THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
FEBRUARY 26
1982 – New Zealand cricket batsman Martin Crowe makes his test debut v Australia at Wellington. He was run out for nine.
2009 – English actor Wendy Richard, who starred in EastEnders and played Miss Brahms in Are You Being Served?, dies of cancer. She was 65.
2012 – At the 84th Academy Awards, The Artist (above) wins five Oscars and becomes the first silent film to win since 1927. Meryl Streep wins her third Oscar, collecting Best Actress for playing Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady (right). (She had previously won Best Actress for Sophie’s Choice and Best Supporting Actress for Kramer vs. Kramer.)
2017 – Moonlight wins the Oscar for Best Picture, but only after a major mix-up in which LaLa Land was declared the winner by actors Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, who had been given the wrong envelope.
FEBRUARY 27
1980 – At the 22nd Grammy Awards, Billy Joel’s 52nd Street, featuring the singles My Life, Honesty and Big Shot, wins Best Album.
2003 – American children’s TV host Fred Rogers, who was later the subject of the film Mr Rogers’ Neighborhood starring Tom Hanks, dies of stomach cancer. He was 74.
2005 – At the Academy Awards, Million Dollar Baby (left) wins Best Film, Best Director (Clint Eastwood), Best Actress (Hilary Swank) and Best Supporting Actor (Morgan Freeman).
2019 – The film Captain Marvel, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Brie Larson, premieres.
FEBRUARY 28
1953 – Scientists Francis Crick and James Watson discover the chemical structure of the DNA molecule.
1991 – The Gulf War ends after Iraq accepts a ceasefire following their retreat from Kuwait.
2016 – At the 36th Razzie Awards, Fifty Shades Of Grey wins worst film along with worst actor and actress.
2021 – English actor Johnny Briggs, best known for playing Mike Baldwin on Coronation Street, dies after a long illness. He was 85.
MARCH 1
1932 – The young son of aviator Charles Lindbergh and his wife Anne is kidnapped from their home in New Jersey. The child, aged 20 months, is found dead on May 12.
1994 – I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston wins Record Of The Year at the 36th Grammy Awards.
2006 – Animated film Ice Age: The Meltdown, with voices by Ray Romano and John Leguizamo, premieres in Belgium.
2013 – US actor Bonnie Franklin, best known for playing Ann Romano in the sitcom One Day At A Time, dies of pancreatic cancer. She was 69.
MARCH 2
1882 – Queen Victoria narrowly escapes being assassinated when Roderick Maclean shoots at her with a pistol at Windsor train station. This was the last of eight attempts by different people to assault or kill Queen Victoria over a period of four decades.
1977 – Bette Davis (right) becomes the first woman to receive the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
2021 – Dr Seuss Enterprises says six books by Dr Seuss will cease publication because of racist and insensitive imagery.
MARCH 3
1955 – Elvis Presley makes his first TV appearance on a broadcast of radio show Louisiana Hayride and exactly a year later his single Heartbreak Hotel becomes his first Billboard top-10 hit.
1959 – US actor and comedian Lou Costello (above), best known as one half of the duo Abbott and Costello, dies of a heart attack. He was 52.
1960 – The book A Good Keen Man by Barry Crump is published. It is one of the most-read books in New Zealand publishing history.
2010 – The movie Alice In Wonderland, inspired by Lewis Carroll, directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp and Mia Wasikowska, is released.
MARCH 4
1993 – Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated as the 32nd US President and pledges to pull the US out of The Depression – stating, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”
1960 – Lucille Ball files for divorce from Desi Arnaz (above) after 20 years of marriage.
1980 – Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front comes to power, winning the parliamentary election, making Mugabe Zimbabwe’s first black Prime Minister.