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 accepted 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" was 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 designer of aircraft (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 legendary 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
• 1973 - Eric Lindros, ice hockey star
• 1979 - Primož Peterka, Slovenian ski jumper
• 1987 - Michelle Horn, teen actress
• 1996 - Bobb'e J. Thompson , rap musician, actor

Deaths

• 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 link

• BBC: On This Day

February 27 - February 29 - March 1 - January 28 - March 28 -- listing of all days