February 29 (2019)

75 years ago
1944

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): You'll Never Know--Vera Lynn and the Joe Loss Orchestra (1st month at #1)

Died on this date
P.E. Svinhufvud, 82. Prime Minister of Finland, 1930-1931; President of Finland, 1931-1937. Mr. Svinhufvud was a leader of the movement for Finnish independence and was the country's first head of state, as Chairman of the Senate from 1917-1918 and Regent from May 18-December 12, 1918. He was a conservative known for his opposition to Communism.

Literature
Lillian Smith's novel Strange Fruit, a story of inter-racial prejudice in Georgia, was published in New York by Reynal & Hitchcock.

War
The U.S.S.R. offered peace terms to Finland if Finland would break with Germany, withdraw her troops to the 1940 borders, and intern Nazi troops and equipment. In their drive on Pskov, Soviet troops captured 250 more inhabited places and, with the capture of Pogorelka and Podlipye, moved to within six miles of the city. In a new offensive designed to wipe out the Allies' beachhead at Anzio, German units attacked between Aprilia and Cisterna. In Operation Brewer, U.S. troops commanded by General Douglas MacArthur landed on Los Negros Island in the Admiralty Islands, 300 miles north of Rapaul, and quickly secured Momote airfield. British and Indian troops, with some Canadians, finally drove the Japanese invaders from Burma.

Politics and government
A conference of the United States Senate and House of Representatives reached a compromise on the issue of votes by military personnel in the November 1944 national elections. Use of a federal ballot would be permitted for residents of states that had not provided for absentee voting.

Mrs. Dorothy Vredenburgh was named secretary of the U.S. Democratic National Committee, becoming the first woman to hold the post.

Society
The South Carolina House of Representatives adopted and sent to the state Senate a resolution reaffirming "belief and allegiance to established white supremacy" and warning "damned agitators of the North to leave the South alone."

Economics and finance
The United States Commerce Department reported that one of every three American families now had an annual income of more than $3,000, as compared with only one in ten between 1935 and 1940.