Calendar date · February

What happened on February 29

On February 29, 888: Odo, count of Paris, is crowned king of West Francia (France) by Archbishop Walter of Sens at Compiègne.

Events

42

across history

Notable births

50

Notable deaths

50

Zodiac

Pisces

Featured moment · 888

Odo, count of Paris, is crowned king of West Francia (France) by Archbishop Walter of Sens at Compiègne.

Year 888 (DCCCLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar.

People

Born on February 29

Rémi Himbert 2008– French footballer
Lydia Jacoby 2004– American swimmer
Abdukodir Khusanov 2004– Uzbek footballer (born 2004)
Tyrese Haliburton 2000– American basketball player (born 2000)
Ferran Torres 2000– Spanish footballer (born 2000)
Jesper Lindstrøm 2000– Danish footballer (born 2000)
Nelson Asofa-Solomona 1996– New Zealand international rugby league footballer
Norberto Briasco 1996– Argentine–Armenian footballer
Reece Prescod 1996– British sprinter (born 1996)
Show 9 more — notable births on February 29
Claudia Williams 1996– New Zealand tennis player
Sean Abbott 1992– Australian cricketer (born 1992)
Eric Kendricks 1992– American football player (born 1992)
Jessica Long 1992– Russian-American Paralympic swimmer (born 1992)
Jessie T. Usher 1992– American actor (born 1992)
Saphir Taïder 1992– Algerian footballer (born 1992)
Lena Gercke 1988– German fashion model and television host
Benedikt Höwedes 1988– German association football player
Coco Khan 1988– British writer

People

Died on February 29

Ali Hassan Mwinyi Tanzanian statesman (1925–2024)
Brian Mulroney Prime Minister of Canada from 1984 to 1993
Dieter Laser German actor (1942–2020)
Éva Székely Hungarian swimmer (1927–2020)
Wenn V. Deramas Filipino director and scriptwriter (1966–2016)
Gil Hill American politician, police detective and actor (1931–2016)
Josefin Nilsson Musical artist
Mumtaz Qadri Assassin of Salmaan Taseer (1985–2016)
Louise Rennison English author and comedian
Show 9 more — notable deaths on February 29
Davy Jones British musician (1945–2012)
Sheldon Moldoff American cartoonist
P. K. Narayana Panicker Indian advocate
Janet Kagan American novelist
Erik Ortvad Danish artist (1917–2008)
Akira Yamada Japanese philosopher
Kagamisato Kiyoji Japanese sumo wrestler
Jerome Lawrence American dramatist
Harold Bernard St. John Barbadian politician and prime minister

Timeline

Every February 29 on record

  1. 888 Odo, count of Paris, is crowned king of West Francia (France) by Archbishop Walter of Sens at Compiègne.

    Calendar year

    Year 888 (DCCCLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar.

  2. 1504 Christopher Columbus uses his knowledge of a lunar eclipse that night to convince Jamaican natives to provide him with supplies.

    Italian navigator and explorer (1451–1506)

    Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed four Spanish transatlantic voyages in the name of the Catholic Monarchs, opening the way for the widespread European exploration and colonization of the Americas. His expeditions were the first known European contact with the Caribbean and Central and South America.

  3. 1644 Abel Tasman's second Pacific voyage begins as he leaves Batavia in command of three ships.

    Dutch seafarer, explorer and merchant (1603–1659)

    Abel Janszoon Tasman was a Dutch seafarer and explorer, best known for his voyages of 1642 and 1644 in the service of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). He was the first European to reach New Zealand, which he named Staten Landt. He was also the eponym of Tasmania.

  4. 1704 In Queen Anne's War, French forces and Native Americans stage a raid on Deerfield, Massachusetts Bay Colony, killing 56 villagers and taking more than 100 captive.

    North American theater of the War of the Spanish Succession (1702–1713)

    Queen Anne's War (1702–1713) was the second in a series of French and Indian Wars fought in North America involving the colonial empires of Great Britain, France, and Spain. In the United States, it is regarded as a standalone conflict. Elsewhere it is viewed as the American theater of the War of the Spanish Succession.

  5. 1712 February 29 is followed by February 30 in Sweden, in a move to abolish the Swedish calendar for a return to the Julian calendar.

    Several non-standard dates are used in calendars for various purposes: some are expressly fictional, some are intended to produce a rhetorical effect, and others attempt to address a particular mathematical, scientific or accounting requirement or discrepancy within the calendar system.

  6. 1720 Ulrika Eleonora, Queen of Sweden abdicates in favour of her husband, who becomes King Frederick I on March 24.
  7. 1768 Polish nobles form the Bar Confederation.
  8. 1796 The Jay Treaty between the United States and Great Britain comes into force, facilitating ten years of peaceful trade between the two nations.
  9. 1892 St. Petersburg, Florida is incorporated.
  10. 1908 James Madison University is founded at Harrisonburg, Virginia, United States as The State Normal and Industrial School for Women by the Virginia General Assembly.
  11. 1912 The Piedra Movediza (Moving Stone) of Tandil falls and breaks.
  12. 1916 Tokelau is annexed by the United Kingdom.
  13. 1916 In South Carolina, the minimum working age for factory, mill and mine workers is raised from 12 to 14 years old.
  14. 1920 The Czechoslovak National Assembly adopts the Constitution.
  15. 1936 The February 26 Incident in Tokyo ends.
Show 15 earlier entries from February 29
  1. 1940 For her performance as Mammy in Gone with the Wind, Hattie McDaniel becomes the first African American to win an Academy Award.
  2. 1940 Finland initiates Winter War peace negotiations.
  3. 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.
  4. 1944 The Admiralty Islands are invaded in Operation Brewer, led by American general Douglas MacArthur, in World War II.
  5. 1960 The 5.7 Mw  Agadir earthquake shakes coastal Morocco with a maximum perceived intensity of X (Extreme), destroying Agadir and leaving 12,000 dead and another 12,000 injured.
  6. 1964 British Eagle International Airlines Flight 802/6 crashes into the Glungezer mountain in the Tux Alps of Austria, killing all 75 people aboard.
  7. 1968 Aeroflot Flight 15 crashes Irkutsk Oblast, Soviet Union, due to a loss of control. Eighty-three of the 84 occupants onboard die. The exact cause of the accident is unknown.
  8. 1972 South Korea withdraws 11,000 of its 48,000 troops from South Vietnam as part of Nixon's Vietnamization policy in the Vietnam War.
  9. 1980 Gordie Howe of the Hartford Whalers makes NHL history as he scores his 800th goal.
  10. 1984 Pierre Trudeau announces his retirement as Liberal Party leader and Prime Minister of Canada.
  11. 1988 South African archbishop Desmond Tutu is arrested along with 100 other clergymen during a five-day anti-apartheid demonstration in Cape Town.
  12. 1988 Svend Robinson becomes the first member of the House of Commons of Canada to come out as gay.
  13. 1992 A referendum is begun in Bosnia and Herzegovina for the determination of Bosnian independence.
  14. 1996 Faucett Perú Flight 251 crashes in the Andes; all 123 passengers and crew are killed.
  15. 1996 The Siege of Sarajevo officially ends.

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