February 29 in History

Historical Events on February 29

1504 Christopher Columbus uses his knowledge of a lunar eclipse that night to convince Native Americans to provide him with supplies.

1752 King Alaungpaya founds Konbaung Dynasty, the last dynasty of Burmese monarchy.

1892 St. Petersburg, Florida is incorporated.

1940 For her performance as "Mammy" in Gone with the Wind, Hattie McDaniel becomes the first African American to win an Academy Award.

1940 Finland initiates Winter War peace negotiations.

1940 In a ceremony held in Berkeley, California, because of the war, physicist Ernest Lawrence receives the 1939 Nobel Prize in Physics from Sweden's Consul General in San Francisco.

1972 Vietnam War: Vietnamization: South Korea withdraws 11,000 of its 48,000 troops from Vietnam.

1988 South African archbishop Desmond Tutu is arrested along with 100 clergymen during a five-day anti-apartheid demonstration in Cape Town.

2000 Second Chechen War: Eighty-four Russian paratroopers are killed in a rebel attack on a guard post near Ulus Kert.

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Famous Birthdays on February 29

1792 Gioachino Rossini

1916 Dinah Shore

1956 Aileen Wuornos

1976 Ja Rule

All Births

Famous Deaths on February 29

1928 Ina Coolbrith

1940 E. F. Benson

1956 Elpidio Quirino

2012 Davy Jones (musician)

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