On February 29th...

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1468 Alessandro Farnese, the future Pope Paul III, was born.

1692 Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba, an Indian servant, became the first people to be accused of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts.

1704 French and Indians attacked Deerfield, Massachusetts, killing 50 residents and abducting 100.

1712 Marquis de Montcalm, French commander in Quebec, was born.

1792 Operatic composer Gioacchino Antonio Rossini was born.

1796 Jay's Treaty was proclaimed.

1848 The Principality of Neuchâtel declared itself independent of Prussia.

1880 The Gotthard railway tunnel between Switzerland and Italy was completed.

1892 St. Petersburg, Florida, was incorporated.

1904 Band leader Tommy Dorsey was born.

1908 Dutch scientists produced solid helium.
1908 Pat Garrett, killer of Billy the Kid, died.

1916 Singer Dinah Shore was born.

1920 Czechoslovakia adopted a constitution.
1920 Actor James Mitchell was born.

1936 Astronaut Jack Robert Lousma was born.

1940 Hattie McDaniel became the first black to win an Academy Award.

1944 Actor Dennis Farina was born.

1952 The island of Heligoland was restored to German authority.

1956 An Islamic Republic was formed in Pakistan.

1960 Two earthquakes, a tidal wave, and fire killed an estimated 20,000 persons in Agadir, Morocco.
1960 The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously reversed the decision of a U.S. District Court in Georgia, which had held as unconstitutional a provision of the 1957 Civil Rights Act permitting the Justice Department to bring civil suits in behalf of people deprived of voting rights.
1960 Eighteen southern Democratic Senators began a filibuster against proposed U.S. civil rights legislation.
1960 The first Playboy Club opened in Chicago, Illinois.
1960 Motivational speaker Tony Robbins was born.

1964 A British Eagle International Airlines Britannia turbojet hit Mount Glungezer, in the Austrian Alps, and burned, killing all 83 persons aboard.
1964 A son, James, was born to Princess Alexandra of the United Kingdom and Angus Ogilvy.

1968 Romania withdrew its delegates from a Soviet-sponsored meeting of 67 Communist parties being held in Budapest, Hungary.

2004 Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigned as President of Haiti.

2012 Singer Davy Jones died.

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This page was last updated on February 28, 2018.