Today In History - February 29

1504 Christopher Columbus uses a lunar eclipse to frighten hostile Jamaican Indians
1692 Sarah Good and Tituba, an Indian servant, accused of witchcraft, Salem
1704 French and Indians attack Deerfield, Massachusetts, kill 50, abduct 100
1720 Queen Ulrica Eleonora of Sweden resigns
1784 Marquis de Sade transferred from Vincennes fortress to the Bastille
1796 Jay's Treaty proclaimed, settles some differences with England
1816 Dutch King Willem II marries Russian grand-duchess Anna Paulowna
1832 Charles Darwin visits jungle near Bahia Brazil
1836 Giacomo Meyerbeers opera "Les Huguenots," premieres in Paris
1848 Neufchatel declares independence of Switzerland
1856 Hostilities in Russo-Turkish War cease
1868 first British government of Disraeli forms
1880 Gotthard railway tunnel between Switzerland and Italy completed
1892 Britian and U.S. sign treaty on seal hunting in Bering Sea
1904 Theodore Roosevelt, appoints 7 man committee to study Panama Canal
1908 Dutch scientists produce solid helium
1932 Failed coup attempt by fascist Lapua Movement in Finland
1936 Franklin D. Roosevelt signs 2nd neutrality act
1940 "Gone with the Wind" wins 8 Oscars
1940 45 U boats sunk this month (170,000 ton)
1940 Frederic from G and S "Pirates of Penzance" finally released by pirate
1940 Hattie McDaniel becomes the first black woman to win an Oscar
1944 5 leaders of Indonesia Communist Party sentenced to death
1944 U.S. troop land on Los Negros, Admirality Islands
1948 Stern-group bomb Cairo-Haifa train, 27 British soldiers died
1952 Ice Dance Championship at Paris France won by Westwood and Demmy GRB
1952 Ice Pairs Championship at Paris won by Ria Falk and Paul Falk of GER
1952 Ladies Figure Skating Champ in Paris won by Jacqueline du Bief of FRA
1952 Men's Figure Skating Championship in Paris won by Richard Button USA
1956 Islamic Republic forms in Pakistan
1956 President Eisenhower announces he would seek a 2nd term
1960 The first Playboy Club featuring Bunnies, opens in Chicago
1960 Bil Keane's "Family Circus" cartoon strip debuts
1960 Earthquake kills 1/3 of Agadir Morocco population (12,000) in 15 sec
1960 John F. Kennedy makes missile gap the presidential campaign issue
1960 KRET TV channel 23 in Richardson, Texas (PBS) begins broadcasting
1964 "Rugantino" closes at Mark Hellinger Theater New York City after 28 performances
1964 Frank Rugani sets badminton shuttlecock distance record, 24.3 m
1964 Lyndon Baines Johnson reveals U.S. secretly developed the A-11 jet fighter
1964 North Carolina high school basketball teams play to 56-54 score in 13 overtime
1968 first pulsar announced (CP 1919 by Jocelyn Burnell at Cambridge)
1968 Beatles' "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" wins Grammy
1968 Howard Hanson's 6th Symphony, premieres
1968 National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (Kerner Comm) reports against racism and demands aid given to blacks
1968 U.S. ends regular flights with nuclear bombs
1968 U.S. performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1972 Hank Aaron becomes the first baseball player to sign for $200,000 a year
1972 Jack Anderson discloses Dita Beard (ITT) memo indicating antitrust charges were dropped for $400,000 contribution to Republican Party
1980 Gordie Howe becomes first NHL player to score 800 career goals
1980 Michael Bracey ends 59 h 55 m trapped in an elevator, England
1984 Canadian PM Pierre Elliott Trudeau announced he is stepping down
1988 KWK-FM in St. Louis Missouri changes call letters to WKBG
1988 Mark Greatbatch scores 107* vs. England on Test Cricket debut
1988 Nazi document implicates Waldheim in WW II deportations
1988 New York City Mayor Koch calls Reagan a "WIMP" in the war on drugs
1992 Dawn Coe wins LPGA Women's Kemper Golf Open
1992 Professional Spring Football League begins
1996 Kenya defeat West Indies in Cricket World Cup

Today In History - February 29

On This Date in History

Famous Persons Born on This Date in History