as England, Germany, and France. He was much impressed during these sojourns with the dramatic power of the operas of Ludwig van Beethoven and especially of Richard Wagner. Hence he reshaped the traditional elements of Italian opera to suit the kind of dramatic presentation he had in mind. The result was Mefistofele, first performed when the composer was barely 24, for which the highly literary and literate Boito also wrote the libretto. At its premiere performance, a pious contingent, objecting to the thematic modernism of Boito's version of the Faust legend, demonstrated angrily. After the second performance was likewise ill-received, Boito withdrew the opera and undertook to modify it to appease criticism. It has become a staple of the repertoire, one of the most exciting and compelling of operas.
          Dry as his font of musical inspiration became, Boito nevertheless retained in full his literary powers. He wrote librettos for Amilcare Ponchielli's La Gioconda and for Giuseppe Verdi's operas Falstaff and Otello, all regarded as works of the first order. Much of Boito's poetry has never fallen out of favor, and his letters reveal unusual gifts as well. Seldom, if ever, has anyone else secured a seemingly imperishable niche in musical history with so little output .
         Arrigo Boito studied at and graduated from the Conservatory of Music in Milan. In 1861 he won a bursary to study in Paris, and there he met important figures in the literary and musical world such as Victor Hugo, Hector Berlioz, Gioacchino Rossini and Giuseppe Verdi. While in the French capital he conceived the idea of writing operas on the subjects of Faust and Nero. After travelling in other European countries (France, Belgium, Germany, England, and Poland), he returned to live in Milan. There he collaborated with several newspapers as literary critic, joined the Scapigliatura group and wrote the libretto of Mefistofele, inspired by Goethe's Faust. The opera was performed at the Scala in 1868, but was coldly received by both the public and the critics, who accused Boito of imitating Wagner. Boito began a lengthy rewriting process, and the opera was presented in 1875 in Bologna, this time with success. Besides the librettos for his own operas, Boito wrote Amleto (1865) for Franco Faccio, La Falce for Alfredo Catalani, and, under the anagram-pseudonym of Tobia Gorrio, La Gioconda for Amilcare Ponchielli, first performed in 1876.
          In 1879, the publisher Giulio Ricordi suggested to Giuseppe Verdi to collaborate with Boito for the composition of an opera based on Shakespeare's tragedy Othello. Boito had already worked with Verdi, writing for him the text for the Hymn to the Nations and later working on the revision of the libretto for Simon Boccanegra (1881).
          Among Arrigo Boito's literary works, the Libro dei Versi, L'alfier nero and Re Orso are worthy of mention. In 1881 he began his collaboration with Verdi, first with the revision of Simon Boccanegra, and later with the librettos for Otello (1887) and Falstaff (1893). In 1924, his unfinished opera Nerone was performed posthumously at the Scala Theatre in Milan. From 1887 to 1898 Boito was sentimentally attached to the actress Eleonora Duse, for whom he translated Anthony and Cleopatra, Macbeth and part of Romeo and Juliet.
    — BOITO ONLINE: libretto of his own Mefistofele — libretto of Verdi's Falstaff — libretto of Verdi's Otello —
    1836 Winslow Homer, US painter who died on 29 September 1910, specialized in maritime scenes. — MORE ON HOMER AT ART “4” FEBRUARY — LINKS — The Gulf Stream — The Bright Side — Portrait of Albert Post — Cutting a Figure — Sunrise, Fishing in the Adirondacks — The Nooning — A "Norther", Key West — A Swell of the Ocean — Burnt Mountain — Backgammon — The War for the Union — Prisoners From the Front — Dressing for the Carnival — Turtle Pound — On A Lee Shore — Mending the Nets — Watching the Tempest — The Lifeline — The Fox Hunt — Canoe in the Rapids — Hurricane Bahamas — High Cliff, Coast of Maine — Night — Sponge Fishing — Taking a Sunflower to Teacher
    ^ 1836 Colt six-shooter is patented.
          Six-shooter patented On this day in 1836, Samuel Colt received a patent for a firearm that would become a central symbol of the American West: the Colt revolver. The pistol, featuring a revolving cylinder that held six bullets, was invented by Colt several years before while on the S.S. Carlo. Colt subsequently set up the Patent Arms Manufacturing Company in New Jersey to manufacture his new invention. The first Colt revolvers produced by the factory were .24-caliber models. The company nearly failed in its first decade, but was revived by an order from the government in 1847 for one hundred revolvers to use in the Mexican-American War. The revolver was the first firearm that could be used effectively by a man on horseback. Colt set up a new factory in Connecticut and made a fortune after the war as ranchers, outlaws, prospectors, and lawmen stormed into the newly acquired Western territories with their six-shooters blazing.
    1832 Juan Clemente Zenea, poeta y periodista cubano.
    1830 Narciso Saenz Díaz Serra, poeta y dramaturgo español.
    1824 George Curtis, US author and editor who died on 31 August 1892.
    1788 Johan-Christian-Clausen Dahl, Norwegian painter who died on 14 October 1857. — LINKS — A Cloud and Landscape Study by Moonlight — Evening Landscape with Shepherd — Returning from Harvesting — Sailing in a Fjord
    ^ Brüder Grimm1786 Wilhelm Karl Grimm, Germany, librarian, fairy tale collector and editor.
          The younger of the two Grimm brothers, Wilhelm, is born in Hanau, Germany. His brother Jakob was born on 4 January 1785. As young men, the two brothers assisted some friends with research for an important collection of folk lyrics. One of the authors, impressed by the brothers' work, suggested they publish some of the oral folktales they'd collected. The collection appeared as Children's and Household Tales, later known as Grimm's Fairy Tales, in several volumes between 1812 and 1822.
          Tales in the Grimm brothers' collection include "Hansel and Gretel," "Snow White," "Little Red Riding Hood," "Sleeping Beauty," "Rapunzel," and "Rumpelstiltskin." The brothers developed the tales by listening to storytellers and attempting to reproduce their words and techniques as faithfully as possible. Their methods helped establish the scientific approach to the documentation of folklore. The collection became a worldwide classic.
          Jakob continued researching stories and language, and published an influential book of German grammar. He also did important work in language study and developed a principle, called Grimm's Law, regarding the relation of languages to each other. In 1829, Jakob and Wilhelm became librarians and professors at the University of Gottingen, and Jacob published another important work, German Mythologies, exploring the beliefs of pre-Christian Germans. In 1840, King Frederick William IV of Prussia invited the brothers to Berlin, where they became members of the Royal Academy of Science. They began work on an enormous dictionary, but Wilhelm died on 16 December 1859, before entries for the letter D were completed. Jakob died on 20 September 1863, having only gotten as far as F. Subsequent researchers finished the dictionary many years later.
         Individually, Wilhelm Grimm wrote Altdänische Heldenlieder, Balladen und Märchen (1811), . Über deutsche Runen (1821), Die deutsche Heldensage (1829).
         Wilhelm Karl Grimm, the younger of the two Brothers Grimm, is born in Hanau, Germany. As young men, the two brothers assisted friends in compiling an important collection of folk lyrics. One of the authors, impressed by the brothers' work, suggested they publish some of the oral folktales they'd collected. The collection appeared as Children's and Household Tales, later known as Grimm's Fairy Tales, in several volumes between 1812 and 1822.
          Tales in the Grimm collection include "Hansel and Gretel," "Snow White," "Little Red Riding Hood," "Sleeping Beauty," "Rapunzel," and "Rumpelstiltskin." The brothers developed the tales by listening to storytellers and attempting to reproduce their words and techniques as faithfully as possible. Their methods helped establish the scientific approach to the documentation of folklore. The collection became a worldwide classic.
          Wilhelm continued his study of German folklore and published a new edition of ancient written tales. In 1829, Jacob and Wilhelm became librarians and professors at the University of Gottingen, and Jacob published another important work, German Mythologies, exploring the beliefs of pre-Christian Germans. In 1840, King Frederick William IV of Prussia invited the brothers to Berlin, where they became members of the Royal Academy of Science. They began work on an enormous dictionary, but Wilhelm died in 1959, before entries for the letter D were completed. Jacob followed four years later, having only gotten as far as F. Subsequent researchers finished the dictionary many years later.
         Jakob Ludwig Karl Grimm wurde am 4.1.1785 in Hanau geboren, sein Bruder Wilhelm Karl Grimm am 24.2.1786 am gleichen Ort. Der Vater war Jurist. Die Kinder lebten die ersten Jahrer ihrer Jugend in Steinau und sie besuchten das Lyceum im Kassel. Seit 1829 bzw. 1839 waren sie Professoren in Kassel. Aufgrund ihrer Teilnahme am Protest der "Göttinger Sieben" wurden sie des Landes verwiesen. Seit etwa 1840 lebten beide in Berlin. Jakob Grimm starb am 20.9.1863 in Berlin, sein Bruder am 16.12.1859 am gleichen Ort.
         Die Brüder Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm sind nicht nur die Sammler, Nacherzähler und Herausgeber der Kinder- und Hausmärchen sowie der Deutschen Sagen, sondern gelten auch als Begründer der germanischen Philologie. Sie begannen die Arbeiten zum "Deutschen Wörterbuch", und insbesondere Jacob schuf mit seiner Deutschen Grammatik, der Deutschen Mythologie und den Deutschen Rechtsalthertümern bahnbrechende Werke. Ausgesprochene Gelehrte zu sein, hinderte sie nicht, sich politisch dem Fortschritt zu verbinden. Als Mitglieder der Göttinger Sieben (Professoren) protestierten sie 1837 gegen die Aufhebung der Verfassung von 1833 durch König Ernst August II. von Hannover und sind daraufhin entlassen worden. Jacob wurde 1848 zum Mitglied der Frankfurter Nationalversammlung gewählt, wo er sich als gemäßigter Liberaler der Erbkaiserpartei anschloß. Nach Berlin zog die Brüder 1841 die Berufung zu Mitgliedern der Akademie der Wissenschaften durch Friedrich Wilhelm IV. Sie waren jedoch auch als Hochschullehrer an der Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität tätig. Ihre Wohnung hatten sie hier unweit des späteren Potsdamer Platzes in der Linkstraße 7. Mit Berlin verbunden sind die Brüder Grimm auch über ihren Tod hinaus z.B. dadurch, daß sich der allergrößte Teil ihrer Bibliothek in der Universitätsbibliothek der Humboldt-Universität befindet.
          Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm, die sehr bekannten 'Brüder Grimm' wurden 1785 und 1786 in Hanau, Deutschland geboren. Seit ihrer Kinderheit, hatten sie viel Interesse an die Literatur und die Grammatik. Durch ihre Augen war alles auf der Welt ein Thema für die Lyrik, und wie in Märchen spielten sie oft in dem Wald. Diese Erfahrungen hatten eventuelle einen Einfluß auf ihre späteren Werke und Sammlungen. Sie wurden zwei von den berühmtesten Schriftstellern aller Zeiten.
          Während ihrer Jugend interessierten sich die Brüder immer für neue Ideen und gingen diesen Ideen stets nach. Trotz des Todes ihres Vaters im Alter von 11 und 10 bekamen sie ihre Erziehung, obwohl es schwer zu finanzieren war. Die verwitwete Schwester ihres Vaters, die 'Tante Schlemmer' hieß, unterichtete die zwei Jungen nicht nur in Schreiben und Lesen, sondern auch schenkte sie ihnen die Lust auf Bildung. Das hielten sie ihr ganzes Leben fest. Obwohl zu dieser Zeit die Universität nur für die aristokratishe Gesellschaft reserviert war, die Mutter von Jacob und Wilhelm überredete die Universität, daß ihre Söhne die Universität mit einem Stipendium besuchen durften!
          Trotz ihrer Liebe der Literatur wurden die Brüder gezwungen, Jura zu studieren, nicht nur weil der Vater Rechtsanwalt war, sondern auch weil ihre Mutter es wünschte. Aber ihre Fähigkeiten zu lernen waren so riesig, daß die zwei nicht nur Jura studierten, sondern auch viele andere Sprachen und die Abstammung der Sprache zusammen mit Geschichte und Literaturwissenschaft. In ihrer Freizeit gestallteten sie immer mit Kollegen Lesegruppen, oder studierten die Forschung der Geschichte und Literatur. Sie betrachteten den Lehrplan der Universität sehr kritisch und machten lieber allein ihr Studium. Die Phantasie der romantischen Literatur war für sie besonderes verlockend. Das 'Mittelalter repräsentiert eine zeitlose, unhistorische Zeit von Abenteuer, hohe Gesinnung, europäische Einheit, und Deutsche Größe...'(Peppard 18). Sie waren von der Phantasie, der Liebe, und dem Guten und Bösen sehr fasziniert. So fängt die Geschichte der Sammlung, die wir heute als die 'Grimms Volksmärchen' kennen, an.
          Die Brüder waren auch ziemlich exzentrisch. Sie arbeiteten nicht nur ihr ganzes Leben zusammen, sondern auch wohnten sie ihr ganzes Leben zusammen! Wilhelm heiratete 1825 Dortchen Wild, und bekam schliesslich drei Kinder. Jacob heiratete nie. Für ihn war es genug, Onkel zu sein. Glücklicherweise mochte Dortchen Jacob, und alle wohnten glücklich zusammen.
          Als Wegbereiter der Volkskunde, gingen die Brüder Grimm durch ganz Deutschland, um Volksmärchen, die durch Generationen zustande gekommen waren, zu finden. Sie sprachen mit Dienstmädchen, Zimmermännern, Schäfern, Freunden von der Universität, und fast jedem, der eine Geschichte zu erzählen hatte.
          "Rejecting 18th century rationalism and faith in the future, [the brothers] turned to the neglected masterpieces of Germany's past- epics and ballads, stories and poems that had sprung from the common people" (Burke 110).
          Viele Geschichten enstanden in Hessen. Die Brüder lebten lange Zeit hier. Jacob und Wilhelm waren für ihre Sammlung der Volksmärchen sehr bekannt, und viele Leute begegneten den Brüdern, um ihnen ihre Geschichten mitzuteilen. Die Mädchen von nebenan waren auch sehr hilfsbereit. Sie sammelten selber mehrere Märchen und gaben sie den Brüdern. Eine Nachbarin, die 'die Alte Marie' hieß, war besonderes hilfreich. Sie erzählte den Brüdern, 'Dornröschen,' Rotkäppchen,' und 'Schneewittchen und Rosenrot'. Nach dem Sammeln wurden die Märchen endlich kurz vor Weihnachten 1812 verlegt. Daruber schreibt Burke:
          Second only to the Bible, it was to become Germany's most widely read book, one that W. H. Auden would describe as, "among the few indispensible, common-property books upon which western culture can be founded" (Burke 112).
              Das Buch, das 'Kinder und Hausmärchen' hieß, enthielt die vorgehend erwänten Märchen und 'Aschenbrödel,' 'Hansel und Gretel,' 'Rumpelstilzchen, 'Rapunzel,' und noch mehr. Zusammen veröffentlichen die Brüder über zweihundert Geschichten. Heute sind viele durch Disney noch bekannter geworden, und sie wurden für die Kinder weltweit sehr wichtig. Aber wie W. H. Auden sagte, diese Volksmärchen bedeuteten viel mehr als die einfache Schönheit der Phantasie. Sie waren und sind heute immer noch, historische Repräsentanten der Kultur. Sie enthalten auch wichtige Lehren, die viele weitere Generationen auch ihren Kindern erzählen werden.
          Im allgemeinen lehren Geschichten wie 'Rot Käpchen,' daß die Kinder ihren Eltern gehorchen sollten, ein bißchen skeptischFremden gegendüber sein sollten, und natürlich, daß das Gute immer das Böse beseigt. 'Aschenbrödel' zeigt uns, wie die Liebe keine Grenzen kennt, ganz besonderes die, die zu der Zeit in der Gesellschaft existierte. Diese Volksmärchen enthielten oft sehr arme Waisenkinder. Diese Kinder waren immer hungrig und ohne Bekleidung außer der, die sie anhatten. Aber sie zeigten uns wie man auch überleben kann, wenn man arm ist. Diese Geschichten waren für viele arme Bauern zu dieser Zeit besonderes hilfreich, denn sie versuchten, eine neue gleichständige Gesellschaft aufzubauen. Vielleicht bekamen die hungrigen Kinder Trost, wenn sie an andere Kinder mit viel weniger als sie dachten. Vielleicht bekamen sie noch mehr Trost wenn sie an die Möglichkeit des Reichtums dachten. Wichtig war, daß diese Geschichten den Kinder ein bißchen Hoffnung und Unterhaltung brachten.
          Die Originalversionen dieser Volksmärchen waren nicht so harmlos und nett, wie sie es heute sind. Disney änderte sie sehr. Im Original findet man was heute ziemlich grausam und gewalttätig aussieht. Zum Beispiel schnitteten die zwei Stiefschwestern in 'Aschenbrödel' ihre eigenen Zehen und Fersen, damit die Glasschuhe besser auf ihre Füßen paßte. Als das Blut von ihren Füßen ausströmte, kamen Tauben von oben, und pflückten die Augen der Stiefschwestern raus. Die meisten Originalvolksmärchen enthalten Blut, Kinder, die ihre Arme und Füße verlieren, und ein Kind wird von einem Verbrecher gegessen. Obwohl die Lehren bei Disney immer noch die gleichen sind, wurden die blutrünstigen Einzelheiten herrausgenommen.
          Es stimmt, daß die 'Grimms Volksmärchen" Sammlung sehr berühmt und wichtig ist, aber die Brüder taten auch etwas ganz Wichtiges, wofür sie nicht so bekannt sind. Dies war das erstes deutsche Wörterbuch, daß eventuell ein Vorbild für das Oxford English Dictionary wurde.
          Die Brüder nahmen diese riesige Aufgabe an, weil sie von der Universtät Göttingen 1837 rausgeflogen waren. Sie weigerten sich, dem neuen König von Hannover Treue zu schwören, weil er die Universitätsverfassung aufgehoben hatte. Die Brüder hatten nur drei Jahre vorher auf diese Verfassung ihren Eid geleistet. Jacob und Wilhem studierteten Jura, und beide waren Männer von hohen Prinzipien.
          Deswegen konnten sie nicht ihr Ehrenwort zurückziehen. Weil sie sich weigerteten, wurden die beiden entlassen und mußten das Königreich Hannover sofort verlassen. Nachdem sie keine Arbeit mehr hatten, fingen sie mit dem Wörterbuch an.
          Jacob, der ernstere der zwei Brüder, hatte mehr mit dieser Aufgabe zu tun als sein Bruder. Er hatte viel feste Meinungen über die deutsche Sprache. Er dachte, daß es ein Geschenk vom Himmel war, Deutsch zu sprechen. Die Sprache war auf jeden Fall höher als alle anderen. Aber er sah auch viele Fehler in der Sprache, und wollte es immer verbessern. Zum Beispiel war er dagegen, Nomen groß zu schreiben, und tat es selber nie, ausser bei Namen und Orten, wie auf Englisch. Aber der Verlag dachte, daß es lächerlich sei, und Jacob wurde gezwungen, die Sprache so zu lassen. Es ist sehr interessant, wenn man überlegt was hätte passieren können, wenn Jacob die Sprache verbessert hätte.
          Die Brüder wollten das Wörterbuch für ganz Deutschland schreiben, nicht nur für Literaturwissenschaftler. Aber die ersten Folgen waren für alle Leuten gar nicht so praktisch. Sie waren für die Bürgerlichen ziemlich kompliziert, und deswegen wurden zu wenig Bücher am Anfang verkauft. Aber dann änderte Jacob das Wörterbuch ein bißchen. Er erweiterte die Zahl der im Wörterbuch enthaltenen Wörter, mit fachlichen Ausdrucken von Jägern, Kunsthandwerkern, und Händlern eingeschlossen. Er schließ auch Schimpfwörter ein. In dem Vorwort des Wörterbuches schrieb er: "There is no word in the language that is not somewhere best in it's proper place." Er schrieb auch in dem Vorwort : "The dictionary is not a book of morals, but a scientific book." So eine Aussage war ganz typisch für Jacob, der immer freimütig war.
          Obwohl das Wörterbuch in mehreren Folgen verleget wurde, war es vor dem Tod der Brüder noch nicht fertig. Wilhelm ist 1859 gestorben, und Jacob 1863. Kaum zu glauben , aber Literaturwissenschaftler schrieben das Wörterbuch erst im Jahre 1960 fertig zu ende! So groß war diese Arbeit!
          Im allgemeinen war der Einfluß der Brüder Grimm auf die Literatur und die Sprachen riesig. Ihre Liebe für Wörter und Geschichte spielten in der Unterhaltung und Erziehung vieler Generationen von alt und jung eine Rolle. Weil die Brüder so intensiv arbeiteten, haben wir alle ein besseres Verständnis von der Sprachen, und sehr viele Geschichten miteinander zu teilen. Man kann nur voraussagen, daß die Brüder in der Zukunft uns immer noch unterhalten und erziehen werden.
    BROTHERS GRIMM ONLINE: (auf Deutsch): Kinder- und Hausmärchen — Deutsche Sagen — Die Märchen
    (in English translations): Fairy Tales, Grimm's Fairy Tales, Grimm's Fairy Tales, Grimm's Household Tales — Children's and Household Tales
    1753 Henri-Pierre Danloux, French artist who died on 03 January 1809. — MORE ON DANLOUX AT ART “4” FEBRUARY — LINKS — Mademoiselle Rosalie Duthé
    1684 Catherine I Empress of Russia 1725-27, Dorpat, Estonia.
    1684 Matthys Balen, Flemish artist who died on 07 January 1766.
    1622 Johann Clauberg, French philosopher and theologian who died on 31 January 1665. — Johann Clauberg ist Cartesianer. Er war Professor in Herborn und Duisburg. Clauberg führt die Wechselwirkung zwischen Leib und Seele auf den Willen Gottes zurück. Damit nähert er sich dem Okkasionalismus. Alle Dinge sind nach Clauberg Schöpfungen des göttlichen Geistes. Clauberg schreibt: Logica est ars ratione utendi. Er unterscheidet die potentia, (agendi possibilitas) und die Fähigkeit (facultas).
    1619 Charles Le Brun, French painter, designer and decorator who died on 12 February 1690
    1613 Mattia Pretti “il Calabrese”, Italian artist who died on 03 January 1699.
    1541 Santiago, Chile, founded by Pedro de Valvidia
    1536 Clement VIII [Ippolito Aldofireini], Fano Italy, last Counter-Reformation pope (1592-1605)
    1500 Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. who would reign from 1519 to 1556. It was Charles who officially pronounced Martin Luther an outlaw and heretic. — Carlos I de España y V de Alemania, monarca español.
    1463 Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola, Italian scholar and philosopher who died on 17 November 1494. — PICO ONLINE: Libro detto strega o delle illusioni del demonio — (in English translation): Oration on the Dignity of Man
    Holidays / Cuba : Baire Uprising / Indiana : Vincennes Day-George Clark's defeat of British (1779) / México : Flag Day
    Santoral: Santos Modesto, Sergio, Flaviano, Lucio y Julián.
    Tinibrainer Dictionary: bulldozer — n. m. male cattle addicted to frequent naps.
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