On this date in 1704 the Deerfield Raid occurred as part of Queen Anne's War. French militia with their native allies swept down from Canada and destroyed the Massachusetts town of Deerfield. Killing 56 and capturing 112 English subjects and whisking them through the snow to Canada.

Also on this date in 1864, the Dahlgren-Kilpatrick Raid on Richmond to free Union prisoners came a cropper as Dahlgren's 500 man force split from Kilpatrick's main body and sought to cross the James River and enter the city from the south, while Kilpatrick attacked from the north. Dahlgren could not find a suitable ford on the James River due to recent heavy rains, so he enlisted a local black man Martin Robinson to take him to a ford. When they got there, that ford was unusable too. Dahlgren suspected trickery on Robinson's part and hung him on the spot. Dahlgren was forced to change his plans and attack Richmond from the west.

I read today that in leap years, Texas A&M football tends to do very well. 2020, 2016 (until Knight's injury), 2012, 1992. Of course, what's not said there are the number of leap years where they didn't do so well.

Fun fact: For about 30 years after Julius Caesar reformed the calendar (but wasn't around to oversee the implementation), the people in charge messed up the leap year rule, declaring one every 3 years instead of every 4 years. Emperor Augustus fixed the error, after skipping a few leap days to compensate for the extras that had been mistakenly added.