What happened on your birthday?

What happened today

1968

Jocelyn Burnell, of Cambridge University, discovers first pulsar.
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Famous birthdays

1792

Gioacchino Rossini, Italian composer

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What’s Your Vietnam War Draft Lottery Number?

The Vietnam War draft lottery ran from 1969 to 1972. If you were born on February 29, would your number have been called?

  • Vietnam War 1969 Lottery
    Not CalledNot drafted
    285
  • Vietnam War 1970 Lottery
    CalledDrafted
    14

    Close call! Your birthday was just 1 day away from a draft number that was called.

  • Vietnam War 1971 Lottery
    Not CalledNot drafted
    305

Read on to learn more about the Vietnam war draft lottery.

more events on February 29

  • 1988

    A Nazi document is discovered that implicates participation of Austrian president and former U.N. Secretary General Kurt Waldheim in WWII deportations.

  • 1972

    Henry “Hank” Aaron becomes first baseball player to sign a baseball contract for $200,000 a year.

  • 1968

    The Beatles win a Grammy Award for their album Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

  • Jocelyn Burnell, of Cambridge University, discovers first pulsar.

  • 1964

    President Lyndon B. Johnson reveals the U.S. secretly developed the Lockheed A-11 jet fighter.

  • 1956

    President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces he will seek second term.

  • 1952

    The first pedestrian “Walk/Don’t Walk” signs are installed at 44th Street and Broadway at Times Square.

  • 1944

    Dorothy Vredenburgh accepts an appointment by the Democratic National Committee becoming the first woman secretary of a national political party in the U.S.

  • US forces catch Japanese troops off-guard and easily take control of the Admiralty Islands in Papua New Guinea.

  • 1940

    Hattie McDaniel is first African American to win an Academy Award–best supporting actress–for her performance in Gone With The Wind.

  • 1936

    Jack R. Lousma, Astronaut

  • 1904

    Jimmy Dorsey, orchestra leader

  • 1868

    British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli forms his first cabinet.

  • 1864

    Lt. William B. Cushing leads a landing party from the USS Monticello to Smithville, NC, in an attempt to capture Confederate Brig. Gen. Louis Hebert, only to discover that Hebert and his men had already moved on Wilmington.

  • Union Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick splits his forces at the Rapidan River ordering Col. Ulric Dahlgren to lead 500 men his men to Goochland Court House, while the remainder followed Kilpatrick in his raid on Richmond.

  • 1860

    Herman Hollerith, inventor of a tabulation mechanism that was a forerunner to the computer.

  • 1856

    Hostilities in Russo-Turkish War cease.

  • 1792

    Gioacchino Rossini, Italian composer

  • 1784

    The Marquis de Sade is transferred from Vincennes fortress to the Bastille.

  • 1736

    Anna Lee, founder of the Shaker movement in America.

  • 1712

    Marquis Louis Joseph de Montcalm, Commander of French Forces in North America during French and Indian War.

  • 1692

    Sarah Goode and Tituba are accused of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts, sparking the hysteria that started the Salem Witch Trials.

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