On this day: February 28

Events on February 28

• 202 BC Liu Bang is enthroned as the Emperor of China, beginning four centuries of rule by the Han dynasty. Wikipedia
• 202 BC Rebel leader Liu Bang declared himself Emperor Gaozu of Han after overthrowing the Qin dynasty, the first imperial dynasty of China. Wikipedia
• 1525 Aztec king Cuauhtémoc is executed on the order of conquistador Hernán Cortés. Wikipedia
• 1638 The Scottish National Covenant is signed in Edinburgh. Wikipedia
• 1638 The National Covenant was formally adopted in opposition to proposed reforms to the Church of Scotland by King Charles I. Wikipedia
• 1835 Elias Lönnrot signs and dates the foreword to the first version of the Kalevala, the so-called Old Kalevala. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1904 The most successful football club in Portugal, S.L. Benfica (first team pictured), was founded in Lisbon as Sport Lisboa. Wikipedia
• 1922 The United Kingdom ends its protectorate over Egypt through a Unilateral Declaration of Independence. Wikipedia
• 1928 Indian physicist C. V. Raman and his colleagues discovered what is now known as Raman scattering, for which he later became the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize in Physics. Wikipedia
• 1947 February 28 incident: In Taiwan, civil disorder is put down with the death of an estimated 18,000 - 28,000 civilians. Wikipedia
• 1947 Nationalist soldiers fired on protesters in Taipei (crowd pictured), triggering widespread uprisings and violent suppression in the White Terror. Wikipedia
• 1966 American test pilots Charles Bassett and Elliot See die in a plane crash in St. Louis, Missouri. Wikipedia
• 1969 The 1969 Portugal earthquake hits Portugal, Spain and Morocco. Wikipedia
• 1972 Japanese police stormed a mountain lodge near Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, to end a ten-day siege by members of the paramilitary group United Red Army. Wikipedia
• 1986 Olof Palme, 26th Prime Minister of Sweden, is assassinated in Stockholm. Wikipedia
• 1997 An earthquake in northern Iran is responsible for about 1,100 deaths. Wikipedia
• 1997 GRB 970228, a highly luminous 80-second flash of gamma rays, was detected on Earth, providing early evidence that gamma-ray bursts occur well beyond the Milky Way. Wikipedia
• 2002 During a period of religious violence in Gujarat, India, mobs of Hindus attacked Muslims in Naroda Patiya and in Chamanpura, resulting in 166 deaths. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 2013 Benedict XVI became the first pope in nearly 600 years to resign from the papacy. Wikipedia
• 2021 Bus drivers in Greater Manchester began an eleven-week strike, one of the longest in British transportation history. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 2024 Prime Minister Modi of India inaugurates the 2nd Space Port of India - Kulasekarapattinam Spaceport. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 2026 The United States and Israel launched strikes against Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other senior officials. Wikipedia

Born on February 28

• 1533 Michel de Montaigne, French philosopher and author (died 1592) Wikipedia
• 1690 Alexei Petrovich, Tsarevich of Russia, eldest son of Peter the Great (died 1718) Wikipedia
• 1896 Philip Showalter Hench, American physician and endocrinologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1965) Wikipedia
• 1901 Linus Pauling, American chemist and activist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1994) Wikipedia
• 1915 Peter Medawar, Brazilian-English biologist and immunologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1987) Wikipedia
• 1929 Frank Gehry, Canadian-American architect and designer (died 2025) Wikipedia
• 1930 Leon Cooper, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2024) Wikipedia
• 1939 Daniel C. Tsui, Chinese-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate Wikipedia
• 1940 Mario Andretti, Italian-American racing driver Wikipedia
• 1942 Dino Zoff, Italian footballer Wikipedia
• 1942 Brian Jones, English guitarist, songwriter, and producer (died 1969) Wikipedia
• 1948 Steven Chu, American physicist and politician, 12th United States Secretary of Energy, Nobel Prize laureate Wikipedia
• 1949 Zoia Ceaușescu, Romanian mathematician, daughter of Communist leader Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife Elena Ceaușescu (died 2006) Wikipedia
• 1953 Paul Krugman, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate Wikipedia
• 1955 Gilbert Gottfried, American comedian, actor, and singer (died 2022) Wikipedia
• 1957 John Turturro, American actor and director Wikipedia
• 1969 Robert Sean Leonard, American actor Wikipedia
• 1976 Ali Larter, American actress and model Wikipedia
• 1982 Natalia Vodianova, Russian-French model and actress Wikipedia
• 1985 Jelena Janković, Serbian tennis player Wikipedia
• 1994 Arkadiusz Milik, Polish footballer Wikipedia
• 1999 Luka Dončić, Slovenian basketball player Wikipedia

Died on February 28

• 628 Khosrow II, Shah of Iran, Sasanian Empire (born c. 570) Wikipedia
• 1648 Christian IV, King of Denmark (born 1577) Wikipedia
• 1936 Charles Nicolle, French biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1866) Wikipedia
• 2003 Chris Brasher, Guyanese-English runner and journalist, co-founded the London Marathon (born 1928) Wikipedia
• 2006 Owen Chamberlain, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1920) Wikipedia
• 2011 Annie Girardot, French actress (born 1931) Wikipedia
• 2013 Donald A. Glaser, American physicist and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1926) Wikipedia
• 2015 Yaşar Kemal, Turkish journalist and author (born 1923) Wikipedia
• 2016 George Kennedy, American actor (born 1925) Wikipedia
• 2019 André Previn, German-American pianist, conductor, and composer. (born 1929) Wikipedia
• 2020 Freeman Dyson, British-born American physicist and mathematician (born 1923) Wikipedia
• 2026 Mohammad Pakpour, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of the Islamic Republic of Iran (born 1961) Wikipedia
• 2026 Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran (born 1939) Wikipedia
• 2026 Aziz Nasirzadeh, Minister of Defense of the Islamic Republic of Iran (born 1964) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: February 28 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Kalevala Day, also known as the Finnish Culture Day (Finland) Wikipedia
• National Science Day (India) Wikipedia
• Peace Memorial Day (Taiwan) Wikipedia
• Andalusia Day (Spain) Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “February 28” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.