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2024 Calendar

February 29 is the 60th day of a leap year in the Gregorian calendar. It is sometimes called "leap day" or "bissextile day". Only leap years have February 29.

Events

Up to 1948

1504 – Christopher Columbus uses his knowledge of a lunar eclipse that night to convince Native Americans to give him supplies.
1644 – Abel Tasman's second voyage to the Pacific Ocean begins.
1704 – Queen Anne's War: French forces and Native Americans attack and destroy Deerfield, Massachusetts, killing 100 men, women, and children.
1712 – February 29 is followed by February 30 in Sweden, so that they can stop using the Swedish calendar and return to the Julian calendar.
1720 – Frederick I of Sweden becomes King.
1860 – Australian bushranger Ben Hall marries Biddy Walsh at Bathurst, New South Wales.
1880 – Cutting for the St. Gotthard Tunnel in Switzerland is completed.
1916 – Tokelau is annexed by the United Kingdom.
1932 – TIME magazine features odd American politician William "Alfalfa" Murray on its cover after Murray said he planned to run for President of the United States.
1936 – In Japan, the February 26 coup attempt is ended.
1940 – Hattie McDaniel becomes the first African American to win an Academy Award. The award of "Best Supporting Actress" was for her role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind.
1940 – Finland begins Winter War peace negotiations.
1940 – Physicist Ernest Lawrence gets his 1939 Nobel Prize in Physics.
1944 – World War II: The Admiralty Islands are invaded.

From 1952

1952 – The island of Heligoland is returned to German authority.
1956 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower says that he is running for a second term.
1960 – An earthquake in Morocco kills over 3,000 people and nearly destroys Agadir in the southern part of the country.
1964 – In Sydney, Australian swimmer Dawn Fraser sets a new world record in the 100–meter freestyle swimming competition (58.9 seconds).
1972 – Vietnam War: South Korea removes 11,000 of its 48,000 troops from Vietnam.
1972 – Hank Aaron becomes the first player in the history of Major League Baseball to sign a $200,000 contract.
1980 – In ice hockey Gordie Howe, playing for the then–Hartford Whalers, makes NHL history by scoring his 800th goal.
1984 – Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau says that he will retire as soon as the Liberal Party of Canada chooses another leader.
1988 – South African archbishop Desmond Tutu is arrested during a five–day anti–apartheid demonstration in Cape Town. 100 clergymen are also arrested.
1988 – Svend Robinson becomes the first Canadian Member of Parliament to come out as gay.
1992 – First day of Bosnia and Herzegovina's independence referendum.
1996 – In Bosnia and Herzegovina the siege of Sarajevo ends.
1996 – A Peruvian Boeing 737 crashes in the Andes, killing 123 people.
2000 – Six year old Dedrick Owens shoots and kills Kayla Rolland, also six years old, at Theo J. Buell Elementary School in Mount Morris Township, Michigan. Rolland is currently the youngest American victim of a school shooting [1] Archived 2006-12-18 at the Wayback Machine
2004 – Jean-Bertrand Aristide steps down as President of Haiti following popular rebel uprising.
2004 – The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King wins the award for "Best Picture", along with 10 other awards, at the 76th annual Academy Awards.
2012 – The Tokyo Sky Tree in Tokyo, Japan, is completed at a height of 634 metres.

Births

A person who was born on February 29 may be called a "leapling". In non–leap years they usually celebrate their birthday on February 28 or March 1.

Different countries have different laws about people who are born on February 29. In Taiwan, the law says that the birthday of a leapling is February 28 in years that are not leap years.

The well–known superhero Superman is often said to have his birthday on February 29.