February 29

What happened that day?

• 2012: Tokyo Skytree construction completed. It is, as of 2017, the tallest tower in the world, 634 meters high, and second tallest (man-made) structure on Earth, next to Burj Khalifa.
• 2008: Misha Defonseca admits to fabricating her memoir, Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years, in which she claimed to have lived with a pack of wolves in the woods during the Holocaust.
• 2008: The United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence decides to withdraw Prince Harry from a tour of Afghanistan "immediately" after a leak led to his deployment being reported by foreign media.
• 2004: Jean-Bertrand Aristide is removed as President of Haiti following a coup.
• 2000: Second Chechen War: Eighty-four Russian paratroopers are killed in a rebel attack on a guard post near Ulus Kert.
• 1996: Siege of Sarajevo officially ends.
• 1996: Faucett Flight 251 crashes in the Andes, all 123 passengers and crew died.
• 1992: First day of Bosnia and Herzegovina independence referendum.
• 1988: Svend Robinson becomes the first member of the Canadian House of Commons to come out as gay.
• 1988: South African archbishop Desmond Tutu is arrested along with 100 clergymen during a five-day anti-apartheid demonstration in Cape Town.
• 1980: Gordie Howe of the then Hartford Whalers makes NHL history as he scores his 800th goal.
• 1972: [Vietnam](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam) War: Vietnamization: South Korea withdraws 11,000 of its 48,000 troops from Vietnam.
• 1964: In Sydney, Australian swimmer Dawn Fraser sets a new world record in the 100-meter freestyle swimming competition (58.9 seconds).
• 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.
• 1952: The island of Heligoland is restored to West German authority.
• 1944: World War II: The Admiralty Islands are invaded in Operation Brewer led by American General Douglas MacArthur.
• 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.
• 1940: Finland initiates Winter War peace negotiations.
• 1940: For her performance as "Mammy" in Gone with the Wind, Hattie McDaniel becomes the first African American to win an Academy Award.
• 1936: February 26 Incident in Tokyo ends.
• 1920: Czechoslovak National assembly adopted the Constitution.
• 1916: Child labor: In South Carolina, the minimum working age for factory, mill, and mine workers is raised from twelve to fourteen years old.
• 1916: Tokelau is annexed by the United Kingdom.
• 1912: The Piedra Movediza (Moving Stone) of Tandil falls and breaks.
• 1892: St. Petersburg, Florida is incorporated.
• 1864: American Civil War: Kilpatrick-Dahlgren Raid fails: Plans to free 15,000 Union soldiers being held near Richmond, Virginia are thwarted.
• 1796: The Jay Treaty between the United States and Great Britain comes into force, facilitating ten years of peaceful trade between the two nations.
• 1768: Polish nobles formed Bar Confederation.
• 1752: King Alaungpaya founds Konbaung Dynasty, the last dynasty of Burmese monarchy.
• 1720: Ulrika Eleonora, Queen of Sweden abdicates in favour of her husband, who becomes King Frederick I on 24 March.
• 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.
• 1704: 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.
• 1644: Abel Tasman's second Pacific voyage began.
• 1504: Christopher Columbus uses his knowledge of a lunar eclipse that night to convince Native Americans to provide him with supplies.