484 – King Huneric removes the Christian bishops from their offices and banished some to Corsica. A few are martyred, including former proconsul Victorian along with Frumentius and other merchants. They are killed at Hadrumetum after refusing to become Arians.
1582 – Pope Gregory XIII announces the Gregorian calendar.
1803 – In Marbury v. Madison, the Supreme Court of the United States establishes the principle of judicial review.
1831 – The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, the first removal treaty in accordance with the Indian Removal Act, is proclaimed. The Choctaws in Mississippi cede land east of the river in exchange for payment and land in the West.
1863 – Arizona is organized as a United States territory.
1868 – Édouard Alphonse James de Rothschild, French financier and polo player (d. 1949) was born.
1868 – Andrew Johnson becomes the first President of the United States to be impeached by the United States House of Representatives. He is later acquitted in the Senate.
1875 – The SS Gothenburg hits the Great Barrier Reef and sinks off the Australian east coast, killing approximately 100, including a number of high profile civil servants and dignitaries.
1903 – The United States signed a leasing agreement between the US and Cuba , acquiring Guantanamo Bay a naval station at the southeastern end in Cuba
1917 – World War I: The U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom is given the Zimmermann Telegram, in which Germany pledges to ensure the return of New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona to Mexico if Mexico declares war on the United States.
1920 – The Nazi Party is founded.
1942 – The Battle of Los Angeles, one of the largest documented UFO sightings in history; the event lasted into the early hours of February 25, 1942.
1942 – An order-in-council passed under the Defence of Canada Regulations of the War Measures Act gives the Canadian federal government the power to intern all “persons of Japanese racial origin”.
1954 – Sid Meier, Canadian-American game designer and programmer, created the Civilization series was born
1955 – Steve Jobs, American businessman, co-founded Apple Inc. and Pixar (d. 2011) was born.
1956 – Paula Zahn, American journalist was born.
1976 – Cuba: national Constitution is proclaimed.
1980 – The United States Olympic Hockey team completes their Miracle on Ice by defeating Finland 4-2 to win the gold medal.
1983 – A special commission of the U.S. Congress releases a report that condemns the practice of Japanese internment during World War II.
1989 – Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini offers a US$3 million bounty for the death of The Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie.
1996 – The last occurrence of February 24 as a leap day in the European Union and for the Roman Catholic Church.
1999 – The State of Arizona executes Karl LaGrand, a German national convicted of murder during a botched bank robbery, in spite of Germany’s legal action to attempt to save him.
2006 – Don Knotts, American actor (b. 1924) died.
2008 – Fidel Castro the Cuban revolutionary who had ruled Cuba for nearly 50 years retires as the President of Cuba after nearly fifty years, his retirement was forced due to illness and the Cuban National Assembly elects Raúl Castro to succeed him as the President of Cuba
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