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

• 870 – The Fourth Council of Constantinople closes.

• 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.

• 1784 – John Wesley charters the Methodist Church.

• 1787 – The charter establishing the institution now known as the University of Pittsburgh is granted.

• 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 Québec)

• 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.

• 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.

• 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 of Madagascar, is 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.

• 1928 – C.V. Raman discovered 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 first issue of Serbian weekly magazine Politikin zabavnik is published.

• 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 (CA-30) is sunk in the Battle of Sunda Strait with 693 crew members killed.

• 1947 – 228 Incident: In Taiwan, civil disorder is put down with the loss of 30,000 civilian lives.

• 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 Nature (pub. April 2).

• 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 the worst school bus accident in U.S. history.

• 1972 – The Asama-Sanso incident ends in Japan.

• 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).

• 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 – Denver International Airport officially opens in Denver, Colorado to replace Stapleton International Airport

• 1997 – The North Hollywood shootout takes place.

• 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.

• 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

• 2005 – Lebanon's pro-Syrian prime minister, Omar Karami, resigns amid large anti-Syria street demonstrations in Beirut.

• 2005 – A suicide bombing at a police recruiting centre in Al Hillah, Iraq kills 127.

• 2007 – Jupiter flyby of the New Horizons Pluto-observer spacecraft.

• 2008 – Former Prime Minister of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra is arrested on corruption charges upon returning to Thailand after months of exile.

Births

• 1155 – Henry the Young King, son of Henry II of England (d. 1183)

• 1261 – Margaret of Scotland, queen of Norway (d. 1283)

• 1533 – Michel de Montaigne, French writer (d. 1592)

• 1552 – Joost Bürgi, Swiss clockmaker (d. 1632)

• 1573 – Elias Holl, German Architect (d. 1646)

• 1612 – John Pearson, English theologian (d. 1686)

• 1670 – Benjamin Wadsworth, American President of Harvard University (d. 1737)

• 1675 – Guillaume Delisle, French cartographer (d. 1726)

• 1683 – René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur, French scientist (d. 1757)

• 1704 – Louis Godin, French astronomer (d. 1760)

• 1712 – Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, French military commander (d. 1759)

• 1724 – George Townshend, 1st Marquess Townshend, British field marshal (d. 1807)

• 1812 – Berthold Auerbach, German poet and author (d. 1882)

• 1820 – John Tenniel, English illustrator (d. 1914)

• 1823 – Ernest Renan, French philosopher (d. 1892)

• 1824 – Blondin, French tightrope walker (d. 1897)

• 1833 – Alfred von Schlieffen, German field marshal (d. 1913)

• 1838 – Maurice Lévy, French engineer (d. 1910)

• 1840 – Henri Duveyrier, French explorer (d. 1892)

• 1841 – Adrien Albert Marie de Mun, French politician (d. 1914)

• 1851 – Samuel W. McCall, 47^th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1923)

• 1865 – Wilfred Grenfell, medical missionary (d. 1940)

• 1878 – Pierre Fatou, French mathematician (d. 1929)

• 1878 – Artur Kapp, Estonian composer (d. 1952)

• 1882 – Geraldine Farrar, American soprano (d. 1967)

• 1882 – José Vasconcelos, Mexican writer (d. 1959)

• 1882 – Pádraic Ó Conaire, Irish writer (d. 1928)

• 1894 – Ben Hecht, American playwright (d. 1964)

• 1895 – Marcel Pagnol, French novelist, playwright and film director (d. 1974)

• 1896 – Philip Showalter Hench, American physician, Nobel laureate (d. 1965)

• 1900 – Wolfram Hirth, German pilot (d. 1959)

• 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)

• 1908 – Alexander Golitzen, American art director (d. 2005)

• 1909 – Stephen Spender, English poet (d. 1995)

• 1911 – Otakar Vávra, Czech film director

• 1912 – Clara Petacci, Italian mistress of Benito Mussolini (d. 1945)

• 1915 – Ketti Frings, American Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and screenwriter, (d. 1981)

• 1915 – Peter Medawar, Brazilian-born scientist, Nobel laureate (d. 1987)

• 1915 – Zero Mostel, American actor (d. 1977)

• 1916 – Cesar Climaco, Filipino politician (d. 1984)

• 1916 – Svend Asmussen, Danish jazz violinist

• 1917 – Ernesto Alonso, Mexican actor, director, cinematographer, and producer (d. 2007)

• 1918 – Alfred Burke, British actor

• 1921 – Pierre Clostermann, French World War II pilot (d. 2006)

• 1923 – Charles Durning, American actor

• 1926 – Svetlana Alliluyeva, Soviet defector, daughter of Joseph Stalin

• 1925 – Harry H Corbett, English actor (d. 1982)

• 1929 – Hayden Fry, American football coach

• 1929 – Frank Gehry, Canadian-American architect

• 1929 – John Montague, Irish poet

• 1929 – Joseph Rouleau, French Canadian bass opera singer

• 1930 – Leon Neil Cooper, American physicist, Nobel laureate

• 1930 – Bruce Dawe, Australian poet

• 1930 – Gavin MacLeod, American actor

• 1931 – Dean Smith, American basketball coach

• 1932 – Don Francks, Canadian actor

• 1933 – Robert Grondelaers, Belgian cyclist (d. 1989)

• 1933 – Miro Steržaj, Slovenian 9-pin bowler

• 1933 – Rein Taagepera, Estonian politician

• 1939 – Daniel C. Tsui, Chinese-born physicist, Nobel laureate

• 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

• 1942 – Brian Jones, English musician (The Rolling Stones) (d. 1969)

• 1942 – Dino Zoff, Italian footballer

• 1943 – Barbara Acklin, American soul singer (d. 1998)

• 1943 – Charles Bernstein, American composer

• 1944 – Win Aung, Burmese politician

• 1944 – Kelly Bishop, American actress

• 1944 – Sepp Maier, German footballer

• 1945 – Bubba Smith, American football player and actor

• 1946 – Robin Cook, British politician (d. 2005)

• 1947 – Stephanie Beacham, English actress

• 1948 – Steven Chu, American physicist, Nobel laureate, U.S. Secretary of Energy-Designate

• 1948 – Mike Figgis, English director

• 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 – Ingo Hoffmann, Brazilian racing driver

• 1953 – Paul Krugman, American economist, Nobel laureate

• 1953 – Ricky Steamboat, American professional wrestler

• 1954 – Brian Billick, American football coach

• 1955 – Gilbert Gottfried, American comedian

• 1956 – Adrian Dantley, American basketball player

• 1956 – Jimmy Nicholl, Canadian-born Northern Irish footballer

• 1956 – Mike Tenay, American wrestling commentator

• 1957 – Paul Delph, American musician and producer (d. 1996)

• 1957 – Ainsley Harriott, British celebrity chef

• 1957 – John Turturro, American actor

• 1957 – Cindy Wilson, American singer (The B-52's)

• 1958 – Natalya Estemirova, Russian activist (d. 2009)

• 1958 – Jeanne Mas, French singer and actress

• 1960 – Dorothy Stratten, Canadian actress (d. 1980)

• 1961 – Rae Dawn Chong, Canadian actress

• 1961 – Mark Latham, Australian politician

• 1961 – René Simard, French Canadian singer and TV host

• 1961 – Eric Bachelart, Belgian racing driver

• 1963 – Claudio Chiappucci, Italian cyclist

• 1964 – Djamolidine Abdoujaparov, Uzbekistan cyclist

• 1964 – Fernando del Valle, American tenor

• 1964 – Lotta Lotass, Swedish writer, member of the Swedish Academy

• 1965 – Park Gok-ji, South Korean film editor

• 1966 – Paulo Futre, Portuguese footballer

• 1967 – Colin Cooper, English footballer

• 1968 – Stéphan Lebeau, Canadian ice hockey player

• 1969 – Butch Leitzinger, American race car driver

• 1969 – Robert Sean Leonard, American actor

• 1969 – Tor Øivind Ødegaard, Norwegian track runner

• 1969 – Patrick Monahan, American singer (Train)

• 1970 – Daniel Handler, American writer, better known as Lemony Snicket

• 1970 – Noureddine Morceli, Algerian athlete

• 1971 – Maxine Bahns, American actress

• 1971 – Tristan Louis, American writer

• 1971 – Junya Nakano, Japanese composer

• 1971 – Peter Stebbings, Canadian actor

• 1972 – Rory Cochrane, American actor

• 1973 – Eric Lindros, Canadian ice hockey player

• 1973 – Nicolas Minassian, French racing driver

• 1973 – Masato Tanaka, Japanese professional wrestler

• 1974 – Lee Carsley, Irish footballer

• 1974 – Moana Mackey, New Zealand politician

• 1974 – Tangi Miller, American actress

• 1975 – Mike Rucker, American football player

• 1976 – Ali Larter, American actress and model

• 1976 – Adam Pine, Australian swimmer

• 1976 – Guillaume Lemay-Thivierge, Canadian actor

• 1977 – Jason Aldean, American country singer

• 1978 – Jeanne Cherhal, French Singer-songwriter

• 1978 – Yasir Hameed, Pakistani Cricket Player

• 1978 – Benjamin Raich, Austrian Olympic skier

• 1978 – Jamaal Tinsley, American basketball player

• 1978 – Mariano Zabaleta, Argentine tennis player

• 1979 – Michael Bisping, English mixed martial artist

• 1979 – Sébastien Bourdais, French racing driver

• 1979 – Ivo Karlović, Croatian tennis player

• 1979 – Primož Peterka, Slovenian ski jumper

• 1980 – Pascal Bosschaart, Dutch footballer

• 1980 – Lucian Bute, Romanian-born Quebec boxer

• 1980 – Piotr Giza, Polish footballer

• 1980 – Tayshaun Prince, American basketball player

• 1981 – Brian Bannister, American baseball player

• 1981 – Florent Serra, French tennis player

• 1982 – Natalia Vodianova, Russian supermodel

• 1984 – Ben Fagan, American musician and reality show contestant

• 1984 – Karolína Kurková, Czech supermodel

• 1985 – Fefe Dobson, Canadian singer

• 1985 – Jelena Janković, Serbian tennis player

• 1986 – Yagami Light, Japanese murderer known as "Kira"

• 1987 – Kerrea Gilbert, English footballer

• 1988 – Markéta Irglová, Czech songwriter and actress

• 1989 – Zhang Liyin, Chinese R&B singer

• 1991 – Sarah Bolger, Irish actress

• 2007 – Princess Lalla Khadija of Morocco

Deaths

• 1261 – Henry III, Duke of Brabant (b. c.1230s|1230)

• 1326 – Duke Leopold I of Austria (b. 1290)

• 1453 – Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine (b. 1400)

• 1485 – Niclas, Graf von Abensberg, German soldier (b. 1441)

• 1510 – Juan de la Cosa, Spanish cartographer and explorer

• 1525 – Cuauhtémoc, Aztec ruler

• 1572 – Aegidius Tschudi, Swiss historian (b. 1505)

• 1621 – Cosimo II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1590)

• 1648 – King Christian IV of Denmark and Norway (b. 1577)

• 1746 – Hermann von der Hardt, German historian (b. 1660)

• 1786 – John Gwynn, English architect and engineer (b. 1713)

• 1788 – Thomas Cushing, American Continental Congressman (b. 1725)

• 1857 – André Dumont, Belgian geologist (b. 1809)

• 1869 – Alphonse de Lamartine, French writer and poet (b. 1790)

• 1891 – George Hearst, American businessman and US Senator (b. 1820)

• 1916 – Henry James, American writer (b. 1843)

• 1925 – Friedrich Ebert, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1871)

• 1929 – Clemens von Pirquet, Austrian physician (b. 1874)

• 1932 – Guillaume Bigourdan, French astronomer (b. 1851)

• 1935 – Chiquinha Gonzaga, Brazilian composer (b. 1847).

• 1936 – Charles Nicolle, French bacteriologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1866)

• 1941 – King Alfonso XIII of Spain (b. 1886)

• 1942 – Karel Doorman, Dutch admiral (b. 1889)

• 1956 – Emile Buisson, French murderer (executed) (b. 1902)

• 1959 – Maxwell Anderson, American playwright and film writer (b. 1888)

• 1963 – Rajendra Prasad, First President of India (b. 1884)

• 1966 – Jonathan Hale, Canadian-born actor (b. 1891)

• 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)

• 1978 – Eric Frank Russell, English author (b. 1905)

• 1979 – Paul Alverdes, German writer (b. 1897)

• 1985 – David Byron, English singer (Uriah Heep) (b. 1947)

• 1985 – Ray Ellington, English singer (b. 1916)

• 1986 – Olof Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden (b. 1927)

• 1986 – Laura Z. Hobson, American novelist (b. 1900)

• 1991 – Reinhard Bendix, German sociologist (b. 1916)

• 1991 – Wassily Hoeffding, American statistician (b. 1914)

• 1993 – Ishiro Honda, Japanese film director (b. 1911)

• 1993 – Ruby Keeler, Canadian actress and dancer (b. 1910)

• 1998 – Dermot Morgan, Irish actor and comedian (b. 1952)

• 1998 – Arkady Shevchenko, Soviet diplomat (b. 1930)

• 1999 – Christine Glanville, British puppeteer (b. 1924)

• 2002 – Mary Stuart, American actress (b. 1926)

• 2002 – Helmut Zacharias, German violinist (b. 1920)

• 2003 – Chris Brasher, English athlete (b. 1928)

• 2003 – Dinos Dimopoulos, Greek film director and screenwriter (b. 1921)

• 2003 – Fidel Sánchez Hernández, President of El Salvador (b. 1917)

• 2003 – Roger Michael Needham, British cryptographer (b. 1935)

• 2003 – Rudolf Kingslake, English optical engineer (b. 1903)

• 2004 – Daniel J. Boorstin, American historian, writer, and Librarian of Congress (b. 1914)

• 2004 – Carmen Laforet, Spanish writer (b. 1921)

• 2004 – Andres Nuiamäe, Estonian soldier (b. 1982)

• 2006 – Owen Chamberlain, American physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1920)

• 2007 – Baron Charles Forte, Italian-born hotelier (b. 1908)

• 2007 – Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. American historian and political commentator (b. 1917)

• 2007 – Billy Thorpe, Australian musician (Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs) (b. 1946)

• 2008 – Mike Smith, English musician (The Dave Clark Five) (b. 1943)

• 2009 – Paul Harvey, American radio broadcaster (b. 1918)

Holidays and observances

• Bahá'í Faith – Day 3 of Ayyám-i-Há (Intercalary Days) – days in the Bahá'í calendar devoted to service and gift giving.

• Kalevala Day, The Day of Finnish Culture – Finland

• Peace Memorial Day, the day of commemorating the 228 Incident – Taiwan

• Mar Abba

• Abercius (martyr)

• Saint Hilarius (d. 468)

• Saint Romanus (d. 463)

• Saint Oswald (d. 992)

• Saint Rufinus

• February 28 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)