What are the important events that happened on February 28? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.

February 28: Facts & Myths About This Day

February 28 is the 59^th day of the year 2025 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 306 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Friday.

Under the Julian calendar, this day is February 15, 2025 – a Friday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?

When this day started, 483,528 hours has elapsed since midnight of January 1, 1970 – the Unix epoch.

Strange as it may, if we name this day after a polygon then it will be called ‘pentacontaenneagon’ day.

Pisces is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Amethyst is the modern birthstone for this month. Bloodstone is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.

According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 354 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.

The ancient Maya civilization believes that the end of the world will happen on December 21, 2012. There are now 4,452 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.

February 28 Historical Events

• 1827 –
  The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad is incorporated, becoming the first railroad in America offering commercial transportation of both people and freight.
• 1914 –
  The Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus is proclaimed in Gjirokastër, by the Greeks living in southern Albania.
• 1928 –
  C.V. Raman discovers Raman effect.
• 1940 –
  Basketball is televised for the first time (Fordham University vs. the University of Pittsburgh in Madison Square Garden).
• 1942 –
  The heavy cruiser USS Houston is sunk in the Battle of Sunda Strait with 693 crew members killed, along with HMAS Perth which lost 375 men.
• 1954 –
  The first color television sets using the NTSC standard are offered for sale to the general public.
• 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 what remains the worst school bus accident in U.S. history.
• 1985 –
  The Provisional Irish Republican Army carries out a mortar attack on the Royal Ulster Constabulary police station at Newry, killing nine officers in the highest loss of life for the RUC on a single day.
• 1993 –
  Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents raid the Branch Davidian church in Waco, Texas with a warrant to arrest the group’s leader David Koresh. Four BATF agents and five Davidians die in the initial raid, starting a 51-day standoff.
• 2001 –
  The Nisqually Earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter Scale hits the Nisqually Valley and the Seattle, Tacoma, and Olympia area of the U.S. state of Washington.

Who were born on February 28?

• 1261 –
  Margaret of Scotland, queen of Norway (d. 1283)
• 1533 –
  Michel de Montaigne, French writer (d. 1592)
• 1906 –
  Bugsy Siegel, American gangster (d. 1947)
• 1915 –
  Peter Medawar, Brazilian-born scientist, Nobel laureate (d. 1987)
• 1939 –
  Chögyam Trungpa, Tibetan Buddhist meditation instructor (d. 1987)
• 1944 –
  Kelly Bishop, American actress
• 1961 –
  Rae Dawn Chong, Canadian actress
• 1973 –
  Nicolas Minassian, French racing driver
• 1974 –
  Lee Carsley, Irish footballer
• 1979 –
  Primož Peterka, Slovenian ski jumper

Who died on February 28?

• 1525 –
  Cuauhtémoc, Aztec ruler
• 1916 –
  Henry James, American writer (b. 1843)
• 1978 –
  Eric Frank Russell, English author (b. 1905)
• 1993 –
  Ishirō Honda, Japanese film director (b. 1911)
• 1998 –
  Dermot Morgan, Irish actor and comedian (b. 1952)
• 1999 –
  Christine Glanville, British puppeteer (b. 1924)
• 2003 –
  Chris Brasher, English athlete (b. 1928)
• 2003 –
  Dinos Dimopoulos, Greek film director and screenwriter (b. 1921)
• 2003 –
  Fidel Sánchez Hernández, President of El Salvador (b. 1917)
• 2007 –
  Billy Thorpe, Australian musician (Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs) (b. 1946)