Leroy Chollet (March 5, 1925 – June 10, 1998) was an American professional basketball player. Chollet enrolled at Loyola University New Orleans and led the Loyola Wolf Pack to their first championship. Louisiana schools were segregated at the time; Chollet had an African-American great-grandparent and was pressured into leaving Loyola when this was revealed. He moved to New York and played three seasons for Canisius College. Chollet played for several professional teams, including the Syracuse Nationals. During the inaugural season of the National Basketball Association (NBA), Syracuse reached the 1950 NBA Finals. An ankle injury limited Chollet's second year in the NBA. He married Barbara Knaus and, after retiring from professional basketball in 1952, he moved to her hometown, Lakewood, Ohio. They had three children: Lawrence, Melanie, and David. In Lakewood, Chollet worked on the construction of St. Edward High School and became a teacher and a varsity head coach. (Full article...)

Eosalmo driftwoodensis

• ... that the salmon Eosalmo (fossil example pictured) likely never migrated to the ocean?
• ... that professional baseball player Eric Reyzelman was twice cut from his high-school baseball team?
• ... that the Dakhni and Amanat Khan caravanserais, built to provide lodging to travelers, are situated on a little-used, Mughal-era highway between Agra and Lahore?
• ... that Huwie Ishizaki was often asked to "write his real name", despite Huwie being his actual name?
• ... that Joss Whedon was hired to "contribute creatively" to each film in Phase Two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in addition to writing and directing Avengers: Age of Ultron?
• ... that in the official historiography of the Chinese Communist Party, Wei Baqun is considered one of its great early peasant-movement leaders, along with Mao Zedong?
• ... that Post Malone publicly called his debut album "mediocre" less than a year after its release?
• ... that the Ming dynasty fantasy novel Journey to the South – whose protagonist accidentally amputates his right leg and converts to Buddhism – alludes to popular one-legged spirits?
• ... that Vince Gill once mooned a crowd that poorly received him as an opening act for Kiss?

Ōfunato wildfire

• A wildfire (pictured) in Japan's Iwate Prefecture grows to become the largest in the country's history.
• The United States imposes tariffs on Canada and Mexico and increases tariffs on China, incurring retaliatory tariffs from Canada and China.
• Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost successfully soft-lands on the Moon as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program.
• At the Academy Awards, Anora wins five awards, including Best Picture.
• A roadmap towards providing developing countries with US$200 billion a year by 2030 is agreed to at an extended session of the 2024 United Nations Biodiversity Conference.

March 5: Ash Wednesday (Western Christianity, 2025); Learn from Lei Feng Day in China; St Piran's Day in Cornwall, England

Prototype Spitfire K5054

• 1811 – Peninsular War: At the Battle of Barrosa, Anglo-Iberian forces trying to lift the Siege of Cádiz defeated a French attack but could not break the siege itself.
• 1825 – Roberto Cofresí, one of the last Caribbean pirates, was apprehended after his flagship sloop Anne was captured by authorities.
• 1936 – The prototype (pictured) of the Supermarine Spitfire flew for the first time.
• 1981 – The ZX81, a pioneering British home computer, was launched by Sinclair Research, and went on to sell more than 1.5 million units around the world.