EVENTS
A person who was born on February 29 may be called a "leapling". In non-leap years they may celebrate their birthday on 28 February or 1 March.
For legal purposes, their legal birthdays depend on how different laws count time intervals. In England and Wales the legal birthday of a leapling is 28 February in common years (see Leap Years, above). In Taiwan the legal birthday of a leapling is also February 28 in common years. In both cases, a person born on February 29, 1980 would have legally reached 18 years old on February 28, 1998.
"If a period fixed by weeks, months, and years does not commence from the beginning of a week, month, or year, it ends with the ending of the day which proceeds the day of the last week, month, or year which corresponds to that on which it began to commence. But if there is no corresponding day in the last month, the period ends with the ending of the last day of the last month.[2]" There are many instances in children's literature where a person's claim to be only a quarter of their actual age turns out to be based on counting their leap-year birthdays. A similar device is used in the plot of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Pirates of Penzance. Frederic, born on February 29, was apprenticed to a band of pirates until his 21st birthday, which would not arrive until he was eighty-four years old.[3]
1972 - Antonio Sabàto, Jr., Italian-born actor
1972 - Dave Williams, American singer (Drowning Pool) (d. 2002)
1972 - Saul Williams, American rapper, poet, and actor
1972 - Pedro Zamora, Cuban-born American AIDS activist (d. 1994)
1976 - Ja Rule, American rapper and actor
1976 - Emma Barton, British Actress
1980 - Simon Gagné, Canadian ice hockey player
1980 - Taylor Twellman, American soccer player
1980 - Clinton Toopi, rugby league player
1980 - Chris Conley, American musician
1984 - Cam Ward, Canadian ice hockey player
1984 - Darren Ambrose, English footballer
1984 - Adam Sinclair, Indian Hockey player
1988 - Scott Golbourne, English footballer
DEATHS
1528 - Patrick Hamilton, Scottish religious reformer (martyred) (b. 1504)
1592 - Alessandro Striggio, Italian composer (b. 1540)
1604 - John Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1530)
1740 - Pietro Ottoboni, Italian cardinal (b. 1667)
1744 - John Theophilus Desaguliers, French philosopher (b. 1683)
1820 - Johann Joachim Eschenburg, German literary critic (b. 1743)
1868 - Ludwig I of Bavaria (b. 1786)
1928 - Ina Coolbrith, first poet laureate of California (b. 1841)
1940 - Edward Frederic Benson, English writer (b. 1867)
1944 - Pehr Evind Svinhufvud, President of Finland (b. 1861)
1956 - Elpidio Quirino, President of the Philippines (b. 1890)
1964 - Frank Albertson, American actor (b. 1909)
1968 - Tore Ørjasæter, Norwegian poet (b. 1886)
1980 - Gil Elvgren, American artist (b. 1914)
1992 - Ruth Pitter, English poet (b. 1897)
2000 - Dennis Danell, American Artist (b. 1961)
2004 - Jerome Lawrence, American playwright (b. 1915)
- 1504 - Christopher Columbus uses his knowledge of a lunar eclipse that night to convince Native Americans to provide him with supplies.
- 1704 - Queen Anne's War: French forces and Native Americans stage a raid on Deerfield, Massachusetts, killing 100 men, women, and children.
- 1712 - February 29 is followed by February 30 in Sweden, in a move to abolish the Swedish calendar for a return to the Old style.
- 1720 - Queen Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden abdicates in favour of her husband, who becomes King Frederick I.
- 1864 - American Civil War: Kilpatrick-Dahlgren Raid fails - Plans to free 15,000 Union soldiers being held near Richmond, Virginia are thwarted.
- 1892 - St. Petersburg, Florida incorporated.
- 1916 - Child labor: In South Carolina, the minimum working age for factory, mill, and mine workers is raised from twelve to fourteen years old.
- 1932 - TIME magazine features eccentric American politician William "Alfalfa" Murray on its cover after Murray stated his intention to run for President of the United States.
- 1936 - Baby Snooks, played by Fanny Brice, debuts on the radio program The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air.
- 1940 - For her role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind, Hattie McDaniel becomes the first African American to win an Academy Award.
- 1940 - Finland initiates Winter War peace negotiations
- 1940 - In a ceremony held in Berkeley, California, because of the war, physicist Ernest Lawrence receives his 1939 Nobel Prize in Physics from the Sweden's Consul General in San Francisco.
- 1944 - World War II: The Admiralty Islands are invaded in the American General Douglas MacArthur-led Operation Brewer.
- 1952 - The island of Heligoland is restored to German authority.
- 1956 - U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces to the nation that he is running for a second term.
- 1960 - An earthquake in Morocco kills over 3,000 people and nearly destroys Agadir in the southern part of the country.
- 1964 - In Sydney, Australian swimmer Dawn Fraser sets a new world record in the 100-meter freestyle swimming competition (58.9 seconds).
- 1972 - Vietnam War: Vietnamization - South Korea withdraws 11,000 of its 48,000 troops from Vietnam.
- 1972 - Hank Aaron becomes the first player in the history of Major League Baseball to sign a $200,000 contract.
- 1984 - Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announces he will retire as soon as the Liberals can elect another leader.
- 1988 - South African archbishop Desmond Tutu is arrested along with 100 clergymen during a five-day anti-apartheid demonstration in Cape Town
- 1996 - Novelist Joan Collins awarded US $1 million from Random House for breach of contract.
- 1996 - A Peruvian Boeing 737 crashes in the Andes, killing 123 people.
- 2000 - Six year old Dedrick Owens shoots and kills Kayla Rolland, also six years old, at Theo J. Buell Elementary School in Mount Morris Township, Michigan.
- 2004 - Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigns as President of Haiti following popular rebel uprising.
A person who was born on February 29 may be called a "leapling". In non-leap years they may celebrate their birthday on 28 February or 1 March.
For legal purposes, their legal birthdays depend on how different laws count time intervals. In England and Wales the legal birthday of a leapling is 28 February in common years (see Leap Years, above). In Taiwan the legal birthday of a leapling is also February 28 in common years. In both cases, a person born on February 29, 1980 would have legally reached 18 years old on February 28, 1998.
"If a period fixed by weeks, months, and years does not commence from the beginning of a week, month, or year, it ends with the ending of the day which proceeds the day of the last week, month, or year which corresponds to that on which it began to commence. But if there is no corresponding day in the last month, the period ends with the ending of the last day of the last month.[2]" There are many instances in children's literature where a person's claim to be only a quarter of their actual age turns out to be based on counting their leap-year birthdays. A similar device is used in the plot of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Pirates of Penzance. Frederic, born on February 29, was apprenticed to a band of pirates until his 21st birthday, which would not arrive until he was eighty-four years old.[3]
1972 - Antonio Sabàto, Jr., Italian-born actor
1972 - Dave Williams, American singer (Drowning Pool) (d. 2002)
1972 - Saul Williams, American rapper, poet, and actor
1972 - Pedro Zamora, Cuban-born American AIDS activist (d. 1994)
1976 - Ja Rule, American rapper and actor
1976 - Emma Barton, British Actress
1980 - Simon Gagné, Canadian ice hockey player
1980 - Taylor Twellman, American soccer player
1980 - Clinton Toopi, rugby league player
1980 - Chris Conley, American musician
1984 - Cam Ward, Canadian ice hockey player
1984 - Darren Ambrose, English footballer
1984 - Adam Sinclair, Indian Hockey player
1988 - Scott Golbourne, English footballer
DEATHS
1528 - Patrick Hamilton, Scottish religious reformer (martyred) (b. 1504)
1592 - Alessandro Striggio, Italian composer (b. 1540)
1604 - John Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1530)
1740 - Pietro Ottoboni, Italian cardinal (b. 1667)
1744 - John Theophilus Desaguliers, French philosopher (b. 1683)
1820 - Johann Joachim Eschenburg, German literary critic (b. 1743)
1868 - Ludwig I of Bavaria (b. 1786)
1928 - Ina Coolbrith, first poet laureate of California (b. 1841)
1940 - Edward Frederic Benson, English writer (b. 1867)
1944 - Pehr Evind Svinhufvud, President of Finland (b. 1861)
1956 - Elpidio Quirino, President of the Philippines (b. 1890)
1964 - Frank Albertson, American actor (b. 1909)
1968 - Tore Ørjasæter, Norwegian poet (b. 1886)
1980 - Gil Elvgren, American artist (b. 1914)
1992 - Ruth Pitter, English poet (b. 1897)
2000 - Dennis Danell, American Artist (b. 1961)
2004 - Jerome Lawrence, American playwright (b. 1915)
