Comedy, tragedy all this week

• On Feb. 27, 1827, students dance through the streets of New Orleans, marking the beginning of the city’s famous Mardi Gras celebrations. The students, inspired by their experiences in Paris, donned masks and jester costumes and staged their own Fat Tuesday festivities.

• On Feb. 25, 1890, Vlacheslav Skryabin, foreign minister for the Soviet Union who took the revolutionary name Molotov, is born in Russia. An advocate of Marxist revolution, he promoted the practice of throwing bottles filled with flammable liquid at the enemy, and the famous “Molotov cocktail” was born.

• On March 2, 1904, Theodor Geisel, better known to the world as Dr. Seuss, author of such children’s books as “The Cat in the Hat,” is born in Springfield, Mass. Geisel’s first book, “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” was rejected by more than two dozen publishers before making it into print in 1937.

• On Feb. 29, 1928, director and screenwriter William DeMille, brother of director Cecil B. DeMille, hires Beth Brown to write jokes for the film “Tenth Avenue.” Brown was the first woman on record to work as a Hollywood comedy writer.

• On March 1, 1961, President John F. Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps, which would send American men and women to foreign nations to assist in development efforts. Since 1961, more than 180,000 Americans have joined the Peace Corps, serving in 134 nations.