February 28th
Today in America's Present Past
1646 | Civil Rights: Massachusetts colonist Roger Scott was tried for sleeping in church.
1670 | Academic Benjamin Wadsworth was born.
1704 | Indian Wars: Deerfield, Massachusetts massacre of 40 and kidnapping of 100 colonists.
1708 | Civil Rights: Newton Long Island, New York slave revolt.
1747 | Composer Justin Morgan was born.
1778 | Civil Rights: Rhode Island General Assembly enacts the enlistment of African Americans.
1781 | Founding: Founder Richard Stockton died.
1787 | The University of Pittsburgh is chartered.
1788 | Politician Thomas Cushing died.
1827 | The first commercial railroad is chartered in America, the Baltimore & Ohio.
1844 | The USS Princeton Disaster.
1847 | Mexican-American War: US forces defeat a more significant Mexican force at the Battle of the Sacramento River.
1848 | First boatload of gold rush prospectors arrives in northern California.
1850 | The University of Utah opens.
1863 | Civil War: The CSS Nashville sinks.
1871 | Congress: Enacts the Enforcement Act.
1891 | Entrepreneur George Hearst died.
1893 | Edward Acheson patents silicon carbide.
1901 | Chemist Linus Pauling was born.
1906 | Outlaw Bugsy Siegel was born.
1916 | Novelist Henry James died.
1929 | Architect Frank Gehry was born.
1933 | Civil Rights: First female Cabinet member appointed, Frances Perkins.
1942 | Civil Rights: Sojourner Truth Homes Riot, Detroit, Michigan.
1942 | WWII: German U-boats sink naval warships off the coast of New Jersey.
1953 | Economist Paul Krugman was born.
1959 | Author Maxwell Anderson died.
1961 | POTUS: Democrat President Kennedy appoints Henry Kissinger as special advisor.
1967 | Publisher Henry Luce died.
1974 | POTUS: Republican President Nixon resumes diplomatic relations with Egypt.
1977 | The first Killer Whale is born in captivity (California).
1977 | Musician Jason Aldean was born.
1979 | TV: “Mr. Ed,” the horse, died.
1983 | TV: The last episode of M.A.S.H. airs.
1991 | Gulf War: Iraq retreats from Kuwait.
1993 | Civil Rights: A gun battle with federal agents ensues at a Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas.
1997 | North Hollywood shootout in California.
1997 | FBI Agent Earl Pitts pleads guilty to selling secrets to Russia.
2023 | FBI concludes the worldwide COVID-19 virus is likely a leak from a Chinese government lab.
2007 | Historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr died.
2009 | Radio journalist Paul Harvey died.