Today in History

46BC – An additional day of the year is first added every four years in February, with the introduction of the Julian calendar.

1528 – Patrick Hamilton is burnt at the state for heresy. It is said his death did more for the Scottish Reformation than the continuation of his life could have done.

1692 – The first people are accused of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts: Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba, a West Indian slave.

1872 – Irish 17-year-old Arthur O’Connor attempts to assassinate Queen Victoria outside Buckingham Palace, and is stopped by her attendant John Brown.

1916 – A German order for sinking armed merchantmen at sight goes into effect in World War I.

1928 – US Colonel Harry L Stimson arrives in Manila to take over as governor-general of the Philippines.

1940 – Hattie McDaniel, left, who played Mammy in Gone With the Wind, becomes the first African-American actor to win an Oscar, for best supporting actress.

1944 – US troops invade the Admiralty Islands in World War II.

1960 – Hugh Hefner, publisher of Playboy magazine, opens the first Playboy Club in Chicago; an earthquake in Agadir, Morocco, kills up to 15,000 people, a third of the population.

1964 – A milling road provides the first vehicle access to the remote Urewera settlement of Maungapōhatu, famous as the former home of the prophet Rua Kēnana.

1980 – Protestant gunmen kill a Roman Catholic man and wound another in a hitand-run attack in Belfast. 1984 – Pierre Trudeau announces he is stepping down after 15 years as Canadian prime minister.

1988 – A new round of the ‘‘war of the cities’’ starts in Iran-Iraq war.

2004 – The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King wins a record-tying 11 Oscar awards, including best film; Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigns and flees into exile after an uprising sends the country into chaos.

2012 – As the British phone-hacking scandal deepens around News International, James Murdoch steps down as executive chairman.

Birthdays

Gioacchino Rossini, Italian composer (1792-1868); David Beattie, NZ politician and governor-general (1924-2001); Alan Loveday, NZ violinist (1928-2016); Tony Robbins, US motivational speaker (1960-); Gareth Farr, NZ composer (1968-); Ja Rule, US rapper (1976-); Nelson Asofa-Solomona, NZ rugby league player (1996-). In 1988, Time magazine proclaimed superhero Superman was born on February 29.