Historic Event
1504 Christopher Columbus uses a lunar eclipse to frighten hostile Jamaican Indians
Salem Witch Trials
1692 First people are accused of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts - Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba, a West Indian slave
- 1696 English ex-premier Earl Danby accused of corruption
- 1704 French & Indians attack Deerfield, Massachusetts, kill 50, abduct 100
- 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.
- 1720 Queen Ulrica Eleonora of Sweden resigns
Historic Event
1768 Polish nobleman Casimir Pulaski joins the Bar Confederation to defend the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth against Russian influence
Historic Event
1784 Marquis de Sade transferred from Vincennes fortress to the Bastille
- 1796 Jay's Treaty proclaimed, settles some differences with England
Historic Event
1832 Charles Darwin walks through the tropical forests of Bahia in Brazil, describing the experience as being in "transports of pleasure"
Historic Event
1868 1st British government of Benjamin Disraeli forms
Historic Event
1904 Theodore Roosevelt, appoints 7-man Panama Canal Commission to proceed with completing a canal at the Isthmus
- 1908 Dutch scientists produce solid helium
- 1920 Trying to maintain independence from Germany and the USSR, Czechoslovakia adopts a constitution
- 1932 Failed coup attempt by fascist Lapua Movement in Finland
- 1932 TIME magazine features eccentric American politician William "Alfalfa" Murray on its cover after Murray stated his intention to run for President of the United States.
Historic Event
1936 US President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs 2nd Neutrality Act
Historic Event
1944 Karol Wojtyla, future Pope John Paul II, is run down and injured by a Nazi truck in Krakow
- 1944 US troop land on Los Negros, Admiralty Islands
- 1948 Stern-group bomb on Cairo-Haifa train kills 27 British soldiers
- 1952 Ice Pairs Championship at Paris won by Ria Falk & Paul Falk of West Germany
- 1952 Ladies Figure Skating Champ in Paris won by Jacqueline du Bief of France
- 1952 The island of Heligoland is restored to German authority.
- 1956 Islamic Republic forms in Pakistan
Historic Event
1956 US President Eisenhower announces he will seek a 2nd term
Theater Premiere
1960 1st Playboy Club, featuring bunnies, opens in Chicago
- 1960 Agadir earthquake in Morocco kills a third of the population (12,000-15,000)
- 1968 National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (Kerner Comm) reports against racism & demands aid given to blacks
- 1968 US end regular flights with nuclear bombs
- 1968 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1972 Jack Anderson discloses Dita Beard (ITT) memo indicating antitrust charges were dropped for $400,000 contribution to Republican Party
- 1980 Michael Bracey ends 59 h 55 m trapped in an elevator, England
Historic Event
1984 Pierre Trudeau announces he is stepping down after 15 years as Canadian Prime Minister
- 1988 KWK-FM in St Louis Missouri changes call letters to WKBG
Historic Event
1988 Nazi document implicates Kurt Waldheim in WWII deportations
- 1996 Russian spacecraft Soyuz TM-23 returning from Mir space station
- 1996 Serb forces withdraw from Sarajevo, ending the siege after 1,425 days, the longest siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare
- 2004 Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigns as President of Haiti following popular rebel uprising.
- 2020 US and Taliban sign deal to end 18-year war in Afghanistan in Doha, Qatar. US and NATO allies will withdraw their troops after 14 months if deal kept.