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February 28 in History
Historical Events on February 28
202 BC
Liu Bang is enthroned as the Emperor of China, beginning four centuries of rule by the Han dynasty.
628
Khosrow II is executed by Mihr Hormozd under the orders of Kavadh II.
870
The Fourth Council of Constantinople closes.
1246
The siege of Jaén ends in the context of the Spanish Reconquista resulting in the Castilian takeover of the city from the Taifa of Jaen.
1525
Aztec king Cuauhtémoc is executed on the order of conquistador Hernán Cortés.
1638
The Scottish National Covenant is signed in Edinburgh.
1700
Today is followed by March 1 in Sweden, thus creating the Swedish calendar.
1710
Battle of Helsingborg: 14,000 Danish invaders under Jørgen Rantzau are decisively defeated by an equally sized Swedish force under Magnus Stenbock. This is the last time Swedish and Danish troops meet on Swedish soil.
1784
John Wesley charters the Methodist Church.
1827
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad is incorporated, becoming the first railroad in America offering commercial transportation of both people and freight.
1838
Robert Nelson, leader of the Patriotes, proclaims the independence of Lower Canada (today Quebec).
1844
A gun on USS Princeton explodes while the boat is on a Potomac River cruise, killing six people, including two United States Cabinet members.
1847
The Battle of the Sacramento River during the Mexican-American War is a decisive victory for the United States leading to the capture of Chihuahua.
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, four months 22 days after leaving New York Harbor.
1867
Seventy years of Holy See-United States relations are ended by a Congressional ban on federal funding of diplomatic envoys to the Vatican and are not restored until January 10, 1984.
1870
The Bulgarian Exarchate is established by decree of Sultan Abdülaziz of the Ottoman Empire.
1874
One of the longest cases ever heard in an English court ends when the defendant is convicted of perjury for attempting to assume the identity of the heir to the Tichborne baronetcy.
1885
The American Telephone and Telegraph Company is incorporated in New York as the subsidiary of American Bell Telephone. (American Bell would later merge with its subsidiary.)
1893
The USS Indiana, the lead ship of her class and the first battleship in the United States Navy comparable to foreign battleships of the time, is launched.
1897
Queen Ranavalona III, the last monarch of Madagascar, is deposed by a French military force.
1900
The Second Boer War: The 118-day "Siege of Ladysmith" is lifted.
1904
S.L. Benfica is founded in Portugal
1922
The United Kingdom ends its protectorate over Egypt through a Unilateral Declaration of Independence.
1925
The Charlevoix-Kamouraska earthquake strikes northeastern North America.
1933
Gleichschaltung: The Reichstag Fire Decree is passed in Germany a day after the Reichstag fire.
1935
DuPont scientist Wallace Carothers invents nylon.
1939
The erroneous 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).
1942
The heavy cruiser USS Houston is sunk in the Battle of Sunda Strait with 693 crew members killed, along with HMAS Perth which lost 375 men.
1947
February 28 Incident: In Taiwan, civil disorder is put down with the loss of an estimated 30,000 civilians.
1948
Christiansborg Cross-Roads shooting in the Gold Coast, when a British police officer opens fire on a march of ex-servicemen, killing three of them and sparking major riots and looting in Accra.
1953
James Watson and Francis Crick announce to friends that they have determined the chemical structure of DNA; the formal announcement takes place on April 25 following publication in April's Nature (pub. April 2).
1954
The first color television sets using the NTSC standard are offered for sale to the general public.
1958
A school bus in Floyd County, Kentucky hits a wrecker truck and plunges down an embankment into the rain-swollen Levisa Fork river. The driver and 26 children die in what remains one of the worst school bus accidents in U.S. history.
1959
Discoverer 1, an American spy satellite that is the first object intended to achieve a polar orbit, is launched but fails to achieve orbit.
1972
Sino-American relations: The United States and People's Republic of China sign the Shanghai Communiqué.
1975
In London, an underground train fails to stop at Moorgate terminus station and crashes into the end of the tunnel, killing 43 people.
1980
Andalusia approves its statute of autonomy through a referendum.
1983
The final episode of M*A*S*H airs, with almost 106 million viewers. It still holds the record for the highest viewership of a season finale.
1985
The Provisional Irish Republican Army carries out a mortar attack on the Royal Ulster Constabulary police station at Newry, killing nine officers in the highest loss of life for the RUC on a single day.
1986
Olof Palme, 26th Prime Minister of Sweden, is assassinated in Stockholm.
1991
The first Gulf War ends.
1993
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents raid the Branch Davidian church in Waco, Texas with a warrant to arrest the group's leader David Koresh. Four ATF agents and six Davidians die in the initial raid, starting a 51-day standoff.
1995
Former Australian Liberal party leader John Hewson resigns from the Australian parliament almost two years after losing the Australian federal election, 1993.
1997
An earthquake in northern Iran is responsible for about 3,000 deaths.
1997
GRB 970228, a highly luminous flash of gamma rays, strikes the Earth for 80 seconds, providing early evidence that gamma-ray bursts occur well beyond the Milky Way.
1998
First flight of RQ-4 Global Hawk, the first unmanned aerial vehicle certified to file its own flight plans and fly regularly in U.S. civilian airspace.
1998
Kosovo War: Serbian police begin the offensive against the Kosovo Liberation Army in Kosovo.
2002
During the religious violence in Gujarat, the 97 people killed in the Naroda Patiya massacre and 69 in Gulbarg Society massacre.
2004
Over one million Taiwanese participating in the 228 Hand-in-Hand rally form a 500-kilometre (310 mi) long human chain to commemorate the February 28 Incident in 1947
2005
A suicide bombing at a police recruiting centre in Al Hillah, Iraq kills 127.
2013
Pope Benedict XVI resigns as the pope of the Catholic Church, becoming the first pope to do so since 1415.
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