February 28

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

Events

• 202 BC – coronation ceremony of Liu Bang as Emperor Gaozu of Han takes place, initiating four centuries of the Han Dynasty's rule over China.
• 628 – Khosrau 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 – The Aztec king Cuauhtémoc is executed by Hernán Cortés's forces.
• 1638 – The Scottish National Covenant is signed in Edinburgh.
• 1700 – Today is followed by March 1 in Sweden, thus creating the Swedish calendar.
• 1710 – In the 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.
• 1811 – Cry of Asencio, beginning of the Uruguayan War of Independence
• 1827 – The Baltimore & 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 eight 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 Abd-ul-Aziz 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.
• 1883 – The first vaudeville theater opens in Boston
• 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.
• 1914 – The Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus is proclaimed in Gjirokastër, by the Greeks living in southern Albania.
• 1922 – The United Kingdom ends its protectorate over Egypt through a Unilateral Declaration of Independence.
• 1925 – The Charlevoix-Kamouraska earthquake strikes northeastern North America.
• 1928 – C.V. Raman discovers the Raman effect.
• 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 – 228 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 in Accra.
• 1953 – James 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).
• 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. It failed 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, prime minister of Sweden, is assassinated in Stockholm.
• 1991 – The 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.
• 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 – The North Hollywood shootout takes place, resulting in the injury of 19 people and the deaths of both perpetrators.
• 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.
• 1997 – Military Coup in Turkey
• 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.
• 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 – Six passengers and four railway staff are killed and a further 82 people suffer serious injuries in the Selby rail crash.
• 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 228 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.

Births

• 1155 – Henry the Young King, English son of Henry II of England (d. 1183)
• 1261 – Margaret of Scotland, Queen of Norway (d. 1283)
• 1533 – Michel de Montaigne, French philosopher (d. 1592)
• 1552 – Jost Bürgi, Swiss mathematician and clockmaker (d. 1632)
• 1573 – Elias Holl, German architect (d. 1646)
• 1612 – John Pearson, English bishop, theologian, and scholar (d. 1686)
• 1616 – Kaspar Förster, German singer and composer (d. 1673)
• 1619 – Giuseppe Felice Tosi, Italian organist and composer (d. 1693)
• 1670 – Benjamin Wadsworth, English-American clergyman and academic (d. 1737)
• 1675 – Guillaume Delisle, French cartographer (d. 1726)
• 1683 – René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur, French entomologist (d. 1757)
• 1704 – Louis Godin, French astronomer (d. 1760)
• 1712 – Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, French general (d. 1759)
• 1714 – Gioacchino Conti, Italian soprano (d. 1761)
• 1724 – George Townshend, 1st Marquess Townshend, English field marshal (d. 1807)
• 1792 – Karl Ernst von Baer, German biologist, meteorologist, and geographer (d. 1876)
• 1812 – Berthold Auerbach, German poet and author (d. 1882)
• 1820 – John Tenniel, English illustrator (d. 1914)
• 1823 – Ernest Renan, French philosopher (d. 1892)
• 1824 – Charles Blondin, French acrobat (d. 1897)
• 1827 – Édouard-Charles Fabre, Canadian archbishop (d. 1896)
• 1833 – Alfred von Schlieffen, German field marshal (d. 1913)
• 1838 – Maurice Lévy, French mathematician and engineer (d. 1910)
• 1840 – Henri Duveyrier, French explorer (d. 1892)
• 1848 – Arthur Giry, French historian (d. 1899)
• 1851 – Samuel W. McCall, American politician, 47th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1923)
• 1858 – Tore Svennberg, Swedish actor and director (d. 1941)
• 1860 – Basil Spalding de Garmendia, American tennis player (d. 1932)
• 1865 – Wilfred Grenfell, English missionary (d. 1940)
• 1866 – Vyacheslav Ivanovich Ivanov, Russian poet and playwright (d. 1949)
• 1873 – William McMaster Murdoch, Scottish sailor (d. 1912)
• 1876 – John Alden Carpenter, American composer (d. 1951)
• 1878 – Pierre Fatou, French mathematician and astronomer (d. 1929)
• 1878 – Artur Kapp, Estonian composer (d. 1952)
• 1881 – Fernand Sanz, French cyclist (d. 1925)
• 1882 – Geraldine Farrar, American soprano and actress (d. 1967)
• 1882 – Pádraic Ó Conaire, Irish journalist and author (d. 1928)
• 1882 – José Vasconcelos, Mexican philosopher and politician (d. 1959)
• 1883 – Seán Mac Diarmada, Irish political activist and revolutionary (d. 1916)
• 1884 – Ants Piip, Estonian lawyer, diplomat and politician, 7th Prime Minister of Estonia (d. 1942)
• 1887 – William Zorach, Lithuanian-born American sculptor, painter, printmaker, and writer (d. 1966)
• 1893 – Ivan Vasilyov, Bulgarian architect, designed the SS. Cyril and Methodius National Library (d. 1979)
• 1894 – Ben Hecht, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1964)
• 1895 – Marcel Pagnol, French author, playwright and director (d. 1974)
• 1896 – Philip Showalter Hench, American physician, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1965)
• 1900 – Wolf Hirth, German pilot and engineer, co-founded Schempp-Hirth (d. 1959)
• 1901 – Linus Pauling, American chemist and activist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1994)
• 1903 – Vincente Minnelli, American director and screenwriter (d. 1986)
• 1906 – Bugsy Siegel, American gangster (d. 1947)
• 1907 – Milton Caniff, American cartoonist (d. 1988)
• 1908 – Billie Bird, American actress (d. 2002)
• 1908 – Alexander Golitzen, Russian-American production designer (d. 2005)
• 1909 – Stephen Spender, English poet (d. 1995)
• 1911 – Otakar Vávra, Czech director and screenwriter (d. 2011)
• 1912 – Clara Petacci, Italian mistress of Benito Mussolini (d. 1945)
• 1915 – Ketti Frings, American author, playwright, and screenwriter (d. 1981)
• 1915 – Peter Medawar, Brazilian-English biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1987)
• 1915 – Zero Mostel, American actor (d. 1977)
• 1916 – Svend Asmussen, Danish violinist
• 1916 – Cesar Climaco, Filipino lawyer and politician, 10th Mayor of Zamboanga City (d. 1984)
• 1917 – Ernesto Alonso, Mexican actor, director, and producer (d. 2007)
• 1917 – Odette Laure, French actress and singer (d. 2004)
• 1918 – Alfred Burke, English actor (d. 2011)
• 1919 – Alfred Marshall, American businessman, founded Marshalls (d. 2013)
• 1919 – Brian Urquhart, English soldier and diplomat
• 1920 – Jadwiga Piłsudska, Polish soldier, pilot, and architect (d. 2014)
• 1921 – Saul Zaentz, American film producer (d. 2014)
• 1921 – Pierre Clostermann, French pilot, engineer, and author (d. 2006)
• 1922 – Joyce Howard, English actress (d. 2010)
• 1922 – Yuri Lotman, Russian-Estonian historian and scholar (d. 1993)
• 1923 – Charles Durning, American actor (d. 2012)
• 1924 – Uno Prii, Estonian-Canadian architect (d. 2000)
• 1924 – Robert A. Roe, American politician (d. 2014)
• 1925 – Harry H. Corbett, Burmese-English actor (d. 1982)
• 1926 – Svetlana Alliluyeva, Russian daughter of Joseph Stalin (d. 2011)
• 1928 – Stanley Baker, Welsh actor and producer (d. 1976)
• 1929 – Hayden Fry, American football player and coach
• 1929 – Frank Gehry, Canadian-American architect, designed 8 Spruce Street and Walt Disney Concert Hall
• 1929 – John Montague, American-Irish poet and academic
• 1929 – Joseph Rouleau, Canadian opera singer
• 1930 – Leon Cooper, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1931 – Peter Alliss, German-English golfer and sportscaster
• 1931 – Iajuddin Ahmed, Bangladeshi academic and politician, 14th President of Bangladesh (d. 2012)
• 1931 – Gavin MacLeod, American actor
• 1931 – Dean Smith, American basketball player and coach (d. 2015)
• 1932 – Don Francks, Canadian actor and singer
• 1933 – Robert Grondelaers, Belgian cyclist (d. 1989)
• 1933 – Miro Steržaj, Slovenian bowler
• 1933 – Rein Taagepera, Estonian political scientist and politician
• 1934 – Willie Bobo, American drummer (d. 1983)
• 1938 – Foge Fazio, American football player and coach (d. 2009)
• 1938 – Mike Wofford, American pianist and composer
• 1939 – John Fahey, American guitarist (d. 2001)
• 1939 – The Missing Link, Canadian wrestler (d. 2007)
• 1939 – Chögyam Trungpa, Tibetan philosopher and scholar (d. 1987)
• 1939 – Daniel C. Tsui, Chinese-American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1939 – Tommy Tune, American actor, singer, dancer, and director
• 1940 – Mario Andretti, Italian-American race car driver
• 1940 – Aldo Andretti, Italian-American race car driver
• 1940 – Barry Fantoni, English astrologer, author, and illustrator
• 1940 – Joe South, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2012)
• 1941 – Tristan Garel-Jones, Baron Garel Jones, English politician, Minister of State for Europe
• 1941 – Suzanne Mubarak, Egyptian wife of Hosni Mubarak, 5th First Lady of Egypt
• 1941 – T. Thangavadivel, Sri Lankan civil servant and politician
• 1942 – Frank Bonner, American actor
• 1942 – Brian Jones, English guitarist, songwriter, and producer (The Rolling Stones) (d. 1969)
• 1942 – Dino Zoff, Italian footballer and manager
• 1943 – Barbara Acklin, American singer-songwriter (d. 1998)
• 1943 – Charles Bernstein, American composer and educator
• 1943 – Hans Dijkstal, Egyptian-Dutch politician, Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands (d. 2010)
• 1943 – Donnie Iris, American singer and guitarist (The Jaggerz and Wild Cherry)
• 1943 – Ronnie Wells, American jazz vocalist. (d. 2007)
• 1944 – Win Aung, Burmese military officer and politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Burma (b. 2009)
• 1944 – Kelly Bishop, American actress and dancer
• 1944 – Edward Greenspan, Canadian lawyer and author (d. 2014)
• 1944 – Sepp Maier, German footballer
• 1944 – Storm Thorgerson, English graphic designer (d. 2013)
• 1945 – Mimsy Farmer, American actress
• 1945 – Bubba Smith, American football player and actor (d. 2011)
• 1946 – Philip Bailhache, English lawyer and politician
• 1946 – Robin Cook, Scottish politician, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (d. 2005)
• 1946 – Don Francisco, American singer-songwriter
• 1947 – Stephanie Beacham, English actress
• 1948 – Bineshwar Brahma, Indian poet and author (d. 2000)
• 1948 – Steven Chu, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1948 – Mike Figgis, English director, screenwriter, and composer
• 1948 – Seppo Harjanne, Finnish race car driver
• 1948 – Johnny Delgado, Filipino actor (d. 2009)
• 1948 – Geoff Nicholls, English keyboard player (Black Sabbath and Quartz)
• 1948 – Bernadette Peters, American actress, singer, and author
• 1948 – Mercedes Ruehl, American actress
• 1948 – Alfred Sant, Maltese politician, 11th Prime Minister of Malta
• 1949 – Ilene Graff, American actress and singer
• 1949 – Susan Hekman, American political scientist and feminist
• 1950 – Futatsuryū Jun'ichi, Japanese sumo wrestler (d. 2014)
• 1950 – Frankie Kao, Taiwanese singer (d. 2014)
• 1950 – Jaime Fabregas, Filipino actor
• 1951 – Bill Cratty, American dancer and choreographer (d. 1998)
• 1951 – Karsan Ghavri, Indian cricketer
• 1951 – Peter Stothard, English journalist
• 1951 – Roseanna Vitro, American singer and educator
• 1951 – Jim Wohlford, American baseball player
• 1952 – William Finn, American composer and songwriter
• 1952 – Frank Warren, English boxing manager and promoter
• 1953 – Ingo Hoffmann, Brazilian race car driver
• 1953 – Paul Krugman, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1953 – Ricky Steamboat, American wrestler
• 1954 – Brian Billick, American football player, coach, and sportscaster
• 1954 – Manuel Torres Félix, Mexican drug trafficker (d. 2012)
• 1955 – Gilbert Gottfried, American comedian and actor
• 1955 – Bob Kerslake, English civil servant
• 1956 – Adrian Dantley, American basketball player
• 1956 – Francis Hughes, IRA Volunteer and hunger striker (d. 1981)
• 1956 – Terry Leahy, English businessman
• 1956 – Guy Maddin, Canadian director, screenwriter, and cinematographer
• 1956 – Jimmy Nicholl, Canadian-Irish footballer and manager
• 1956 – Mike Tenay, American sportscaster
• 1957 – Paul Delph, American singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer (Zahara) (d. 1996)
• 1957 – Ainsley Harriott, English chef and author
• 1957 – John Turturro, American actor, director, and screenwriter
• 1957 – Cindy Wilson, American singer-songwriter and actress (The B-52's)
• 1958 – Jack Abramoff, American businessman
• 1958 – Natalya Estemirova, Russian journalist and activist (d. 2009)
• 1958 – Ginette Harrison, English mountaineer (d. 1999)
• 1958 – Jeanne Mas, French singer-songwriter and actress
• 1958 – David R. Ross, Scottish historian and author (d. 2010)
• 1959 – Megan McDonald, American author
• 1960 – Tōru Ōkawa, Japanese voice actor
• 1960 – Dorothy Stratten, Canadian-American model and actress (d. 1980)
• 1961 – Eric Bachelart, Belgian race car driver
• 1961 – Rae Dawn Chong, Canadian actress
• 1961 – Mark Latham, Australian politician
• 1961 – Barry McGuigan, Irish boxer
• 1961 – René Simard, Canadian singer and television host
• 1963 – Claudio Chiappucci, Italian cyclist
• 1964 – Djamolidine Abdoujaparov, Uzbekistan cyclist
• 1964 – Fernando del Valle, American tenor
• 1964 – Lotta Lotass, Swedish author
• 1965 – Park Gok-ji, South Korean film editor
• 1965 – Colum McCann, Irish author
• 1965 – Norman Smiley, English-American wrestler
• 1966 – Vincent Askew, American basketball player
• 1966 – Paulo Futre, Portuguese footballer
• 1966 – Archbishop Jovan VI of Ohrid
• 1966 – Edita Mildažytė, Lithuanian journalist
• 1967 – Colin Cooper, English footballer and manager
• 1967 – Martin Tielli, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist (Rheostatics and Kevin Hearn and Thin Buckle)
• 1968 – Stéphan Lebeau, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1969 – Butch Leitzinger, American race car driver
• 1969 – Robert Sean Leonard, American actor
• 1969 – Patrick Monahan, American singer-songwriter (Train)
• 1969 – Tor Øivind Ødegård, Norwegian runner
• 1969 – U. Srinivas, Indian mandolin player and composer (d. 2014)
• 1970 – Daniel Handler, American author and screenwriter
• 1970 – Noureddine Morceli, Algerian runner
• 1971 – Maxine Bahns, American actress
• 1971 – Tristan Louis, French-American author and blogger
• 1971 – Junya Nakano, Japanese composer
• 1971 – Peter Stebbings, Canadian actor
• 1972 – Rory Cochrane, American actor
• 1972 – Ville Haapasalo, Finnish actor
• 1973 – Eric Lindros, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1973 – Nicolas Minassian, French race car driver
• 1973 – Masato Tanaka, Japanese wrestler
• 1974 – Lee Carsley, Irish footballer
• 1974 – Moana Mackey, New Zealand biologist and politician
• 1974 – Tangi Miller, American actress and dancer
• 1974 – Alexander Zickler, German footballer
• 1975 – Mike Rucker, American football player
• 1975 – Greg Simkins, American painter
• 1976 – Kaido Külaots, Estonian chess player
• 1976 – Ali Larter, American actress
• 1976 – Guillaume Lemay-Thivierge, Canadian actor and producer
• 1976 – Adam Pine, Australian swimmer
• 1977 – Jason Aldean, American singer and guitarist
• 1977 – Lance Hoyt, American wrestler
• 1978 – Jeanne Cherhal, French singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1978 – Yasir Hameed, Pakistani cricketer
• 1978 – Rei Kikukawa, Japanese actress
• 1978 – Benjamin Raich, Austrian skier
• 1978 – Jamaal Tinsley, American basketball player
• 1978 – Mariano Zabaleta, Argentinian tennis player
• 1979 – Srikanth, Indian actor
• 1979 – Michael Bisping, Cypriot-English mixed martial artist
• 1979 – Sébastien Bourdais, French race car driver
• 1979 – Ivo Karlović, Croatian tennis player
• 1979 – Primož Peterka, Slovenian ski jumper
• 1980 – Bada, South Korean singer (S.E.S.)
• 1980 – Pascal Bosschaart, Dutch footballer
• 1980 – Lucian Bute, Romanian-Canadian boxer
• 1980 – Glasner da Silva Albuquerque, Brazilian footballer
• 1980 – Piotr Giza, Polish footballer
• 1980 – Christian Poulsen, Danish footballer
• 1980 – Tayshaun Prince, American basketball player
• 1981 – Brian Bannister, American baseball player
• 1981 – Florent Serra, French tennis player
• 1982 – Natalia Vodianova, Russian-French model
• 1983 – Terry Bywater, English basketball player
• 1984 – Noureen DeWulf, American actress
• 1984 – Ben Fagan, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1984 – Karolína Kurková, Czech model and actress
• 1984 – Christian Müller, German footballer
• 1985 – Tim Bresnan, English cricketer
• 1985 – Fefe Dobson, Canadian singer-songwriter and actress
• 1985 – Jelena Janković, Serbian tennis player
• 1985 – Diego Ribas da Cunha, Brazilian footballer
• 1986 – Mark Sztyndera, German rugby player
• 1986 – Min Hyo-rin, South Korean singer and actress
• 1986 – Tendai Mzungu, Australian footballer
• 1987 – Antonio Candreva, Italian footballer
• 1988 – Aroldis Chapman, Cuban baseball player
• 1988 – Steeve Gerard Fankà, Cameroonian footballer
• 1988 – Jorge Gastélum, Mexican footballer
• 1988 – Markéta Irglová, Czech singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actress
• 1988 – Yevgeni Kabayev, Russian footballer
• 1988 – Maikol Negro, Italian footballer
• 1989 – Charles Jenkins, American basketball player
• 1989 – Zhang Liyin, Chinese singer
• 1990 – Naomi Broady, English tennis player
• 1991 – Sarah Bolger, Irish actress
• 1993 – Emmelie de Forest, Danish singer-songwriter
• 1994 – Jake Bugg, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1995 – Quinn Shephard, American actress
• 2007 – Princess Lalla Khadija of Morocco

Deaths

• 468 – Pope Hilarius
• 1261 – Henry III, Duke of Brabant (b. 1230)
• 1326 – Leopold I, Duke of Austria (b. 1290)
• 1453 – Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine (b. 1400)
• 1485 – Niclas, Graf von Abensberg, German knight (b. 1441)
• 1510 – Juan de la Cosa, Spanish cartographer and explorer (b, 1450)
• 1525 – Cuauhtémoc, Aztec ruler (b. 1495)
• 1572 – Aegidius Tschudi, Swiss historian (b. 1505)
• 1621 – Cosimo II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1590)
• 1648 – Christian IV of Denmark (b. 1577)
• 1746 – Hermann von der Hardt, German historian (b. 1660)
• 1786 – John Gwynn, English architect and engineer (b. 1713)
• 1788 – Thomas Cushing, British-American lawyer and politician, 1st Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts (b. 1725)
• 1836 – Friedrich August Grotefend, German philologist (b. 1798)
• 1857 – André Dumont, Belgian geologist (b. 1809)
• 1869 – Alphonse de Lamartine, French author and poet (b. 1790)
• 1891 – George Hearst, American businessman and politician (b. 1820)
• 1913 – George Finnegan, American boxer (b. 1881)
• 1916 – Henry James, American-English author (b. 1843)
• 1925 – Friedrich Ebert, German politician, 1st President of Germany (b. 1871)
• 1929 – Clemens von Pirquet, Austrian physician (b. 1874)
• 1932 – Guillaume Bigourdan, French astronomer (b. 1851)
• 1935 – Chiquinha Gonzaga, Brazilian pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1847)
• 1936 – Kamala Nehru, Indian wife of Jawaharlal Nehru (b. 1899)
• 1936 – Charles Nicolle, French biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1866)
• 1941 – Alfonso XIII of Spain (b. 1886)
• 1942 – Karel Doorman, Dutch admiral (b. 1889)
• 1956 – Émile Buisson, French gangster (b. 1902)
• 1959 – Maxwell Anderson, American journalist, author and playwright (b. 1888)
• 1963 – Rajendra Prasad, Indian politician, 1st President of India (b. 1884)
• 1966 – Jonathan Hale, Canadian-American actor (b. 1891)
• 1967 – Henry Luce, Chinese-American publisher, co-founded Time Magazine (b. 1898)
• 1974 – Bobby Bloom, American singer-songwriter (b. 1946)
• 1977 – Eddie Anderson, American actor (b. 1905)
• 1978 – Philip Ahn, American actor (b. 1905)
• 1978 – Zara Cully, American actress (b. 1892)
• 1978 – Eric Frank Russell, English author (b. 1905)
• 1979 – Paul Alverdes, German author and poet (b. 1897)
• 1985 – David Byron, English singer-songwriter (Uriah Heep and Spice) (b. 1947)
• 1985 – Alberts Ozoliņš, Latvian weightlifter (b. 1896)
• 1986 – Laura Z. Hobson, American author (b. 1900)
• 1986 – Olof Palme, Swedish politician, 26th Prime Minister of Sweden (b. 1927)
• 1987 – Stephen Tennant, English author (b. 1906)
• 1991 – Reinhard Bendix, German sociologist (b. 1916)
• 1991 – Wassily Hoeffding, Finnish-American statistician and theorist (b. 1914)
• 1993 – Ishirō Honda, Japanese director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1911)
• 1993 – Ruby Keeler, Canadian actress and dancer (b. 1910)
• 1998 – Dermot Morgan, Irish actor (b. 1952)
• 1998 – Arkady Shevchenko, Ukrainian diplomat (b. 1930)
• 2002 – Mary Stuart, American actress and singer (b. 1926)
• 2002 – Helmut Zacharias, German violinist and composer (b. 1920)
• 2003 – Chris Brasher, Guyanese-English runner and journalist, co-founded the London Marathon (b. 1928)
• 2003 – Dinos Dimopoulos, Greek director and screenwriter (b. 1921)
• 2003 – Rudolf Kingslake, English engineer and academic (b. 1903)
• 2003 – Roger Needham, English computer scientist (b. 1935)
• 2003 – Fidel Sánchez Hernández, Salvadorian general and politician, President of El Salvador (b. 1917)
• 2004 – Daniel J. Boorstin, American historian and librarian (b. 1914)
• 2004 – Carmen Laforet, Spanish author (b. 1921)
• 2004 – Andres Nuiamäe, Estonian sergeant (b. 1982)
• 2005 – Chris Curtis, English singer and drummer (The Searchers) (b. 1941)
• 2006 – Owen Chamberlain, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1920)
• 2006 – John S. Lesmeister, American politician (b. 1955)
• 2007 – Charles Forte, Baron Forte, Italian-English businessman, founded the Forte Group (b. 1908)
• 2007 – Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. American historian and critic (b. 1917)
• 2007 – Billy Thorpe, English-Australian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs) (b. 1946)
• 2008 – Joseph M. Juran, Romanian-American engineer and businessman (b. 1904)
• 2008 – Mike Smith, English singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer (The Dave Clark Five) (b. 1943)
• 2009 – Paul Harvey, American radio host (b. 1918)
• 2011 – Annie Girardot, French actress (b. 1931)
• 2011 – Peter J. Gomes, American preacher and theologian (b. 1942)
• 2011 – Jane Russell, American actress (b. 1921)
• 2012 – Frisner Augustin, Haitian drummer and composer (b. 1948)
• 2012 – Jaime Graça, Portuguese footballer and coach (b. 1942)
• 2012 – Jim Green, American-Canadian educator and politician (b. 1943)
• 2012 – Bai Jing, Chinese actress (b. 1983)
• 2012 – Hal Roach, Irish comedian and author (b. 1927)
• 2013 – DJ Ajax, Australian DJ and producer (b. 1971)
• 2013 – Theo Bos, Dutch footballer and coach (b. 1965)
• 2013 – Daniel Darc, French singer-songwriter (Taxi Girl) (b. 1959)
• 2013 – Donald A. Glaser, American physicist and neurobiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1926)
• 2013 – Jean Marcel Honoré, French cardinal (b. 1920)
• 2013 – Neil McCorkell, English cricketer (b. 1912)
• 2013 – Bruce Reynolds, English criminal (b. 1931)
• 2013 – Armando Trovajoli, Italian pianist and composer (b. 1917)
• 2014 – Kevon Carter, Trinidadian footballer (b. 1983)
• 2014 – Hugo Brandt Corstius, Dutch linguist and author (b. 1935)
• 2014 – Ophelia DeVore, American model and businesswoman (b. 1922)
• 2014 – Lee Lorch, American mathematician and activist (b. 1915)
• 2014 – C. R. Simha, Indian actor, director, and playwright (b. 1942)
• 2014 – Gib Singleton, American sculptor (b. 1935)
• 2014 – Randy Trautman, American football player (b. 1960)

Holidays and observances

• Christian Feast Day:
  • Abercius (martyr)
  • Hilarius
  • Mar Abba
  • Oswald of Worcester
  • Romanus of Condat
  • Rufinus
  • Anna Julia Cooper and Elizabeth Evelyn Wright (Episcopal Church (USA))
  • February 28 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Kalevala Day, the day of Finnish Culture. (Finland)
• National Science Day (India)
• Peace Memorial Day (Taiwan)
• Teachers' Day (Arab countries)
• The third day of Ayyám-i-Há (Bahá'í Faith)
• Rare Disease Day (last day of February)

External links

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada