Today in History - February 28
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1066 Feb 28,
Westminster Abbey opened.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1533 Feb 28, Michel de
Montaigne (d.1592), was born near Bordeaux, France. He was the
French moralist who created the personal essay. Montaigne was
brought up by his father under peasant guidance and a German tutor
for Latin. He spent a lifetime of political service under Henry IV,
and then composed his "Essays." This was the first book to reveal
with utter honesty and frankness the author's mind and heart.
Montaigne sought to reach beyond his own illusions, to see himself
as he really was, which was not just the way others saw him.
"Nothing is so firmly believed as what we least know."
(WUD, 1994, p.928)(V.D.-H.K.p.144)(HN, 2/28/99)
1569 Feb 28, The
Lithuanian delegation pulled out of union talks with Poland and
departed Liublin.
(LHC, 2/28/03)
1573 Feb 28, Elias Hill, German
architect, city builder (Augsburg), was born.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1574 Feb 28, On the orders of
the Holy Office of the Inquisition, two Englishmen and an Irishman
were burnt for heresy.
(HN, 2/28/99)
1609 Feb 28, Paul Sartorius
(39), composer, died.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1610 Feb 28, Thomas West, Baron
de La Mar, was appointed governor of Virginia.
(HN, 2/28/98)(MC, 2/28/02)
1626 Feb 28, Cyril Tourneur
(c51), English poet, dramatist, died.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1632 Feb 28, Jean-Baptiste
Lully, composer, was born in Florence, Italy. [see Nov 28]
(MC, 2/28/02)
1638 Feb 28, Scottish
Presbyterians signed the National Covenant at Greyfriars, Edinburgh.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1638 Feb 28, Henri duc de
Rohan, French soldier, Huguenot leader, died.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1646 Feb 28, Roger Scott was
tried in Massachusetts for sleeping in church.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1663 Feb 28, Thomas Newcomen,
English co-inventor of the steam engine, was born.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1692 Feb 28, The Salem witch
hunts began.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1704 Feb 28, Indians attacked
Deerfield, Mass., killing 40 and kidnapping 100.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1708 Feb 28, A slave revolt in
Newton, Long Island, NY, left 11 dead.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1728 Feb 28, Georg F. Handel’s
opera "Siroe, re di Persia," premiered in London.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1749 Feb 28, The 1st edition of
"The History of Tom Jones: A foundling" was published. Henry
Fielding (1707-1754) wrote the book and a film based on the novel
was made in 1963. A TV production premiered in 1998.
(SFEM, 11/24/96, p.59)(SFC, 4/2/98, p.E1)(MC,
2/28/02)(ON, 9/03, p.9)
1759 Feb 28, Pope Clement XIII
allowed the Bible to be translated into various languages.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1778 Feb 28, Rhode Island
General Assembly authorized the enlistment of slaves.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1784 Feb 28, John Wesley
(1703-1791) chartered the Methodist Church. His teaching emphasized
field preaching along with piety, probity and respectability. In
2003 Roy Hattersley authored "A Brand from the Burning: The Life of
John Wesley."
(MC, 2/28/02)(WSJ, 6/13/03, p.W19)
1801 Feb 28, Motiejus
Valancius, Lithuanian educator, historian, writer and bishop, was
born in Nasrenai in the Kretinga region. He died May 29, 1875, in
Kaunas. His portrait is on the 2-litas note.
(LC, 1998, p.4,10)(LHC,2/28/03)
1810 Feb 28, The 1st US fire
insurance joint-stock company was organized in Philadelphia.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1813 Feb 28, Russia and
Prussia formed the Kalisz union against Napoleon.
(LHC,2/28/03)
1820 Feb 28, John Tenniel,
illustrator of "Alice in Wonderland," was born.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1823 Feb 28, Ernst Renan,
French philosopher, historian, scholar of religion, was born.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1824 Feb 28, Charles Blondin,
tightrope walker, was born.
(HN, 2/28/01)
1825 Feb 28, Quincy Adams
Gillmore (d.1888), Major General (Union volunteers), was born.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1827 Feb 28, The first U.S.
railroad chartered to carry passengers and freight, the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad Co., was incorporated.
(AP, 2/28/98)
1844 Feb 28, A 12-inch gun
aboard the USS Princeton exploded, killing Secretary of State Abel
P. Upshur, Navy Secretary Thomas W. Gilmer and several others.
(AP, 2/28/98)
1847 Feb 28, Colonel Alexander
Doniphan and his ragtag Missouri Mounted Volunteers rode to victory
at the Battle of Sacramento during the Mexican War.
(HN, 2/28/99)
1849 Feb 28, The steamer
California, sounding the first steamship whistle on the SF Bay,
arrived in SF with San Francisco postmaster John W. Geary on board
carrying mail for the Pacific coast. Steamboat service began from
Panama City to SF. Pacific Mail Steamship Co. sent the side-wheel
steamship California to SF with American gold-seekers and 50
Peruvian miners. Also onboard were preacher Osgood C. Wheeler (32)
and his wife Elizabeth.
(www.maritimeheritage.org/PassLists/ca022849.htm)(SSFC, 3/1/09, DB
p.50)(AP, 2/28/98)(SFEC, 1/11/98, DB p.40)
1854 Feb 28, Some 50 slavery
opponents met in Ripon, Wis., to call for creation of a new
political group, which became the Republican Party. [see Mar 20, Jul
6]
(AP, 2/28/00)
1859 Feb 28, Arkansas
legislature required free blacks to choose exile or slavery.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1861 Feb 28, The territory of
Colorado was organized.
(AP, 2/28/98)(HN, 2/28/98)
1862 Feb 28, Karl Goldmark's
opera "The Queen of Sheba," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1863 Feb 28, Four Union
gunboats destroyed the CSS Nashville near Fort McAllister, Ga.
Popular during the Crimean War, the floating battery was revived by
hard-pressed Confederates because the popular gunboats were not
capable of doing the things that the batteries could do.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1864 Feb 28-Mar 3, A skirmish
took place at Albemarle County, Virginia (Burton's Ford).
(MC, 2/28/02)
1871 Feb 28, The 2nd
Enforcement Act set federal control of congressional elections.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1879 Feb 28, In the "Exodus of
1879" southern blacks fled political and economic exploitation.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1882 Feb 28, Geraldine Farrar,
US soprano, actress (Story of American Singer), was born.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1883 Feb 28, 1st US vaudeville
theater opened in Boston.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1888 Feb 28, Vincent d'Indy's
Wallenstein trilogy, premiered.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1890 Feb 28, Vaslav Nijinsky,
ballet dancer (3/12 NS), was born in Kiev, Ukraine. He was the
pre-eminent ballet artist of his day and at 20 became the protege
and lover of Sergei Diaghilev. He spent some time in psychotherapy
during which he made a number of abstract drawings. Nijinsky died in
1950 in London. [see Mar 12]
(SFC, 9/29/97, p.E5)(MC, 2/28/02)
1893 Feb 28, Edward Acheson of
Pennsylvania, patented an abrasive he named "carborundum."
(MC, 2/28/02)
1894 Feb 28, Ben Hecht
(d.1964), American author and screenwriter, was born. "There’s one
thing that keeps surprising you about stormy old friends after they
die - their silence."
(AP, 11/17/00)(HN, 2/28/01)
1895 Feb 28, Guiomar Novaes,
pianist (Brazilian Order of Merit), was born in Brazil.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1895 Feb 28, Marcel Pagnol,
French playwright, director (Marchands de Gloire), was born.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1896 Feb 28, Philip Showalter
Hench, physician (cortisone-Nobel), was born in Pittsburgh.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1900 Feb 28, After a 119-day
siege by the Boers, the English defenders of Ladysmith, under
General Sir George White were relieved.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1901 Feb 28, Linus Pauling,
American chemist, was born in Portland, Oregon. He won the Nobel
Prize for chemistry (1954) and a Nobel Peace Prize (1962) for his
arguments for nuclear disarmament. He also advocated major doses of
vitamin C to maintain health.
(HN,
2/28/99)(http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/1962/pauling-bio.html)
1904 Feb 28, Vincent d'Indy's
2nd Symphony in B premiered.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1905 Feb 28, Jane Lathrop
Stanford, the wife of Leland Stanford, died of suspected arsenic
poisoning at the Moana Hotel in Honolulu. A coroner’s jury confirmed
the result. Her body was returned to the mainland under the care of
David Starr Jordan, the president of Stanford Univ. An examination
by Stanford physicians claimed no trace of strychnine and set heart
attack as cause of death. A will signed 19 months earlier had left
the bulk of her $30 million estate to Stanford Univ. In 2003 Robert
Cutler authored "The Mysterious Death of Jane Stanford." [see Jan
14]
(Ind, 5/26/01, 5A)(SFC, 11/20/03, p.A21)
1906 Feb 28, Bugsy Siegel,
gangster who created casinos in Las Vegas, was born.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1907 Feb 28, Milton Caniff,
cartoonist (Terry and the Pirates), was born in Hillsboro, Ohio.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1909 Feb 28, Stephen Spender
(d.1995), English poet, critic, was born.
(HN, 2/28/01)(Econ, 6/19/04, p.81)
1909 Feb 28, President
Roosevelt became the first U.S. president to visit the Austrian
embassy.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1910 Feb 28, Vincente Minnelli,
director (American in Paris, Gigi), was born in Chicago, IL.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1911 Feb 28, Denis Burkitt,
British medical researcher, was born.
(HN, 2/28/01)
1915 Feb 28, Peter Medawar,
zoologist, immunologist (Nobel 1953), was born in England.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1915 Feb 28, Zero "Samuel"
Mostel, actor (Fiddler on the Roof), was born in Brooklyn.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1916 Feb 28, Haiti became the
first U.S. protectorate.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1916 Feb 28, Henry James
(b.1843), US-British writer (Bostonians), died in London. His books
included “The American“ (1877) and “The Golden Bowl” (1904). In 2004
Colm Toibin authored “The Master,” a novel that explores James’
private life. In 2007 Peter Brooks authored “Henry James Goes to
Paris.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_James)(SFC,
6/19/04, p.E1)(WSJ, 3/31/07, p.P11)
1917 Feb 28, AP reported that
Mexico and Japan would ally with Germany if US enters WW I.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1917 Feb 28, Russian Duma set
up a Provisional Committee; workers set up Soviets.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1920 Feb 28, Maurice Ravel's
"Le Tombeau de Couperin," premiered.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1922 Feb 28, Britain declared
Egypt a sovereign state, but British troops remained.
(HN, 2/28/98)(MC, 2/28/02)
1923 Feb 28, Charles Durning,
actor (Fury, Sting, Tootsie), was born in Highland Falls, NY.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1924 Feb 28, U.S. troops were
sent to Honduras to protect American interests during an election
conflict.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1925 Feb 28, "Tea For Two" by
Marion Harris hit #1.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1926 Feb 28, Svetlana
Alliluyeva, daughter of Josef Stalin, author (My Life), was born.
(HN, 2/28/98)(MC, 2/28/02)
1928 Feb 28, Smokey the Bear
was created.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1931 Feb 28, Oswald Mosley
founded his New Party.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1933 Feb 28, Francis Perkins
was appointed Secretary of Labor, the 1st female in cabinet.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1933 Feb 28, German Pres. Von
Hindenburg abolished the free expression of opinion.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1933 Feb 28, Hitler disallowed
the German communist party (KPD).
(MC, 2/28/02)
1935 Feb 28, Nylon was
discovered by Dr. Wallace H. Carothers.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1936 Feb 28, Samuel Maverick
Jr. (99), San Antonio banker, died. During the Civil War he served
in Terry's Texas Rangers, a Confederate regiment, He was the last
surviving member of that organization. His father was the Texas
pioneer Samuel A. Maverick
(http://tinyurl.com/5jgmr2)
1936 Feb 28, The Japanese Army
restored order in Tokyo and arrested officers involved in a coup.
(HN, 2/28/99)
1939 Feb 28, Tommy Tune,
dancer, choreographer (Boyfriend), was born in Wichita Falls, Tx.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1939 Feb 28, Great Britain
recognized the Franco regime in Spain. [see Feb 27, 1938]
(MC, 2/28/02)
1940 Feb 28, Mario Andretti,
race-car driver (1969 Indianapolis 500), was born.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1940 Feb 28, The first
televised college basketball games were broadcast, by New York City
station W2XBS, as Pittsburgh defeated Fordham, 57-37, and New York
University beat Georgetown, 50-27, at Madison Square Garden.
(AP, 2/28/98)
1940 Feb 28, The Superliner
Queen Elizabeth was launched in Britain.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1940 Feb 28, In Egypt King
Farouk arrived at Tanis for the opening of the sarcophagus of the
21st Dynasty King Psusennes I, recently discovered by French
archeologist Pierre Montet.
(Arch, 5/05, p.24)
1942 Feb 28, There was a race
riot at the Sojourner Truth Homes in Detroit.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1942 Feb 28, The German
submarine U-578 torpedoed and sank the US destroyer Jacob Jones off
the New Jersey coast. Only 11 of some 102 crew members survived.
(SFC, 1/15/05,
p.B8)(http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/2174.html)
1942 Feb 28, Japanese landed in
Java, the last Allied bastion in Dutch East Indies.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1943 Feb 28, "Porgy & Bess"
opened on Broadway with Anne Brown & Todd Duncan.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1943 Feb 28, In Operation
Gunnerside Norwegian commandos flown in from Britain destroyed the
Nazi heavy water plant near Rjukan. The raid was later depicted in
the 1965 film "The Heroes of Telemark." The 9 commandos included
Claus Helberg (d.2003) and Knut Haukelid (d.1994).
(SFC, 3/14/03, p.A27)(ON, 4/07, p.4)
1945 Feb 28, U.S. tanks broke
the natural defense line west of the Rhine and crossed the Erft
River.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1946 Feb 28, The U.S. Army
declared that it would use the V-2 rocket to test radar as an atomic
rocket defense system.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1947 Feb 28, Britain and France
signed a 50-year pact to curb Germany.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1947 Feb 28, There was an
anti-Kuomintang demonstration on Taiwan. As many as 20,000 civilians
were massacred by the Kuomintang (KMT). A riot was sparked by the
arrest of a woman selling contraband cigarettes in Taipei. Crowds
attacked the Nationalist Party institutions as Nationalist troops
and secret police struck back over the ensuing months. In 1996 a 69
cent postage stamp was planned in commemoration of the “228
Incident.” In 2006 a team from UC Berkeley won a design competition
for a 15-acre “228 National Memorial Park.”
(SFC, 4/6/06, p.B3)(SFC, 12/26/96, p.B1)(SFC,
6/10/97, p.A8)(SFC, 4/6/06, p.B3)
1948 Feb 28, Mercedes Ruehl,
actress (Lost in Yonkers, Crazy People), was born in Queens NY.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1948 Feb 28, The last
British troops left India. The First Battalion of the Somerset Light
Infantry passed through the Gateway of India monument in a ceremony.
(AP, 8/26/03)
1950 Feb 28, The French
Assembly in Paris decided to limit the sale of Coca-Cola.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1951 Feb 28, The Senate
committee headed by Estes Kefauver, D-Tenn., Issued a preliminary
report saying at least two major crime syndicates were operating in
the United States.
(AP, 2/28/98)
1953 Feb 28, Francis Crick
(d.2004) and James Watson discovered the structure of DNA-molecule.
Watson and Crick managed to describe the structure of DNA as a
double helix consisting of two long strings coiled around one
another. About 100,000 genes, short sections of DNA, tell the cells
how to build proteins, the building blocks of life. Rosalind
Franklin made the 1st x-ray image that revealed the double helix
structure of DNA. In 2002 Brenda Maddox authored "Rosalind Franklin:
The Dark Lady of DNA." In 2003 Watson co-authored "DNA: The Secret
of Life." [see Sep 20, Apr 25, 1953]
(V.D.-H.K.p.330)(TL, 1988, p.114)(Wired, 1/97,
p.161)(SSFC, 11/10/02, p.M2)(WSJ, 3/28/03, p.W8) (AP, 2/28/04)
1953 Feb 28, Greece, Turkey and
Yugoslavia signed a 5-year defense pact in Ankara.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1953 Feb 28, Stalin met with
Beria, Bulganin, Khrushchev and Malenkov.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1960 Feb 28, The Eighth Winter
Olympic Games formally closed in Squaw Valley, Calif.
(SSFC, 1/3/10, p.A13)
1967 Feb 28, In Mississippi 19
were indicted in the slayings of three civil rights workers in 1964.
Samuel H. Bowers and 6 others were convicted on federal charges in
1970. Bowers was released in 1976.
(HN, 2/28/98)(SFC, 8/18/98, p.A5)
1967 Feb 28, Art Davidson, Ray
Genet and Dave Johnston completed the first winter ascent of
Alaska’s Mount McKinley. On their descent they became trapped by a
storm for 6 days at 18,500 feet in an ice-cave. In 1969 Art Davidson
authored “Minus 148°.”
(WSJ, 4/28/07,
p.P8)(www.summitpost.org/parent/150199/mount-mckinley-denali.html)
1967 Feb 28, Henry Luce (68),
American publisher, died in Phoenix. He and Briton Hadden
(1898-1929) published the first issue of Time magazine on March 3,
1923. In 2010 Alan Brinkley authored “The Publisher: Henry Luce and
His American Century.”
(AP,
2/28/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Luce)(Econ, 1/9/10,
p.82)
1969 Feb 28, A Los Angeles
court refused Robert Kennedy assassin Sirhan Sirhan's request to be
executed.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1970 Feb 28, Bicycles were
permitted to cross the Golden Gate Bridge.
(www.goldengatebridge.org/research/dates.php)
1971 Feb 28, The male
electorate in Lichtenstein refused to give voting rights to women.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1972 Feb 28, President Nixon
and Chinese Premier Chou En-lai signed the Shanghai Communique at
the Jin Jiang Hotel Assembly Hall on the last night of Nixon’s
visit.
(WSJ, 3/5/97, p.A16)(AP, 2/28/07)
1974 Feb 28, The United States
and Egypt re-established diplomatic relations after a seven-year
break.
(AP, 2/28/98)
1974 Feb 28, Britain’s Labor
Party won the parliamentary election. No party had an overall
majority resulting in a hung parliament. This lasted until elections
in October.
(www.enotes.com/peoples-chronology/year-1974)(Econ, 4/24/10, p.14)
1975 Feb 28, AMC introduced the
Pacer, the first wide, small car.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv.
Supl)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMC_Pacer)
1975 Feb 28, The EU signed
another trade deal in Lome, Togo, to keep markets open to former
European colonies in Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific Islands
(ACP).
(Econ, 5/28/05,
p.78)(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1975/index_en.htm)
1975 Feb 28, A London subway
train smashed into the end of a tunnel at Moorgate Underground
station and 43 people were killed.
(AP, 1/23/06)
1977 Feb 28, Eddie "Rochester"
Anderson (b.1905), African-American comedian, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Anderson_(comedian))
1978 Feb 28, Louise Woodward,
the nanny who allegedly killed Matthew Eappen (1997) in Cambridge,
Mass., was born in Elton, England.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Woodward)
1978 Feb 28, Robert Rowe
(d.1997) of Brooklyn killed his wife and 3 children with a baseball
bat. He was tried and later released from a mental institution and
became a father again. In 2001 Julie Salamon authored "Facing the
Wind," a narrative of the Rowe case.
(WSJ, 3/30/01, p.W8)
1978 Feb 28, Consuelo Kanaga
(b.1894), San Francisco photographer, died.
(SFEM, 6/30/96, p.20)(http://tinyurl.com/393wgc)
1979 Feb 28, Ernest Thompson's
play "On Golden Pond," premiered in NYC.
(www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=3923)
1982 Feb 28, The FALN, a Puerto
Rican Nationalist Group, bombed Wall Street. 4 powerful bombs
detonated in front of business institutions in New York's financial
district.
(http://judiciary.senate.gov/oldsite/91599drw.htm)
1983 Feb 28, The last episode
of M*A*S*H was shown. A record 125 million made MASH the most
watched TV show.
(SFC, 9/9/96, p.A26)(SFEC, 4/19/98, DB
p.38)(http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/2000-2/)
1984 Feb 28, New Hampshire held
its presidential primary. Ronald Reagan won with 86.1% of the total
vote. Gary Hart won the Democratic tally over Walter Mondale and
John Glenn.
(www.politicallibrary.org/TallState/1984rep.html)(SSFC, 1/25/04,
p.A19)
1986 Feb 28, In the Philippines
Pres. Corazon Aquino signed executive order No. 1 creating the
Presidential Commission on Good Governance. It was created to trace
and recover assets stolen under the Marcos regime, estimated at up
to $10 billion. By 2007 only a quarter of that number was retrieved.
(www.lawphil.net/executive/execord/eo1986/eo_1_1986.html)(Econ,
8/11/07, p.33)
1986 Feb 28, Olaf Palme,
Swedish Prime Minister (1969-76, 82-86), was shot to death in
central Stockholm. In 1996 South African former police officer
Eugene de Kock said that Craig Williamson, a South African spy, was
involved in the murder. In 1997 lawyer Pelle Svensson said that his
client, Lars Tingstrom, wrote a statement on his deathbed in prison
in 1993 that he committed the killing. the family was convinced that
Christer Pettersson, a drug addict and alcoholic, was the killer. In
1999 Abdullah Ocalan in Turkey suggested that a rival PKK
organization killed Olaf Palme.
(SFC, 9/27/96, p.A12)(SFC, 3/26/97, p.A12)(AP,
2/28/98)(SFEC, 8/23/98, p.A26)(SFC, 6/2/99, p.C2)
1988 Feb 28, The 15th Olympic
Winter Games held its closing ceremony in Calgary, Canada.
(AP, 2/28/98)
1988 Feb 28, Ethnic unrest
broke out between Armenians and Azerbaijanis in the city of Sumgait.
There was an anti-Armenian pogrom in the town of Sumgait. A national
awakening occurred in Azerbaijan when conflict erupted over the
Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, included by the Soviets in the
Republic of Azerbaijan. The Armenian population in Nagorno-Karabakh
began fighting for independence.
(WSJ, 8/7/96, p.A15)(AP, 2/28/98)(SFC, 11/27/96,
p.A13)(WSJ, 5/14/97, p.A22)
1989 Feb 28, In Chicago,
Richard M. Daley, son of Mayor Richard J. Daley who served as mayor
for 21 years, defeated acting Mayor Eugene Sawyer in a Democratic
primary election.
(SFC, 2/24/99, p.A3)(AP, 2/28/99)
1989 Feb 28, Humorist-poet
Richard Armour (82) died in Claremont, Calif.
(AP, 2/28/99)
1990 Feb 28, Space shuttle
Atlantis blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla. on a secret mission
to place a spy satellite in orbit.
(AP, 2/28/00)
1991 Feb 28, NCR Corporation
acquired the Teradata Company specializing in data warehousing and
analytic applications.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teradata)
1991 Feb 28, A cease-fire was
announced in Kuwait. Allied and Iraqi forces suspended their attacks
as Iraq pledged to accept all United Nations resolutions concerning
Kuwait. In 1998 George Bush co-wrote "A World Transformed" with
Brent Scowcroft, his national security advisor. The book was a
dialogue about the foreign policy problems face by the US during the
Bush administration (1988-1992). In 1995 Michael Gordon and Bernard
Trainor published "The General's War: The Inside Story of the
Conflict in the Gulf."
(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A8)(SFC, 5/4/99, p.D1)(AP,
2/28/01)
1992 Feb 28, Twenty-eight
people were injured when an IRA bomb exploded at London Bridge train
station.
(AP, 2/28/02)
1992 Feb 29, La Lupe (53),
Cuban singer, died of a heart attack in the Bronx.
(www.si.umich.edu/CHICO/salsa/artists/lalupe.html)
1993 Feb 28, Agents of the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms raided the ranch of the
Branch Davidian sect under David Koresh in Waco, Texas. A shootout
followed 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. In 1997 the film
"Waco: The Rules of Engagement" was released that documented the
story.
(SFC, 2/28/97, p.D3)(AP, 2/28/98)
1993 Feb 28, Three U.S. planes
carried out the first mission to drop relief supplies over
Bosnia-Herzegovina. The US Operations Deny Flight, Provide Promise,
Deliberate Force, Decisive Edge, Joint Endeavour and others began in
Bosnia and Macedonia. They cost $9.7 billion to date in 1999 and
left 4 US casualties with 5 wounded.
(AP, 2/28/98)(WSJ, 9/22/99, p.A8)
1993 Feb 28, Ishiro Honda (81),
Japanese director, producer (Godzilla), died.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0393094/)
1994 Feb 28, Brady Law,
imposing a wait-period to buy a hand-gun, went into effect. It
amended a 1968 law that prohibited felons from buying guns and
imposed a 5-day waiting period for handgun purchases to allow for a
criminal record check.
(SFC, 12/4/96, p.A5)(www.bradycenter.org/about/)
1994 Feb 28, Two U.S. F-16
fighter jets downed four Serb warplanes that U.N. officials said had
bombed an arms plant run by Bosnia's Muslim-led government. This was
the first NATO use of force in the troubled area.
(AP, 2/28/99)(HN, 2/28/99)
1994 Feb 28, Pu Chieh (87),
brother of last Chinese emperor, Pu Yi (d.1967), died.
(www.msu.edu/~daggy/cop/bkofdead/obits-pu.htm)
1995 Feb 28, U.S. Marines swept
ashore in Somalia to protect retreating U.N. peacekeepers.
(AP, 2/28/00)
1995 Feb 28, Denver
International Airport opened after 16 months of delays and $3.2
billion in budget overruns. A $250 million automated baggage
handling system contributed to the delays. United Airlines gave up
on the system in 2005.
(AP, 2/28/98)(WSJ, 6/7/05, p.D5)
1995 Feb 28, In Mexico Raul
Salinas de Gortari was arrested for masterminding the murder of Jose
Francisco Ruiz Sep 28, 1994. He was imprisoned in Almaloya prison,
Mexico’s highest-security facility. In 1998 Raul Salinas was
acquitted of money laundering but remained in jail on murder and
illegal-enrichment charges.
(WSJ, 4/15/96, p.A-15)(SFC, 4/8/97, p.A6)(SFC,
5/22/98, p.D4)(SFC, 1/22/99, p.A10)
1995 Feb 28, Max Rudolf (92),
conductor, died.
(www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Rudolf-Max.htm)
1996 Feb 28, Alanis
Morissette’s "Jagged Little Pill" won best rock album and album of
the year at the Grammy Awards; Seal’s "Kiss from a Rose" won for
record and song of the year.
(AP, 2/28/01)
1996 Feb 28, President Clinton
and the Congress agreed on a sanctions bill aimed at driving foreign
investors from Cuba.
(AP, 2/28/01)
1996 Feb 28, The New Liberty
Baptist Church in Tyler, Ala., burned down. Arson was suspected and
investigations by the FBI and ATF were later begun.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A16)
1996 Feb 28, Britain’s Princess
Diana agreed to divorce Prince Charles.
(AP, 2/28/01)
1996 Feb 28, Russia joined the
Council of Europe and halted capital punishment. The Russian
Federation had applied to join the Council of Europe on 7 May 1992.
(SFC, 11/10/09, p.A2)(http://www.ena.lu/)
1997 Feb 28, Brushing aside
congressional calls for a tougher stance against Mexico, President
Clinton recertified the country as a fully cooperating ally in the
struggle against drug smuggling.
(AP, 2/28/98)
1997 Feb 28, Pres. Clinton and
Monica Lewinsky had another sexual encounter [after nearly 11
months] following the taping of his weekly radio address.
(SFC, 9/12/98, p.A13)
1997 Feb 28, US Navy medium
attack aircraft were retired by order of Pres. Clinton. Any
deep-strike mission would be in the hands of the Air Force.
(WSJ, 2/28/97, p.A14)
1997 Feb 28, In North
Hollywood, Calif., two heavily armed masked robbers bungled a B of A
bank heist and came out firing, unleashing their arsenal on police,
bystanders, cars and TV choppers before they were killed. Police
borrowed high powered semiautomatic rifles from a local gun store to
match the fire power of the robbers.
(SFC, 3/1/97, p.A1,17)(AP, 2/28/98)
1997 Feb 28, Del Monte
announced that it would be sold to the Texas Pacific Group for about
$800 million.
(SFC, 3/1/97, p.B1)
1997 Feb 28, Ford announced
that it planned to phase out production of the Thunderbird (b.1955)
until a new generation model in 2000.
(WSJ, 2/28/97, p.A3)
1997 Feb 28, A 6.1 earthquake
at Ardebil in northwest Iran struck at 4:27 p.m. local time. The
quake damaged 110 villages and killed some 3,000 people. A second
5.1 quake followed in 2 days.
(SFC, 3/1/97, p.C1)(SFEC, 3/2/97, p.A15)(SFEC,
3/3/97, p.A12)
1997 Feb 28, From Malaysia it
was reported that the Dayaks were killing the Madurans in the rain
forest of West Kalimantan, Borneo. The indigenous Dayaks had killed
as many as 300 Madurans in fierce hand combat after a peace treaty
was broken. The Madurans were moved in by the government from an
overpopulated area.
(SFC, 2/28/97, p.A16)
1997 Feb 28, In Pakistan at
2:10 a.m. a 7.3 earthquake struck in the province of Baluchistan. At
least 8 people were killed and many injured. Reports the next day
indicated that the 7.3 quake in Pakistan killed at least 80.
(WSJ, 2/28/97, p.A1)(SFC, 3/1/97, p.C1)
1998 Feb 28, In weekly radio
addresses, President Clinton and Republicans sparred over education,
with Clinton describing tests showing American high school students
lagging behind those of other industrial nations as a "wake-up call"
while the Republicans blamed the disappointing results on a "hungry
bureaucracy in Washington" that gobbles up education funds.
(AP, 2/28/99)
1998 Feb 28, Albert Lippert,
co-founder of the Weight Watchers diet program, died at age 72.
(SFC, 3/4/98, p.C4)
1998 Feb 28, The elections came
to a close. The BJP built its campaign around candidate for prime
minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee (71). The Congress Party was led by
Sonia Gandhi. Jayalalitha Jayaram led the All India Anna Dravida
Munetra Kazhagam party in Tamil Nadu won 18 seats in parliament.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.A18)
1998 Feb 28, In Likoshan two
Serbian police officers were killed. Police blamed the Kosovo
Liberation Army. The Serbian SAJ, an anti-terrorist unit, was
immediately called to the scene and rounded up 10 males who were
summarily shot. Another 15 villagers were also killed.
(SFC, 3/11/98, p.A8)
1999 Feb 28, A US air strike in
Iraq was said to have damaged an oil pipeline, stopped the flow of
oil and killed one Iraqi. The US denied the charges. Iraq claimed
that a communications center for a major oil pipeline into Turkey
was struck.
(SFC, 3/1/99, p.A12)(SFC, 3/2/99, p.A8)
1999 Feb 28, In Colombia 3 US
citizens, Terence Freitas, Ingrid Washinawatok and Lahe'ena'e Gay,
were kidnapped by FARC rebels. The 3 belonged to a group that worked
to defend the rights of the Uwa Indians in a dispute with Occidental
Petroleum. 3 FARC rebels, wanted for the kidnapping, were captured
Nov 28, 2002. [see Mar 4]
(SFC, 3/1/99, p.A12)(AP, 11/29/02)
1999 Feb 28, Ethiopia claimed
victory over Eritrea and said that it had killed, wounded and
captured tens of thousands of Eritrean soldiers.
(SFC, 3/1/99, p.A12)
1999 Feb 28, Israel sent
warplanes against guerrilla targets in Lebanon in retaliation for
the death of Brig. Gen'l. Erez Gerstein and 3 others. Guerrillas had
detonated two bombs beside a military convoy in southern Lebanon,
killing a brigadier general and three other Israelis.
(SFC, 3/1/99, p.A1)(AP, 2/28/00)
1999 Feb 28, Japanese doctors
performed their first legal organ transplant from a brain-dead
patient. A 1997 law allowed the standard for death to be the
cessation of brain activity. The last heart transplant was done in
1968.
(SFC, 3/1/99, p.A10)(WSJ, 3/1/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 28, In Nigeria retired
Gen'l. Obasanjo led the presidential vote with 62%. Serious concern
over vote-rigging was expressed.
(SFC, 3/1/99, p.A10)(WSJ, 3/1/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 28, In Zambia a bomb
exploded at the Angolan Embassy and 4 other locations in Lusaka.
(SFC, 3/1/99, p.A12)
2000 Feb 28, In Massachusetts
computer-industry publisher Patrick J. McGovern and his wife, Lore
Harp McGovern, pledged a $350 million donation over 20 years to MIT
to finance brain research.
(SFC, 2/29/00, p.A2)(WSJ, 2/29/00, p.A1)
2000 Feb 28, In Algeria an
armed group massacred 20 people, shepherds and their families, near
Brezina.
(SFC, 2/29/00, p.A12)
2000 Feb 28, In Austria Joerg
Haider, governor of Carinthia, resigned as head of the Freedom Party
in an apparent bid to end Austria’s international ostracism
following his party’s rise to power. His official resignation took
place May 1.
(SFC, 2/29/00, p.A10)(SFC, 5/2/00, p.A10)(AP,
2/28/01)
2000 Feb 28, In Indonesia Henry
Kissinger agreed to work as a political advisor to Pres. Abdurrahman
Wahid.
(SFC, 2/29/00, p.A10)
2000 Feb 28, It was reported
that Iraq and Syria had established diplomatic ties that were
cut in Aug 1980 when Damascus sided with Iran just before the
Iran-Iraq war.
(SFC, 2/28/00, p.C2)
2000 Feb 28, In Mozambique
officials feared that thousands may have died in the last 3 weeks of
flooding.
(WSJ, 2/29/00, p.A1)
2000 Feb 28, In Nigeria ethnic
violence between the Ibos and Hausas was reported from Aba in
reaction to the fighting in Kuduna. At least 50 people were reported
dead.
(WSJ, 2/29/00, p.A1)
2000 Feb 28, In Turkey 3
Kurdish mayors were released from prison pending trial on charges
that they aided Kurdish rebels.
(SFC, 2/29/00, p.A12)
2001 Feb 28, A 6.8 magnitude
slab earthquake shook the Northwest and rocked the cities of Seattle
and Portland, Oregon. It was centered 32.6 miles below the surface
along the boundary of the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate and the
continental North American plate. Damages were later estimated at
$1.5-2 billion.
(SFC, 3/1/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/2/01, p.A1)(SFC,
1/5/02, p.A4)(AP, 2/28/02)
2001 Feb 28, A train collision
in northeast England killed 10 people and injured more than 70.
(AP, 2/28/02)
2001 Feb 28, China ratified a
UN-sponsored human rights treaty but backed away from a guarantee of
workers rights.
(SFC, 3/1/01, p.A8)(WSJ, 3/1/01, p.A1)
2001 Feb 28, In Congo 3,000
troops from Rwanda and 150 from Uganda withdrew. All warring parties
were scheduled to make way for an 18-mile buffer zone, to be
monitored by the UN, by March 15.
(SFC, 3/1/01, p.A10)
2001 Feb 28, A 5.4 earthquake
hit El Salvador.
(SFC, 3/1/01, p.A10)
2001 Feb 28, In England a train
crash in North Yorkshire killed 13 people and injured 70.
(SFC, 3/1/01, p.A8)
2001 Feb 28, Officials in
Northern Ireland confirmed hoof-and-mouth disease in sheep imported
from England. 8 more cases were confirmed in England and Wales.
(SFC, 3/1/01, p.A10)
2001 Feb 28, Flooding continued
in central Mozambique as the death toll rose to 52. 81,000 were made
homeless since the beginning of the year.
(SFC, 3/1/01, p.A10)(SFC, 3/2/01, p.A16)
2002 Feb 28, Dr. Ellen Feinberg
(43) stabbed to death her 10-year-old son and wounded a younger son
in Champaign, Ill.
(SFC, 3/2/02, p.A6)
2002 Feb 28, The body of a
young girl found outside San Diego, Ca., was positively identified
as that of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam, who'd disappeared from her
bedroom about a month earlier; a neighbor, David Westerfield, was
later convicted of her murder and sentenced to death.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2002 Feb 28, Mary Stuart (75),
Soap opera actress, died in New York. She had starred in "Search for
Tomorrow" for some 35 years.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2002 Feb 28, In Gujarat state,
Hindu mobs killed over 158 people, burned shops and attacked
residences in Ahmadabad to avenge the killing of 58 Hindu
activists. In 2007 a series of videotaped confessions showed Hindu
activists acknowledging their roles in the killings and detailing
blatant state collusion.
(SFC, 3/1/02, p.A1,12)(SFC, 10/25/07, p.A13)
2002 Feb 28, In Hong Kong Tung
Chee-hwa won a 2nd term after a nomination period expired with
challengers.
(SFC, 3/1/02, p.A17)
2002 Feb 28, Israeli troops
assaulted 2 West Bank refugee camps. One Israeli soldier and 12
Palestinian fighters were killed.
(SFC, 3/1/02, p.A13)(WSJ, 3/1/02, p.A10)
2002 Feb 28, Japan reportedly
planned to double its whale catch to 260 whales and include the
endangered sei whale.
(SFC, 3/1/02, p.A19)
2002 Feb 28, In Amman, Jordan,
a bomb killed 2 passersby and destroyed the car of a top
anti-terrorism official’s wife.
(WSJ, 3/1/02, p.A1)
2002 Feb 28, In Madagascar
Pres. Didier Ratsiraka declared martial law following 2 months of
strikes and mass protests.
(SFC, 3/1/02, p.A17)
2002 Feb 28, In Pakistan gunmen
attacked a police bus in a bid to free prisoners that included a
suspect in the slaying of Daniel Pearl. A policeman and a prisoner
were killed.
(WSJ, 3/1/02, p.A1)
2003 Feb 28, The Ninth U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals stood by its ruling that reciting the
Pledge of Allegiance in public schools was unconstitutional because
of the words "under God."
(AP, 2/28/04)
2003 Feb 28, The FDA announced
that every bottle of ephedra would soon bear stern warnings that the
popular herb could cause heart attacks or strokes, even kill.
(AP, 2/28/04)
2003 Feb 28, NASA released
video taken aboard Columbia that had miraculously survived the fiery
destruction of the space shuttle with the loss of all seven
astronauts; in the footage, four of the crew members can be seen
doing routine chores and admiring the view outside the cockpit.
(AP, 2/28/04)
2003 Feb 28, The
International Atomic Energy Agency said it has sent an emergency
mission to Nigeria to help find an undisclosed amount of missing or
stolen radioactive material.
(AP, 2/28/03)
2003 Feb 28, In Austria
a conservative-led coalition assumed governing power in Austria
backed by Joerg Haider's anti-immigrant party.
(AP, 2/28/03)
2003 Feb 28, Carnival
began in Brazil as a large crime wave swept Rio. Imprisoned Red
Command leader, Luiz Fernando da Costa, was believed responsible and
was moved to a maximum security prison in San Paolo state.
(SFC, 2/28/03, A16)
2003 Feb 28, Tassos
Papadopoulos took office as the fifth Greek Cypriot president,
pledging to strive for reunification.
(AP, 2/28/03)
2003 Feb 28, Czech
lawmakers elected opposition candidate Vaclav Klaus as president,
succeeding former president and long time rival Vaclav Havel.
(AP, 2/28/03)
2003 Feb 28, Fidel
Sanchez Hernandez (85), former El Salvador President (1967-1972),
died. He directed the so-called 100-hour war, when the Salvadoran
army invaded Honduras in 1969 over a territorial dispute.
(AP, 3/1/03)
2003 Feb 28, Iraq agreed
to begin destroying its Al Samoud 2 missiles within 24 hours.
(AP, 2/28/03)
2003 Feb 28, Ivory
Coast-based mercenary fighters attacked and captured Toe Town on
Liberia's eastern border. Liberia's government considered the
assault "highly provocative" and "tantamount to a declaration of
war" by Ivory Coast.
(AP, 3/1/03)
2004 Feb 28, The Bow Mariner, a
tanker carrying 3.5 million gallons of ethanol, exploded and sank
off Virginia's Eastern Shore. Three crewmen were known dead and six
others were rescued. 18 crew members were left missing.
(SSFC, 2/29/04, p.A3)(SFC, 2/02/04, p.A3)
2004 Feb 28, It was reported
that 80% of Americans claim to believe in God, compared with 62% of
the French and 52% of Swedes.
(Econ, 2/28/04, p.34)
2004 Feb 28, It was reported
that scientists had measured the shortest time interval ever, a mere
100 attoseconds. The “atto” referred to a billionth of a “nano.”
(Econ, 2/28/04, p.77)
2004 Feb 28, Daniel Joseph
Boorstin (89), author, historian and 12th librarian of Congress,
died in Washington DC. His 2 dozen books included The Americans
trilogy: "The Colonial Experience" (1959), "The National Experience"
(1966), and "The Democratic Experience" (1973).
(SSFC, 2/29/04, p.A2)(Econ, 3/20/04, p.94)
2004 Feb 28, African leaders
agreed on a common security policy that for the first time gives the
fledgling African Union authority to intervene in border wars and
internal conflicts. A draft declaration of the policy was expected
to be announced at the conclusion of the two-day pan-African summit.
(AP, 2/28/04)
2004 Feb 28, Egyptian security
forces attacked gunmen who had taken an estimated 80 people hostage
in a southern Egyptian town. Some of the captives were feared dead.
(AP, 2/28/04)
2004 Feb 28, In Finland
hundreds of trucks prepared to roll onto frozen roads at midnight,
stocked with beer and hard cider for a population that eagerly
awaits a historic government measure that will cut alcohol prices by
nearly 40 percent.
(AP, 2/28/04)
2004 Feb 28, In Haiti anarchy
spread across the capital as residents looted warehouses, government
loyalists attacked passers-by and rebels advanced closer to the seat
of power.
(AP, 2/28/04)
2004 Feb 28, Iraq's U.S.-picked
leaders failed to meet a deadline for adopting an interim
constitution.
(AP, 2/28/05)
2004 Feb 28, Six-nation talks
on North Korea's nuclear program ended without any major
breakthrough. The North denounced the United States, saying it
wasn't willing to reach a settlement.
(AP, 2/28/04)
2004 Feb 28, In Pakistan a
suicide attacker blew himself up in a Shiite Muslim mosque in a city
near Islamabad.
(AP, 2/28/04)
2004 Feb 28, The mayor of
Nablus, the West Bank's largest city, said he is quitting to protest
Yasser Arafat's failure to rein in armed gangs.
(AP, 2/28/04)
2004 Feb 28, Qatar accused
Russia of detaining two of its nationals in Moscow, after two
Russians were charged with murdering a former rebel Chechen leader
in Qatar.
(AP, 2/28/04)
2004 Feb 28, It was reported
that 70% South Koreans had high-speed Internet connections.
(Econ, 2/28/04, p.61)
2004 Feb 28, In Taiwan an
estimated 1.2 million people linked hands in a human chain the
length of the island as President Chen Shui-bian urged protesters to
oppose China's military threats and create the "Great Wall of
Taiwan's democracy."
(AP, 2/28/04)
2005 Feb 28, The US Mint began
distributing new buffalo nickels to banks. The reverse side showed a
bolder profile of Thomas Jefferson.
(SFC, 2/26/05, p.A3)
2005 Feb 28, Michael Jackson
faced opening statements in Santa Maria, Ca., in his trial on child
molestation charges.
(SFC, 3/1/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb 28, US District Judge
Joan Humphrey Lefkow discovered the bodies of her husband and mother
inside her Chicago home. An unemployed electrician confessed to the
murders in a suicide note. In 2002 she had ordered the white
supremacist group World Church of the Creator under Matthew Hale to
remove the World Church name from its website. A cigarette butt
found in Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow's house was matched to the
electrician, Bart Ross, who killed himself Mar 9 during a traffic
stop in Wisconsin, and left a suicide note claiming responsibility
for the killings. Lefkow last fall dismissed a rambling
lawsuit in which Ross claimed that cancer treatments had disfigured
his face.
(SFC, 3/2/05, p.A13)(AP, 3/11/05)(SFC, 3/11/05,
p.A1)(AP, 2/28/06)
2005 Feb 28, Federated Dept.
Stores announced the acquisition of may Dept. Stores for $11 billion
in cash and stock.
(SFC, 3/1/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb 28, African Union (AU)
chairman, Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo, met Sudan's first
vice president Ali Taha over the bloody crisis in Darfur region.
(AFP, 2/28/05)
2005 Feb 28, In Britain the
Duchess of Northumberland opened her new Poison Garden, dedicated to
the world’s most venomous and hallucinogenic plants. It was a part
of Alnwick Garden opened in 2002.
(SFC, 10/29/05,
p.F7)(www.alnwickgarden.com/media/in_the_press.asp)
2005 Feb 28, Burundians voted
on a new constitution that enshrines Hutu control by allotting them
60% of parliamentary seats with 40% for Tutsis.
(WSJ, 3/1/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb 28, Thierry Breton
arrived for work as France's 4th finance minister in less than a
year, ready to pick up the unfinished business of restoring the
French economy to good health.
(AP, 2/28/05)
2005 Feb 28, In Grenada Alister
Hughes (86), respected journalists known for his coverage of
Grenada's political woes and the US invasion in 1983, died of a
stroke.
(AP, 3/2/05)
2005 Feb 28, India's
communist-backed coalition government unveiled a budget aimed at
boosting growth to help the rural poor but warned this would be at
the expense of tackling a bloated deficit.
(AP, 2/28/05)
2005 Feb 28, Indonesia welcomed
a move by the US to resume a small but high-profile US military
training program that was frozen in the 1990s because of human
rights abuses in East Timor. Human rights groups condemned the
decision.
(Reuters, 2/28/05)
2005 Feb 28, In Iraq a suicide
car bomber blasted a crowd of police and national guard recruits as
they gathered for physicals outside a medical clinic in Hillah,
south of Baghdad, killing 125 people and wounding 132.
(AP, 3/1/05)(AP, 2/28/06)
2005 Feb 28, Israeli troops
discovered a vehicle packed with half a ton of explosives in the
West Bank, the largest bomb found in four years of fighting.
(AP, 3/1/05)
2005 Feb 28, Defying a ban on
protests, about 10,000 people demonstrated against Syrian
interference in Lebanon, as opposition lawmakers sought to bring
down the pro-Damascus government. The pro-Damascus PM Omar Karami
and his Cabinet resigned.
(AP, 2/28/05)(SFC, 3/1/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb 28, Mexican
prosecutors charged 27 state, federal and local police in Cancun
with running a drug ring or aiding in the murder of their fellow
officers, busting one of Mexico's largest police-protection rackets
and solving the mystery behind the killing of three federal agents
in November.
(AP, 3/1/05)
2005 Feb 28, In Nepal at least
50 Maoist rebels and 4 soldiers were killed in a gunbattle in the
western Bardiya district.
(AP, 3/1/05)
2005 Feb 28, In Tajikistan
opposition parties alleged systematic vote-rigging and other
breaches during weekend parliamentary elections in the former Soviet
republic.
(AP, 2/28/05)
2006 Feb 28, The US Supreme
Court voted 8-0 to bar the use of racketeering laws against
antiabortion protesters.
(WSJ, 3/1/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 28, The first Mardi
Gras since Hurricane Katrina drew a smaller-than-usual turnout.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2006 Feb 28, The San Francisco
Board of Supervisors passed a resolution (7-3) asking the city’s
Democratic congressional delegation to seek the impeachment of Pres.
Bush.
(SFC, 3/1/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 28, In Gas City,
Indiana, a museum chronicling the short life of James Dean closed
after struggling financially since its opening in 2004. David Loehr
said he would soon be setting up a small display in the National
Automotive & Truck Museum in Auburn.
(AP, 3/30/06)
2006 Feb 28, The US FDA
approved a selegeline skin patch to treat depression. Somerset
Pharmaceuticals said the drug will be marketed as Emsam. Selegiline
as approved in pill form in 1989 to help treat Parkinson’s disease.
(SFC, 3/1/06, p.A12)
2006 Feb 28, US coffee giant
Starbucks Corp said it planned to begin selling Rwandan specialty
coffee in 5,000 outlets across the US from next month.
(Reuters, 2/28/06)
2006 Feb 28, Bob Fu, a US-based
activist and a Chinese legal scholar, said leaders of an underground
Chinese church, who are accused of killing of 20 members of a rival
group, were tortured into confessing in a crackdown on unofficial
religious organizations.
(AP, 2/28/06)
2006 Feb 28, Owen Chamberlain
(b.1920) Nobel Prize winning physicist (1959), died in Berkeley, Ca.
He and Emilio Segre shared the 1959 Nobel Prize in Physics for their
1955 discovery of the anti-proton.
(SFC, 3/2/06, p.B7)
2006 Feb 28, In Afghan police
fired at inmates trying to push down a gate at Kabul's main jail as
about 2,000 prisoners resumed rioting after a 24-hour pause in
violence. One inmate died and three were wounded in the renewed
fighting. A US soldier was killed by an IED.
(AP, 2/28/06)(WSJ, 3/1/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 28, A Bangladesh court
sentenced 21 Islamic militants, aged 21-25, to death for their part
in a deadly wave of blasts that saw more than 400 bombs explode
almost simultaneously across the country on Aug 17, 2005. All were
members of the militant group Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB)
and were sentenced under the country's Explosive Substances Act."
(AFP, 2/28/06)
2006 Feb 28, The UN refugee
agency said fighting between soldiers and rebels in eastern Chad was
sending civilians fleeing across the border to Sudan’s Darfur region
and were being targeted by Sudanese militia.
(SFC, 3/1/06, p.A10)
2006 Feb 28, Sergei Abramov,
the Kremlin-backed PM of war-battered Chechnya, said he was stepping
down to give way to Ramzan Kadyrov (29), the widely feared head of a
shadowy security service.
(AP, 3/1/06)
2006 Feb 28, Chinese President
Hu Jintao denounced the Taiwanese president's decision to scrap an
agency dedicated to uniting Taiwan with the communist mainland, and
warned that Beijing will not permit the self-ruled island to pursue
formal independence.
(AP, 2/28/06)
2006 Feb 28, In El Salvador
thousands of street vendors, university students and labor unionists
marched in San Salvador against a regional free trade accord with
the US, which they say will hurt small businesses and organized
labor.
(AP, 2/28/06)
2006 Feb 28, The deadly strain
of bird flu was confirmed in a cat in northern Germany, the first
time the virus has been identified in a mammal in the 25 nations of
the European Union.
(AP, 2/28/06)
2006 Feb 28, Palaniappan
Chidambaram, India’s finance minister, unveiled the budget for the
new fiscal year. It forecast growth at 8.1% and included a 7.2%
increase in defense spending to $20 billion.
(WSJ, 3/1/06, p.A6)(Econ, 3/4/06, p.38)
2006 Feb 28, In central India
suspected Maoist militants (Naxalites) attacked a group of trucks
jammed with passengers, killing 23 people and injuring 33.
(AP, 2/28/06)(Econ, 4/15/06, p.45)
2006 Feb 28, A suicide bomber
detonated an explosives belt at a crowded gas station killing 23
people with 51 injured. 9 bullet-riddled bodies, including that of a
Sunni Muslim tribal sheik, were found off a road southeast of
Baghdad. Sunnis and Shiites in Baghdad traded bombings and mortar
fire mainly at religious targets, killing at least 75 people.
(AP, 2/28/06)(AP, 3/1/06)(SFC, 3/1/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 28, Iraqi border
guards captured, Abdullah Salah al-Harbi, a Saudi who admitted he
was involved in the suicide attack on the Abqaiq oil facility in
Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Feb 28, A car bomb
targeted a British patrol in Amarah, 180 miles from Baghdad, and 2
British soldiers were killed. The deaths raised the British toll in
the Iraq conflict to 103.
(AP, 2/28/06)
2006 Feb 28, The Malaysian
government sharply raised fuel prices to trim a ballooning
fuel-subsidy bill. Interest rates and inflation were expected to
rise as a result.
(WSJ, 3/1/06, p.A7)
2006 Feb 28, Mexico City
officials moved to shut down a US-owned hotel that angered many
Mexicans when it kicked out a Cuban delegation under pressure from
Washington. The Sheraton Maria Isabel Hotel would be closed because
it was in violation of building codes. The hotel could reopen when
it had corrected the violations and paid a $15,000 fine. The threat
of closure was dropped the next day.
(AP, 3/1/06)(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Feb 28, Some 4,000 Mexican
miners struck copper mines owned by the operator of the coal mine
where 65 men died in an explosion last week.
(AP, 2/28/06)
2006 Feb 28, Nigerian
separatist militants stormed a tanker ship working in the Niger
Delta and took a large sum of cash, 12 days after they kidnapped
nine foreign oil workers from another vessel. The insurgent
spokesman said the tanker captain had parted with 500,000 naira as a
"goodwill token" during the encounter, although a shipping industry
source put the sum at two million naira (15,500 dollars / 13,000
euros).
(AFP, 3/1/06)
2006 Feb 28, In Peru 2 buses
crashed head-on in the southern Andes, killing 12 people, including
one American tourist. Nearly 50 people were injured.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Feb 28, A top UN envoy
said Sudan has begun a campaign to keep African Union troops in
Darfur and prevent a UN force from taking over efforts to restore
peace there. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Libyan leader
Moamer Kadhafi rejected the replacement of an AU force in the
Sudanese region of Darfur by UN peacekeepers.
(AP, 2/28/06)
2006 Feb 28, Uganda's main
opposition party pledged to challenge President Yoweri Museveni's
re-election in court, charging that many people were barred from
voting and some returns were falsified.
(AP, 2/28/06)
2007 Feb 28, The US government
said the nation has 754,000 homeless people, filling emergency
shelters through the year and spilling into special seasonal
shelters in the coldest months.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Feb 28, A federal judge in
Miami ruled that suspected al-Qaida operative Jose Padilla was
competent to stand trial on terrorism support charges, rejecting
arguments that he was severely damaged by 3 1/2 years of
interrogation and isolation in a military brig.
(AP, 2/28/08)
2007 Feb 28, Sen. John McCain
made it official that he is seeking the 2008 Republican presidential
nomination and said he plans a formal announcement in April.
(Reuters, 2/28/07)
2007 Feb 28, A US military
court in Florida sentenced Air Force Capt. Devery L. Taylor to 50
years in prison for raping 4 men and attempted rape of 2 others. A
day earlier the court had found him guilty of drugging and
kidnapping servicemen he had picked up in bars.
(SFC, 3/1/07, p.A3)
2007 Feb 28, Albert Facchiano
(96), a Genovese family mobster, pleaded guilty in Florida to
racketeering conspiracy. His arrest record dated back 75 years.
(SFC, 3/1/07, p.A4)
2007 Feb 28, A group of 12
North Korean refugees has arrived in the United States to seek
asylum, the largest group from the communist nation to have recently
defected there.
(AP, 3/1/07)
2007 Feb 28, In Michigan Thomas
Katona, a former county treasurer of a Lake Huron vacation
community, was ordered to stand trial on charges that he looted
$186,500 in public funds for a Nigerian investment scam. Katona was
treasurer of Alcona County from 1993 until his dismissal late in
2006. On June 12 Katona (56) was sentenced for up to 14 years in
prison.
(AP, 2/28/07)(AP, 6/12/07)
2007 Feb 28, Wall Street
rebounded fitfully from the previous session's 416-point plunge in
the Dow industrials as investors took comfort from comments by
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that he still expected
moderate economic growth.
(AP, 2/28/08)
2007 Feb 28, A US study said
more than one-third of American women are infected with human
papilloma virus (HPV) by the time they are 24 years old. Overall
about one-quarter of women under age 60 are infected at any given
time.
(SFC, 2/28/07, p.A5)
2007 Feb 28, Arthur M.
Schlesinger Jr. (89), the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and
"court philosopher" of the Kennedy administration, died in NY. He
remained a proud liberal even as others dared not use the word. In
2007 Penguin Press published his “Journals: 1952-2000.”
(AP, 3/1/07)(Econ, 3/10/07, p.85)(Econ, 10/20/07,
p.116)
2007 Feb 28, Martin Metal (88),
a Berkeley sculptor, musician and poet, died.
(SFC, 3/17/07, p.B5)
2007 Feb 28, In Belgium a
mother killed her five children, then tried to commit suicide at the
family's home. The four girls and a boy, aged between 4 and 14, were
stabbed with a knife. The woman called emergency services, then
tried to kill herself.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Feb 28, Bolivia’s
President Evo Morales officially declared months of deadly flooding
a national disaster, committing some $50 million to the crisis that
killed 35 people and affected some 72,000 families.
(AP, 3/1/07)
2007 Feb 28, The Church of
England's assembly affirmed existing teaching that homosexuality is
no bar to full participation in the church but avoided the fractious
debate within the Anglican Communion about accepting gay sexual
relationships.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Feb 28, Lord Charles Forte
(b.1908), Italian-born British businessman, died. He had parlayed a
London soda shop in 1934 into one of the world’s largest hospitality
businesses. He was knighted in 1970 and in 1982 PM Margaret Thatcher
made him Baron of Ripley. He authored an autobiography in 1986.
(WSJ, 3/3/07, p.A4)
2007 Feb 28, Burundi said that
it will send 1,700 peacekeepers to Somalia as part of an
8,000-strong African Union force, while the first Ugandan contingent
prepared to leave for the war-torn nation.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Feb 28, Djidda Moussa
Outman, Chad's minister of foreign affairs, said that Chad had never
accepted the idea of a military force of "whatever nature" on its
eastern border.
(AP, 3/1/07)
2007 Feb 28, An official report
said China's population grew by almost 7 million people last year.
China's National Bureau of Statistics said that the country's
population was 1,314,480,000 at the end of 2006, an increase of 6.92
million people. Numbers also showed that China will overtake the US
this year or in 2008 as the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse
gases.
(AP, 2/28/07)(SFC, 3/5/07, p.A1)
2007 Feb 28, Chinese stocks
recovered following their worst plunge in a decade as regulators
shifted into damage control, denying rumors of plans for a 20
percent capital gains tax on stock investments. A sandstorm with
hurricane-strength wind gusts derailed a train in the far west,
killing at least four people and injuring another 30.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Feb 28, An Egyptian court
ordered a freeze on the assets of 29 known financiers of the Muslim
brotherhood, Egypt's most powerful opposition movement. An Egyptian
with Canadian citizenship on trial for spying for Israel shouted
from his courtroom cage that a confession had been extracted under
torture.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Feb 28, European airliner
maker Airbus told unions that it would dispose of six factories and
switch some work from France to Germany under a plan costing some
10,000 jobs.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Feb 28, A boat carrying
Haitian migrants caught fire off the coast of the Dominican
Republic, leaving at least eight passengers dead and 44 missing.
(AP, 3/1/07)
2007 Feb 28, The fifth of six
former Guatemalan police officers suspected in the killings of three
Salvadoran politicians and their driver turned himself. Prosecutors
said the ex-officer allegedly bought the gasoline used to burn the
victims.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Feb 28, Honduras named its
first ambassador to Cuba in 45 years, completing the restoration of
diplomatic ties with communist-run island that were severed during
the Cold War.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Feb 28, In Kashmir Indian
officials charged 7 policemen in Srinagar with murdering a man and
claiming he was an Islamic militant, the first charges in an alleged
plot by officers to kill innocent people and earn rewards.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Feb 28, In India finance
minister Palaniappan Chidambaram presented his annual budget speech.
As inflation approached 7% he increased funds for education by 34%
and money for health and family welfare by 22%. Defense spending was
set to increase 7.8%.
(Econ, 3/3/07, p.49)
2007 Feb 28, French author
Dominique Lapierre opened the first of 15 schools planned in India
with money raised by auctioning an iconic dress worn by Audrey
Hepburn in "Breakfast at Tiffany's."
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Feb 28, Indonesia said it
is planning to ban local carriers from operating jetliners more than
10 years old as part of a safety campaign following a string of
crashes and accidents.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Feb 28, Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made his first visit to Khartoum, for talks with
his Sudanese opposite number Omar al-Beshir.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Feb 28, In Iraq a car bomb
killed at least 10 people packed into a Baghdad market. US forces
killed 8 suspected militants in a raid north of the city, and
captured 6 others in separate operations around Baghdad. Guards
outside the Bab al-Sheik police station in central Baghdad fired on
a suicide truck bomber as he approached them. The bomber changed
course and crashed into a cement barrier, detonating his explosives.
An Algerian whose suicide payload was hidden in gas and chlorine
bottles, was foiled when his path into Bab al-Sheikh police station
in central Baghdad was blocked by a departing policeman's car. Two
civilians were killed and two policemen and another civilian were
wounded in the blast and exchange of gunfire. Two brothers of a
leading Sunni lawmaker were gunned down in Muqdadiyah. In Mosul a
high-ranking officer and his driver were killed in a drive-by
shooting. The tortured body of another senior police officer was
discovered in central Baghdad, about two months after the man
disappeared. A US Marine was killed in the western Anbar province.
80 al-Qaida members were killed and 50 captured in fierce clashes
between al-Qaida and residents of the village of Amiriyat near
Fallujah, 45 kilometers (25 miles) west of Baghdad. The US military
could not confirm the report. In 2010 video was made public of Iraqi
police who appeared to lynch the failed suicide bomber at the Bab
al-Sheikh police station. The police were shown stamping on the
bomber's head and kicking his body and faced human rights charges.
(AP, 2/28/07)(AP, 3/1/07)(AP, 3/2/07)(AFP,
5/1/10)
2007 Feb 28, Syria said it
would participate in a Baghdad-organized conference of Iraq's
neighbors that the US plans to attend. Iran said it was considering
whether to take part.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Feb 28, Israeli troops
shot and killed three Palestinian militants in the West Bank town of
Jenin and raided the nearby city of Nablus for the second time this
week, placing tens of thousands of people under curfew.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Feb 28, Italian Premier
Romano Prodi kept his fractious center-left coalition together to
win a confidence vote in the Senate, ensuring the immediate survival
of his nine-month-old government.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Feb 28, Japan and Russia
looked to expand trade despite rocky relations as they agreed to
cooperate on nuclear energy and in preventing disasters in disputed
islands.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Feb 28, Officials said
Japan has decided to pull its whaling fleet out of the Antarctic and
end this year's whale hunt early after a deadly fire crippled its
mother ship.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Feb 28, In Namibia
hundreds of people protested a visit by Zimbabwean President Robert
Mugabe, holding signs reading, "Go home dictator." The local
National Society for Human Rights called Mugabe's three-day state
visit an insult to Namibia.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Feb 28, In Nigeria at
least 50 people were feared dead when a ferry sank on the Nun River
in the southern state of Bayelsa.
(AFP, 3/2/07)
2007 Feb 28, An air force
helicopter crashed in Peru's highlands, killing 3 military personnel
and injuring an army general who commanded a military base in the
area.
(AP, 3/1/07)
2007 Feb 28, Vladimir
Nikolayev, the mayor of Vladivostok, was stripped of his authority
amid a criminal investigation into suspect land deals and
embezzlement in the latest bout of corruption to hit the
long-troubled Pacific port.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Feb 28, Sri Lanka
escalated sea and land attacks against Tamil Tigers and killed at
least 18 people.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Feb 28, A Swiss court
acquitted seven men of providing logistical support to a Saudi
terror cell in the first Swiss trial of alleged al-Qaida associates.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Feb 28, It was reported
that international developers planned a $4 billion resort and casino
complex in Vietnam. The project, dubbed Ho Tram, would be on the
South China Sea, a 2-hour drive from Ho Chi Minh City.
(WSJ, 2/28/07, p.B1)
2008 Feb 28, The Pew Center on
the States reported that 1% of adult Americans are in jail or
prison, an all-time high that cost state governments nearly $50
billion a year in addition to over $5 billion spent by the federal
government. The US led the world in the percentage of residents
incarcerated with China a distant second.
(SFC, 2/29/08, p.A7)
2008 Feb 28, It was reported
that Aluminum Bahrain BSC had filed suit in federal court in
Pittsburgh accusing Alcoa Corp. of a 15-year conspiracy involving
overcharging, fraud and bribery.
(WSJ, 2/28/08, p.A1)
2008 Feb 28, California’s
Second District Court of Appeal ruled that California law requires
parents to send their children to full-time public or private
schools, or have them taught by credentialed tutors at home. The
ruling put an estimated 166,000 children as possible truants. On
March 7 Gov. Schwarzenegger denounced the ruling and promised to
change the law if necessary to guarantee that parents are able to
educate their children at home. On August 8 a state appeals court
ruled that parents have a right to educate their children at home
even if they lack a teaching credential.
(SFC, 3/7/08, p.A1)(SFC, 3/8/08, p.A1)(SFC,
8/9/08, p.A1)
2008 Feb 28, It was reported
that California state Senator Leland Yee has introduced a bill to
let Daly City purchase the 68-acre Cow Palace property, owned by the
state, and tear it down for redevelopment.
(SFC, 2/28/08, p.A1)
2008 Feb 28, Under threat of
legal action SF returned $2.7 million to the US Justice Dept. and
promised to pay the rest. This was half of the $5.4 million it had
received from 2004-2006 to prosecute alleged border crimes. Federal
officials added demands for another $300,000 that SF received in
2007. The grants had been processed by Brad Burgess of the Public
Resource management Group in Roseville, Ca.
(SFC, 4/10/08, p.A1)
2008 Feb 28, In SF the new
InterContinental Hotel opened at Fifth and Howard streets just in
time for the 75th annual meeting of the American Academy of
Orthopedic Surgeons.
(SSFC, 2/24/08, p.C1)
2008 Feb 26, In SF the New
College of California received official word that the Western
Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) had revoked
accreditation. The school was forced to close later this year.
Kaushal Niroula, an exchange student from Nepal, contributed
significantly to the school’s closure following a binge of graft and
murder.
(SFC, 2/28/08, p.B1)(SSFC, 5/23/10, p.A1)
2008 Feb 28, At the TED
conference in Monterey, Ca., Geneticist Craig Venter, who mapped his
genome and the genetic diversity of the oceans, said he is creating
a life form that feeds on climate-ruining carbon dioxide to produce
fuel.
(AFP, 2/28/08)
2008 Feb 28, In Las Vegas two
vials of ricin were found a manager at the Extended Stay America
motel. 2 days earlier police had found firearms and an “anarchist
type textbook” there. Roger Von Bergendorff (57) was the last to
stay in the room, and has been in critical condition since calling
an ambulance on Feb. 14 complaining of respiratory distress. In
April Bergendorff was indicted on federal charges that included
possession of a biological toxin. Bergendorff was convicted and
sentenced in November to 3½ years in federal
prison.
(AP, 3/1/08)(SFC, 3/3/08, p.A4)(SFC, 4/23/08,
p.A3)(SFC, 11/18/08, p.A8)
2008 Feb 28, Joseph M. Juran
(b.1904), pioneer of quality control, died. Juran’s 80-20 rule
states that that 80% of a firms problems stem from 20% of causes. He
called this his Pareto principle, after Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923),
an Italian economist who noted that 20% of the population owned 80%
of the property in Italy. Juran’s “Quality and Control Handbook”
(1951) made his reputation. In 2004 he authored his memoir
“Architect of Quality.”
(WSJ, 3/8/08, p.A7)
2008 Feb 28, In Afghan four
militants died and another was wounded when the roadside bomb they
were planting on a main road in Helmand exploded prematurely.
(AP, 2/28/08)
2008 Feb 28, In western
Antarctica a 160-square mile chunk of ice on the edge of the Wilkins
ice shelf began collapsing. It had been there for some 1,500 years.
In 2010 scientists suggested that break was the result of gravity
waves generated by a series of storms on the coast of Patagonia.
(SFC, 3/26/08, p.A4)(Econ, 2/20/10, p.79)
2008 Feb 28, In Bangladesh a
ferry carrying more than 100 people collided with a cargo vessel and
capsized in a river near Dhaka, killing at least 39 people with 20
missing.
(AP, 2/28/08)(AP, 2/29/08)
2008 Feb 28, A bitterly divided
Bolivian Congress approved a national vote on President Evo Morales'
proposed constitution, which would grant greater political power to
Bolivia's long-oppressed indigenous groups.
(AP, 2/29/08)
2008 Feb 28, In Bulgaria a
night train traveling from Sofia to the northeastern town of Kardam
caught fire. Officials said at least eight people died, adding that
the toll could rise.
(AP, 2/29/08)
2008 Feb 28, The presidents of
resource-hungry China and oil-rich Nigeria met ahead of the planned
signing of energy deals in Beijing's latest overture to an African
nation.
(AFP, 2/28/08)
2008 Feb 28, In China at least
14 miners were missing after a cave-in at the Jianbao Coal Minein
Jixi city. The mine owners in northeastern Heilongjiang province
initially concealed the number of missing workers.
(AP, 3/12/08)
2008 Feb 28, Cuba's government
signed two key international human rights treaties that Fidel Castro
long opposed, but said it had reservations about some provisions and
accused the United States of impeding the Cuban people's enjoyment
of their rights.
(AP, 2/28/08)
2008 Feb 28, In Ecuador a
landslide caused some 4,000 barrels of oil to spill from its main
pipeline contaminating Coca River.
(www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/02/america/LA-FIN-Ecuador-Pipeline.php)
2008 Feb 28, The European Court
of Human Rights ruled that a government may not deport an individual
to a state where he may be at risk of torture or other
ill-treatment.
(Econ, 3/1/08, p.63)
2008 Feb 28, French President
Nicolas Sarkozy, following talks with South African President Thabo
Mbeki in South Africa, announced a "renegotiation" of all French
military accords with African nations, arguing that France no longer
had a "policing" role to play on the continent. French power giant
Alstom announced a 1.36 billion euro (two-billion-dollar) contract
for the construction of a coal-fuelled power plant in South Africa
which is suffering from a severe electricity shortage.
(AFP, 2/28/08)
2008 Feb 28, In Paris the body
of former top model Katoucha Niane (47) was found in the River
Seine. The former model and speaker against female circumcision went
missing in January. Her 2007 book, "Katoucha, In My Flesh,"
described her own experience with female circumcision at age 9.
(AP, 2/29/08)(AP, 3/7/08)
2008 Feb 28, An Indonesian
court rejected a civil case against the youngest son of ex-dictator
Suharto for alleged corruption and awarded him 550,000 dollars in a
countersuit he filed.
(AP, 2/28/08)
2008 Feb 28, In Iraq the US
military captured an insurgent leader who was recruiting and
training women, including his wife, to wrap themselves in explosives
and blow themselves up, the latest sign that al-Qaida in Iraq plans
to keep using women to carry out suicide attacks.
(AP, 3/1/08)
2008 Feb 28, Kenya's rival
politicians, aided by AU chairman Jakaya Kikwete, signed a
power-sharing agreement and shook hands after weeks of bitter
negotiations on how to end the country's deadly postelection crisis.
(AP, 2/28/08)(Econ, 3/1/08, p.49)
2008 Feb 28, Israeli aircraft
struck a series of targets throughout the Gaza Strip, killing 15
Palestinians, including 5 boys. Palestinian rocket fire continued
throughout the day, lightly wounding two people. Hamza al-Haya, the
son of hardline Hamas lawmaker Khalil al-Haya, was among those
killed. Hamas said he had commanded a rocket-launching squad in
northern Gaza.
(AP, 2/28/08)(SFC, 2/29/08, p.A10)
2008 Feb 28, Liberia's Health
Minister Walter Gwanigale said health services are chronically
understaffed with only 51 native doctors in the west African nation.
(AP, 2/28/08)
2008 Feb 28, The Madhesi in
southern Nepal pledged to end violent protests and a paralyzing
general strike after reaching an agreement with the government to
establish autonomous regions in the Himalayan nation. 2 days after
the Madhesi agreement the government signed another agreement with a
2nd alliance of ethnic and regional groups.
(AP, 2/28/08)(Econ, 3/8/08, p.50)
2008 Feb 28, In Pakistan a
predawn explosion killed up to 12 suspected militants in South
Waziristan. A US drone was suspected.
(SFC, 2/29/08, p.A10)
2008 Feb 28, Neil Bush, younger
brother of US President George W. Bush, called on Paraguay's Pres.
Nicanor Duarte as the guest of a business federation founded by the
Rev. Sun Myung Moon.
(AP, 3/1/08)
2008 Feb 28, Swedish and
Norwegian authorities cracked down on terror financing, arresting
six people in what Swedish investigators said were coordinated raids
in Stockholm and Oslo.
(AP, 2/28/08)
2008 Feb 28, Former Thai
premier Thaksin Shinawatra vowed to clear his name on corruption
charges and called for national unity as he flew home to a jubilant
welcome from thousands of supporters.
(AP, 2/28/08)
2009 Feb 28, In Louisiana 3
½ years after Hurricane Katrina, the National Guard pulled
the last of its troops out of New Orleans, leaving behind a city
still desperate and dangerous.
(AP, 2/28/09)
2009 Feb 28, A fishing boat
from Clearwater, Florida, capsized as the four friends were pulling
up the anchor. Nick Schuyler was rescued on March 2. Oakland Raiders
linebacker Marquis Cooper, free-agent defensive lineman Corey Smith
and former University of South Florida player William Bleakley
remained missing.
(AP, 3/3/09)
2009 Feb 28, Paul Harvey
(b.1918), news commentator and talk-radio pioneer, died in Arizona.
His staccato style made him one of the nation's most familiar
voices. Harvey had been heard nationally since 1951, when he began
his "News and Comment" for ABC Radio Networks.
(AP, 3/1/09)(SSFC, 3/1/09, p.A12)
2009 Feb 28, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai ordered that presidential elections be held by April,
months earlier than the August 20 date set by a voting authority,
after lawmakers said they would not recognize him as president after
May 22. Afghan security soldiers killed four militants in a clash in
the southern province of Uruzgan.
(AP, 2/28/09)(AFP, 3/1/09)
2009 Feb 28, In Algeria an army
operation in the mountains of Blida province, about 100 kilometers
(62 miles) south of Algiers killed 6 Islamist militants. One
militant was killed on Feb 26 before the army took the rest of the
group by surprise. Another 16 were reported killed during a search
operation near Soulahane.
(AFP, 3/2/09)(AFP, 3/3/09)
2009 Feb 28, China's
legislature enacted a tough new food safety law, promising tougher
penalties for makers of tainted products in the wake of scandals
that exposed serious flaws in monitoring of the nation's food
supply.
(AP, 2/28/09)
2009 Feb 28, A US Marine died
in a non-combat related incident in Iraq's western Anbar province.
(AP, 3/1/09)
2009 Feb 28, Two rockets fired
from Gaza crashed into southern Israel, one into a school that was
closed for the weekend in the coastal city of Ashkelon and another
into an open field.
(AP, 2/28/09)
2009 Feb 28, Police in southern
Mexico found the body of Rolando Landa, head of security in the
township of La Union, near the Pacific beach town of Zihuatanejo.
The body was accompanied by threatening messages apparently left by
members of the Familia Michoacana drug gang. Two police officers in
the town of Praxedis Guerrero, just south of the border town of
Ciudad Juarez, were shot dead in their patrol vehicle.
(AP, 2/28/09)(AP, 3/1/09)
2009 Feb 28, Pakistani officers
said troops have defeated Taliban militants in the Bajur region near
the Afghan border and are close to victory in the tribal region of
Mohmand after a grinding offensive.
(AP, 2/28/09)
2009 Feb 28, In Panama Tomas
Altamirano Mantovani (49), a prominent ruling party lawmaker and son
of a former vice president, died in a traffic accident.
(AP, 2/28/09)
2009 Feb 28, The yacht
Serenity, with two crew from the Seychelles on board, left the
islands en route to Madagascar and disappeared. One of the crew
called his family on March 24, saying he was being held by Somali
pirates and begging for help.
(AP, 3/25/09)
2009 Feb 28, Somalia's new
Pres. Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed said the government and an Islamic
insurgent group have reached a cease-fire deal, days after dozens of
civilians were killed in fighting in Mogadishu.
(AP, 2/28/09)
2009 Feb 28, In Thailand
prominent activists from military-ruled Myanmar and Cambodia were
barred from a meeting with Southeast Asian leaders (ASEAN),
upstaging the opening of the annual summit billed as a historic step
toward greater human rights in the region.
(AP, 2/28/09)
2009 Feb 28, President Hugo
Chavez ordered troops to intervene in Venezuelan rice processing
businesses, saying some have balked at producing under regulated
prices.
(AP, 2/28/09)
2009 Feb 28, In Zimbabwe Pres.
Robert Mugabe told followers at his lavish $250,000 birthday party
to respect the new power-sharing government but vowed to press on
with seizures of white farms. A melee broke out in a dining hall
among thousands lined up for a free meal of porridge and vegetables.
Soldiers used truncheons to maintain order.
(AFP, 2/28/09)(SSFC, 3/1/09, p.A5)
2010 Feb 28, The US White House
called for a "simple up-or-down" vote on health care legislation as
Speaker Nancy Pelosi appealed to House Democrats to get behind
President Barack Obama's chief domestic priority even it if
threatens their political careers.
(AP, 2/28/10)
2010 Feb 28, In Afghanistan a
roadside bomb planted by the Taliban killed 11 civilians in the
southern province of Helmand. A security worker was killed in main
Qalat town of Zabul province when his vehicle was hit by a similar
bomb. Elsewhere in Zabul five insurgents were killed during clashes
between Afghan security forces and militants.
(AP, 2/28/10)
2010 Feb 28, In Brazil workers
cleared some 80 tons of dead fish from Ipanema Beach in Rio de
Janeiro. Increased levels of harmful algae were suspected as the
cause of the fie-off.
(SFC, 3/1/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 28, Canada beat the
USA in an extraordinary men's ice hockey final to capture a record
14th gold medal and end the Vancouver Winter Olympics on top of the
world. The victory at a single Winter Games surpassed the previous
mark of 13 jointly held by the Soviet Union (Innsbruck, 1976) and
Norway (Salt Lake City, 2002). The USA also set a record for the
most overall medals at a single Winter Olympics with 37, one more
than Germany in 2002.
(Reuters, 2/28/10)
2010 Feb 28, In the Central
African Republic Uganda's rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)
kidnapped at least 23 people from the southeastern village of
Yalinga after pillaging the police station, the hospital and a
safari shop.
(AFP, 3/3/10)
2010 Feb 28, In China a bus
veered off a sleet-covered road and plunged into a reservoir
in Zhengzhou city in central Henan province killing 19 people and
injuring 7 others.
(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Feb 28, A UN-backed
military operation against Rwandan Hutu rebels in eastern Democratic
Republic of Congo was launched. The operation will involve 18
battalions from the Congolese FARDC army in a series of targeted
attacks throughout north and south Kivu provinces in Congo's
conflict-racked east.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Feb 28, Dubai police said
forensic tests show a Hamas operative, who was killed on Jan 19 in
his hotel room by an alleged Israeli hit squad, was drugged with a
fast-acting muscle relaxant and then suffocated with a pillow.
(AP, 2/28/10)
2010 Feb 28, The Egyptian
Supreme Council of Antiquities announced that archaeologists have
unearthed the massive head of one Egypt's most famous pharaohs who
ruled nearly 3,400 years ago. Amenhotep III, the grandfather of
Tutankhamun, ruled from 1387-1348 B.C. at the height of Egypt's New
Kingdom and presided over a vast empire stretching from Nubia in the
south to Syria in the north.
(AP, 2/28/10)
2010 Feb 28, A violent late
winter storm named Xynthia battered France, Spain, Portugal and
Germany with fierce rain and hurricane-strength winds. The storm
smashed sea walls and killed at least 62 people across western
Europe.
(AP, 2/28/10)(AP, 3/1/10)(SFC, 3/2/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 28, The leader of the
armed Basque group ETA was arrested in France, in another setback
for the separatists, who have seen five of their commanders taken
into custody in the last two years. Eta chief Ibon Gogeascoechea and
two other suspected separatists, Jose Ayestaran and Beinat
Aginagalde, were arrested in a joint French-Spanish police operation
in the village of Cahan, France.
(AP, 2/28/10)(Econ, 3/6/10, p.69)
2010 Feb 28, Guatemalan Pres.
Alvaro Colom announced that he has fired Interior Minister Raul
Velasquez for alleged corruption and replaced him with Carlos
Menocal, a former journalist. Local media said that Velasquez
authorized a $6.2 million contract with a private company to buy
fuel for police but that the company embezzled the money.
(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Feb 28, In Israel 16
people including two Israeli policemen were wounded in clashes at
Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound, after police entered
to arrest Palestinians who had hurled rocks at visitors they
believed were Jewish extremists.
(AFP, 2/28/10)
2010 Feb 28, In Mexico Red
Cross volunteer Maria Rogers (20) was killed by a stray bullet when
gunmen went into a Red Cross hospital in Culiacan, Sinaloa state,
trying to finish off a man who had been shot minutes earlier. The
man survived.
(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Feb 28, In Myanmar Sai
Thein Win, a former major in the army, defected and brought papers
confirming Myanmar’s intent, if not yet capacity, to enrich uranium
and eventually build a bomb.
(Econ, 6/12/10, p.48)(http://tinyurl.com/35vxtvh)
2010 Feb 28, In Saudi Arabia
Indian PM Manmohan Singh pitched for investment in his economy and
closer petroleum sector cooperation with Saudi Arabia, the second
day of a visit to the Middle East oil giant.
(AFP, 2/28/10)
2010 Feb 28, In Switzerland
operators restarted the Large Hadron Collider following a winter
shutdown for improvements.
(SFC, 3/1/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 28, Tajikistan held
parliamentary elections. The Central Elections Commission said that
85% of the country's 3.5 million eligible voters had cast
ballots. The main government-backed party was set to coast to the
easiest of victories. President Emomali Rakhmon's two-decade grip on
power remained as strong as ever. An initial tally showed the
government-backed party with 71.7% and the main opposition Islamic
Revival Party with just 7.7%. Int’l. monitors from the OSCE said
that while the vote was peaceful, it was marred by ballot-box
stuffing and proxy voting.
(AP, 2/28/10)(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Feb 28, Thousands of
Yemenis took to the streets of three provinces for a second
successive day to demand the independence of the country's south.
(AFP, 2/28/10)
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