Historical Events on February 28 |

February 28 Calendar

Events 1 - 200 of 224

1730 Russian Empress Anna Ivanovna revokes "the conditions" and dissolves the Privy Council, re-instituting autocracy
1749 1st edition of Henry Fieldings' novel "Tom Jones" published
1759 Pope Clement XIII allows Bible to be translated into various languages
1778 Rhode Island General Assembly authorizes enlistment of slaves

1787 The charter establishing the institution now known as the University of Pittsburgh is granted
1794 US Senate voids Pennsylvania's election of Abraham Gallatin
1804 Charles Pichegru, French army general and royalist who plotted to overthrow Napoleon in the Pichegru Conspiracy, arrested
1810 1st US fire insurance joint-stock company organized, Philadelphia

Schäfers Klageleid

1819 1st public performance of a Franz Schubert's song "Schäfers Klageleid"

1826 Biela's Comet rediscovered by Austrian astronomer Wilhelm von Biela (originally discovered 1772)
1827 1st commercial railroad in US, Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) chartered
1828 Franz Grillparzer's "Ein Treuer Diener" premieres in Vienna

Darwin Arrives in Bahia

1832 Charles Darwin, aboard HMS Beagle, arrives in the town of Salvador in the Brazilian state of Bahia

1835 Dr Elias L"nnrot publishes Finnish poem "Kalevala"
1838 Robert Nelson, leader of the Patriotes, proclaims the independence of Lower Canada (today Québec)
1844 12-inch gun aboard USS Princeton explodes, killing Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur, Secretary of the Navy Thomas Gilmer, and other high-ranking U.S. federal officials
1847 US forces numbering less than 1,000 defeat a larger Mexico force in the Battle of the Sacramento River

1849 1st boat load of gold rush prospectors arrives in San Francisco from the east coast

1850 The University of Utah opens in Salt Lake City, Utah
1859 Arkansas legislature requires free blacks to choose exile or slavery

1863 Confederate raider "Nashville" sinks near Fort McAllister, Georgia
1864 -Mar 3rd] Skirmish at Albemarle County Virginia (Burton's Ford)
1864 -Mar 4th) Raid at Kilpatrick's Richmond
1870 The Bulgarian Exarchate (Orthodox Church) is established by decree of Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz of the Ottoman Empire
1871 2nd Enforcement Act gives federal control of congressional elections in US

Bland-Allison Act

1878 Congress overrides US President Rutherford B. Hayes' veto of the Bland-Allison Act, requiring the Treasury to buy a certain amount of silver and put it into circulation as silver dollars

1878 US congress authorizes large-size silver certificate
1882 1st US college cooperative store opens, at Harvard University
1883 1st US vaudeville theater opens in Boston, Massachusetts
1888 Ferry in San Pablo Bay explodes
1888 Vincent d'Indy's Wallenstein trilogy, premieres
1891 Oscar Grundén skates world record 500m (50.8 sec)
1893 Edward Acheson of Pennsylvania, patents an abrasive he names "carborundum" (Silicon carbide)

Historic Publication

1893 Stephen Crane's first novel "Maggie: A Girl of the Streets" is published under the pseudonym "Johnston Smith"

1896 France dismisses Queen Ranavalona III of Madagascar and exiles her to the island of Réunion
1899 Legislative Assembly of the Territory of New Mexico passes legislation founding the University of New Mexico, to be established in (or near) Albuquerque
1900 General Buller's troops relieve Ladysmith in Natal
1903 Barney Dreyfuss & James Potter buy Philadelphia Phillies for $170,000
1904 Football club Sport Lisboa (Benfica) founded in Lisbon, Portugal

1906 Stanley Cup: Ottawa HC beats Queen's University (Kingston, ON), 12-7 for a 2-0 sweep of challenge series
1908 Failed assassination attempt on Shah Mohammed Ali in Tehran
1909 1st National Woman's Day is observed in the United States. Organized by the Socialist Party of America in honor of the 1908 garment workers' strike in New York, where women protested against working conditions.
1912 Australian batting great Victor Trumper scores 50 in his final Test innings in 5th Test loss v England at Sydney Cricket Ground
1914 Construction begins on Tower of Jewels for the San Francisco Exposition
1915 WWI: After the French try to drive the Germans forces back into the Champagne region, they gain a few hundred yards - at the cost of 50,000 casualties
1917 AP reports Mexico & Japan will allie with Germany if US enters WW I
1920 Austria adopts a new constitution and becomes a kingdom again

Le tombeau de Couperin

1920 Maurice Ravel's orchestral suite "Le tombeau de Couperin" premieres in Paris

1922 KHQ-AM in Spokane WA begins radio transmissions
1923 Swedish King Gustaaf V begins state visit to Netherlands
1924 US begins intervention in Honduras
1925 "Tea For Two" by Marion Harris hits #1
1925 Congress authorizes a special handling stamp

1925 Longest win streak in Toronto Maple Leaf history (9 games)
1925 Theater Museum of Amsterdam forms
1929 Chic Black Hawks lose record NHL 15th straight game at home

1931 Canadian Rugby Union adopts the forward pass
1933 1st female in US Cabinet: Frances Perkins appointed Secretary of Labor

1933 After the Reichstag Fire Decree, the German Communist Party (KPD) is essentially outlawed (though not formally banned) after the German government blames the Communists for burning down the Reichstag building

Reichstag Fire Decree

1933 On Adolf Hitler's advice, German President Paul von Hindenburg signs the Reichstag Fire Decree after the building is destroyed by fire in Berlin; this eliminates many civil liberties in Germany

1933 Pacifist and anti fascist writer Carl Von Ossietzky arrested, sent to Esterwegen-Papenburg concentration camp
1935 Amsterdam Hotel of the Red Lion gets sidewalk permit
1935 Ladby Ship is discovered within a Viking grave on the island of Funen in Denmark by amateur archaeologist Poul Helweg Mikkelsen
1935 Wallace Carothers manufactures 1st nylon polymer
1936 Karl Schäfer of Austria follows up his Winter Olympics victory with his 7th consecutive men’s figure skating World Championship title in Paris, France
1936 Olympic champions Ernst Baier and Maxi Herber of Germany win their 4th consecutive pairs figure skating gold medal at the World Championships in Paris, France
1939 The erroneous word "Dord" is discovered in the Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition, prompting an investigation.
1939 The first issue of Serbian weekly magazine Politikin zabavnik is published.
1940 1st televised basketball game (U of Pitts beats Fordham U, 50-37)
1940 Richard Wright's "Native Son" published
1940 US population at 131,669,275 with 12,865,518 African American (9.8%)
1941 British-Italian dogfight above Albania
1942 1st weapon drop on Netherlands
1942 Japanese land in Java, last Allied bastion in Dutch East Indies
1942 Race riot at Sojourner Truth Homes, a housing project in Detroit, Michigan
1942 World War II: German submarine U-578 torpedoes US Navy destroyer USS Jacob Jones (DD130) off Cape May, New Jersey, killing all but 11 of 113 man crew
1944 Arrests of the ten-Boom family in Nazi occupied Netherlands (Haarlem) through a Dutch collaborator on charges of hiding Jews

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

1945 Film adaptation of Betty Smith's novel "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" premieres; director Elia Kazan's first feature film stars Dorothy McGuire, Joan Blondell, and Peggy Ann Garner

1947 February 28 Massacre: Anti-government uprising in Taiwan is violently put down by Chiang Kai-shek and his Kuomintang-led Republic of China government with the loss of 18,000-28,000 lives. Marks the beginning of the White Terror.

1951 French government of Pleven dissolves
1951 Senate committee reports of at least 2 major US crime syndicates

Canadian History

1952 Vincent Massey is sworn in as the first Canadian-born Governor General of Canada

1954 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Bikini Island
1956 13 die in a train crash in Swampscott, Massachusetts
1956 American engineer Wright Forrester issued a patent for computer core memory

1958 West Indies 1-504 in reply to Pakistan 328, day 3 of 3rd Test Cricket

The Ollie Matson Trade

1959 Chicago Cardinals trade running back Ollie Matson to the LA Rams for an unprecedented 9 players

1959 Ice Dance Championship at Colorado Springs USA won by Denny & Jones of Great Britain
1959 Ice Pairs Championship at Colorado Springs won by Barbara Wagner and Robert Paul of Canada, their 3rd title
1959 Launch of Discoverer 1 (WTR)-1st polar orbit

Olympic Gold

1960 Home team United States wins its first Olympic ice hockey gold medal at Squaw Valley; with 9-4 win over Czechoslovakia

1960 VIII Winter Olympic Games close in Squaw Valley, California

1962 WMGM-AM in New York City changes call letters to WHN
1966 Cavern Club (Beatles hangout) in Liverpool, England closes

1967 A West German court rules that impostor Anna Anderson failed to prove that she was missing Russian duchess Anastasia Romanov, ending a legal case that lasted almost 30 years

1968 Pirate Radio Hauraki, on a boat floating off coast of NZ, returns to the air
1969 Ice Dance Championship at Colorado Springs won by Towler & Ford of Great Britain
1969 Ice Pairs Championship at Colorado Springs won by Rodnina & Ulanov of the Soviet Union
1969 Ladies Figure Skating Champion in Colorado Springs won by Gabriele Seyfert of Great Britain

Election of Interest

1969 Terence O'Neill re-elected as leader of the Unionist Parliamentary Party and thus confirmed as Northern Ireland Prime Minister

1970 Bicycles permitted to cross Golden Gate Bridge
1970 Caroline Walker runs world female record marathon (3:02:53)
1970 KIIN (now KUN) TV channel 12 in Iowa City, IA (PBS) 1st broadcast
1970 WUTR TV channel 20 in Utica-Rome, NY (ABC) begins broadcasting
1971 A British soldier dies in Derry after his vehicle had been attacked with petrol bombs (he died as a result of inhaling chemicals from fire extinguishers that were used to put out the fire)

1971 WDRB TV channel 41 in Louisville, Kentucky (IND) begins broadcasting
1972 George Harrison is involved in a minor car accident
1972 The Asama-Sanso incident ends in Japan.

Event of Interest

1972 US President Richard Nixon ends historic week-long visit to China

1973 Iraq and Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC) reach an agreement on compensation for nationalization
1973 Suriname government of Jules Sedney arrests 13 union leaders
1974 Ethiopian government of Makonnen forms
1974 Taiwan police shoots into crowd
1974 UK general election results in a hung parliament
1974 US & Egypt re-form diplomatic relations after 7 years
1975 A major London tube train crash at Moorgate station kills 43 people and injures a further 74.
1975 EG signs accord of Lome with 46 developing countries
1975 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

1976 18th Grammy Awards: "Love Will Keep Us Together" Record of the Year; Natalie Cole 1st African American to win Best New Artist

1976 Spain withdraws from Western Sahara, leaving Ceuta & Melilla (Spanish Morocco) as the last European possessions in Africa
1977 1st killer whale born in captivity (Marineland, Los Angeles California)
1977 Dock strike in Rotterdam/Amsterdam ends
1979 Ernest Thompson's "On Golden Pond" premieres in NYC
1980 "The Well-Tuned Piano" by La Monte Young premieres (takes 4 h 12 m)
1980 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1981 Calvin Murphy (Hou), sets NBA record with 78 consecutive free throws

Seven Year Ache

1981 Columbia Records releases "Seven Year Ache", the third studio album by Rosanne Cash; it is her commercial break-through and goes to #1 on the country music chart

1981 People's Republic of China throws out the Netherlands ambassador due to Dutch sales of submarines to Taiwan
1982 AT&T looses a record $7 BILLION for the fiscal year ending on this day
1982 FALN (PR Nationalist Group) bombs Wall Street

Final Episode of "MAS*H"

1983 Final TV episode of "M*A*S*H", a 2-hour special directed by series star Alan Alda titled "Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen", airs (CBS); record 125 million watch in the US

War

1983 U2 release their third studio album "War" featuring protest song "Sunday Bloody Sunday", their 1st No. 1 UK album

1984 British satirical puppet show "Spitting Image" premieres on ITV
1986 European Economic Community signs "Special Act" for Europe free trade
1986 Peter Uberroth suspended 7 baseball players for 1 year, after they admitted in Curtis Strong's trial in September, they used drugs
1988 Anti-Armenian pogrom in Azerbaijan, 30 killed
1988 British television programme "That's Life!" surprises guest Nicholas Winton with an audience full of grown-up children that he saved from German-occupied Czechoslovakia, bringing them to safety in the UK
1988 Pat Verbeek becomes 1st NJ Devil to score 4 goals in an NHL game
1988 XV Winter Olympic Games close in Calgary, Canada

1989 10-time All Star second baseman and manager Red Schoendienst and umpire Al Barlick are elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame
1989 Memo by Brian Gumbel criticizing Today Show co-workers becomes public
1989 Nevada-Semipalatinsk anti-nuclear movement founded by Olzhas Suleimenov in Kazakhstan, initially aiming to close Semipalatinsk nuclear test site (closed 1991) [1]
1990 Dutch police seize 3,000 kg of cocaine
1990 US 65th manned space mission STS 36 (Atlantis 6) launches into orbit
1991 Gulf War ends after Iraq accepts a ceasefire following their retreat from Kuwait

1991 Noureddine Morceli runs world record 1500m indoor (3:34:16)
1993 Gun battle erupts near Waco, Texas at Branch Davidian compound after FBI attempts a raid
1993 Iolanda Chen triple jumps world indoor record hop step (14.46m)
1994 Brady Law, imposing a wait-period to buy a hand gun in the USA, comes into effect
1995 Denver International Airport opens
1995 The US Pentagon announces that it monitored Iranian installation of surface-to-air Hawk missiles in the Strait of Hormuz

1997 Earthquake in Pakistan kills 45
1997 FBI agent Earl Pitts pleads guilty to selling secrets to Russia
1997 Purchasers of cigarettes in US must prove they are over 18
1997 The North Hollywood shootout takes place.
1998 "View From the Bridge" closes at Criterion Theater NYC
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.

Sports History

1998 Vancouver Canucks Mark Messier is 4th NHLer to get 1,600 points

2001 Six passengers and four railway staff are killed and a further 82 people suffer serious injuries in the Selby rail crash
2001 The Nisqually Earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter Scale hits the Nisqually Valley and the Seattle, Tacoma, and Olympia area of the U.S. state of Washington.
2001 The US Environmental Protection Agency announces that it intends to proceed with implementation of tighter restrictions on sulfur content in diesel fuel; the rule is opposed by many in the refining industry
2004 Over 1 million Taiwanese participating in the 228 Hand-in-Hand Rally form a 500-kilometre (300-mile) long human chain to commemorate the 228 Incident in 1947
2005 A suicide bombing at a police recruiting centre in Al Hillah, Iraq kills 127.
2005 Lebanon's pro-Syrian prime minister, Omar Karami, resigns amid large anti-Syria street demonstrations in Beirut.

Dakota

2005 Stereophonics release their single "Dakota", later their first #1 UK single

2007 Jupiter flyby of the New Horizons Pluto-observer spacecraft.
2008 Former Prime Minister of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra is arrested on corruption charges upon returning to Thailand after months of exile.
2010 XXI Winter Olympic Games close in Vancouver, Canada
2012 54th Daytona 500: Rain affected race stopped for 2 hours because of fuel on track; Matt Kenseth leads for final 34 laps to win
2012 Discovery of the largest prehistoric penguin, Kairuku grebneffi, at nearly 5ft tall

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Historical Events on February 28

Schäfers Klageleid

Darwin Arrives in Bahia

Bland-Allison Act

Historic Publication

Le tombeau de Couperin

Reichstag Fire Decree

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Canadian History

The Ollie Matson Trade

Olympic Gold

Election of Interest

Event of Interest

Seven Year Ache

Final Episode of "MAS*H"

War

Sports History

Dakota

CATALOG

FEATURED TAGS

Schäfers Klageleid

Darwin Arrives in Bahia

Bland-Allison Act

Historic Publication

Le tombeau de Couperin

Reichstag Fire Decree

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Canadian History

The Ollie Matson Trade

Olympic Gold

Election of Interest

Event of Interest

Seven Year Ache

Final Episode of "M*A*S*H"

War

Sports History

Dakota

CATALOG

FEATURED TAGS

Final Episode of "MAS*H"