Historical Events on 29 Feb

Historical Events on 29 Feb

1700 - Today is followed by March 1 in Sweden, thus creating the Swedish calendar.
1710 - In the Battle of Helsingborg, 14,000 Danish invaders under Jørgen Rantzau are decisively defeated by an equally sized Swedish force under Magnus Stenbock.
1784 - John Wesley charters the Methodist Church.
1787 - The charter establishing the institution now known as the University of Pittsburgh is granted.
1827 - The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad is incorporated, becoming the first railroad in America offering commercial transportation of both people and freight.
1838 - Robert Nelson, leader of the Patriotes, proclaims the independence of Lower Canada (today Québec)
1844 - A gun on USS Princeton explodes while the boat is on a Potomac River cruise, killing two United States Cabinet members and several others.
1849 - Regular steamboat service from the west to the east coast of the United States begins with the arrival of the SS California in San Francisco Bay, 4 months 21 days after leaving New York Harbor.
1850 - The University of Utah opens in Salt Lake City, Utah.
1854 - The Republican Party of the United States is organized in Ripon, Wisconsin.
1861 - Colorado is organized as a United States territory.
1870 - The Bulgarian Exarchate is established by decree of Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz of the Ottoman Empire.
1883 - The first vaudeville theater opens in Boston, Massachusetts.
1885 - The American Telephone and Telegraph Company is incorporated in New York State as the subsidiary of American Bell Telephone. (American Bell would later merge with its subsidiary.)
1897 - Queen Ranavalona III, the last monarch of Madagascar, is deposed by a French military force.
1900 - The Second Boer War: The 118-day "Siege of Ladysmith" is lifted.
1922 - The United Kingdom accepts the independence of Egypt.
1933 - Gleichschaltung: The Reichstag Fire Decree is passed in Germany a day after the Reichstag fire.
1935 - Nylon is invented by Wallace Carothers.
1939 - The first issue of Serbian weekly magazine Politikin zabavnik is published.
1939 - The erroneous word "Dord" is discovered in the Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition, prompting an investigation.
1940 - Basketball is televised for the first time (Fordham University vs. the University of Pittsburgh in Madison Square Garden).
1942 - The heavy cruiser USS Houston (CA-30) is sunk in the Battle of Sunda Strait with 693 crew members killed.
1947 - 228 Incident: In Taiwan, civil disorder is put down with the loss of 30,000 civilian lives.
1953 - James D. Watson and Francis Crick announce to friends that they have determined the chemical structure of DNA; the formal announcement takes place on April 25 following publication in April Nature (pub. April 2).
1958 - A school bus in Floyd County, Kentucky hits a wrecker truck and plunges down an embankment into the rain-swollen Levisa Fork River. The driver and 26 children die in what remains the worst school bus accident in U.S. history.
1972 - Sino-American relations: The United States and People's Republic of China sign the Shanghai Communiqué.
1972 - The Asama-Sanso incident ends in Japan.
1974 - After seven years, the United States and Egypt re-establish diplomatic relations.
1975 - A major tube train crash at Moorgate station, London kills 43 people.
1983 - The final episode of M*A*S*H is broadcast in the USA, becoming the most watched television episode in history, with 106-125 million viewers in the U.S. (estimate varies by source).
1985 - The Provisional Irish Republican Army carries out a mortar attack on the Royal Ulster Constabulary police station at Newry, killing nine officers in the highest loss of life for the RUC on a single day.
1986 - Olof Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden, is assassinated in Stockholm.
1991 - The first Gulf War ends.
1993 - Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents raid the Branch Davidian church in Waco, Texas with a warrant to arrest the group's leader David Koresh. Four BATF agents and five Davidians die in the initial raid, starting a 51-day standoff.
1995 - Denver International Airport officially opens in Denver, Colorado to replace Stapleton International Airport
1997 - The North Hollywood shootout takes place.
1998 - Kosovo War: Serbian police begin the offensive against the Kosovo Liberation Army in Kosovo.
1998 - First flight of RQ-4 Global Hawk, the first unmanned aerial vehicle certified to file its own flight plans and fly regularly in U.S. civilian airspace.
2001 - Six passengers and four railway staff are killed and a further 82 people suffer serious injuries in the Selby rail crash.
2001 - The Nisqually Earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter Scale hits the Nisqually Valley and the Seattle, Tacoma, and Olympia area of the U.S. state of Washington.
2004 - Over 1 million Taiwanese participating in the 228 Hand-in-Hand Rally form a 500-kilometre (300-mile) long human chain to commemorate the 228 Incident in 1947
2005 - Lebanon's pro-Syrian prime minister, Omar Karami, resigns amid large anti-Syria street demonstrations in Beirut.
2005 - A suicide bombing at a police recruiting centre in Al Hillah, Iraq kills 127.
2007 - Jupiter flyby of the New Horizons Pluto-observer spacecraft.
2008 - Former Prime Minister of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra is arrested on corruption charges upon returning to Thailand after months of exile.
202 BC - coronation ceremony of Liu Bang as Emperor Gaozu of Han takes place, initiating four centuries of the Han Dynasty's rule over China
364 - Valentinian I becomes Roman Emperor.
870 - The Fourth Council of Constantinople closes.