February 28

February 28 is the 59th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 306 days remaining, 307 in leap years.

Events

• 34 – Valentinian I is elevated as Roman Emperor.
• 1700 – February 28 is followed by March 1 in Sweden, thus creating the Swedish calendar.
• 1784 – John Wesley charters the Methodist Church.
• 1827 – The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad is incorporated, becoming the first railroad in America offering commercial transportation of both people and freight.
• 1844 – A gun on USS Princeton explodes while the boat is on a Potomac River cruise, killing two United States Cabinet members and several others.
• 1849 – Regular steamboat service from the west to the east coast of the United States begins with the arrival of the SS California in San Francisco Bay, 4 months 21 days after leaving New York Harbor.
• 1850 – The University of Utah opens in Salt Lake City, Utah.
• 1854 – The United States Republican Party is organized in Ripon, Wisconsin.
• 1861 – Colorado is organized as a United States territory.
• 1870 – The Bulgarian Exarchate is established by decree of Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz of the Ottoman Empire.
• 1883 – The first vaudeville theater is opened, in Boston, Massachusetts.
• 1885 – The American Telephone and Telegraph Company is incorporated in New York State as the subsidiary of American Bell Telephone. (American Bell would later merge with its subsidiary.)
• 1900 – The Boer War: The 118-day "Siege of Ladysmith" is lifted.
• 1922 – The United Kingdom accepts the independence of Egypt.
• 1933 – Gleichschaltung: The Reichstag Fire Decree is passed in Germany a day after the Reichstag fire.
• 1935 – Nylon is discovered by Wallace Carothers.
• 1939 – The word "Dord" is discovered in the Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition, prompting an investigation.
• 1940 – Basketball is televised for the first time (Fordham University vs. the University of Pittsburgh in Madison Square Garden).
• 1947 – February 28 Incident: In Taiwan, civil disorder is put down with large loss of civilian lives.
• 1948 – Bud Gartiser sets a new world record after clearing the 50-yard low hurdles in 6.8 seconds.
• 1952 – End of 8th Winter Olympic Games in Oslo.
• 1953 – James D. Watson and Francis Crick announce to friends that they have determined the chemical structure of DNA; formal announcement April 25 following publication in April Nature (pub. April 2).
• 1960 – End of 10th Winter Olympic Games in Squaw Valley, California
• 1972 – Sino-American relations: The United States and People's Republic of China sign the Shanghai Communiqué.
• 1974 – After seven years, the United States and Egypt re-establish diplomatic relations.
• 1975 – A major tube train crash at Moorgate station, London kills 43 people.
• 1983 – The final episode of M*A*S*H is broadcast in the USA, becoming the most watched television episode in history, with 106–125 million viewers in the U.S. (estimate varies by source).
• 1986 – Olof Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden, is assassinated in Stockholm.
• 1993 – Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents raid the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas with a warrant to arrest cult leader David Koresh. Four BATF agents and five Davidians die in the initial raid, starting a 51-day standoff.
• 1998 – Kosovo War: Serbian police begin the offensive againt the KLA in Kosovo.
• 2001 – An earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter Scale hits the Nisqually Valley area of Washington. There were no reports of any deaths.
• 2002 – Ethnic conflict in India: At least 55 are killed in Ahmadabad, India when Hindus burn Muslim homes.
• 2004 – Over 1 million Taiwanese participating in the 228 Hand-in-Hand Rally formed a 500-kilometre (300-mile) long human chain to commemorate the 228 Incident in 1947

Births

• 1553 – Michel de Montaigne, writer and philosopher (d. 1592)
• 1683 – René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur, scientist (d. 1757)
• 1820 – John Tenniel, illustrator (d. 1914)
• 1827 – Blondin, French tightrope walker whose spectacular crossings of Niagara Falls (USA/Canada) made him world famous (d. 1897)
• 1833 – Alfred von Schlieffen, German field marshal (d. 1913)
• 1862 – Canon Edwin Sidney Savage, Rector of Hexham Abbey and St Bartholomew the Great (d. 1947)
• 1878 – Pierre Fatou, French Mathematician, who worked on iteration theory which was later analysed by Benoit Mandelbrot. (d. 1929)
• 1882 – Geraldine Farrar, American soprano (d. 1967)
• 1894 – Ben Hecht, playwright, film writer (d. 1964)
• 1900 – Wolfram Hirth, pilot and aircraft designer (d. 1959)
• 1901 – Linus Pauling, the only winner of Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1954 and Peace 1962 (d. 1994)
• 1903 – Vincente Minnelli, director (d. 1986)
• 1906 – Bugsy Siegel, gangster (d. 1947)
• 1908 – Earl Scheib, American auto painting magnate (d. 1992)
• 1908 – Billie Bird, American actress (d. 2002)
• 1909 – Stephen Spender, poet (d. 1995)
• 1915 – Zero Mostel, actor (d. 1977)
• 1923 – Charles Durning, American actor
• 1926 – Svetlana Alliluyeva, Soviet defector, daughter of Joseph Stalin
• 1929 – Hayden Fry, college football coach
• 1929 – Frank Gehry, Canadian/American architect
• 1930 – Gavin MacLeod, American actor
• 1931 – Dean Smith, NCAA basketball coach
• 1938 – Klaus Staeck, graphic artist
• 1939 – Erika Pluhar, actress and singer
• 1939  – Tommy Tune, dancer, choreographer, actor
• 1940 – Mario Andretti, automobile driver
• 1940 – Joe South, American singer, songwriter
• 1942 – Brian Jones, musician ("The Rolling Stones") (d. 1969)
• 1942  – Joe South, musician
• 1942  – Dino Zoff, Italian football goalkeeper
• 1942 – Frank Bonner, American actor, director
• 1944 – Sepp Maier, German football goalkeeper
• 1944 – Kelly Bishop, American actress
• 1945 – Bubba Smith, American football player, actor (Police Academy)
• 1946 – Robin Cook, British politician
• 1946 – Syreeta Wright, American singer (d. 2004)
• 1947 – Stephanie Beacham, actress
• 1948 – Mike Figgis, director, writer, composer
• 1948  – Bernadette Peters, actress, singer
• 1948  – Mercedes Ruehl, actress
• 1952 – William Finn, composer, lyricist
• 1955 – Gilbert Gottfried, American comedian, actor
• 1957 – John Turturro, American actor
• 1960 – Dorothy Stratten, Canadian actress and Playboy model (d. 1980)
• 1961 – Mark Latham, former leader of the Australian Labour Party
• 1962 – Rae Dawn Chong, Canadian actress
• 1969 – Robert Sean Leonard, American actor
• 1970 – Lemony Snicket, author of The Series of Unfortunate Events books
• 1971 – Tristan Louis, American writer
• 1973 – Eric Lindros, ice hockey star
• 1979 – Primož Peterka, Slovenian ski jumper
• 1985 – Jelena Jankovic, Serbian tennis player
• 1987 – Michelle Horn, teen actress
• 1996 – Bobb'e J. Thompson, rap musician, actor

Deaths

• 1261 – Henry III, Duke of Brabant
• 1326 – Duke Leopold I of Austria
• 1510 – Juan de la Cosa, Spanishcartographer, conquistador and explorer (b. 1460)
• 1621 – Cosimo II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1590)
• 1648 – King Christian IV of Denmark and Norway, (b. 1577)
• 1916 – Henry James, writer (b. 1843)
• 1941 – King Alfonso XIII of Spain (b. 1886)
• 1942 – Karel Doorman, Dutch admiral (b. 1889)
• 1959 – Maxwell Anderson, playwright, film writer (b. 1888)
• 1966 – Jonathan Hale, Canadian actor
• 1967 – Henry Luce, American publisher
• 1977 – Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson, actor (b. 1905)
• 1978 – Philip Ahn, American actor
• 1978 – Zara Cully, American actress
• 1985 – David Byron, singer, Uriah Heep lead vocalist (b. 1947)
• 1985 – Ray Ellington, British singer (b. 1916)
• 1986 – Olof Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden (b. 1927)
• 1993 – Ruby Keeler, actress, singer, dancer (b. 1910)
• 1998 – Dermot Morgan, actor, comedian (b. 1952)
• 1998 – Arkady Shevchenko, Soviet diplomat
• 2002 – Helmut Zacharias, German violinist (b. 1920)
• 2002 – Mary Stuart, American actress
• 2003 – Chris Brasher, athlete
• 2003  – Fidel Sánchez Hernández, former President of El Salvador
• 2003  – Roger Michael Needham, professor of cryptography at Cambridge University
• 2004 – Daniel J. Boorstin, American historian, writer, and Librarian of Congress (b. 1914)

Holidays and observances

• Bahá'í Faith – Day 3 of Ayyám-i-Há (Intercalary Days) – days in the Bah&aacute'&iacute calendar devoted to service and gift giving.

External links

• BBC: On This Day

February 27 – February 29 – March 1 – January 28 – March 28 — listing of all days