Reuters historical calendar - March 24

London, Mar 23 (Reuters) Following are some of the major events to have occurred on March 24 in history: 1905 - Jules Verne, French novelist who wrote ''Around the World in Eighty Days'', died.

1909 - J.M. Synge, Irish playwright best known for his humorous masterpiece ''The Playboy of the Western World'', died.

1949 - A father and son won Hollywood Oscar awards for the first time. Walter Huston starred in ''The Treasure of the Sierra Madre'', directed by his son John.

1965 - The US spacecraft Ranger 9 crash-landed on the moon.

Some of the 5,000 pictures it sent back were broadcast live on TV for the first time.

1976 - President Isabel Peron of Argentina was deposed in a bloodless coup; General Jorge Videla was named president.

1976 - British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery died. He defeated the Germans at El Alamein, helping to change the course of World War Two in North Africa.

1980 - Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero was shot dead by right-wing hit squads while preparing for mass in San Salvador.

1982 - Lieutenant-General Mohammad Hossain Ershad declared himself martial law leader of Bangladesh after a military coup.

1996 - Former Marxist military ruler Mathieu Kerekou staged a comeback in Benin, being proclaimed winner of the West African nation's second multi-party presidential election.

2001 - Three car bombs exploded in two volatile southern republics near Russia's rebel Chechnya province, killing 23 people.

2002 - For the first time in Oscar's 74 years, two black actors won awards for best actor and best actress: Denzel Washington for ''Training Day'' and Halle Berry for ''Monster's Ball.'' ''A Beautiful Mind'' won best picture.

2002 - Dorothy DeLay, a Juilliard School violin teacher since 1948 and musical powerhouse whose students over a half-century included luminaries such as Itzhak Perlman and Midori, died.

2003 - Clonaid, the company which claimed to have produced five cloned humans showed a photograph for the first time of what it says is a cloned baby.

2004 - US President George W. Bush waived sanctions on Pakistan, imposed after President Pervez Musharraf seized power in 1999, rewarding a key ally in the US-led war on terrorism.

2004 - European regulators rule Microsoft broke antitrust law and levy a record 497.2 million euros (611.8 million dollar) fine and order the company to stop illegally crushing software rivals.

**2005 - Former world chess champion Bobby Fischer was released from detention in Japan, allowing him to avoid deportation to the United States and head for Iceland, which had granted him citizenship.

**2005 - Kyrgyzstan's opposition seized power as veteran president Askar Akayev fled the country following days of violent protests.

REUTERS SK SP1347