February 24 birthdays & history

Famous people born on February 24

• 1955Steve Jobs, American businessman, co-founded Apple Computer and Pixar
• 1500Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
• 1956Judith Butler, American philosopher, theorist, and author
• 1536Pope Clement VIII, Head of the Catholic Church from 1592 to 1605
• 1463Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Italian philosopher
• 1944David Wineland, American physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology
• 1955Alain Prost, French race car driver
• 1967Brian Schmidt, Australian astrophysicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1977Floyd Mayweather Jr., American boxer
• 1966Billy Zane, American actor and producer

What happened on February 24

• 1607Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, considered the first fully developed opera, premiered in Mantua.
• 1711George Frideric Handel's Rinaldo, the first Italian-language opera written specifically for the London stage, premiered.
• 1803In Marbury v. Madison, the Supreme Court declared an act of Congress unconstitutional for the first time, forming the basis of judicial review in the United States.
• 1812Treaty of Paris between Napoleon and Frederick William III of Prussia against Russia is signed.
• 1822The first Swaminarayan temple in the world, Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Ahmedabad, is inaugurated.
• 1831The 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.
• 1854A Penny Red with perforations becomes the first perforated postage stamp to be officially issued for distribution.
• 1863Arizona is organized as a United States territory.
• 1876The stage première of Peer Gynt, a play by Henrik Ibsen with incidental music by Edvard Grieg, takes place in Christiania (Oslo), Norway.
• 1881China and Russia sign the Sino-Russian Ili Treaty.
• 1918Estonian Declaration of Independence.
• 1920Nancy Astor becomes the first woman to speak in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom following her election as a Member of Parliament (MP) three months earlier.

Also observed on February 24

• Dragobete (Romania)
• Engineer's Day (Iran)
• Flag Day in Mexico
• National Artist Day (Thailand)
• Sweden Finns' Day (Sweden)