{"id":299537,"date":"2026-02-24T09:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T09:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/299537\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T09:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T09:36:08","slug":"on-this-day-feb-24-scientists-announce-oldest-known-fragment-from-earths-crust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/299537\/","title":{"rendered":"On This Day, Feb. 24: Scientists announce oldest-known fragment from Earth’s crust"},"content":{"rendered":"

1 of 6 | On Feb. 24, 2014, scientists announced that a tiny zircon crystal from Australia, 4.4 billion years old, was confirmed to be the oldest discovered fragment of Earth’s crust. Photo courtesy of John Valley<\/p>\n

Feb. 24 (UPI) — On this date in history:<\/p>\n

In 1803, the U.S. Supreme Court, in its Marbury v. Madison decision, established the principle of judicial review, which gave federal courts the ability to strike down laws and actions they deem unconstitutional.\n<\/p>\n

In 1868, Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Abraham Lincoln, was impeached by the U.S. House. Johnson, the first U.S. president to be impeached, was acquitted by a single vote three weeks later, ending a three-week trial in the Senate.<\/p>\n

In 1916, under the eyes of the Kaiser, the German Crown Prince Wilhelm and his army smashed their way<\/a> toward the fortress of Verdun, in France.<\/p>\n

In 1933, Japan shocked the world, withdrawing from the League of Nations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 1945, U.S. troops took the Philippines capital of Manila from the Japanese<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 1946, Juan Per\u00f3n was elected president of Argentina.<\/p>\n

In 1968, South Vietnam recapture the city of Hue<\/a>, as the Tet Offensive<\/a> comes to an end after 25 days of brutal combat.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tUPI File Photo\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

In 1981, Britain’s Prince Charles announced his engagement<\/a> to Lady Diana Spencer.<\/p>\n

In 1988, the U.S. Supreme Court defended the right<\/a> to satirize public figures when it voted 8-0 to overturn a $200,000 settlement awarded the Rev. Jerry Falwell over a parody of him in Hustler magazine.<\/p>\n

In 1989, nine people were killed when a 10-by-40-foot section<\/a> of a United Airlines 747 ripped away from the jetliner’s outer skin on a flight from Hawaii to New Zealand.<\/p>\n

In 1991, after weeks of airstrikes, U.S.-led coalition forces began a ground campaign<\/a> into Kuwait and southern Iraq as part of the Gulf War.<\/p>\n

In 1992, General Motors announced a record $4.5 billion loss in 1991 and said it would close 21 plants<\/a> and idle 74,000 workers over four years.<\/p>\n

In 1995, diver Greg Louganis, who won four gold medals in the Olympic Games in 1984 and 1988, revealed he had AIDS during an interview on ABC’s 20\/20. News of his revelation hit the news days earlier<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFile Photo by Monika Graff\/UPI\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

In 2004, an earthquake struck Morocco, killing about 600 people<\/a> and injuring hundreds more.<\/p>\n

In 2014, scientists announced<\/a> that a tiny zircon crystal from Australia, 4.4 billion years old, was confirmed to be the oldest discovered fragment of Earth’s crust.<\/p>\n

In 2020, a New York City jury found former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein guilty of third-degree rape and first-degree sexual assault in a case<\/a> that launched the #MeToo movement. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison in March 2020.<\/p>\n

In 2022, after weeks of warnings from the West and Kiev, Russia launched an attack<\/a> against Ukraine under orders from President Vladimir Putin, who described it as the start of a “special military operation.” Nearly a year later, about 7,200 civilians<\/a> were dead as a result of the war.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFile Photo by Vladyslav Musiienko \/UPI\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"1 of 6 | On Feb. 24, 2014, scientists announced that a tiny zircon crystal from Australia, 4.4…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[111,139,69,147,38],"class_list":{"0":"post-299537","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-newzealand","10":"tag-nz","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-top-stories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}