Reuters historical calendar - February 24

LONDON, Feb 23 (Reuters) Following are some of the major events to have occurred on Feb. 24 since 1900: 1920 - Lady Astor, the first woman member of the British parliament, made her maiden speech.

1920 - Adolf Hitler's Nazi movement outlined its programme for creating a Third German Reich.

1938 - Nylon was produced for the first time, in Arlington, New Jersey. It was used for toothbrush bristles.

1945 - Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Maher Pasha was shot dead in parliament immediately after reading a declaration of war on Germany and Japan.

1946 - Juan Peron was elected president of Argentina.

1966 - Ghana's President Kwame Nkrumah was overthrown in an army coup.

1974 - Pakistan recognised Bangladesh as an independent country.

1975 - Nikolai Bulganin, Soviet prime minister from 1955-58, died.

1991 - The Gulf War ground campaign began with an allied night attack. More than 14,000 Iraqis were captured in the first 24 hours of fighting.

1994 - Syria granted exit visas to all 1,000 Syrian Jews still living in the country, allowing them to travel abroad if they wished.

1996 - Islamic militants killed 27 people and wounded 77 in two revenge bombing attacks in Israel.

2000 - The UN Security Council authorised a 5,500-member force to monitor a shaky ceasefire in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

2003 - A strong earthquake struck China's northwestern region of Xinjiang, killing 268 people, injuring more than 4,000 and flattening more than 1,000 homes.

2004 - Seychelles President Albert Rene, one of Africa's longest-serving rulers, announced his retirement as head of state after 27 years in power.

2004 - A strong earthquake hit northern Morocco, killing 572 people and rendering 30,000 homeless.

REUTERS CS SSC1039