February 29Birthdays & History

On this day: February 29 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 888Odo, count of Paris, is crowned king of West Francia (France) by Archbishop Walter of Sens at Compiègne.Europe
2. 1504Christopher Columbus uses his knowledge of a lunar eclipse that night to convince Jamaican natives to provide him with supplies.Latin America
3. 1644Abel Tasman's second Pacific voyage begins as he leaves Batavia in command of three ships.Asia
4. 1704In Queen Anne's War, French forces and Native Americans stage a raid on Deerfield, Massachusetts Bay Colony, killing 56 villagers and taking more than 100 captive.EuropeNorth America
5. 1712February 29 is followed by February 30 in Sweden, in a move to abolish the Swedish calendar for a return to the Julian calendar.Europe
6. 1720Ulrika Eleonora, Queen of Sweden abdicates in favour of her husband, who becomes King Frederick I on March 24.Europe
7. 1768Polish nobles form the Bar Confederation.Europe
8. 1796The Jay Treaty between the United States and Great Britain comes into force, facilitating ten years of peaceful trade between the two nations.North AmericaEurope
9. 1892St. Petersburg, Florida is incorporated.North America
10. 1908James Madison University is founded at Harrisonburg, Virginia, United States as The State Normal and Industrial School for Women by the Virginia General Assembly.North America
11. 1912The Piedra Movediza (Moving Stone) of Tandil falls and breaks.Latin America
12. 1916Tokelau is annexed by the United Kingdom.Europe
13. 1916In South Carolina, the minimum working age for factory, mill and mine workers is raised from 12 to 14 years old.North America
14. 1920The Czechoslovak National Assembly adopts the Constitution.Europe
15. 1924The Victorian Football League created the Brownlow Medal to honour deceased administrator Charles Brownlow, now awarded to the "fairest and best" player in the Australian Football League.Oceania
16. 1936The February 26 Incident in Tokyo ends.Asia
17. 1940For her performance as Mammy in Gone with the Wind, Hattie McDaniel becomes the first African American to win an Academy Award.AfricaNorth America
18. 1940Finland initiates Winter War peace negotiations.Europe
19. 1940In a ceremony held in Berkeley, California, physicist Ernest Lawrence receives the 1939 Nobel Prize in Physics from Sweden's consul general in San Francisco.North AmericaEurope
20. 1944The Admiralty Islands are invaded in Operation Brewer, led by American general Douglas MacArthur, in World War II.North America
21. 1960The 5.7 Mw Agadir earthquake shakes coastal Morocco with a maximum perceived intensity of X (Extreme), destroying Agadir and leaving 12,000 dead and another 12,000 injured.Africa
22. 1964British Eagle International Airlines Flight 802/6 crashes into the Glungezer mountain in the Tux Alps of Austria, killing all 75 people aboard.Europe
23. 1968Aeroflot Flight 15 crashes Irkutsk Oblast, Soviet Union, due to a loss of control. Eighty-three of the 84 occupants onboard die. The exact cause of the accident is unknown.Europe
24. 1972South Korea withdraws 11,000 of its 48,000 troops from South Vietnam as part of Nixon's Vietnamization policy in the Vietnam War.Asia
25. 1980Gordie Howe of the Hartford Whalers makes NHL history as he scores his 800th goal.North America
26. 1984Pierre Trudeau announces his retirement as Liberal Party leader and Prime Minister of Canada.North America
27. 1988Svend Robinson becomes the first member of the House of Commons of Canada to come out as gay.North America
28. 1988South African archbishop Desmond Tutu is arrested along with 100 other clergymen during a five-day anti-apartheid demonstration in Cape Town.Africa
29. 1992A referendum is begun in Bosnia and Herzegovina for the determination of Bosnian independence.Europe
30. 1996The Siege of Sarajevo officially ends.Europe
31. 1996Faucett Perú Flight 251 crashes in the Andes; all 123 passengers and crew are killed.Latin America
32. 2000Chechens attack a guard post near Ulus Kert, eventually killing 84 Russian paratroopers during the Second Chechen War.Europe
33. 2004Angelina Jolie wears a White Marc Bouwer dress to the 76th Academy Awards, which has since been placed on numerous lists for best Oscars fashion.North America
34. 2004Jean-Bertrand Aristide is removed as president of Haiti following a coup.Latin America
35. 2008The United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence withdraws Prince Harry from a tour of Afghanistan after news of his deployment is leaked to foreign media.EuropeAsia
36. 2008Misha Defonseca admits to fabricating her memoir, Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years, in which she claims to have lived with a pack of wolves in the woods during the Holocaust.Europe
37. 2012North Korea agrees to suspend uranium enrichment and nuclear and long-range missile tests in return for US food aid.AsiaNorth America
38. 2016In the Miqdadiyah bombing: at least 40 people are killed and 58 others wounded following a suicide bombing by ISIL at a Shi'ite funeral in the city of Miqdadiyah, Diyala, Iraq.Middle East
39. 2020During a demonstration, pro-government colectivos shoot at disputed President and Speaker of the National Assembly Juan Guaidó and his supporters in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, leaving five injured.Latin America
40. 2020Muhyiddin Yassin is appointed as the 8th Prime Minister of Malaysia, amid the 2020 Malaysian political crisis.Asia
41. 2020Luxembourg becomes the first country in the world to render public transport free nationwide.Europe
42. 2020The United States and the Taliban sign the Doha Agreement for bringing peace to Afghanistan.North AmericaAsia
43. 2024The Flour Massacre took place in the Gaza Strip: Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinians waiting for aid amidst the Gaza war, killing over 100 and wounding 750.Middle East

Source: Wikipedia "February 29" / CC BY-SA 4.0