What happened on February 28? There are more than 290 events that were made this day in history. Here are the important historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.
Interesting Facts & Myths About February 28
February 28 is the 59th day of the year 2024. There are 307 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Wednesday. This day falls under the 9th week of the year 2024.
On this day in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania 19317 sunrise occured at 06:35 AM and sunset occured at 05:53 PM (local time).
The zodiac sign of a person born on this day is Pisces. The modern birthstone for this month is Amethyst while the mystical birthstone is Bloodstone.
According to the Chinese calendar, there are 336 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year (January 29, 2025).
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Historical Events For February 28
- 202 BCcoronation ceremony of Liu Bang as Emperor Gaozu of Han takes place, initiating four centuries of the Han Dynasty’s rule over China
- 870The Fourth Council of Constantinople closes.
- 1638The Scottish National Covenant is signed in Edinburgh.
- 1700Today is followed by March 1 in Sweden, thus creating the Swedish calendar.
- 1710In the Battle of Helsingborg, 14,000 Danish invaders under Jørgen Rantzau are decisively defeated by an equally sized Swedish force under Magnus Stenbock.
- 1784John Wesley charters the Methodist Church.
- 1811Cry of Asencio, begin of the Uruguayan War of Independence
- 1827The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad is incorporated, becoming the first railroad in America offering commercial transportation of both people and freight.
- 1838Robert Nelson, leader of the Patriotes, proclaims the independence of Lower Canada (today Quebec)
- 1844A gun on USS Princeton explodes while the boat is on a Potomac River cruise, killing eight people, including two United States Cabinet members.
- 1849Regular 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 22 days after leaving New York Harbor.
- 1854The Republican Party of the United States is organized in Ripon, Wisconsin.
- 1870The Bulgarian Exarchate is established by decree of Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz of the Ottoman Empire.
- 1883The first vaudeville theater opens in Boston, Massachusetts.
- 1885The 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.)
- 1893The 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.
- 1897Queen Ranavalona III, the last monarch of Madagascar, is deposed by a French military force.
- 1900The Second Boer War: The 118-day “Siege of Ladysmith” is lifted.
- 1914The Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus is proclaimed in Gjirokastër, by the Greeks living in southern Albania.
- 1922The United Kingdom ends its protectorate over Egypt through a Unilateral Declaration of Independence.
- 1928C.V. Raman discovers Raman effect.
- 1933Gleichschaltung: The Reichstag Fire Decree is passed in Germany a day after the Reichstag fire.
- 1935DuPont scientist Wallace Carothers invents nylon.
- 1939The erroneous word “dord” is discovered in the Webster’s New International Dictionary, Second Edition, prompting an investigation.
- 1940Basketball is televised for the first time (Fordham University vs. the University of Pittsburgh in Madison Square Garden).
- 1942The 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.
- 1947228 Incident: In Taiwan, civil disorder is put down with the loss of 30,000 civilian lives.
- 1953James D. 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).
- 1954The first color television sets using the NTSC standard are offered for sale to the general public.
- 1958A 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 the worst school bus accident in U.S. history.
- 1959Discoverer 1, an American spy satellite that is the first object to achieve a polar orbit, is launched.
- 1972Sino-American relations: The United States and People’s Republic of China sign the Shanghai Communiqué.
- 1975A major tube train crash at Moorgate station, London kills 43 people.
- 1980Andalusia approves its statute of autonomy through a referendum.
- 1985The 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.
- 1986Olof Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden, is assassinated in Stockholm.
- 1991The first Gulf War ends.
- 1993Bureau 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 BATF agents and five Davidians die in the initial raid, starting a 51-day standoff.
- 1997An earthquake in northern Iran is responsible for about 3,000 deaths.
- 1997An earthquake of magnitude 6.1 in Armenia and Azerbaijan kills around 1,100 people
- 1997GRB 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.
- 1997The North Hollywood shootout takes place, resulting in the injury of 19 people and the deaths of both perpetrators.
- 1998First 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.
- 1998Kosovo War: Serbian police begin the offensive against the Kosovo Liberation Army in Kosovo.
- 2001Six passengers and four railway staff are killed and a further 82 people suffer serious injuries in the Selby rail crash.
- 2001The 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.
- 2004Over 1 million Taiwanese participating in the 228 Hand-in-Hand Rally form a 500 km long human chain to commemorate the 228 Incident in 1947
- 2005A suicide bombing at a police recruiting centre in Al Hillah, Iraq kills 127.
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Who Were Born On February 28?
- 1155Henry the Young King, son of Henry II of England (d. 1183)
- 1261Margaret of Scotland, queen of Norway (d. 1283)
- 1533Michel de Montaigne, French writer (d. 1592)
- 1552Joost Bürgi, Swiss clockmaker (d. 1632)
- 1573Elias Holl, German Architect (d. 1646)
- 1612John Pearson, English theologian (d. 1686)
- 1670Benjamin Wadsworth, American President of Harvard University (d. 1737)
- 1675Guillaume Delisle, French cartographer (d. 1726)
- 1683René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur, French scientist (d. 1757)
- 1704Louis Godin, French astronomer (d. 1760)
- 1712Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, French military commander (d. 1759)
- 1724George Townshend, 1st Marquess Townshend, British field marshal (d. 1807)
- 1812Berthold Auerbach, German poet and author (d. 1882)
- 1820John Tenniel, English illustrator (d. 1914)
- 1823Ernest Renan, French philosopher (d. 1892)
- 1824Blondin, French tightrope walker (d. 1897)
- 1833Alfred von Schlieffen, German field marshal (d. 1913)
- 1838Maurice Lévy, French engineer (d. 1910)
- 1840Henri Duveyrier, French explorer (d. 1892)
- 1841Adrien Albert Marie de Mun, French politician (d. 1914)
- 1851Samuel W. McCall, 47th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1923)
- 1865Wilfred Grenfell, medical missionary (d. 1940)
- 1878Artur Kapp, Estonian composer (d. 1952)
- 1878Pierre Fatou, French mathematician (d. 1929)
- 1882Geraldine Farrar, American soprano (d. 1967)
- 1882José Vasconcelos, Mexican writer (d. 1959)
- 1882Pádraic Ó Conaire, Irish writer (d. 1928)
- 1893Ivan Vasilyov, Bulgarian architect (d. 1979)
- 1894Ben Hecht, American playwright (d. 1964)
- 1895Marcel Pagnol, French novelist, playwright and film director (d. 1974)
- 1896Philip Showalter Hench, American physician, Nobel laureate (d. 1965)
- 1900Wolfram Hirth, German pilot (d. 1959)
- 1901Linus Pauling, American chemist and activist, Nobel laureate (d. 1994)
- 1903Vincente Minnelli, American film director (d. 1986)
- 1906Bugsy Siegel, American gangster (d. 1947)
- 1907Milton Caniff, American cartoonist (Terry and the Pirates, Steve Canyon) (d. 1988)
- 1908Alexander Golitzen, American art director (d. 2005)
- 1908Billie Bird, American actress (d. 2002)
- 1909Stephen Spender, English poet (d. 1995)
- 1911Otakar Vávra, Czech film director
- 1912Clara Petacci, Italian mistress of Benito Mussolini (d. 1945)
- 1915Ketti Frings, American playwright and screenwriter (d. 1981)
- 1915Peter Medawar, Brazilian-born scientist, Nobel laureate (d. 1987)
- 1915Zero Mostel, American actor (d. 1977)
- 1916Cesar Climaco, Filipino politician (d. 1984)
- 1916Svend Asmussen, Danish jazz violinist
- 1917Ernesto Alonso, Mexican actor, director, cinematographer, and producer (d. 2007)
- 1918Alfred Burke, British actor (d. 2011)
- 1921Pierre Clostermann, French World War II pilot (d. 2006)
- 1922Joyce Howard, British film actress (d. 2010)
- 1923Charles Durning, American actor
- 1925Harry H Corbett, English actor (d. 1982)
- 1926Svetlana Alliluyeva, Soviet defector, daughter of Joseph Stalin
- 1929Frank Gehry, Canadian-American architect
- 1929Hayden Fry, American football coach
- 1929John Montague, Irish poet
- 1929Joseph Rouleau, Canadian bass opera singer
- 1930Bruce Dawe, Australian poet
- 1930Leon Neil Cooper, American physicist, Nobel laureate
- 1931Dean Smith, American basketball coach
- 1931Gavin MacLeod, American actor
- 1932Don Francks, Canadian actor
- 1933Miro Steržaj, Slovenian 9-pin bowler
- 1933Rein Taagepera, Estonian politician
- 1933Robert Grondelaers, Belgian cyclist (d. 1989)
- 1938Foge Fazio, American college football coach (d. 2009)
- 1939Chögyam Trungpa, Tibetan Buddhist meditation instructor (d. 1987)
- 1939Daniel C. Tsui, Chinese-born physicist, Nobel laureate
- 1939Tommy Tune, American dancer
- 1940Joe South, American singer
- 1940Mario Andretti, Italian-American race car driver
- 1942Brian Jones, English musician (The Rolling Stones) (d. 1969)
- 1942Dino Zoff, Italian footballer
- 1942Frank Bonner, American actor
- 1943Barbara Acklin, American soul singer (d. 1998)
- 1943Charles Bernstein, American composer
- 1944Kelly Bishop, American actress
- 1944Sepp Maier, German footballer
- 1944Win Aung, Burmese politician
- 1945Bubba Smith, American football player and actor (d. 2011)
- 1945Mimsy Farmer, American actress
- 1946Robin Cook, British politician (d. 2005)
- 1947Stephanie Beacham, English actress
- 1948Bernadette Peters, American actress and singer
- 1948Mercedes Ruehl, American actress
- 1948Mike Figgis, English director
- 1948Steven Chu, American physicist, Nobel laureate
- 1949Ilene Graff, American actress and singer
- 1951Bill Cratty, American modern dancer and choreographer (d. 1998)
- 1952William Finn, American composer
- 1953Ingo Hoffmann, Brazilian racing driver
- 1953Paul Krugman, American economist, Nobel laureate
- 1953Ricky Steamboat, American professional wrestler
- 1954Brian Billick, American football coach
- 1955Gilbert Gottfried, American comedian
- 1956Adrian Dantley, American basketball player
- 1956Guy Maddin, Canadian film director
- 1956Jimmy Nicholl, Canadian-born Northern Irish footballer
- 1956Mike Tenay, American wrestling commentator
- 1957Ainsley Harriott, British celebrity chef
- 1957Cindy Wilson, American singer (The B-52's)
- 1957John Turturro, American actor
- 1957Paul Delph, American musician and producer (d. 1996)
- 1958David R. Ross, Scottish historian and writer (d. 2010)
- 1958Ginette Harrison, British mountaineer (d. 1999)
- 1958Jack Abramoff, American businessman, political figure and convict
- 1958Jeanne Mas, French singer and actress
- 1958Natalya Estemirova, Russian activist (d. 2009)
- 1960Dorothy Stratten, Canadian actress (d. 1980)
- 1961Barry McGuigan, Irish boxer
- 1961Eric Bachelart, Belgian racing driver
- 1961Mark Latham, Australian politician
- 1961Rae Dawn Chong, Canadian actress
- 1961René Simard, Canadian singer and TV host
- 1963Claudio Chiappucci, Italian cyclist
- 1964Djamolidine Abdoujaparov, Uzbekistan cyclist
- 1964Fernando del Valle, American tenor
- 1964Lotta Lotass, Swedish writer
- 1965Park Gok-ji, South Korean film editor
- 1966Paulo Futre, Portuguese footballer
- 1967Colin Cooper, English footballer
- 1968Stéphan Lebeau, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1969Butch Leitzinger, American race car driver
- 1969Patrick Monahan, American singer (Train)
- 1969Robert Sean Leonard, American actor
- 1969Tor Øivind Ødegård, Norwegian middle distance runner
- 1970Daniel Handler, American writer
- 1970Noureddine Morceli, Algerian athlete
- 1971Junya Nakano, Japanese composer
- 1971Maxine Bahns, American actress
- 1971Peter Stebbings, Canadian actor
- 1971Tristan Louis, American writer
- 1972Rory Cochrane, American actor
- 1973Eric Lindros, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1973Masato Tanaka, Japanese professional wrestler
- 1973Nicolas Minassian, French racing driver
- 1974Lee Carsley, Irish footballer
- 1974Moana Mackey, New Zealand politician
- 1974Tangi Miller, American actress
- 1975Mike Rucker, American football player
- 1976Adam Pine, Australian swimmer
- 1976Ali Larter, American actress and model
- 1976Guillaume Lemay-Thivierge, Canadian actor
- 1977Jason Aldean, American country singer
- 1978Benjamin Raich, Austrian skier
- 1978Jamaal Tinsley, American basketball player
- 1978Jeanne Cherhal, French singer-songwriter
- 1978Mariano Zabaleta, Argentine tennis player
- 1978Yasir Hameed, Pakistani cricketer
- 1979Ivo Karlović, Croatian tennis player
- 1979Michael Bisping, English mixed martial artist
- 1979Primož Peterka, Slovenian ski jumper
- 1979Sébastien Bourdais, French racing driver
- 1980Christian Poulsen, Danish footballer
- 1980Esquerdinha, Brazilian footballer
- 1980Lucian Bute, Romanian-born Canadian boxer
- 1980Pascal Bosschaart, Dutch footballer
- 1980Piotr Giza, Polish footballer
- 1980Tayshaun Prince, American basketball player
- 1981Brian Bannister, American baseball player
- 1981Florent Serra, French tennis player
- 1982Natalia Vodianova, Russian supermodel
- 1984Ben Fagan, American musician and reality show contestant
- 1984Karolína Kurková, Czech supermodel
- 1985Diego Ribas da Cunha, Brazilian footballer
- 1985Fefe Dobson, Canadian singer
- 1985Jelena Janković, Serbian tennis player
- 1985Tim Bresnan, British cricketer
- 1986Mark Sztyndera, German rugby player
- 1987Antonio Candreva, Italian footballer
- 1988Aroldis Chapman, Cuban baseball player
- 1988Maikol Negro, Italian footballer
- 1988Markéta Irglová, Czech songwriter and actress
- 1988Steeve Gerard Fankà, Cameroonian footballer
- 1989Charles Jenkins, American basketball player
- 1989Jason Pierre-Paul, American football player
- 1991Sarah Bolger, Irish actress
- 2007Princess Lalla Khadija of Morocco
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Who Died On February 28?
- 1261Henry III, Duke of Brabant (b. c.1230s)
- 1326Duke Leopold I of Austria (b. 1290)
- 1453Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine (b. 1400)
- 1485Niclas, Graf von Abensberg, German soldier (b. 1441)
- 1510Juan de la Cosa, Spanish cartographer and explorer
- 1525Cuauhtémoc, Aztec ruler
- 1572Aegidius Tschudi, Swiss historian (b. 1505)
- 1621Cosimo II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1590)
- 1648King Christian IV of Denmark and Norway (b. 1577)
- 1746Hermann von der Hardt, German historian (b. 1660)
- 1786John Gwynn, English architect and engineer (b. 1713)
- 1788Thomas Cushing, American Continental Congressman (b. 1725)
- 1836Friedrich August Grotefend, German philogist (b. 1798)
- 1857André Dumont, Belgian geologist (b. 1809)
- 1869Alphonse de Lamartine, French writer and poet (b. 1790)
- 1891George Hearst, American businessman and US Senator (b. 1820)
- 1916Henry James, American writer (b. 1843)
- 1925Friedrich Ebert, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1871)
- 1929Clemens von Pirquet, Austrian physician (b. 1874)
- 1932Guillaume Bigourdan, French astronomer (b. 1851)
- 1935Chiquinha Gonzaga, Brazilian composer (b. 1847).
- 1936Charles Nicolle, French bacteriologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1866)
- 1941King Alfonso XIII of Spain (b. 1886)
- 1942Karel Doorman, Dutch admiral (b. 1889)
- 1956Emile Buisson, French murderer (executed) (b. 1902)
- 1959Maxwell Anderson, American playwright and film writer (b. 1888)
- 1963Rajendra Prasad, First President of India (b. 1884)
- 1966Jonathan Hale, Canadian-born actor (b. 1891)
- 1967Henry Luce, American publisher (b. 1898)
- 1974Bobby Bloom, American singer/songwriter (b. 1946)
- 1977Eddie ‘Rochester’Anderson, American actor (b. 1905)
- 1978Eric Frank Russell, English author (b. 1905)
- 1978Philip Ahn, American actor (b. 1905)
- 1978Zara Cully, American actress (b. 1892)
- 1979Paul Alverdes, German writer (b. 1897)
- 1985David Byron, English singer (Uriah Heep) (b. 1947)
- 1985Ray Ellington, English singer (b. 1916)
- 1986Laura Z. Hobson, American novelist (b. 1900)
- 1986Olof Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden (b. 1927)
- 1987Stephen Tennant, eccentric English socialite (b. 1906)
- 1991Reinhard Bendix, German sociologist (b. 1916)
- 1991Wassily Hoeffding, American statistician (b. 1914)
- 1993Ishirō Honda, Japanese film director (b. 1911)
- 1993Ruby Keeler, Canadian actress and dancer (b. 1910)
- 1998Arkady Shevchenko, Soviet diplomat (b. 1930)
- 1998Dermot Morgan, Irish actor and comedian (b. 1952)
- 1999Christine Glanville, British puppeteer (b. 1924)
- 2002Helmut Zacharias, German violinist (b. 1920)
- 2002Mary Stuart, American actress (b. 1926)
- 2003Chris Brasher, English athlete (b. 1928)
- 2003Dinos Dimopoulos, Greek film director and screenwriter (b. 1921)
- 2003Fidel Sánchez Hernández, President of El Salvador (b. 1917)
- 2003Roger Michael Needham, British cryptographer (b. 1935)
- 2003Rudolf Kingslake, English optical engineer (b. 1903)
- 2004Andres Nuiamäe, Estonian soldier (b. 1982)
- 2004Carmen Laforet, Spanish writer (b. 1921)
- 2004Daniel J. Boorstin, American historian, writer, and Librarian of Congress (b. 1914)
- 2006Owen Chamberlain, American physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1920)
- 2007Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. American historian and political commentator (b. 1917)
- 2007Baron Charles Forte, Italian-born hotelier (b. 1908)
- 2007Billy Thorpe, Australian musician (Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs) (b. 1946)
- 2008Mike Smith, English musician (The Dave Clark Five) (b. 1943)
- 2009Paul Harvey, American radio broadcaster (b. 1918)
- 2011Annie Girardot, French actress (b. 1931)
- 2011Peter Gomes, Harvard University Chaplain (b. 1942)
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