Today in History: February 24, Jerry Falwell loses to Larry Flynt at the Supreme Court

Contents

Today in history:Also on this date:Today’s birthdays:

Today is Tuesday, Feb. 24, the 55th day of 2026. There are 310 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Feb. 24, 1988, in a ruling that expanded legal protections for parody and satire, the Supreme Court unanimously overturned a $200,000 award that the Rev. Jerry Falwell had won against Hustler magazine and its publisher, Larry Flynt.

Also on this date:

In 1803, in its landmark Marbury v. Madison decision, the U.S. Supreme Court established the foundational principle of judicial review of the constitutionality of laws and statutes.

In 1868, the U.S. House of Representatives impeached President Andrew Johnson by a vote of 126-47 following his attempted dismissal of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton; Johnson was later acquitted by the Senate by a single vote.

In 1942, the SS Struma, a charter ship attempting to carry nearly 800 Jewish refugees from Romania to British-mandated Palestine, was torpedoed by a Soviet submarine in the Black Sea; all but one of the refugees died.

In 1981, a jury in White Plains, New York, found Jean Harris guilty of second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of “Scarsdale Diet” author Dr. Herman Tarnower. (Sentenced to 15 years to life in prison, Harris was granted clemency by New York Gov. Mario Cuomo in December 1992.)

In 1991, the United States began ground operations in the Gulf War by entering Iraqi-held Kuwait.

In 2008, Cuba’s parliament named Raul Castro president, ending nearly 50 years of rule by his brother, Fidel, who announced days earlier that he would not seek reelection. Raul Castro served as president until April 2018.

In 2011, Discovery, the world’s most traveled spaceship, thundered into orbit for the final time, heading toward the International Space Station on a journey marking the beginning of the end of the shuttle era.

In 2020, Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was convicted of rape and sexual assault in New York and was led off to prison in handcuffs in a pivotal moment for the #MeToo movement. An appeals court later threw out the verdict and ordered a new trial, but Weinstein remained behind bars after other convictions.

In 2022, Russia began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, launching airstrikes on cities and military bases and sending troops and tanks from multiple directions.