Company results – Insurance Australia; QBE Insurance; Telstra

The 46th Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival begins (on until 3 March)  – Sydney

National Multicultural Fest (on until 18 Feb) – Canberra 

2024 Bathurst SuperFest (on until 25 Feb) – Bathurst 

Table Tennis World Championship (on until 25 Feb) – South Korea

Kyoto Protocol Day 

Innovation Day

Do a Grouch a Favour Day

Birthdays for Cathy Freeman (1973), The Weeknd (1990)

Anniversary of:

• Pope Gregory the Great decreeing “God bless you” as the correct response to a sneeze (600)

• the deaths of 21 Australian nurses in the Banka Island Massacre in WWII (1942, and today’s the 80th anniversary)

• the Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria (1983)

• the Kyoto Protocol coming into force following its ratification by Russia (2005)

• the death of two men who became trapped 125m underground in the Dugald River zinc mine (2023)