Calendar date · February

What happened on February 28

On February 28, -202: Liu Bang is enthroned as the Emperor of China, beginning four centuries of rule by the Han dynasty.

Events

30

across history

Notable births

50

Notable deaths

44

Zodiac

Pisces

Featured moment · -202

Liu Bang is enthroned as the Emperor of China, beginning four centuries of rule by the Han dynasty.

Emperor Gaozu of Han, personal name Liu Bang, was the founder and first emperor of the Han dynasty.

People

Born on February 28

Vitor Roque 2005– Brazilian footballer (born 2005)
Moise Kean 2000– Italian footballer (born 2000)
Josip Šutalo 2000– Association footballer (born 2000)
Luka Dončić 1999– Slovenian basketball player (born 1999)
Teun Koopmeiners 1998– Dutch footballer (born 1998)
Chris Lindstrom 1997– American football player (born 1997)
Jakub Vrána 1996– Czech ice hockey player (born 1996)
Lucas Boyé 1996– Argentine footballer (born 1996)
Axel Werner 1996– Argentine footballer (born 1996)
Show 9 more — notable births on February 28
Randy Arozarena 1995– Cuban-Mexican baseball player (born 1995)
Alex Caruso 1994– American basketball player (born 1994)
Arkadiusz Milik 1994– Polish footballer (born 1994)
Marquis Teague 1993– American basketball player (born 1993)
Éder Álvarez Balanta 1993– Colombian footballer (born 1993)
Ronalds Ķēniņš 1991– Latvian ice hockey player (born 1991)
Takayasu Akira 1990– Japanese sumo wrestler (born 1990)
Ryan Allen 1990– American football player (born 1990)
Sebastian Rudy 1990– German footballer (born 1990)

People

Died on February 28

Ali Khamenei Supreme Leader of Iran from 1989 to 2026
Aziz Nasirzadeh Iranian general (1964–2026)
Mohammad Pakpour Iranian military officer and commander of the IRGC (1961–2026)
David Johansen American singer (1950–2025)
Miguel Piñera Chilean nightclub owner (1954–2025)
Joseph Wambaugh American writer and policeman (1937–2025)
Ahmed Salim Bangladeshi painter put to death in Singapore for murder (1989–2024)
Héctor Ortiz Puerto Rican baseball player and coach (1969–2024)
Cat Janice American musician (1993–2024)
Show 9 more — notable deaths on February 28
Joe Coulombe American businessman (1930–2020)
Freeman Dyson British theoretical physicist and mathematician (1923–2020)
Sir Lenox Hewitt Australian public servant (1917–2020)
André Previn American musician (1929–2019)
George Kennedy American actor (1925–2016)
Yaşar Kemal Turkish writer and activist (1923–2015)
Hugo Brandt Corstius Dutch computer scientist
Donald A. Glaser American physicist and biologist (1926–2013)
Annie Girardot French actress (1931–2011)

Timeline

Every February 28 on record

  1. -202 Liu Bang is enthroned as the Emperor of China, beginning four centuries of rule by the Han dynasty.

    Founder and Emperor of Han Dynasty of China from 202 to 195 BC

    Emperor Gaozu of Han, personal name Liu Bang, was the founder and first emperor of the Han dynasty.

  2. 870 The Fourth Council of Constantinople closes.

    8th ecumenical council of the Catholic Church (869–870 AD)

    The Fourth Council of Constantinople was the eighth ecumenical council of the Catholic Church held in Constantinople from 5 October 869, to 28 February 870. It was poorly attended, the first session by only 12 bishops and the number of bishops later never exceeded 103. In contrast, the pro-Photian council of 879–80 was attended by 383 bishops.

  3. 1525 Aztec king Cuauhtémoc is executed on the order of conquistador Hernán Cortés.

    Ethnic group of central Mexico and its civilization

    The Aztecs were a Mesoamerican civilization that flourished in central Mexico from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language. Aztec culture was organized into city-states (altepetl), some of which joined to form alliances, political confederations, or empires.

  4. 1638 The Scottish National Covenant is signed in Edinburgh.

    1638 opposition to Scottish Church reform

    The National Covenant was an agreement signed by many people of Scotland during 1638, opposing the proposed Laudian reforms of the Church of Scotland by King Charles I. The king's efforts to impose changes on the church in the 1630s caused widespread protests across Scotland, leading to the organisation of committees to coordinate opposition to the king. Facing royal opposition, its leaders arranged the creation of the National Covenant to bolster the movement by tapping into patriotic fervour.

  5. 1835 Elias Lönnrot signs and dates the foreword to the first version of the Kalevala, the so-called Old Kalevala.

    Finnish polymath and poet (1802–1884)

    Elias Lönnrot was a Finnish polymath, physician, philosopher, poet, musician, linguist, journalist, philologist and collector of traditional Finnish oral poetry. He is best known for synthesizing the Finnish national epic, Kalevala from short ballads and lyric poems he gathered from Finnish oral tradition during several field expeditions in Finland, Russian Karelia, the Kola Peninsula and Baltic countries. In botany, he is remembered as the author of the 1860 Flora Fennica, the first scientific text written in Finnish rather than in Latin.

  6. 1844 A gun explodes on board the steam warship USS Princeton during a pleasure cruise down the Potomac River, killing six, including Secretary of State Abel Upshur. President John Tyler, who is also on board, is not injured from the blast.
  7. 1922 The United Kingdom ends its protectorate over Egypt through a Unilateral Declaration of Independence.
  8. 1925 The Charlevoix-Kamouraska earthquake strikes northeastern North America.
  9. 1947 February 28 incident: In Taiwan, civil disorder is put down with the death of an estimated 18,000 - 28,000 civilians.
  10. 1948 The 1948 Accra riots erupt following a march by ex-servicemen of the Gold Coast Regiment towards the seat of the colonial government at Christiansborg Castle, where they were fired upon by Superintendant Colin Imray, leading to the killing of Sergeant Adjetey, Corporal Attipoe and Private Odartey Lamptey and the arrest of the Big Six in the Gold Coast.
  11. 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 one of the worst school bus accidents in U.S. history.
  12. 1959 Discoverer 1, an American spy satellite that is the first object intended to achieve a polar orbit, is launched but fails to achieve orbit.
  13. 1966 A NASA T-38 Talon crashes into the McDonnell Aircraft factory while attempting a poor-visibility landing at Lambert Field, St. Louis, killing astronauts Elliot See and Charles Bassett.
  14. 1969 The 1969 Portugal earthquake hits Portugal, Spain and Morocco.
  15. 1973 Aeroflot Flight X-167 crashes during takeoff from Semey Airport, killing 32 people.
Show 15 earlier entries from February 28
  1. 1974 The British election ends in a hung parliament after the Jeremy Thorpe-led Liberal Party achieved their biggest vote share since 1929.
  2. 1975 In London, an underground train fails to stop at Moorgate terminus station and crashes into the end of the tunnel, killing 43 people.
  3. 1983 The final episode of M*A*S*H airs, with almost 110 million viewers.
  4. 1985 The Provisional Irish Republican Army carries out a mortar attack on the Royal Ulster Constabulary police station at Newry, killing nine officers.
  5. 1986 Olof Palme, 26th Prime Minister of Sweden, is assassinated in Stockholm.
  6. 1990 Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on STS-36.
  7. 1993 Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) agents raid the Branch Davidian church in Waco, Texas with a warrant to arrest the group's leader David Koresh, starting a 51-day standoff.
  8. 1997 An earthquake in northern Iran is responsible for about 1,100 deaths.
  9. 1997 A Turkish military memorandum results in the collapse of the coalition government in Turkey.
  10. 2001 The 2001 Nisqually earthquake, having a moment magnitude of 6.8, with epicenter in southern Puget Sound, damages the Seattle metropolitan area.
  11. 2002 During the religious violence in Gujarat, 97 people are killed in the Naroda Patiya massacre and 69 in the Gulbarg Society massacre.
  12. 2013 Pope Benedict XVI resigns as the pope of the Catholic Church, becoming the first pope to do so voluntarily since Pope Gregory XII in 1415.
  13. 2023 Two trains collide south of the Vale of Tempe in Greece, leading to the deaths of at least 57 people and leaving 58 missing and 85 injured.
  14. 2024 Prime Minister Modi of India inaugurates the 2nd Space Port of India - Kulasekarapattinam Spaceport.
  15. 2026 The United States and Israel launch attacks across Iran, assassinating Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Retaliatory strikes are launched by Iran against US military bases in the Gulf, with explosions reported in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE.

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