On This Day

Deaths in History on February 29

  • 468 Pope St. Hilarius (461-468), calendar reformer, dies (birth date unknown)
  • 1528 Patrick Hamilton, Scottish protestant martyr, burned at the stake in St Andrews at about 24
  • 1604 John Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury (1583-1604), dies at about 74
  • 1740 Pietro Ottoboni, Italian cardinal and grandnephew of Pope Alexander VIII, dies at 72
  • 1744 John Theophilus Desaguliers, French-British natural philosopher and freemason, dies at 60
  • 1820 Johann Joachim Eschenburg, German literary critic (b. 1743)
  • 1852 John Landseer, English printer and engraver (Royal Academy), dies (birth date unknown 1763-69)
  • 1868 Ludwig I, King of Bavaria (1825-48), dies at 81
  • 1880 Sir James Wilson, Premier of Tasmania (b. 1812, also on 29 February)
  • 1908 John Hope, 1st Marquess of Linlithgow, first Governor-General of Australia (as Lord Hopetoun)
  • 1908 Pat Garrett, American Western lawman, dies at 57
  • 1928 Adolphe Appia, Swiss set designer/theorist, dies at 65
  • 1928 Armando Diaz, Italian marshal and minister of War (1922-24), dies at 66
  • 1928 Ina Coolbrith, first poet laureate of California (b. 1841)
  • 1940 Edward Frederic Benson, English novelist, dies at 72
  • 1944 Pehr Evind Svinhufvud, President of Finland (b. 1861)

Elpidio QuirinoElpidio Quirino (1890-1956)

6th President of the Philippines (1949-53), dies at 65

Elpidio Quirino

Melvin PurvisMelvin Purvis (1903-1960)

American FBI agent that lead the manhunt for outlaws Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd and John Dillinger, dies of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at 56

Melvin Purvis
  • 1964 Victor van Straelen, Flemish biologist and paleontologist, dies at 74
  • 1968 Tore Ørjasæter, Norwegian poet (b. 1886)
  • 1980 Gil Elvgren, American artist (b. 1914)
  • 1980 Yigal Allon, Israeli politician, dies at 61
  • 1980 Yigol Alton, Israeli Foreign Minister, dies at 61
  • 1992 Earl Scheib, CEO (Earl Scheib Auto Paint), dies at 85
  • 1992 Ruth Pitter, British poet and 1st woman to receive the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 1955, dies at 94
  • 1996 Duncan Stuart Wilson Fighter pilot-MacDonald, dies at 83
  • 1996 Joe Minogue, British journalist, dies at 72
  • 1996 John Grant, British rear-admiral (Royal Navy), dies at 87
  • 2004 Jerome Lawrence, American playwright (Inherit the Wind), dies at 88
  • 2016 Edward M. Lawson, Canadian trade unionist and politician, dies at 86


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