February 28th in History

Today in History

  • John Wesley charters the Methodist Church (1784)
  • The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad is incorporated, the first American railroad transporting both people and freight (1827)
  • Regular steamboat service begins from the west coast to the east coast of the United States (1849)
  • The first vaudeville theater opens (1883)
  • AT&T is incorporated (1885)
  • Nylon is invented (1935)
  • Basketball is televised for the first time (1940)
  • Watson and Crick announce to friends that they have determined the chemical structure of DNA (1953)
  • The first color TV sets are offered to the general public (1954)
  • The First Gulf War ends (1991)
  • ATF agents raid the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, starting a 51-day standoff (1993)
  • Pope Benedict XVI formally retires from the papacy, the first to do so in nearly 600 years.

Birthdays

  • John Tenniel, Alice in Wonderland illustrator (1820)*
  • Ben Hecht, playwright (1894)
  • Linus Pauling, Vitamin C advocate (1901)
  • Vincente Minnelli, musical director (1903)
  • Bugsy Siegel, gangster (1906)
  • Milton Caniff, Steve Canyon cartoonist (1907)
  • Zero Mostel, actor (1915)
  • Charles Durning, actor (1923)
  • Svetlana Alliluyeva, Stalin’s daughter (1926)
  • Gavin McLeod, Love Boat captain (1931)
  • Tommy Tune, dancer (1939)
  • Mario Andretti, racer (1940)
  • Bubba Smith, football player (1945)
  • Bernadette Peters, actress (1948)
  • Paul Krugman, economist (1953)
  • Gilbert Gottfried, comic (1955)
  • Dorothy Stratten, murdered playmate (1960)
  • Fefe Dobson, singer (1985)

Deaths

  • Pope Hilarius, pontiff with a great name (468)
  • Henry James, writer (1916)
  • Henry Luce, Time publisher (1967)
  • Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, Benny sidekick (1977)
  • Eric Frank Russell, science fiction writer (1978)
  • Ruby Keeler, dancer (1993)
  • Daniel J. Boorstin, librarian of Congress (2004)
  • Arthur Schlesinger Jr., historian (2007)
  • Paul Harvey, radio commentator (2009)
  • Jane Russell, actress (2011)

Holidays

  • Kalevala Day (Finland)
  • National Science Day (India)
  • Peace Memorial Day (Taiwan)
  • Rare Disease Day (US)
  • Teacher’s Day (Arab countries)

February 28 is the 59th day of the year. There are 306 days remaining until the end of the year (307 in leap years).