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Tokyo Skytree construction completed. It is, as of 2017, the tallest tower in the world, 634 meters high, and second tallest (man-made) structure on Earth, next to Burj Khalifa.
Misha Defonseca admits to fabricating her memoir, Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years, in which she claimed to have lived with a pack of wolves in the woods during the Holocaust.
The United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence decides to withdraw Prince Harry from a tour of Afghanistan "immediately" after a leak led to his deployment being reported by foreign media.
Jean-Bertrand Aristide is removed as President of Haiti following a coup.
Second Chechen War: Eighty-four Russian paratroopers are killed in a rebel attack on a guard post near Ulus Kert.
First day of Bosnia and Herzegovina independence referendum.
Svend Robinson becomes the first member of the Canadian House of Commons to come out as gay.
South African archbishop Desmond Tutu is arrested along with 100 clergymen during a five-day anti-apartheid demonstration in Cape Town.
Gordie Howe of the then Hartford Whalers makes NHL history as he scores his 800th goal.
Vietnam War: Vietnamization: South Korea withdraws 11,000 of its 48,000 troops from Vietnam.
In Sydney, Australian swimmer Dawn Fraser sets a new world record in the 100-meter freestyle swimming competition (58.9 seconds).
The 5.7 Mw Agadir earthquake shakes coastal Morocco with a maximum perceived intensity of X (Extreme), destroying Agadir, and leaving 12,000 dead and another 12,000 injured.
World War II: The Admiralty Islands are invaded in Operation Brewer led by American General Douglas MacArthur.
In a ceremony held in Berkeley, California, because of the war, physicist Ernest Lawrence receives the 1939 Nobel Prize in Physics from Sweden's Consul General in San Francisco.
For her performance as "Mammy" in Gone with the Wind, Hattie McDaniel becomes the first African American to win an Academy Award.
Czechoslovak National assembly adopted the Constitution.
Child labor: In South Carolina, the minimum working age for factory, mill, and mine workers is raised from twelve to fourteen years old.
American Civil War: Kilpatrick-Dahlgren Raid fails: Plans to free 15,000 Union soldiers being held near Richmond, Virginia are thwarted.
The Jay Treaty between the United States and Great Britain comes into force, facilitating ten years of peaceful trade between the two nations.
King Alaungpaya founds Konbaung Dynasty, the last dynasty of Burmese monarchy.
Ulrika Eleonora, Queen of Sweden abdicates in favour of her husband, who becomes King Frederick I on 24 March.
February 29 is followed by February 30 in Sweden, in a move to abolish the Swedish calendar for a return to the Julian calendar.
Queen Anne's War: French forces and Native Americans stage a raid on Deerfield, Massachusetts Bay Colony, killing 56 villagers and taking more than 100 captive.
Christopher Columbus uses his knowledge of a lunar eclipse that night to convince Native Americans to provide him with supplies.
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