What happened on February 28 ?

364 - Valentinian I is elevated as Roman Emperor.

1700 - Today is followed by March 1 in Sweden, thus creating the Swedish calendar.

1784 - John Wesley charters the Methodist Church.

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.

1870 - The Bulgarian Exarchate is established by decree of Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz of the Ottoman Empire.

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.)

1897 - Queen Ranavalona III, the last monarch in Madagascar, was deposed by a French military force.

1900 - The Second Boer War: The 118-day "Siege of Ladysmith" is lifted.

1922 - The United Kingdom accepts the independence of Egypt.

1933 - Gleichschaltung: The Reichstag Fire Decree is passed in Germany a day after the Reichstag fire.

1935 - Nylon is discovered by Wallace Carothers.

1939 - The first issue of Serbian weekly magazine Politikin zabavnik was published.

1939 - The 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).

1947 - February 28 Incident: In Taiwan, civil disorder is put down at a loss of 30,000 civilian lives.

1948 - Bud Gartiser sets a new world record after clearing the 50-yard low hurdles in 6.8 seconds.

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 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.

1975 - A major tube train crash at Moorgate station, London kills 43 people.

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).

1986 - Olof Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden, is assassinated in Stockholm.

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 - Kosovo War: Serbian police begin the offensive againt the KLA in Kosovo.

2001 - An 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.

2002 - At least 55 are killed in Ahmadabad, India when Hindus burn Muslim homes.

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