February 28th

Coronation ceremony of Liu Bang as Emperor Gaozu of Han takes place, initiating four centuries of the Han Dynasty's rule over China.

Pope Benedict XVI resigns. The pope whose birth name is Joseph Ratzinger was the first leader of the Catholic Church to resign since 1415.

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

Four federal agents were killed in Waco, Texas, after they tried to serve an arrest warrant for weapons charges on Branch Davidian sect leader David Koresh, starting a 51-day standoff.

Allied and Iraqi forces suspended their attacks as Iraq pledged to accept all United Nations resolutions concerning Kuwait.

Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was shot to death in central Stockholm.

The final episode of M*A*S*H aired. It was the most watched television program in history.

A London underground train crashes into the end of the tunnel at Moorgate station. The Moorgate tube crash claimed 43 lives and was the deadliest accident in the London Underground in during peacetime.

The United States and Egypt re-established diplomatic relations after a seven-year break.

President Richard M. Nixon and Chinese Premier Chou En-lai issued the Shanghai Communique at the conclusion of Nixon's historic visit to China, a step toward the eventual normalization of relations between the two countries.

The U.S. Olympic hockey team won the gold medal, defeating Czechoslovakia 9-4 at Squaw Valley, Calif.

Scientists James D. Watson and Francis H.C. Crick announced they had discovered the double-helix structure of DNA, the molecule that contains the human genes, at Cambridge University.

The last British troops left India.

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

College basketball was televised for the first time as station W2XBS aired the Pittsburgh-Fordham and Georgetown-NYU games from Madison Square Garden in New York.

Nylon is invented. Wallace Carothers first produced the polymer at the DuPont Experimental Station in Wilmington, Delaware, United States.

Henry James, American novelist and critic, died.

WWI: After the French try to drive the Germans forces back into the Champagne region, they gain a few hundred yards - at the cost of 50,000 casualties.

The Territory of Colorado was organized.

About 50 slavery opponents met in Ripon, Wis., to call for creation of a new political group that became the Republican Party.

The steamship California landed in San Francisco, bringing the first East Coasters to the Gold Rush.

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Co. was incorporated.

John Wesley issues “Deed of Declaration” formally establishing the Methodist Church.

In the Battle of Helsingborg, 14,000 Danish invaders under Jørgen Rantzau are decisively defeated by an equally sized Swedish force under Magnus Stenbock.