Portal:United States/On this day/February 29

On this day for the United States

February 29:

Events

• 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 - 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.
• 1956 - U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces to the nation that he is running for a second term.
• 1972 - Hank Aaron becomes the first player in the history of Major League Baseball to sign a $200,000 contract.
• 1996 - Novelist Joan Collins awarded US $1 million from Random House for breach of contract.
• 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.

Births

• 1736 - Ann Lee, American founder of Shakers (d. 1784)
• 1860 - Herman Hollerith, American statistician (d. 1929)
• 1896 - William A. Wellman, American film director (d. 1975)
• 1904 - Jimmy Dorsey, American bandleader (d. 1957)
• 1904 - Pepper Martin, baseball player (d. 1965)
• 1908 - Dee Brown, American writer (d. 2002)
• 1916 - Dinah Shore, American singer (d. 1994)
• 1920 - Arthur Franz, American actor (d. 2006)
• 1920 - James Mitchell, American actor
• 1920 - Howard Nemerov, American poet (d. 1991)
• 1924 - Al Rosen, American baseball player
• 1928 - Tempest Storm, American burlesque performer
• 1932 - Gene Golub, American mathematician (d. 2007)
• 1932 - Masten Gregory, American F1 Driver (d. 1985)
• 1936 - Jack Lousma, astronaut
• 1936 - Alex Rocco, American actor
• 1940 - William H. Turner, Jr. American horse trainer
• 1944 - Phyllis Frelich, American actress
• 1944 - Dennis Farina, American actor
• 1952 - Sharon Dahlonega Raiford Bush, American television personality
• 1952 - Tim Powers, American writer
• 1952 - Bart Stupak, American politician
• 1956 - Jonathan Coleman, Anglo-Australian entertainer
• 1956 - Bob Speller, Canadian politician
• 1956 - Aileen Wuornos, American serial killer (d. 2002)
• 1956 - J. Randy Taraborrelli, American celebritiy journalist
• 1960 - Khaled, Algerian raï musician
• 1960 - Richard Ramirez, American serial killer
• 1960 - Tony Robbins, American motivational speaker
• 1968 - Chucky Brown, American basketball player
• 1968 - Pete Fenson, American curler
• 1968 - Bryce Paup, American football player
• 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
• 1980 - Taylor Twellman, American soccer player
• 1980 - Chris Conley, American musician

Deaths

• 1928 - Ina Coolbrith, first poet laureate of California (b. 1841)
• 1964 - Frank Albertson, American actor (b. 1909)
• 1980 - Gil Elvgren, American artist (b. 1914)
• 2000 - Dennis Danell, American Artist (b. 1961)
• 2004 - Jerome Lawrence, American playwright (b. 1915)