1504: A lunar eclipse saved explorer Christopher Columbus’s life. Jamaican Indians were hostile on this day, but after the eclipse happened, the skies darkened. Indians surrendered and told Christopher Columbus they would cooperate with him so long as he restored the moon. Christopher Columbus uses his knowledge of a lunar eclipse that night to convince Native Americans to provide him with supplies.
1712: February 29 is followed by February 30 in Sweden, in a move to abolish the Swedish calendar for a return to the Old style.
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1796: The Jay Treaty between the United States and Great Britain comes into force, facilitating ten years of peaceful trade between the two nations.
1832: Charles Darwin explored Bahia, San Salvador, Brazil, and fell in love with its variety of plants, flowers, animals & insects.
1916: Child labour – In South Carolina, the minimum working age for factory, mill, and mine workers is raised from twelve to fourteen years old.
1960: Hugh Hefner opened his first Playboy Club in Chicago featuring Bunny Girls, scantily clad waitresses wearing rabbit ears and fluffy tails.
1940: For her role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind, Hattie McDaniel becomes the first African American to win an Academy Award.
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.
1964: In Sydney, Australian swimmer Dawn Fraser sets a new world record in the 100-meter freestyle swimming competition (58.9 seconds).
1988: South African archbishop Desmond Tutu is arrested along with 100 clergymen during a five-day anti-apartheid demonstration in Cape Town.
1996: The siege of Sarajevo is lifted after nearly 4 years. The siege of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital during the Bosnian War was the longest-lasting siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare.
1996: A Boeing 737 crashes in the Andes, killing all 123 on board. A wrong barometric altimeter setting caused the pilots to fly too low during an approach to Rodríguez Ballón International Airport in Arequipa, Peru.
2004: Jean-Bertrand Aristide is removed as President of Haiti. The country’s first democratically elected president was toppled in a coup d’etat following the assassination of a gang leader. Aristide went into exile in South Africa and returned to Haiti in 2011.
2012: The world’s tallest tower is completed. The Tokyo Skytree measures 634 m (2080 ft). It is also the world’s second tallest man-made structure, after Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
2016: Seychelles’ cabinet approves legislation to remove homosexuality from the penal code. The removal of the law is required by the country to conform with the UN Declaration of Human Rights.
2020: Mahraganat, the street music of Egypt’s poor and marginalised, who expressed their woes and political criticisms in songs is banned by the increasingly autocratic administration of Abdel el-Sisi. Egypt’s religious authorities go further, issuing a fatwa against those who listen to the song of the oppressed.
Births on this day February 29
Mervyn Warren, 60
Mervyn Edwin Warren is an American film composer, record producer, conductor, arranger, lyricist, songwriter, pianist, and vocalist. Warren is a five-time Grammy Award winner and a 10-time Grammy Award nominee. Warren has written the underscore and songs for many feature and television films.
Wendi Peters, 56 years
Wendi Louise Peters is an English actress. Peters began her acting career in theatre, with appearances in various productions including The Scarlet Pimpernel, Guys and Dolls, Into the Woods, Bedroom Farce, and Noises Off.
Ja Rule, 48
Jeffrey Bruce Atkins Sr., better known by his stage name Ja Rule, is an American rapper. Born and raised in New York City, Ja Rule became known as a leading figure in 2000s hip hop for his blending of gangsta rap with commercially-oriented pop sensibilities.
Korede Bello, 28
Korede Bello is a Nigerian singer and songwriter. He signed a record deal with Mavin Records in 2014. Bello is best known for his hit single “Godwin”, a semi-gospel and pop song which became a national anthem and topped many music charts across Nigeria.
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