History of the Day for:
February 28
- 1827: The first U.S. railroad chartered to carry passengers and freight, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, was incorporated.
- 1844: A 12-inch gun aboard the USS Princeton exploded, killing Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur, Navy Secretary Thomas W. Gilmer and several others.
- 1861: The Territory of Colorado was organized.
- 1940: The first televised college basketball games were broadcast by New York City station WXBS. Pittsburgh defeated Fordham, 57-37, and New York University beat Georgetown, 50-27, at 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.
- 1951: The Senate committee headed by Estes Kefauver, D-Tenn., issued a preliminary report saying at least two major crime syndicates were operating in the US.
- 1974: The United States and Egypt re-established diplomatic relations after a seven-year break.
- 1983: "M*A*S*H" ended after 11 seasons on CBS with a special 2 1/2-hour finale that was watched by an estimated 121.6 million people.
- 1986: Swedish Prime Minister Olaf Palme was shot to death in central Stockholm while walking from a movie theater with his wife, Lisbeth.
- 1993: A gun battle erupted at a compound near Waco, Texas, when Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents tried to serve warrants on the Branch Davidians; four agents and six Davidians were killed as a 51-day standoff began.
- 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.