February 24

Events

• 391: Emperor Theodosius I outlaws paganism.
• 1931: Athenagoras becomes Archbishop of North and South America.
• 1948: American General James Van Fleet arrives in Greece to assist the national forces against the Democratic Army of Greece in the Greek Civil War.
• 1975: An attempted coup d'etat against the Karamanlis government is foiled. As many of the officers involved were arrested in the middle of the night, this goes down in history as the "Pyjamas coup d'etat".
• 1981: An earthquake (6.6 on the Richter scale) strikes NE of Peloponnesus near Athens.
• 1983: The SS "Golden Dawn" sinks off the coast of Euboea. 26 passengers drown.
• 2008: AKEL chairman, Dimitris Christofias, is elected President of Cyprus, receiving 53.36% of the votes cast in the runoff against MEP Ioannis Kasoulidis.
• 2012: Ex-New Democracy MP Panos Kammenos announces the formation of the Independent Greeks political party.

Sports

• 1991: Nikos Machlas makes his debut with OFI.

Births

• 1934: Yiota Lydia, singer.
• 1934: Christos Lambrakis, publisher.

Deaths

• 1842: Nikolaos Zosimas, natioonal benefactor.
• 1980: Giorgos Andrianopoulos football player and Piraeus mayor.
• 1985: Giorgos Yiamalis, football player.