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There are many events that happened on this date in history. Here are just a few of them!

February 29 is a leap day (or "leap year day"), an intercalary date added periodically to create leap years in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is the 60th day of a leap year in both calendars, and 306 days remain until the end of the leap year.

EVENTS

1504 – Christopher Columbus uses his knowledge of a lunar eclipse that night to convince Jamaican natives to provide him with supplies.

1720 – Ulrika Eleonora, Queen of Sweden abdicates in favour of her husband, who becomes King Frederick I on March 24.

1796 – The Jay Treaty between the United States and Great Britain comes into force, facilitating ten years of peaceful trade between the two nations.

1892 – St. Petersburg, Florida is incorporated.

1908 – James Madison University is founded at Harrisonburg, Virginia in the United States as The State Normal and Industrial School for Women by the Virginia General Assembly.

1916 – In South Carolina, the minimum working age for factory, mill and mine workers is raised from 12 to 14 years old.

1940 – For her performance 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, physicist Ernest Lawrence receives the 1939 Nobel Prize in Physics from Sweden's consul general in San Francisco.

1980 – Gordie Howe of the Hartford Whalers makes NHL history as he scores his 800th goal.

1984 – Pierre Trudeau announces his retirement as Liberal Party leader and Prime Minister of Canada.

1988 – South African archbishop Desmond Tutu is arrested along with 100 other clergymen during a five-day anti-apartheid demonstration in Cape Town.

2020 – Joe Biden wins the South Carolina primary election.

2020 – The United States and the Taliban sign the Doha Agreement for bringing peace to Afghanistan.

BIRTHS

1896 – William A. Wellman, American actor, director, producer and screenwriter (d. 1975)

1904 – Jimmy Dorsey, American saxophonist, composer and bandleader (d. 1957)

1916 – Leonard Shoen, founder of U-Haul Corp. (d. 1999)

1920 – James Mitchell, American actor and dancer (d. 2010)

1928 – Tempest Storm, born Annie Banks, "The Queen Of Exotic Dancers", American burlesque performer and actress (d. 2021)

1936 – Alex Rocco, American actor (d. 2015)

1944 – Dennis Farina, American police officer and actor (d. 2013)

1948 – Hermione Lee, English author, critic and academic

1980 – Peter Scanavino, American actor (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit)

DEATHS

1528 – Patrick Hamilton, Scottish Protestant reformer and martyr (b. 1504)

1600 – Caspar Hennenberger, German pastor, historian and cartographer (b. 1529)

1792 – Johann Andreas Stein, German piano builder (b. 1728)

1908 – Pat Garrett, American sheriff (b. 1850)

1908 – John Hope, 1st Marquess of Linlithgow, Scottish-Australian politician, 1st Governor-General of Australia

1964 – Frank Albertson, American actor and singer (b. 1909)

1996 – Wes Farrell, American singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1939)

2012 – Davy Jones, English singer, guitarist and actor (b. 1945)

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