| | 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 attack and destroy 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 due to 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. (He defeats Adlai E. Stevenson that November 6, in a rematch of the 1952 election.) |
| | 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. Rolland is currently the youngest victim of a school shooting [1] |
| | 2004 - Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigns as President of Haiti following popular rebel uprising. |
| | 2004 - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King wins the Best Picture Oscar, along with 10 other awards, at the 76th Annual Academy Awards. |