February 29

Today in History
• 1504 - A lunar eclipse saved explorer Christopher Columbus’s life.
• 1692 - 1st warrants issued to arrest 3 women accused of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts.
• 1832 - Charles Darwin explored Bahia, San Salvador, Brazil.
• 1908 - Heike Kamerlingh Onnes announced he was able to create solid helium.
• 1940 - Hattie McDaniel was the first African American woman to win an Oscar.
• 1944 - Future Pope John Paul II was almost killed by a Nazi truck in Krakow, Poland.
• 1996 - A Boeing 737 crashes in the Andes, killing all 123 on board.
• 2012 - The world's tallest tower is completed.


Holidays - Traditional and Obscure
• Bachelor's Day
• International Repetitive Strain Injury Awareness Day
• International Underlings Day
• Leap Day
• National Frog Legs Day
• National Time Refund Day
• Rare Disease Day
• National Toast Day

Birthdays
• 1468 - Paul III [Alessandro Farnese}, last Renaissance Pope (1534-49)
• 1692 - John Byrom, English poet and the inventor of shorthand
• 1736 - Ann Lee, American founder of the Shakers, born in Manchester, England
• 1812 - Sir James Wilson, Premier of Tasmania
• 1840 - John Philip Holland, Irish engineer and father of the modern submarine
• 1860 - Herman Hollerith, American inventor (1st electric tabulating machine)
• 1892 - Augusta Savage, African-American sculptor and equal rights advocate
• 1904 - Jimmy Dorsey, American big band jazz saxophonist, and bandleader