February 29 / Leap Year

February 29, known as Leap Day of the Gregorian calendar, occurs every 4 years. Years that are divisible by 100, but not 400, do not have a leap day.  Leap days are found in years that are divisible by both 100 and 400.  Thus, the year 1900 did not have a leap day, but the year 2000 did have a leap day.

Birthdays:

A person born on February 29 is called a leapling.  They would generally celebrate their birthdays on either February 28 or March 1 on the non-leap years.

1960 ~ Tony Robbins, American motivational speaker.

1944 ~ Dennis Farina (d. 2013), American actor.

1944 ~ Leiki Loone, Estonian mathematician.

1936 ~ Alex Rocco (d. 2015), American character actor who found fame with The Godfather.  He was 79 years old.

1932 ~ Gene H. Golub (d. 2007), American mathematician.

1928 ~ Seymour Papert, South African mathematician and computer scientist.

1916 ~ Dinah Shore (née Frances Rose Shore, d. 1994), American singer and actress.  She died 5 days before her 78^th birthday.

1908 ~ Dee Brown (d. 2002), American author and historian.  He is best known for his book, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.

1904 ~ Jimmy Dorsey (d. 1957), American bandleader.

1828 ~ Emmeline B. Wells (d. 1921), American journalist and women’s rights activist.

1812 ~ Sir James M. Wilson (d. 1880), 8^th Premier of Tasmania.  He is the only recorded person to have been born and died on February 29.  He died on his 68^th birthday.

1792 ~ Gioachino Antonio Rossini (d. 1868), Italian composer, whose works include The Barber of Seville and William Tell.

1736 ~ Ann Lee (d. 1784), American religious leader and founder of the Shakers.

1468 ~ Pope Paul III (né Alessandro Farnese, d. 1549).  He was Pope from October 1534 until his death 15 years later.

Events that Changed the World:

2012 ~ The Tokyo Skytree construction was completed, at 634 meters high, it became one of the tallest towers in the world.

2004 ~ Jean-Bertrand Aristide (b. 1953) was ousted as President of Haiti following a coup.

1996 ~ Faucett Flight 251 crashed in the Peruvian Andes, killing all 123 passengers and crew aboard.

1960 ~ The comic strip, Family Circus, made its debut.

1960 ~ An earthquake in Morocco killed over 3,000 people.

1940 ~ Ernest Lawrence received the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics at a ceremony held in Berkeley, California.  Due to World War II, Lawrence was unable to travel to Sweden to accept the award in 1939.

1940 ~ Hattie McDaniel (1895 ~ 1952) won an Academy Award for her role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind, becoming the first African-American to win an Oscar.

1916 ~ In South Carolina, the minimum age for working in factories, mills and mines was raised from 12 years to 14 years old.

1892 ~ St. Petersburg, Florida became incorporated.

1796 ~ The Jay Treaty between the United States and Great Britain took effect, thereby facilitating ten years of peaceful trade between the two countries.

1720 ~ Swedish Queen Ulrika Eleanora (1688 ~ 1741) abdicated in favor of her husband.  He officially took the throne as King Frederick I on March 24, 1720.

1704 ~ During the Queen Anne’s War, French forces, working together with Native Americans, staged a raid on the settlers of Deerfield, Massachusetts.  Fifty-six villagers were killed and over 100 were taken captive.

1644 ~ Dutch seafarer Abel Tasman (1603 ~ 1659) began his second Pacific voyage.

Good-Byes:

2012 ~ Davy Jones (b. 1945), British singer and song-writer, best known as being a member of The Monkees.

1980 ~ Yigal Allon (b. 1918), Israeli general and 5^th Prime Minister of Israel.

1908 ~ Pat Garrett (b. 1850), American Wild West figure best known for killing outlaw Billy the Kidd.

1880 ~ Sir James M. Wilson (b. 1812), 8^th Premier of Tasmania. He died on his 68th birthday.

February 4

Birthdays:

1973 ~ Oscar de la Hoya, Mexican-American boxer.

1948 ~ Alice Cooper (né Vincent Damon Furnier), American musician.

1947 ~ Dan Quayle, 44^th Vice President of the United States.  He served under President George H. W. Bush.

1936 ~ David Brenner (d. 2014), the American comedian who ruled The Tonight Show.

1931 ~ Isabel Martínez de Perón, 41^st President of Argentina.

1925 ~ Christopher Zeeman, British mathematician.

1921 ~ Betty Friedan (d. 2006), American feminist and author.  She died on her 85^th birthday.

1913 ~ Rosa Parks (d. 2005), American civil rights activist.

1906 ~ Clyde Tombaugh (d. 1997), American astronomer and discoverer of the dwarf planet Pluto.

1902 ~ Charles Lindbergh (d. 1974), American pilot and pioneer in early aviation.  He was the first to cross the Atlantic Ocean solo in the Spirit of St. Louis.

1881 ~ Fernand Léger (d. 1955), French painter.

1846 ~ Nikolay Umov (d. 1915), Russian physicist and mathematician.

1831 ~ Oliver Ames (d. 1895), 35^th Governor of Massachusetts.

1677 ~ Johann Ludwig Bach (d. 1731), German violinist and composer.

Events that Changed the World:

2004 ~ Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook a social networking site on the internet.

1998 ~ Over 5,000 people were killed in an earthquake that hit northeast Afghanistan.

1992 ~ Hugo Chávez (1954 ~ 2013) lead a coup d’état against Venezuelan President Carlos André Pérez.

1980 ~ The Ayatollah Khomeini appointed Abolhassan Banisadr (b. 1922) as president of Iran.

1976 ~ An earthquake in Guatemala and Honduras killed more than 22,000 people.

1974 ~ Heiress Patty Hearst was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army.

1969 ~ Yasser Arafat became Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

1948 ~ Ceylon gained its independence from the British Commonwealth.  The country was later renamed Sri Lanka.

1945 ~ Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin met at the Yalta Conference in the Crimea.

1941 ~ The United Service Organization (USO) was formed to entertain American troops.

1936 ~ Radium became the first radioactive element to be made synthetically.

1899 ~ The Philippine-American War began with the Battle of Manila.

1861 ~ Delegates from the six Southern states that seceded from the Union, met in Montgomery, Alabama and formed the Confederate States of America.  The initial six states were: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana.

1859 ~ The Codex Sinaiticus was discovered in Egypt.

1846 ~ The first Mormon pioneers began their trek from Nauvoo, Illinois toward the Utah Territory.

1801 ~ John Marshall (1755 ~ 1835) was sworn in as the 4^th Chief Justice of the United States.  He served in that office until his death on July 6, 1835.

1797 ~ The Riobamba earthquake hit Ecuador.  There were over 40,000 people killed.

1794 ~ The French government abolished slavery throughout all its territories in the French Republic.

1789 ~ George Washington was unanimously elected as the first President of the United States by the Electoral College.

1169 ~ A strong earthquake struck the Ionia coast of Sicily.  Tens of thousands lost their lives.

Good-Byes:

2013 ~ Donald Byrd (b. 1932), Jazz trumpeter who moved from hard bop to funk.

2010 ~ Bill Dudley (b. 1921), American NFL halfback who was known as “Bullet Bill.”

2006 ~ Betty Friedan (b. 1921), American feminist and author.  She died on her 85^th birthday.

2005 ~ Ossie Davis (né Raiford Chatman Davis, b. 1917), American actor.

2000 ~ Carl Albert (b. 1908), American politician and 54^th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.

1995 ~ Patricia Highsmith (née Mary Patricia Plangman, b. 1921), American author.  She is best known for writing psychological thrillers, such as Strangers on a Train.  Her novel The Price of Salt was adapted in to the 2015 movie Carol.  She died 3 weeks after her 74^th birthday.

1987 ~ Liberace (né Wladziu Valentino Liberace, b. 1919), flamboyant musician.

1983 ~ Karen Carpenter (b. 1950), American singer and drummer, who along with her brother, Richard, formed The Carpenters duo.  She died of anorexia.

1974 ~ Satyendra Nath Bose (b. 1894), Indian physicist and mathematician.

1928 ~ Hendrick Lorentz (b. 1853), Dutch physicist and recipient of the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics.

1894 ~ Adolphe Sax (b. 1814), Belgian instrument maker best known for inventing the saxophone.

1774 ~ Charles Marie de La Condamine (b. 1701), French mathematician and geographer.

869 ~ Saint Cyril (b. 827), Greek missionary.

708 ~ Pope Sisinnius (b. 650).  He was Pope for only about 20 days, from January 15, 708 until his death on this date.