1868: President Andrew Johnson impeached: The U.S. House of Representatives votes 11 articles of impeachment against President Andrew Johnson, nine of which cite Johnson’s removal of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, a violation of the Tenure of Office Act. The House vote made President Johnson the first president to be impeached in U.S. history. More here

1945: Egyptian Premier Ahmed Maher Pasha is killed in Parliament after reading a decree: After assuming power he called for new elections and opposed the candidacies of members of the Muslim Brotherhood, against whom he had declared a fatwa. All Muslim Brotherhood members were defeated in what were widely considered to be unfair elections. Maher then declared war against the Axis Powers in World War II, primarily to gain a diplomatic advantage at the end of the war (which was seen as imminent). Immediately after his announcement, Maher was assassinated at parliament by 28-year-old Mustafa Essawy. Although it was assumed that Essawy was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, he later confessed that he was actually a member of the Wafd Party instead. More here

1982: Reagan announces Caribbean Basin Initiative: 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. More here

1988: Supreme Court defends right to satirize public figures: The U.S. Supreme Court votes 8-0 to overturn the $200,000 settlement awarded to the Reverend Jerry Falwell for his emotional distress at being parodied in Hustler, a pornographic magazine. More here

1989: United Airlines Flight 811, bound for New Zealand from Honolulu, Hawaii, rips open during flight: The aircraft experienced a cargo door failure in flight on Friday, February 24, 1989, after its stopover at Honolulu International Airport, Hawaii. The resulting decompression blew out several rows of seats, killing 9 passengers. The aircraft involved was a Boeing 747-122 (c/n 19875/89, reg N4713U), delivered to United Airlines on October 20, 1970.

Flight 811 took off from Honolulu International Airport bound for Auckland, New Zealand with 3 flight crew, 15 flight attendants, and 337 passengers at approximately 01:52 HST.^[1] Its flight crew consisted of Captain David Cronin, First Officer Al Slater and Flight Engineer Randal Thomas.

During the climb, the crew made preparations to detour around thunderstorms along the aircraft’s track; anticipating turbulence, the captain kept the seat-belt sign lit. Around this time (02:08) the plane had been flying for approximately 16 minutes and was passing between 22,000 and 23,000 feet (6,700–7,000 m). In the business-class section, a grinding noise was heard, followed by a loud thud which rattled the whole aircraft — 1½ seconds later the forward cargo-door blew out abruptly. The pressure differential caved in the main cabin floor above the door, causing ten seats (8G&H through 12G&H) and an individual seated in 9F to be ejected from the cabin, resulting in nine fatalities (seats 8G and 12G were empty) and leaving a gaping hole in the aircraft. The fatalities were: Anthony and Barbara Fallon, Harry and Susan Craig, Lee Campbell, Dr. J Michael Crawford, John Swan, Rose Harley and Mary Handley-Desso. Mae Sapolu, a flight-attendant in the Business-Class cabin, was almost pulled out of the plane, but was seen by passengers and fellow crew clinging to a seat leg; they were able to pull her to safety inside the cabin, although she was severely injured. The pilots began an emergency descent to get the aircraft rapidly down to breathable air, while performing a 180-degree left turn to take them back to Honolulu. The decompression had damaged components of the on-board emergency oxygen supply system, which is primarily located in the forward cargo sidewall area, just aft of the cargo door. More here

2008: Fidel Castro retires as the President of Cuba after nearly fifty years: Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban political leader and former communist revolutionary. As the primary leader of the Cuban Revolution, Castro served as the Prime Minister of Cuba from February 1959 to December 1976, and then as the President of the Council of State of Cuba and the President of Council of Ministers of Cuba until his resignation from the office in February 2008. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party’s foundation in 1961. His younger brother Raúl Castro is currently Second Secretary of the Communist Party and President of the Councils of State and Ministers and previously served under Fidel as Minister of Defence in 1959-2008. More here

More today in History here and here

Previous entries here