TODAY IN HISTORY

On Feb. 29, 1504,

Christopher Columbus, stranded in Jamaica during his fourth voyage to the West, used a lunar eclipse to frighten hostile natives into providing food for his crew.

In 1796,

President George Washington proclaimed Jay’s Treaty, which settled some outstanding differences with Britain, in effect.

In 1892,

the United States and Britain agreed to submit to arbitration their dispute over seal-hunting rights in the Bering Sea. (A commission later ruled in favor of Britain.)

In 1916,

singer, actress and TV personality Dinah Shore was born Frances

Rose Shore in Winchester, Tennessee.

In 1936,

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a second Neutrality Act as he appealed to American businesses not to increase exports to belligerents.

In 1940,

“Gone with the Wind” won eight Academy Awards, including best picture of 1939; Hattie McDaniel won for best supporting actress, the first black performer so honored.

In 1956,

President Dwight D. Eisenhower announced he would seek a second term of office.

In 1960,

the first Playboy Club, featuring waitresses clad in “bunny” outfits, opened in Chicago.

In 1968,

at the Grammy Awards, the 5th Dimension’s “Up, Up and Away” won record of the year for 1967, while album of the year honors went to The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”

In 1980,

former Israeli foreign minister Yigal Allon, who had fought for the Jewish state’s fight for independence, died at age 61.

In 1984,

Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau announced he was stepping down after more than 15 combined years in power.

In 1996, Daniel Green was convicted in Lumberton, North Carolina, of murdering James R. Jordan, the father of basketball star Michael Jordan, during a 1993 roadside holdup. (Green and an accomplice, Larry Martin Demery, were sentenced to life in prison.)

Also: A Peruvian Boeing 737 crashed on approach to Arequipa, killing all 123 people on board.