1504 Christopher Columbus uses a lunar eclipse to frighten hostile Jamaican Indians

1644 Abel Tasman sets out on his second exploratory expedition for the VOC to the southern Pacific from Banda, in the Moluccas, with three ships (will chart northern coast of New Holland / Australia)

1692 First people are accused of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts - Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba, a West Indian slave

1796 The Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation, Between His Britannic Majesty and the United States of America, commonly known as the Jay Treaty

1832 Charles Darwin walks through the tropical forests of Bahia in Brazil, describing the experience as being in "transports of pleasure"

1892 Britain & US sign treaty on seal hunting in Bering Sea

1892 St. Petersburg, Florida is incorporated

1904 Theodore Roosevelt, appoints 7-man Panama Canal Commission to proceed with completing a canal at the Isthmus

1908 Dutch scientists produce solid helium

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 US President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs 2nd Neutrality Act

1956 US President Eisenhower announces he will seek a 2nd term

1956 Islamic Republic forms in Pakistan

1960 JFK makes "missile gap" the presidential campaign issue

1964 LBJ reveals the US has secretly developed the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, an advanced, long‐range high-speed and high-altitude reconnaissance airplane

1968 National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (Kerner Comm) reports against racism & demands aid given to blacks

1980 Michael Bracey ends 59 h 55 m trapped in an elevator, England

2020 US and Taliban sign deal to end 18-year war in Afghanistan in Doha, Qatar. US and NATO allies will withdraw their troops after 14 months if deal kept.

Did you know today is:

Digital Learning Day

National Toast Day

Rare Disease Day

Leap Day