el 24 de febrero

I’m officially middle-aged today, and am feeling a lot better about this than my
taste buds.

On this day in…

• 1821, Mexico declared its independence from Spain. I know, you were thinking this was what Cinco de Mayo was all about. Actually, Cinco de Mayo commemorates General Zaragoza in the 1862 Battle of Puebla against the French. So, I’m hoping that we’ll have a Veinte y Quatro de Febrero

• 1803: the Supreme Court ruled itself the final interpreter of constitutional issues. (Knowing the names of the nine supreme justices is one of many bits of useless trivia that I have stored in my noggin.) 185 years later, they would rule that the first amendment permits the right to satirize public figures.


• 1836: Santa Anna and his Mexican troops attack the Alamo.


• 1868: First US parade with floats (Mardi Gras, Mobile, AL)


• 1903: The United States signed an agreement acquiring a naval station at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.


• 1927: Fox demonstrates Movietone sound. This recorded the sound concurrently with the video, a shortcoming of Vitaphone. An interesting footnote is Movietone executive Truman Talley was so sure the Hindenburg would explode, he ordered cameramen to cover it constantly.
  
• 1986: Voyager II does first Uranus fly-by.


• 1991: Culmination of the first draft in World League American Football. (Director Mitch and I were roomies when I wrote this for rec.humor.funny.)


• 1991: The ground offensive of Operation Desert Storm to expel Iraq from Kuwait, begins. It was over in four days.


• 1995 — Dow Jones hits record of 4,011.74

Birthdays (of people I’ve heard of):

• Actor Barry Bostwick is 59
— Bostwick played “Brad Majors” in The Rocky Horror Picture Show with Susan Sarandon and Tim Curry.

• Actor Abe Vigoda is 83
— You know, Abe Vigoda.


• 1885 Admiral Chester Nimitz


• 1786 Wilhelm Grimm, the younger of the two Brothers Grimm (fairy tales for those of you without kids)

There were some interesting events occuring prior 1752, but I’m not sure how “February 24th” really maps prior to the adoption of the Gregorian Calendar.

Alan Taylor has a nice writeup on the “French Republican Calendar.”