Portal:United States/On this day/February 28
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February 28:
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Events
- 1787 - Charter granted establishing the institution now known as the University of Pittsburgh.
- 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 Republican Party of the United States is organized in Ripon, Wisconsin.
- 1861 - Colorado is organized as a United States territory.
- 1883 - The first vaudeville theater opens 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.)
- 1935 - Nylon is discovered by Wallace Carothers.
- 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 (CA-30) is sunk in the Battle of Sunda Strait with 693 crew members killed.
- 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 - The United States defeats Czechoslovakia 9-4 in ice hockey to win the gold medal at the Winter Olympics 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.
- 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).
- 1991 - First Gulf War ends.
- 1993 - 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 BATF agents and five Davidians die in the initial raid, starting a 51-day standoff.
- 1997 - The North Hollywood shootout takes place.
- 1998 - First flight of RQ-4 Global Hawk, first unmanned aerial vehicle certified to file its own flight plans and fly regularly in U.S. civilian airspace.
- 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.
- 2007 - Jupiter flyby of the New Horizons Pluto-observer spacecraft.
Births
- 1670 - Benjamin Wadsworth, American President of Harvard University (d. 1737)
- 1851 - Samuel W. McCall, 47th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1923)
- 1882 - Geraldine Farrar, American soprano (d. 1967)
- 1894 - Ben Hecht, American playwright (d. 1964)
- 1896 - Philip Showalter Hench, American physician, Nobel laureate (d. 1965)
- 1901 - Linus Pauling, American chemist and activist, Nobel laureate (d. 1994)
- 1903 - Vincente Minnelli, American film director (d. 1986)
- 1906 - Bugsy Siegel, American gangster (d. 1947)
- 1907 - Milton Caniff, American cartoonist (Terry and the Pirates, Steve Canyon) (d. 1988)
- 1908 - Billie Bird, American actress (d. 2002)
- 1915 - Ketti Frings, American Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and screenwriter, (d. 1981)
- 1915 - Zero Mostel, American actor (d. 1977)
- 1923 - Charles Durning, American actor
- 1929 - Hayden Fry, American football coach
- 1929 - Frank Gehry, Canadian-American architect
- 1930 - Leon Neil Cooper, American physicist, Nobel laureate
- 1930 - Gavin MacLeod, American actor
- 1931 - Dean Smith, American basketball coach
- 1939 - Tommy Tune, American dancer
- 1940 - Mario Andretti, Italian-American race car driver and one-time F1 world champion
- 1940 - Joe South, American singer
- 1942 - Frank Bonner, American actor
- 1943 - Barbara Acklin, American soul singer (d. 1998)
- 1944 - Kelly Bishop, American actress
- 1945 - Bubba Smith, American football player and actor
- 1948 - Steven Chu, American physicist, Nobel laureate
- 1948 - Bernadette Peters, American actress and singer
- 1948 - Mercedes Ruehl, American actress
- 1951 - Bill Cratty, American modern dancer and choreographer (d. 1998)
- 1952 - William Finn, American composer
- 1953 - Paul Krugman, American economist
- 1954 - Brian Billick, American football coach
- 1955 - Gilbert Gottfried, American comedian
- 1956 - Adrian Dantley, American basketball player
- 1956 - Mike Tenay, American wrestling commentator
- 1957 - Paul Delph, American musician and producer (d. 1996)
- 1957 - John Turturro, American actor
- 1957 - Cindy Wilson, American singer (The B-52's)
- 1969 - Butch Leitzinger, American race car driver
- 1969 - Robert Sean Leonard, American actor
- 1969 - Patrick Monahan, American singer (Train)
- 1970 - Daniel Handler, American writer, better known as Lemony Snicket
- 1971 - Tristan Louis, American writer
- 1972 - Rory Cochrane, American actor
- 1975 - Mike Rucker, American football player
- 1976 - Ali Larter, American actress and model
- 1977 - Jason Aldean, American country singer
- 1978 - Jamaal Tinsley, American basketball player
- 1980 - Tayshaun Prince, American basketball player
- 1981 - Brian Bannister, American baseball player
- 1984 - Ben Fagan, American musician and reality show contestant
Deaths
- 1788 - Thomas Cushing, American Continental Congressman (b. 1725)
- 1916 - Henry James, American writer (b. 1843)
- 1959 - Maxwell Anderson, American playwright and film writer (b. 1888)
- 1967 - Henry Luce, American publisher (b. 1898)
- 1974 - Bobby Bloom, American singer/songwriter (b. 1946)
- 1977 - Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson, American actor (b. 1905)
- 1978 - Philip Ahn, American actor (b. 1905)
- 1978 - Zara Cully, American actress (b. 1892)
- 1986 - Laura Z. Hobson, American novelist (b. 1900)
- 1991 - Wassily Hoeffding, American statistician (b. 1914)
- 2002 - Mary Stuart, American actress (b. 1926)
- 2004 - Daniel J. Boorstin, American historian, writer, and Librarian of Congress (b. 1914)
- 2006 - Owen Chamberlain, American physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1920)
- 2007 - Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. American historian and political commentator (b.1917)
