1364 – Troops of the Republic of Pisa and the Republic of Florence clash in the Battle of Cascina.
1540 – Thomas Cromwell is executed at the order of Henry VIII of England on charges of treason. Henry marries his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, on the same day.
1571 – La Laguna encomienda, known today as the Laguna province in the Philippines is founded by the Spaniards as one of the oldest encomiendas (provinces) in the country.
1635 – In the Eighty Years’ War the Spanish capture the strategic Dutch fortress of Schenkenschans.
1656 – Second Northern War: Battle of Warsaw begins.
1778 – Constitution of the province of Cantabria ratified at the Assembly Hall in Bárcena la Puente, Reocín, Spain.
1794 – French Revolution: Maximilien Robespierre and Louis Antoine de Saint-Just are executed by guillotine in Paris, France.
1808 – Mahmud II became Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and Caliph of Islam.
1809 – Peninsular War: Battle of Talavera: Sir Arthur Wellesley’s British, Portuguese and Spanish army defeats a French force led by Joseph Bonaparte.
1821 – José de San Martín declares the independence of Peru from Spain.
1854 – USS Constellation(1854), the last all-sail warship built by the United States Navy, is commissioned.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Ezra Church: Confederate troops make a third unsuccessful attempt to drive Union forces from Atlanta, Georgia.
1866 – At the age of 18, Vinnie Ream becomes the first and youngest female artist to receive a commission from the United States government for a statue (of Abraham Lincoln).
1868 – The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution is certified, establishing African American citizenship and guaranteeing due process of law.
1896 – The city of Miami, Florida is incorporated.
1914 – In the culmination of the July Crisis, Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, igniting World War I.
1915 – The United States begins a 19-year occupation of Haiti.
1917 – The Silent Parade took place in New York City, in protest to murders, lynchings, and other violence directed towards African Americans.
1932 – U.S. President Herbert Hoover orders the United States Army to forcibly evict the “Bonus Army” of World War I veterans gathered in Washington, D.C.
1935 – First flight of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.
1938 – Hawaii Clipper disappears between Guam and Manila as the first loss of an airliner in trans-Pacific China Clipper service.
1939 – The Sutton Hoo helmet is discovered.
1942 – World War II: Soviet leader Joseph Stalin issues Order No. 227. In response to alarming German advances, all those who retreat or otherwise leave their positions without orders to do so are to be tried in a military court, with punishment ranging from duty in a shtrafbat battalion, imprisonment in a Gulag, or execution.
1943 – World War II: Operation Gomorrah: The Royal Air Force bombs Hamburg, Germany causing a firestorm that kills 42,000 German civilians.
1945 – A U.S. Army B-25 bomber crashes into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building killing 14 and injuring 26.
1957 – Heavy rain and a mudslide in Isahaya, western Kyushu, Japan, kills 992.
1960 – The German Volkswagen Act came into force.
1965 – Vietnam War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announces his order to increase the number of United States troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000.
1973 – Summer Jam at Watkins Glen: Nearly 600,000 people attend a rock festival at the Watkins Glen International Raceway.
1974 – Spetsgruppa A, Russia’s elite special force, was formed.
1976 – The Tangshan earthquake measuring between 7.8 and 8.2 moment magnitude flattens Tangshan in the People’s Republic of China, killing 242,769 and injuring 164,851.
1984 – The Summer Olympics officially known as the games of the XXIII were opened in Los Angeles.
1996 – The remains of a prehistoric man are discovered near Kennewick, Washington. Such remains will be known as the Kennewick Man.
2001 – Australian Ian Thorpe becomes the first swimmer to win six gold medals at a single World Championship.
2002 – Nine coal miners trapped in the flooded Quecreek Mine in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, are rescued after 77 hours underground.
2002 – Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise Flight 9560 crashes after takeoff from Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow, Russia, killing 14 of the 16 people on board.
2005 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army calls an end to its thirty-year-long armed campaign in Northern Ireland.
2010 – Airblue Flight 202 crashes into the Margalla Hills north of Islamabad, Pakistan, killing all 152 people aboard. It is the deadliest aviation accident in Pakistan history and the first involving an Airbus A321.
2011 – While flying from Seoul, South Korea to Shanghai, China, Asiana Airlines Flight 991 develops an in-flight fire in the cargo hold. The Boeing 747-400F freighter attempts to divert to Jeju International Airport, but crashes into the sea South-West of Jeju island, killing both crew members on board.
2017 – Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif was disqualified for lifetime by Supreme Court of Pakistan founding him guilty of corruption charges.
2018 – Australian Wendy Tuck becomes the first woman skipper to win the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race.
Births on July 28
1347 – Margaret of Durazzo, Queen of Naples and Hungary (d. 1412)
1516 – William, Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, German nobleman (d. 1592)
1609 – Judith Leyster, Dutch painter (d. 1660)
1635 – Robert Hooke, English physicist and chemist (d. 1703)
1645 – Marguerite Louise d’Orléans, French princess (d. 1721)
1659 – Charles Ancillon, French jurist and diplomat (d. 1715)
1746 – Thomas Heyward, Jr., American judge and politician (d. 1809)
1750 – Fabre d’Églantine, French actor, playwright, and politician (d. 1794)
1783 – Friedrich Wilhelm von Bismarck, German army officer and writer (d. 1860)
1796 – Ignaz Bösendorfer, Austrian businessman, founded the Bösendorfer Company (d. 1859)
1804 – Ludwig Feuerbach, German anthropologist and philosopher (d. 1872)
1815 – Stefan Dunjov, Bulgarian colonel (d. 1889)
1844 – Gerard Manley Hopkins, English poet (d. 1889)
1857 – Ballington Booth, English-American activist, co-founded Volunteers of America (d. 1940)
1860 – Elias M. Ammons, American businessman and politician, 19th Governor of Colorado (d. 1925)
1860 – Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna of Russia (d. 1922)
1863 – Huseyn Khan Nakhchivanski, Russian general (d. 1919)
1866 – Beatrix Potter, English children’s book writer and illustrator (d. 1943)
1866 – Albertson Van Zo Post, American fencer (d. 1938)
1867 – Charles Dillon Perrine, American-Argentinian astronomer (d. 1951)
1872 – Albert Sarraut, French journalist and politician, 106th Prime Minister of France (d. 1962)
1874 – Ernst Cassirer, Polish-American philosopher and academic (d. 1945)
1879 – Lucy Burns, American activist, co-founded the National Woman’s Party (d. 1966)
1879 – Stefan Filipkiewicz, Polish painter (d. 1944)
1887 – Marcel Duchamp, French-American painter and sculptor (d. 1968)
1887 – Willard Price, Canadian-American journalist and author (d. 1983)
1893 – Rued Langgaard, Danish organist and composer (d. 1952)
1896 – Barbara La Marr, American actress and screenwriter (d. 1926)
1898 – Lawrence Gray, American actor (d. 1970)
1901 – Freddie Fitzsimmons, American baseball player, coach, and manager (d. 1979)
1901 – Rudy Vallée, American actor, singer, and saxophonist (d. 1986)
1902 – Albert Namatjira, Australian painter (d. 1959)
1902 – Sir Karl Popper, Austrian-English philosopher and academic (d. 1994)
1907 – Earl Tupper, American inventor and businessman, founded Tupperware Brands (d. 1983)
1909 – Aenne Burda, German publisher (d. 2005)
1909 – Malcolm Lowry, English novelist and poet (d. 1957)
1914 – Carmen Dragon, American conductor and composer (d. 1984)
1915 – Charles Hard Townes, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2015)
1915 – Dick Sprang, American illustrator (d. 2000)
1915 – Frankie Yankovic, American polka musician (d. 1998)
1916 – David Brown, American journalist and producer (d. 2010)
1920 – Andrew V. McLaglen, English-American director and producer (d. 2014)
1922 – Jacques Piccard, Belgian-Swiss oceanographer and engineer (d. 2008)
1923 – Ray Ellis, American conductor and producer (d. 2008)
1924 – Luigi Musso, Italian race car driver (d. 1958)
1924 – C. T. Vivian, American minister, author, and activist
1925 – Baruch Samuel Blumberg, American physician and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2011)
1926 – Charlie Biddle, American-Canadian bassist (d. 2003)
1927 – John Ashbery, American poet (d. 2017)
1929 – Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, American journalist and socialite, 37th First Lady of the United States (d. 1994)
1929 – Shirley Ann Grau, American novelist and short story writer
1930 – Firoza Begum, Bangladeshi singer (d. 2014)
1930 – Junior Kimbrough, American singer and guitarist (d. 1998)
1930 – Jean Roba, Belgian author and illustrator (d. 2006)
1930 – Ramsey Muir Withers, Canadian general (d. 2014)
1931 – Alan Brownjohn, English poet and author
1931 – Johnny Martin, Australian cricketer (d. 1992)
1932 – Natalie Babbitt, American author and illustrator (d. 2016)
1932 – Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra, Brazilian colonel (d. 2015)
1933 – Charlie Hodge, Canadian ice hockey player and scout (d. 2016)
1934 – Jacques d’Amboise, American dancer and choreographer
1935 – Neil McKendrick, English historian and academic
1936 – Russ Jackson, Canadian football player and coach
1936 – Garfield Sobers, Barbadian cricketer
1937 – Francis Veber, French director and screenwriter
1938 – Luis Aragonés, Spanish footballer, coach, and manager (d. 2014)
1938 – Arsen Dedić, Croatian singer-songwriter and poet (d. 2015)
1938 – Alberto Fujimori, Peruvian engineer, academic, and politician, 90th President of Peru
1938 – Chuan Leekpai, Thai lawyer and politician, 20th Prime Minister of Thailand
1939 – Richard Johns, English air marshal
1940 – Philip Proctor, American voice actor and screenwriter
1941 – Riccardo Muti, Italian conductor and educator
1941 – Susan Roces, Filipino actress and producer
1942 – Marty Brennaman, American sportscaster
1942 – Tonia Marketaki, Greek director and screenwriter (d. 1994)
1943 – Mike Bloomfield, American guitarist and songwriter (d. 1981)
1943 – Bill Bradley, American basketball player and politician
1943 – Richard Wright, English singer-songwriter and keyboard player (d. 2008)
1945 – Jim Davis, American cartoonist, created Garfield
1946 – Jonathan Edwards, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1946 – Linda Kelsey, American actress
1946 – Fahmida Riaz, Pakistani poet and activist
1947 – Peter Cosgrove, Australian general and politician, 26th Governor General of Australia
1947 – Sally Struthers, American actress
1948 – Gerald Casale, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and director
1948 – Eiichi Ohtaki, Japanese singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2013)
1949 – Vida Blue, American baseball player and sportscaster
1949 – Peter Doyle, Australian singer and guitarist (d. 2001)
1949 – Simon Kirke, English drummer
1949 – Steve Peregrin Took, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1980)
1949 – Randall Wallace, American screenwriter and producer
324 – Battle of Adrianople: Constantine I defeats Licinius, who flees to Byzantium.
987 – Hugh Capet is crowned King of France, the first of the Capetian dynasty that would rule France until the French Revolution in 1792.
1035 – William the Conqueror becomes the Duke of Normandy, reigns until 1087.
1608 – Québec City is founded by Samuel de Champlain.
1754 – French and Indian War: George Washington surrenders Fort Necessity to French forces.
1767 – Pitcairn Island is discovered by Midshipman Robert Pitcairn on an expeditionary voyage commanded by Philip Carteret.
1767 – Norway’s oldest newspaper still in print, Adresseavisen, is founded and the first edition is published.
1775 – American Revolutionary War: George Washington takes command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1778 – American Revolutionary War: Iroquois allied to Britain kill 360 people in the Wyoming Valley massacre.
1819 – The Bank for Savings in the City of New-York, the first savings bank in the United States, opens.
1839 – The first state normal school in the United States, the forerunner to today’s Framingham State University, opens in Lexington, Massachusetts with three students.
1844 – The last pair of great auks is killed.
1848 – Governor-General Peter von Scholten emancipates all remaining slaves in the Danish West Indies.
1849 – France invades the Roman Republic and restores the Papal States.
1852 – Congress establishes the United States’ 2nd mint in San Francisco.
1863 – American Civil War: The final day of the Battle of Gettysburg culminates with Pickett’s Charge.
1866 – Austro-Prussian War is decided at the Battle of Königgrätz, resulting in Prussia taking over as the prominent German nation from Austria.
1884 – Dow Jones & Company publishes its first stock average.
1886 – Karl Benz officially unveils the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, the first purpose-built automobile.
1886 – The New-York Tribune becomes the first newspaper to use a linotype machine, eliminating typesetting by hand.
1890 – Idaho is admitted as the 43rd U.S. state.
1898 – A Spanish squadron, led by Pascual Cervera y Topete, is defeated by an American squadron under William T. Sampson in the Battle of Santiago de Cuba.
1913 – Confederate veterans at the Great Reunion of 1913 reenact Pickett’s Charge; upon reaching the high-water mark of the Confederacy they are met by the outstretched hands of friendship from Union survivors.
1938 – World speed record for a steam locomotive is set in England, by the Mallard, which reaches a speed of 125.88 miles per hour (202.58 km/h).
1938 – United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicates the Eternal Light Peace Memorial and lights the eternal flame at Gettysburg Battlefield.
1940 – World War II: The Royal Navy attacks the French naval squadron in Algeria, to ensure that it will not fall under German control. Of the four French battleships present, one is sunk, two are damaged, and one escapes back to France.
1944 – World War II: The Minsk Offensive clears German troops from the city.
1952 – The Constitution of Puerto Rico is approved by the United States Congress.
1952 – The SS United States sets sail on her maiden voyage to Southampton. During the voyage, the ship takes the Blue Riband away from the RMS Queen Mary.
1967 – The Aden Emergency: The Battle of the Crater in which the British Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders retake the Crater district following the Arab Police mutiny.
1969 – Space Race: The biggest explosion in the history of rocketry occurs when the Soviet N-1 rocket explodes and subsequently destroys its launchpad.
1970 – The Troubles: The “Falls Curfew” begins in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
1970 – Dan-Air Flight 1903 crashes into the Les Agudes mountain in the Montseny Massif near the village of Arbúcies in Catalonia, Spain, killing all 112 people aboard.
1979 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul.
1988 – United States Navy warship USS Vincennes shoots down Iran Air Flight 655 over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard.
1988 – The Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey is completed, providing the second connection between the continents of Europe and Asia over the Bosphorus.
1996 – British Prime Minister John Major announced the Stone of Scone would be returned to Scotland.
2013 – Egyptian coup d’état: President of Egypt Mohamed Morsi is overthrown by the military after four days of protests all over the country calling for Morsi’s resignation, to which he did not respond. President of the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt Adly Mansour is declared acting president.
Births on July 3
321 – Valentinian I, Roman emperor (d. 375)
1423 – Louis XI of France (d. 1483)
1442 – Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado of Japan (d. 1500)
1518 – Li Shizhen, Chinese physician and mineralogist (d. 1593)
1530 – Claude Fauchet, French historian and author (d. 1601)
1534 – Myeongjong of Joseon, Ruler of Korea (d. 1567)
1550 – Jacobus Gallus, Slovenian composer (d. 1591)
1569 – Thomas Richardson, English politician and judge (d. 1635)
1683 – Edward Young, English poet, dramatist and literary critic (Night-Thoughts) (d. 1765)
1685 – Sir Robert Rich, 4th Baronet, English field marshal and politician (d. 1768)
1728 – Robert Adam, Scottish-English architect, designed Culzean Castle (d. 1792)
1738 – John Singleton Copley, American painter (d. 1815)
1778 – Carl Ludvig Engel, German architect (d. 1840)
1789 – Johann Friedrich Overbeck, German-Italian painter and engraver (d. 1869)
1814 – Ferdinand Didrichsen, Danish botanist and physicist (d. 1887)
1823 – Ahmed Vefik Pasha, Greek-Ottoman statesman, diplomat, playwright, and translator (d. 1891)
1844 – Dankmar Adler, German-born American architect and engineer (d. 1900)
1846 – Achilles Alferaki, Russian composer and politician, Governor of Taganrog (d. 1919)
1851 – Charles Bannerman, English-Australian cricketer and umpire (d. 1930)
1854 – Leoš Janáček, Czech composer and theorist (d. 1928)
1860 – Charlotte Perkins Gilman, American sociologist and author (d. 1935)
1866 – Albert Gottschalk, Danish painter (d. 1906)
1869 – Svend Kornbeck, Danish actor (d. 1933)
1870 – R. B. Bennett, Canadian lawyer and politician, 11th Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1947)
1871 – William Henry Davies, Welsh poet and writer (d.1940)
1874 – Jean Collas, French rugby player and tug of war competitor (d. 1928)
1875 – Ferdinand Sauerbruch, German surgeon and academic (d. 1951)
1876 – Ralph Barton Perry, American philosopher and academic (d. 1957)
1878 – George M. Cohan, American songwriter, actor, singer, and dancer (d. 1942)
1879 – Alfred Korzybski, Polish-American mathematician, linguist, and philosopher (d. 1950)
1880 – Carl Schuricht, Polish-German conductor (d. 1967)
1883 – Franz Kafka, Czech-Austrian author (d. 1924)
1886 – Raymond A. Spruance, American admiral and diplomat, United States Ambassador to the Philippines (d. 1969)
1888 – Ramón Gómez de la Serna, Spanish author and playwright (d. 1963)
1889 – Richard Cramer, American actor (d. 1960)
1893 – Sándor Bortnyik, Hungarian painter and graphic designer (d. 1976)
1896 – Doris Lloyd, English actress (d. 1968)
1897 – Jesse Douglas, American mathematician and academic (d. 1965)
1898 – Stefanos Stefanopoulos, Greek politician, Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1982)
1900 – Alessandro Blasetti, Italian director and screenwriter (d. 1987)
1901 – Ruth Crawford Seeger, American composer (d. 1953)
1903 – Ace Bailey, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 1992)
1905 – Johnny Gibson, American hurdler and coach (d. 2006)
1906 – George Sanders, Russian-born British actor (d. 1972)
1908 – M. F. K. Fisher, American author (d. 1992)
1908 – Robert B. Meyner, American lawyer and politician, 44th Governor of New Jersey (d. 1990)
1098 – Fighters of the First Crusade defeat Kerbogha of Mosul.
1360 – Muhammed VI becomes the tenth Nasrid king of Granada after killing his brother-in-law Ismail II.
1461 – Edward, Earl of March, is crowned King Edward IV of England.
1519 – Charles V is elected Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
1575 – Sengoku period of Japan: The combined forces of Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu are victorious in the Battle of Nagashino.
1635 – Guadeloupe becomes a French colony.
1651 – The Battle of Berestechko between Poland and Ukraine starts.
1709 – Peter the Great defeats Charles XII of Sweden at the Battle of Poltava.
1745 – A New England colonial army captures the French fortifications at Louisbourg (New Style).
1776 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Sullivan’s Island ends with the American victory, leading to the commemoration of Carolina Day.
1776 – American Revolutionary War: Thomas Hickey, Continental Army private and bodyguard to General George Washington, is hanged for mutiny and sedition.
1778 – American Revolutionary War: The American Continentals engage the British in the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse resulting in standstill and British withdrawal under cover of darkness.
1797 – French troops disembark in Corfu, beginning the French rule in the Ionian Islands.
1807 – Second British invasion of the Río de la Plata; John Whitelocke lands at Ensenada on an attempt to recapture Buenos Aires and is defeated by the locals.
1838 – Coronation of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.
1841 – The Paris Opera Ballet premieres Giselle in the Salle Le Peletier.
1846 – Adolphe Sax patents the saxophone.
1855 – Sigma Chi fraternity is founded in North America.
1859 – The first conformation dog show is held in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.
1865 – The Army of the Potomac is disbanded.
1880 – Australian bushranger Ned Kelly is captured at Glenrowan.
1881 – The Austro–Serbian Alliance of 1881 is secretly signed.
1882 – The Anglo-French Convention of 1882 marks the territorial boundaries between Guinea and Sierra Leone.
1894 – Labor Day becomes an official US holiday.
1895 – The United States Court of Private Land Claims rules James Reavis’s claim to Barony of Arizona is “wholly fictitious and fraudulent.”
1896 – An explosion in the Newton Coal Company’s Twin Shaft Mine in Pittston, Pennsylvania results in a massive cave-in that kills 58 miners.
1902 – The U.S. Congress passes the Spooner Act, authorizing President Theodore Roosevelt to acquire rights from Colombia for the Panama Canal.
1904 – The SS Norge runs aground on Hasselwood Rock in the North Atlantic 430 kilometres (270 mi) northwest of Ireland. More than 635 people die during the sinking.
1911 – The Nakhla meteorite, the first one to suggest signs of aqueous processes on Mars, falls to Earth, landing in Egypt.
1914 – Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie are assassinated in Sarajevo; this is the casus belli of World War I.
1917 – World War I: Greece joins the Allied powers.
1919 – The Treaty of Versailles is signed, ending the state of war between Germany and the Allies of World War I.
1921 – Serbian King Alexander I proclaims the new constitution of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, known thereafter as the Vidovdan Constitution.
1922 – The Irish Civil War begins with the shelling of the Four Courts in Dublin by Free State forces.
1926 – Mercedes-Benz is formed by Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz merging their two companies.
1936 – The Japanese puppet state of Mengjiang is formed in northern China.
1940 – Romania cedes Bessarabia (current-day Moldova) to the Soviet Union after facing an ultimatum.
1942 – World War II: Nazi Germany starts its strategic summer offensive against the Soviet Union, codenamed Case Blue.
1945 – Poland’s Soviet-allied Provisional Government of National Unity is formed over a month after V-E Day.
1948 – Cold War: The Tito–Stalin Split results in the expulsion of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia from the Cominform.
1948 – Boxer Dick Turpin beats Vince Hawkins at Villa Park in Birmingham to become the first black British boxing champion in the modern era.
1950 – Korean War: Suspected communist sympathizers (between 60,000 to 200,000) are executed in the Bodo League massacre.
1950 – Korean War: Packed with its own refugees fleeing Seoul and leaving their 5th Division stranded, South Korean forces blow up the Hangang Bridge in an attempt to slow North Korea’s offensive. The city falls later that day.
1950 – Korean War: North Korean Army conducts the Seoul National University Hospital massacre.
1956 – in Poznań, workers from HCP factory go to the streets, sparking one of the first major protests against communist government both in Poland and Europe.
1964 – Malcolm X forms the Organization of Afro-American Unity.
1969 – Stonewall riots begin in New York City, marking the start of the Gay Rights Movement.
1973 – Elections are held for the Northern Ireland Assembly, which will lead to power-sharing between unionists and nationalists in Northern Ireland for the first time.
1976 – The Angolan court sentences US and UK mercenaries to death sentences and prison terms in the Luanda Trial.
1978 – The United States Supreme Court, in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke bars quota systems in college admissions.
1981 – A powerful bomb explodes in Tehran, killing 73 officials of the Islamic Republican Party.
1987 – For the first time in military history, a civilian population is targeted for chemical attack when Iraqi warplanes bombed the Iranian town of Sardasht.
1989 – On the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo, Slobodan Milošević delivers the Gazimestan speech at the site of the historic battle.
1997 – Holyfield–Tyson II: Mike Tyson is disqualified in the third round for biting a piece off Evander Holyfield’s ear.
2001 – Slobodan Milošević is extradited to the ICTY in The Hague to stand trial.
2004 – Iraq War: Sovereign power is handed to the interim government of Iraq by the Coalition Provisional Authority, ending the U.S.-led rule of that nation.
2009 – Honduran president Manuel Zelaya is ousted by a local military coup following a failed request to hold a referendum to rewrite the Honduran Constitution. This was the start of the 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis.
2016 – A terrorist attack in Turkey’s Istanbul Atatürk Airport kills 42 people and injures more than 230 others.
Births on June 28
751 – Carloman I, king of the Franks (d. 771)
1243 – Emperor Go-Fukakusa of Japan (d. 1304)
1444 – Charlotte, Queen of Cyprus (d. 1487)
1476 – Pope Paul IV (d. 1559)
1490 – Albert of Brandenburg, German archbishop (d. 1545)
1491 – Henry VIII of England (d. 1547)
1503 – Giovanni della Casa, Italian author and poet (d. 1556)
1547 – Cristofano Malvezzi, Italian organist and composer (d. 1599)
1557 – Philip Howard, 20th Earl of Arundel, English nobleman (d. 1595)
1560 – Giovanni Paolo Lascaris, Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller (d. 1657)
1573 – Henry Danvers, 1st Earl of Danby, English noble (d. 1644)
1577 – Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish painter and diplomat (d. 1640)
1582 – William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele, English politician (d. 1662)
1604 – Heinrich Albert, German composer and poet (d. 1651)
1641 – Marie Casimire Louise de La Grange d’Arquien, consort to King John III Sobieski (d. 1716)
1653 – Muhammad Azam Shah, Mughal emperor (d. 1707)
1703 – John Wesley, English cleric and theologian (d. 1791)
1712 – Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Swiss philosopher and polymath (d. 1778)
1719 – Étienne François, duc de Choiseul, French general and politician, Prime Minister of France (d. 1785)
1734 – Jean-Jacques Beauvarlet-Charpentier, French organist and composer (d. 1794)
1742 – William Hooper, American physician, lawyer, and politician (d. 1790)
1824 – Paul Broca, French physician, anatomist, and anthropologist (d. 1880)
1825 – Emil Erlenmeyer, German chemist (d. 1909)
1831 – Joseph Joachim, Austrian violinist, composer, and conductor (d. 1907)
1836 – Emmanuel Rhoides, Greek journalist and author (d. 1904)
1844 – John Boyle O’Reilly, Irish-born poet, journalist and fiction writer (d. 1890)
1852 – Charles Cruft, English showman, founded Crufts Dog Show (d. 1938)
1867 – Luigi Pirandello, Italian dramatist, novelist, and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1936)
1873 – Alexis Carrel, French surgeon and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1944)
1875 – Henri Lebesgue, French mathematician and academic (d. 1941)
1879 – Wilhelm Steinkopf, German chemist (d. 1949)
1880 – John Meyers, American swimmer and water polo player (d. 1971)
1883 – Pierre Laval, French soldier and politician, 101st Prime Minister of France (d. 1945)
1884 – Lamina Sankoh, Sierra Leonean banker and politician (d. 1964)
1888 – George Challenor, Barbadian cricketer (d. 1947)
1888 – Stefi Geyer, Hungarian violinist and educator (d. 1956)
1891 – Esther Forbes, American historian and author (d. 1968)
1891 – Carl Spaatz, American general (d. 1974)
1892 – Carl Panzram, American serial killer (d. 1930)
1893 – August Zamoyski, Polish-French sculptor (d. 1970)
1894 – Francis Hunter, American tennis player (d. 1981)
1902 – Richard Rodgers, American playwright and composer (d. 1979)
1906 – Maria Goeppert Mayer, Polish-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1972)
1907 – Jimmy Mundy, American saxophonist and composer (d. 1983)
1907 – Yvonne Sylvain, First female Haitian physician (d. 1989)
1909 – Eric Ambler, English author and screenwriter (d. 1998)
1912 – Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, German physicist and philosopher (d. 2007)
1913 – Franz Antel, Austrian director and producer (d. 2007)
1913 – George Lloyd, English soldier and composer (d. 1998)
1913 – Walter Oesau, German colonel and pilot (d. 1944)
1914 – Aribert Heim, Austrian SS physician and Nazi war criminal (d. 1992)
1917 – A. E. Hotchner, American author and playwright (d. 2020)
1918 – William Whitelaw, 1st Viscount Whitelaw, Scottish-English politician, Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1999)
1919 – Joseph P. Lordi, American government official (d. 1983)
1920 – Clarissa Eden, Spouse of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
1921 – P. V. Narasimha Rao, Indian lawyer and politician, 9th Prime Minister of India (d. 2004)
1922 – Hans Frauenfelder, American physicist and biophysicist
1923 – Pete Candoli, American trumpet player (d. 2008)
1923 – Adolfo Schwelm Cruz, Argentinian racing driver (d. 2012)
1923 – Gaye Stewart, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2010)
1926 – George Booth, American cartoonist
1926 – Mel Brooks, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1926 – Robert Ledley, American academic and inventor (d. 2012)
1927 – Correlli Barnett, English historian and author
1927 – Frank Sherwood Rowland, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2012)
1928 – Hans Blix, Swedish politician and diplomat, 33rd Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs
1928 – Patrick Hemingway, American writer
1928 – Harold Evans, English-American historian and journalist
1928 – Peter Heine, South African cricketer (d. 2005)
1928 – Cyril Smith, English politician (d. 2010)
1929 – Alfred Miodowicz, Polish politician
1930 – William C. Campbell, Irish-American biologist and parasitologist, Nobel Prize laureate
1930 – Itamar Franco, Brazilian engineer and politician, 33rd President of Brazil (d. 2011)
1930 – Jack Gold, English director and producer (d. 2015)
1931 – Hans Alfredson, Swedish actor, director, and screenwriter
1931 – Junior Johnson, American race car driver (d. 2019)
1931 – Lucien Victor, Belgian cyclist (d. 1995)
1932 – Pat Morita, American actor (d. 2005)
1933 – Gusty Spence, Northern Irish loyalist and politician (d. 2011)
1934 – Robert Carswell, Baron Carswell, Northern Irish lawyer and judge, Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland
1934 – Roy Gilchrist, Jamaican cricketer (d. 2001)
1934 – Bette Greene, American journalist and author
1934 – Carl Levin, American lawyer and politician
1934 – Georges Wolinski, Tunisian-French journalist and cartoonist (d. 2015)
1935 – John Inman, English actor (d. 2007)
1936 – Chuck Howley, American football player
1937 – George Knudson, Canadian golfer (d. 1989)
1937 – Fernand Labrie, Canadian endocrinologist and academic
1937 – Ron Luciano, American baseball player and umpire (d. 1995)
1938 – John Byner, American actor and comedian
1938 – Leon Panetta, American lawyer and politician, 23rd United States Secretary of Defense
1938 – S. Sivamaharajah, Sri Lankan Tamil newspaper publisher and politician (d. 2006)
1938 – Simon Douglas-Pennant, 7th Baron Penrhyn, British baron
1939 – Klaus Schmiegel, German chemist
1940 – Karpal Singh, Malaysian lawyer and politician (d. 2014)
1940 – Muhammad Yunus, Bangladeshi economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1941 – Al Downing, American baseball player and sportscaster
1941 – Joseph Goguen, American computer scientist and academic, developed the OBJ language (d. 2006)
1941 – David Johnston, Canadian academic, lawyer, and politician, 28th Governor General of Canada
1942 – Chris Hani, South African politician (d. 1993)
1942 – Hans-Joachim Walde, German decathlete (d. 2013)
1942 – Frank Zane, American professional bodybuilder and author
1943 – Jens Birkemose, Danish painter
1943 – Donald Johanson, American paleontologist and academic
1943 – Klaus von Klitzing, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1945 – Ken Buchanan, Scottish boxer
1945 – David Knights, English bass player and producer
1945 – Raul Seixas, Brazilian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (d. 1989)
1945 – Türkan Şoray, Turkish actress, director, and screenwriter
1946 – Robert Asprin, American soldier and author (d. 2008)
1946 – Bruce Davison, American actor and director
1946 – David Duckham, English rugby player
1946 – Robert Xavier Rodríguez, American classical composer
1946 – Jaime Guzmán, Chilean lawyer and politician (d. 1991)
1946 – Gilda Radner, American actress and comedian (d. 1989)
1947 – Mark Helprin, American novelist and journalist
1947 – Laura Tyson, American economist and academic
1948 – Kathy Bates, American actress
1948 – Sergei Bodrov, Russian-American director, producer, and screenwriter
1948 – Deborah Moggach, English author and screenwriter
1948 – Daniel Wegner, Canadian-American psychologist and academic (d. 2013)
1949 – Don Baylor, American baseball player and coach (d. 2017)
1950 – Philip Fowke, English pianist and educator
1950 – Mauricio Rojas, Chilean-Swedish economist and politician
1950 – Chris Speier, American baseball player and coach
1951 – Mick Cronin, Australian rugby league player and coach
1951 – Mark Shand, English conservationist and author (d. 2014)
1951 – Lalla Ward, English actress and author
1952 – Enis Batur, Turkish poet and author
1952 – Pietro Mennea, Italian sprinter and politician (d. 2013)
1952 – Jean-Christophe Rufin, French physician and author
1954 – A. A. Gill, Scottish author and critic (d. 2016)
1954 – Alice Krige, South African actress
1955 – Shirley Cheriton, British actress
1956 – Amira Hass, Israeli journalist and author
1956 – Noel Mugavin, Australian footballer and coach
1957 – Lance Nethery, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1957 – Georgi Parvanov, Bulgarian historian and politician, 4th President of Bulgaria
1957 – Mike Skinner, American race car driver
1957 – Jim Spanarkel, American basketball player and sportscaster
1958 – Donna Edwards, American lawyer and politician
910 – Battle of Augsburg: The Hungarians defeat the East Frankish army under King Louis the Child, using the famous feigned retreat tactic of the nomadic warriors.
1240 – At the instigation of Louis IX of France, an inter-faith debate, known as the Disputation of Paris, starts between a Christian monk and four rabbis.
1381 – Peasants’ Revolt: In England, rebels assemble at Blackheath, just outside London.
1418 – Armagnac–Burgundian Civil War: Parisians slaughter Bernard VII, Count of Armagnac and his suspected sympathizers, along with all prisoners, foreign bankers, and students and faculty of the College of Navarre.
1429 – Hundred Years’ War: On the second day of the Battle of Jargeau, Joan of Arc leads the French army in their capture of the city and the English commander, William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk.
1550 – The city of Helsinki, Finland (belonging to Sweden at the time) is founded by King Gustav I of Sweden.
1653 – First Anglo-Dutch War: The Battle of the Gabbard begins, lasting until the following day.
1665 – Thomas Willett is appointed the first mayor of New York City.
1758 – French and Indian War: Siege of Louisbourg: James Wolfe’s attack at Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, commences
1772 – French explorer Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne and 25 of his men killed by Māori in New Zealand.
1775 – American Revolution: British general Thomas Gage declares martial law in Massachusetts. The British offer a pardon to all colonists who lay down their arms. There would be only two exceptions to the amnesty: Samuel Adams and John Hancock, if captured, were to be hanged.
1776 – The Virginia Declaration of Rights is adopted.
1798 – Irish Rebellion of 1798: Battle of Ballynahinch.
1817 – The earliest form of bicycle, the dandy horse, is driven by Karl von Drais.
1821 – Badi VII, king of Sennar, surrenders his throne and realm to Isma’il Pasha, general of the Ottoman Empire, ending the existence of that Sudanese kingdom.
1830 – Beginning of the Invasion of Algiers: Thiry-four thousand French soldiers land 27 kilometers west of Algiers, at Sidi Ferruch.
1864 – American Civil War, Overland Campaign: Battle of Cold Harbor: Ulysses S. Grant gives the Confederate forces under Robert E. Lee a victory when he pulls his Union troops from their position at Cold Harbor, Virginia and moves south.
1898 – Philippine Declaration of Independence: General Emilio Aguinaldo declares the Philippines’ independence from Spain.
1899 – New Richmond tornado: The eighth deadliest tornado in U.S. history kills 117 people and injures around 200.
1914 – Massacre of Phocaea: Turkish irregulars slaughter 50 to 100 Greeks and expel thousands of others in an ethnic cleansing operation in the Ottoman Empire.
1921 – Mikhail Tukhachevsky orders the use of chemical weapons against the Tambov Rebellion, bringing an end to the peasant uprising.
1935 – A ceasefire is negotiated between Bolivia and Paraguay, ending the Chaco War.
1939 – Shooting begins on Paramount Pictures’ Dr. Cyclops, the first horror film photographed in three-strip Technicolor.
1939 – The Baseball Hall of Fame opens in Cooperstown, New York.
1940 – World War II: Thirteen thousand British and French troops surrender to Major General Erwin Rommel at Saint-Valery-en-Caux.
1942 – Anne Frank receives a diary for her thirteenth birthday.
1943 – The Holocaust: Germany liquidates the Jewish Ghetto in Brzeżany, Poland (now Berezhany, Ukraine). Around 1,180 Jews are led to the city’s old Jewish graveyard and shot.
1944 – World War II: Operation Overlord: American paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division secure the town of Carentan, Normandy, France.
1954 – Pope Pius XII canonises Dominic Savio, who was 14 years old at the time of his death, as a saint, making him at the time the youngest unmartyred saint in the Roman Catholic Church. In 2017, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, aged ten and nine at the time of their deaths, are declared saints.
1963 – NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers is murdered in front of his home in Jackson, Mississippi by Ku Klux Klan member Byron De La Beckwith during the civil rights movement.
1964 – Anti-apartheid activist and ANC leader Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life in prison for sabotage in South Africa.
1967 – The United States Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia declares all U.S. state laws which prohibit interracial marriage to be unconstitutional.
1975 – India, Judge Jagmohanlal Sinha of the city of Allahabad ruled that India’s Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had used corrupt practices to win her seat in the Indian Parliament, and that she should be banned from holding any public office. Mrs. Gandhi sent word that she refused to resign.
1979 – Bryan Allen wins the second Kremer prize for a man powered flight across the English Channel in the Gossamer Albatross.
1987 – The Central African Republic’s former emperor Jean-Bédel Bokassa is sentenced to death for crimes he had committed during his 13-year rule.
1987 – Cold War: At the Brandenburg Gate, U.S. President Ronald Reagan publicly challenges Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.
1988 – Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 46, a McDonnell Douglas MD-81, crashes short of the runway at Libertador General José de San Martín Airport, killing all 22 people on board.
1990 – Russia Day: The parliament of the Russian Federation formally declares its sovereignty.
1991 – Russians first democratically elected Boris Yeltsin as the President of Russia.
1991 – Kokkadichcholai massacre: The Sri Lankan Army massacres 152 minority Tamil civilians in the village of Kokkadichcholai near the eastern province town of Batticaloa.
1993 – An election takes place in Nigeria and is won by Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola. Its results are later annulled by the military Government of Ibrahim Babangida.
1994 – Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman are murdered outside Simpson’s home in Los Angeles. Her estranged husband, O.J. Simpson is later charged with the murders, but is acquitted by a jury.
1997 – Queen Elizabeth II reopens the Globe Theatre in London.
1999 – Kosovo War: Operation Joint Guardian begins when a NATO-led United Nations peacekeeping force (KFor) enters the province of Kosovo in Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
2009 – Analog television stations (excluding low-powered stations) switch to digital television following the DTV Delay Act.
2009 – A disputed presidential election in Iran leads to wide-ranging local and international protests.
2016 – Forty-nine civilians are killed and 58 others injured in an attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida; the gunman, Omar Mateen, is killed in a gunfight with police.
2017 – American student Otto Warmbier returns home in a coma after spending 17 months in a North Korean prison and dies a week later.
2018 – United States President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un of North Korea held the first meeting between leaders of their two countries in Singapore.
Births on June 12
950 – Reizei, Japanese emperor (d. 1011)
1107 – Gao Zong, Chinese emperor (d. 1187)
1161 – Constance, Duchess of Brittany (d. 1201)
1519 – Cosimo I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1574)
1561 – Anna of Württemberg, German princess (d. 1616)
1564 – John Casimir, Duke of Saxe-Coburg (d. 1633)
1573 – Robert Radclyffe, 5th Earl of Sussex, soldier (d. 1629)
1577 – Paul Guldin, Swiss astronomer and mathematician (d. 1643)
1580 – Adriaen van Stalbemt, Flemish painter (d. 1662)
1653 – Maria Amalia of Courland, Landgravine of Hesse-Kassel (d. 1711)
1686 – Marie-Catherine Homassel Hecquet, French writer (d. 1764)
1711 – Louis Legrand, French priest and theologian (d. 1780)
1760 – Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvrai, French author, playwright, journalist, and politician (d. 1797)
1771 – Patrick Gass, American sergeant (Lewis and Clark Expedition) and author (d. 1870)
1775 – Karl Freiherr von Müffling, Prussian field marshal (d. 1851)
1777 – Robert Clark, American physician and politician (d. 1837)
1795 – John Marston, American sailor (d. 1885)
1798 – Samuel Cooper, American general (d. 1876)
1800 – Samuel Wright Mardis, American politician (d. 1836)
1802 – Harriet Martineau, English sociologist and author (d. 1876)
1806 – John A. Roebling, German-American engineer, designed the Brooklyn Bridge (d. 1869)
1807 – Ante Kuzmanić, Croatian physician and journalist (d. 1879)
1812 – Edmond Hébert, French geologist and academic (d. 1890)
1819 – Charles Kingsley, English priest, historian, and author (d. 1875)
1827 – Johanna Spyri, Swiss author, best known for Heidi (d. 1901)
1831 – Robert Herbert, English-Australian politician, 1st Premier of Queensland (d. 1905)
1841 – Watson Fothergill, English architect, designed the Woodborough Road Baptist Church (d. 1928)
1843 – David Gill, Scottish-English astronomer and author (d. 1914)
1851 – Oliver Lodge, English physicist and academic (d. 1940)
1857 – Maurice Perrault, Canadian architect, engineer, and politician, 15th Mayor of Longueuil (d. 1909)
1858 – Harry Johnston, English botanist and explorer (d. 1927)
1858 – Henry Scott Tuke, English painter and photographer (d. 1929)
1861 – William Attewell, English cricketer and umpire (d. 1927)
1864 – Frank Chapman, American ornithologist, photographer, and author (d. 1945)
1877 – Thomas C. Hart, American admiral and politician (d. 1971)
1883 – Fernand Gonder, French pole vaulter (d. 1969)
1883 – Robert Lowie, Austrian-American anthropologist and academic (d. 1957)
1888 – Zygmunt Janiszewski, Polish mathematician and academic (d. 1920)
1890 – Egon Schiele, Austrian soldier and painter (d. 1918)
1892 – Djuna Barnes, American novelist, journalist, and playwright (d. 1982)
1895 – Eugénie Brazier, French chef (d. 1977)
1897 – Anthony Eden, English soldier and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1977)
1899 – Fritz Albert Lipmann, German-American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1986)
1899 – Weegee, Ukrainian-American photographer and journalist (d. 1968)
1902 – Hendrik Elias, Belgian lawyer and politician, Mayor of Ghent (d. 1973)
1905 – Ray Barbuti, American sprinter and football player (d. 1988)
1906 – Sandro Penna, Italian poet (d. 1977)
1908 – Alphonse Ouimet, Canadian broadcaster (d. 1988)
1908 – Marina Semyonova, Russian ballerina and educator (d. 2010)
1908 – Otto Skorzeny, German SS officer (d. 1975)
1910 – Bill Naughton, Irish-English playwright and author (d. 1992)
1912 – Bill Cowley, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 1993)
1912 – Carl Hovland, American psychologist and academic (d. 1961)
1913 – Jean Victor Allard, Canadian general (d. 1996)
1913 – Desmond Piers, Canadian admiral (d. 2005)
1914 – William Lundigan, American actor (d. 1975)
1914 – Go Seigen, Chinese-Japanese Go player (d. 2014)
1915 – Priscilla Lane, American actress (d. 1995)
1915 – Christopher Mayhew, English soldier and politician (d. 1997)
1915 – David Rockefeller, American banker and businessman (d. 2017)
1916 – Irwin Allen, American director and producer (d. 1991)
1916 – Raúl Héctor Castro, Mexican-American politician and diplomat, 14th Governor of Arizona (d. 2015)
1918 – Samuel Z. Arkoff, American film producer (d. 2001)
1918 – Georgia Louise Harris Brown, American architect (d. 1999)
1918 – Christie Jayaratnam Eliezer, Sri Lankan-Australian mathematician and academic (d. 2001)
1919 – Uta Hagen, German-American actress and educator (d. 2004)
1920 – Dave Berg, American soldier and cartoonist (d. 2002)
1920 – Peter Jones, English actor and screenwriter (d. 2000)
1921 – Luis García Berlanga, Spanish director and screenwriter (d. 2010)
1921 – Christopher Derrick, English author, critic, and academic (d. 2007)
1921 – James Archibald Houston, Canadian author and illustrator (d. 2005)
1922 – Margherita Hack, Italian astrophysicist and author (d. 2013)
1924 – George H. W. Bush, American lieutenant and politician, 41st President of the United States (d. 2018)
1924 – Grete Dollitz, German-American guitarist and radio host (d. 2013)
1928 – Vic Damone, American singer-songwriter and actor (d. 2018)
1928 – Petros Molyviatis, Greek politician and diplomat, Greek Minister for Foreign Affairs
1928 – Richard M. Sherman, American composer and director
1929 – Brigid Brophy, English author and critic (d. 1995)
1929 – Anne Frank, German-Dutch diarist; victim of the Holocaust (d. 1945)
1929 – Jameel Jalibi, Pakistani linguist and academic
1929 – John McCluskey, Baron McCluskey, Scottish lawyer, judge, and politician, Solicitor General for Scotland (d. 2017)
1930 – Jim Burke, Australian cricketer (d. 1979)
1930 – Donald Byrne, American chess player (d. 1976)
1930 – Innes Ireland, Scottish race car driver and engineer (d. 1993)
1930 – Jim Nabors, American actor and singer (d. 2017)
1931 – Trevanian, American author and scholar (d. 2005)
1931 – Rona Jaffe, American novelist (d. 2005)
1932 – Mimi Coertse, South African soprano and producer
1932 – Mamo Wolde, Ethiopian runner (d. 2002)
1933 – Eddie Adams, American photographer and journalist (d. 2004)
1934 – John A. Alonzo, American actor and cinematographer (d. 2001)
1934 – Kevin Billington, English director and producer
1935 – Ian Craig, Australian cricketer (d. 2014)
1935 – Paul Kennedy, English lawyer and judge
1937 – Vladimir Arnold, Russian-French mathematician and academic (d. 2010)
1937 – Klaus Basikow, German footballer and manager (d. 2015)
1937 – Antal Festetics, Hungarian-Austrian biologist and zoologist
1937 – Chips Moman, American record producer, guitarist, and songwriter (d. 2016)
1938 – Jean-Marie Doré, Guinean lawyer and politician, 11th Prime Minister of Guinea (d. 2016)
1938 – Tom Oliver, English-Australian actor
1939 – Ron Lynch, Australian rugby league player and coach
1939 – Frank McCloskey, American sergeant and politician (d. 2003)
1940 – Jacques Brassard, Canadian educator and politician
1941 – Marv Albert, American sportscaster
1941 – Chick Corea, American pianist and composer
1941 – Roy Harper, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
1941 – Reg Presley, English singer-songwriter (d. 2013)
1941 – Lucille Roybal-Allard, American politician
1942 – Len Barry, American singer-songwriter and producer
1942 – Bert Sakmann, German physiologist and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate
1945 – Pat Jennings, Irish footballer and coach
1946 – Michel Bergeron, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1946 – Bobby Gould, English footballer and manager
1946 – Catherine Bréchignac, French physicist and academic
1948 – Hans Binder, Austrian race car driver
1948 – Herbert Meyer, German footballer
1948 – Len Wein, American comic book writer and editor (d. 2017)
1949 – Jens Böhrnsen, German judge and politician
1949 – Marc Tardif, Canadian ice hockey player
1949 – John Wetton, English singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer (d. 2017)
1950 – Oğuz Abadan, Turkish singer-songwriter and guitarist
1950 – Michael Fabricant, English politician
1950 – Sonia Manzano, American actress of Puerto Rican descent, noted for playing Maria on Sesame Street
1950 – Bun E. Carlos, American drummer
1951 – Brad Delp, American musician and singer (d. 2007)
1951 – Andranik Margaryan, Armenian engineer and politician, 10th Prime Minister of Armenia (d. 2007)
1952 – Spencer Abraham, American academic and politician, 10th United States Secretary of Energy
1952 – Junior Brown, American country music singer-songwriter and guitarist
1952 – Pete Farndon, English bass player and songwriter (d. 1983)
1953 – Rocky Burnette, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1954 – Tim Razzall, Baron Razzall, English lawyer and politician
1956 – Terry Alderman, Australian cricketer and sportscaster
1957 – Timothy Busfield, American actor, director, and producer
1957 – Javed Miandad, Pakistani cricketer and coach
1958 – Meredith Brooks, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1959 – John Linnell, American singer-songwriter and musician
1959 – Scott Thompson, Canadian actor and comedian
1960 – Joe Kopicki, American basketball player and coach
1962 – Jordan Peterson, Canadian psychologist, professor and cultural critic
1963 – Philippe Bugalski, French race car driver (d. 2012)
1963 – Warwick Capper, Australian footballer, coach, and actor
1963 – Tim DeKay, American actor
1963 – Jerry Lynn, American wrestler
1964 – Derek Higgins, Irish race car driver
1964 – Kent Jones, American journalist
1964 – Paula Marshall, American actress
1964 – Peter Such, Scottish-born, English cricketer
1965 – Adrian Toole, Australian rugby league player
1965 – Gwen Torrence, American sprinter
1965 – Cathy Tyson, English actress
1966 – Marc Glanville, Australian rugby league player
1966 – Tom Misteli, Swiss cell biologist
1967 – Aivar Kuusmaa, Estonian basketball player and coach
202 BC – Liu Bang is enthroned as the Emperor of China, beginning four centuries of rule by the Han dynasty.
870 – The Fourth Council of Constantinople closes.
1246 – The siege of Jaén ends in the context of the Spanish Reconquista resulting in the Castilian takeover of the city from the Taifa of Jaen.
1525 – Aztec king Cuauhtémoc is executed on the order of conquistador Hernán Cortés.
1638 – The Scottish National Covenant is signed in Edinburgh.
1700 – Today is followed by March 1 in Sweden, thus creating the Swedish calendar.
1710 – Battle of Helsingborg: 14,000 Danish invaders under Jørgen Rantzau are decisively defeated by an equally sized Swedish force under Magnus Stenbock. This is the last time Swedish and Danish troops meet on Swedish soil.
1728 – Peshwa Bajirao I of the Maratha Empire defeats Asaf Jah I in the Battle of Palkhed.
1827 – The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad is incorporated, becoming the first railroad in America offering commercial transportation of both people and freight.
1838 – Robert Nelson, leader of the Patriotes, proclaims the independence of Lower Canada (today Quebec).
1844 – A gun on USS Princeton explodes while the boat is on a Potomac River cruise, killing six people, including two United States Cabinet members.
1847 – The Battle of the Sacramento River during the Mexican–American War is a decisive victory for the United States leading to the capture of Chihuahua.
1849 – Regular steamship service from the east to the west coast of the United States begins with the arrival of the SS California in San Francisco Bay, four months 22 days after leaving New York Harbor.
1867 – Seventy years of Holy See–United States relations are ended by a Congressional ban on federal funding of diplomatic envoys to the Vatican and are not restored until January 10, 1984.
1870 – The Bulgarian Exarchate is established by decree of Sultan Abdülaziz of the Ottoman Empire.
1874 – One of the longest cases ever heard in an English court ends when the defendant is convicted of perjury for attempting to assume the identity of the heir to the Tichborne baronetcy.
1893 – The USS Indiana, the lead ship of her class and the first battleship in the United States Navy comparable to foreign battleships of the time, is launched.
1897 – Queen Ranavalona III, the last monarch of Madagascar, is deposed by a French military force.
1900 – The Second Boer War: The 118-day “Siege of Ladysmith” is lifted.
1904 – S.L. Benfica is founded in Portugal.
1922 – The United Kingdom ends its protectorate over Egypt through a Unilateral Declaration of Independence.
1925 – The Charlevoix-Kamouraska earthquake strikes northeastern North America.
1933 – Gleichschaltung: The Reichstag Fire Decree is passed in Germany a day after the Reichstag fire.
1939 – The erroneous word “dord” is discovered in the Webster’s New International Dictionary, Second Edition, prompting an investigation.
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.
1947 – February 28 Incident: In Taiwan, civil disorder is put down with the loss of an estimated 30,000 civilians.
1948 – Christiansborg Cross-Roads shooting in the Gold Coast, when a British police officer opens fire on a march of ex-servicemen, killing three of them and sparking major riots and looting in Accra.
1953 – James Watson and Francis Crick announce to friends that they have determined the chemical structure of DNA; the formal announcement takes place on April 25 following publication in April’s Nature (pub. April 2).
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 one of the worst school bus accidents in U.S. history.
1959 – Discoverer 1, an American spy satellite that is the first object intended to achieve a polar orbit, is launched but fails to achieve orbit.
1966 – A NASA T-38 Talon crashes into the McDonnell Aircraft factory while attempting a poor-visibility landing at Lambert Field, St. Louis, killing astronauts Elliot See and Charles Bassett.
1972 – China–United States relations: The United States and China sign the Shanghai Communiqué.
1975 – In London, an underground train fails to stop at Moorgate terminus station and crashes into the end of the tunnel, killing 43 people.
1980 – Andalusia approves its statute of autonomy through a referendum.
1983 – The final episode of M*A*S*H airs, with almost 106 million viewers. It still holds the record for the highest viewership of a season finale.
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.
1986 – Olof Palme, 26th Prime Minister of Sweden, is assassinated in Stockholm.
1991 – The first Gulf War ends.
1993 – The 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 ATF agents and six Davidians die in the initial raid, starting a 51-day standoff.
1995 – Former Australian Liberal party leader John Hewson resigns from the Australian parliament almost two years after losing the 1993 Australian federal election.
1997 – An earthquake in northern Iran is responsible for about 3,000 deaths.
1997 – GRB 970228, a highly luminous flash of gamma rays, strikes the Earth for 80 seconds, providing early evidence that gamma-ray bursts occur well beyond the Milky Way.
1998 – First flight of RQ-4 Global Hawk, the first unmanned aerial vehicle certified to file its own flight plans and fly regularly in U.S. civilian airspace.
1998 – Kosovo War: Serbian police begin the offensive against the Kosovo Liberation Army in Kosovo.
2002 – During the religious violence in Gujarat, the 97 people killed in the Naroda Patiya massacre and 69 in Gulbarg Society massacre.
2004 – Over one million Taiwanese participate in the 228 Hand-in-Hand rally form a 500-kilometre (310 mi) long human chain to commemorate the February 28 Incident in 1947.
2005 – A suicide bombing at a police recruiting centre in Al Hillah, Iraq kills 127.
2013 – Pope Benedict XVI resigns as the pope of the Catholic Church, becoming the first pope to do so since Pope Gregory XII, in 1415.
Births on February 28
1119 – Emperor Xizong of Jin (d. 1150)
1155 – Henry the Young King, son and heir of Henry II of England (d. 1183)
1261 – Margaret of Scotland, Queen of Norway (d. 1283)
1518 – Francis III, Duke of Brittany, Duke of Brittany (d. 1536)
1533 – Michel de Montaigne, French philosopher and author (d. 1592)
1535 – Cornelius Gemma, Dutch astronomer and astrologer (d. 1578)
1552 – Jost Bürgi, Swiss mathematician and clockmaker (d. 1632)
1612 – John Pearson, English bishop, theologian, and scholar (d. 1686)
1627 – Aubrey de Vere, 20th Earl of Oxford, English soldier and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Essex (d. 1703)
1675 – Guillaume Delisle, French cartographer (d. 1726)
1683 – René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur, French entomologist and academic (d. 1757)
1704 – Louis Godin, French astronomer and academic (d. 1760)
1712 – Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, French general (d. 1759)
1724 – George Townshend, 1st Marquess Townshend, English field marshal and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (d. 1807)
1792 – Karl Ernst von Baer, German biologist, meteorologist, and geographer (d. 1876)
1812 – Berthold Auerbach, German poet and author (d. 1882)
1820 – John Tenniel, English illustrator (d. 1914)
1833 – Alfred von Schlieffen, German field marshal (d. 1913)
1840 – Henri Duveyrier, French explorer (d. 1892)
1848 – Arthur Giry, French historian and academic (d. 1899)
1851 – Samuel W. McCall, American journalist and politician, 47th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1923)
1858 – Tore Svennberg, Swedish actor and director (d. 1941)
1865 – Wilfred Grenfell, English physician and missionary (d. 1940)
1866 – Vyacheslav Ivanov, Russian poet and playwright (d. 1949)
1873 – William McMaster Murdoch, Scottish sailor (d. 1912)
1878 – Pierre Fatou, French mathematician and astronomer (d. 1929)
1882 – Geraldine Farrar, American soprano and actress (d. 1967)
1882 – José Vasconcelos, Mexican philosopher, lawyer, and politician, Mexican Secretary of Public Education (d. 1959)
1883 – Seán Mac Diarmada, Irish rebel leader (d. 1916)
1884 – Ants Piip, Estonian lawyer and politician, 7th Prime Minister of Estonia (d. 1942)
1887 – William Zorach, Lithuanian-American sculptor and painter (d. 1966)
1894 – Ben Hecht, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1964)
1895 – Marcel Pagnol, French author, playwright and director (d. 1974)
1896 – Philip Showalter Hench, American physician and endocrinologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1965)
1898 – Zeki Rıza Sporel, Turkish footballer (d. 1969)
1900 – Wolf Hirth, German pilot and engineer, co-founded Schempp-Hirth (d. 1959)
1901 – Linus Pauling, American chemist and activist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1994)
1903 – Vincente Minnelli, American director and screenwriter (d. 1986)
1906 – Bugsy Siegel, American gangster (d. 1947)
1907 – Milton Caniff, American cartoonist (d. 1988)
1908 – Billie Bird, American actress (d. 2002)
1909 – Stephen Spender, English author and poet (d. 1995)
1911 – Otakar Vávra, Czech director and screenwriter (d. 2011)
1915 – Ketti Frings, American author, playwright, and screenwriter (d. 1981)
1915 – Peter Medawar, Brazilian-English biologist and immunologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1987)
1915 – Zero Mostel, American actor and comedian (d. 1977)
1916 – Cesar Climaco, Filipino lawyer and politician, 10th Mayor of Zamboanga City (d. 1984)
1917 – Ernesto Alonso, Mexican actor, director, and producer (d. 2007)
1919 – Alfred Marshall, American businessman, founded Marshalls (d. 2013)
1919 – Brian Urquhart, English soldier and diplomat, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations
1920 – Jadwiga Piłsudska, Polish soldier, pilot, and architect (d. 2014)
1921 – Pierre Clostermann, French pilot, engineer, and author (d. 2006)
1922 – Yuri Lotman, Russian-Estonian historian and scholar (d. 1993)
1923 – Charles Durning, American soldier and actor (d. 2012)
1924 – Uno Prii, Estonian-Canadian architect (d. 2000)
1924 – Robert A. Roe, American soldier and politician (d. 2014)
1925 – Harry H. Corbett, Burmese-English actor (d. 1982)
1926 – Svetlana Alliluyeva, Russian-American author and educator (d. 2011)
1928 – Stanley Baker, Welsh actor and producer (d. 1976)
1928 – Tom Aldredge, American actor (d. 2011)
1928 – Sylvia del Villard, actress, dancer, choreographer and Afro-Puerto Rican activist (d. 1990)
1929 – Hayden Fry, American football player and coach (d. 2019)
1929 – Frank Gehry, Canadian-American architect, designed 8 Spruce Street and Walt Disney Concert Hall
1929 – John Montague, American-Irish poet and academic (d. 2016)
1929 – Rangaswamy Srinivasan, Indian-American physical chemist and inventor
1930 – Leon Cooper, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1931 – Iajuddin Ahmed, Bangladeshi academic and politician, 14th President of Bangladesh (d. 2012)
1931 – Peter Alliss, English golfer and sportscaster
1931 – Gavin MacLeod, American actor
1931 – Len Newcombe, Welsh footballer, outside forward and scout (d. 1996)
1931 – Dean Smith, American basketball player and coach (d. 2015)
1932 – Don Francks, Canadian actor, singer, and jazz musician (d. 2016)
1933 – Rein Taagepera, Estonian political scientist and politician
1934 – Willie Bobo, American Latin Jazz/Afro-Cuban jazz percussionist (d. 1983)
1937 – Jeff Farrell, American swimmer
1938 – Foge Fazio, American football player and coach (d. 2009)
1939 – John Fahey, American guitarist (d. 2001)
1939 – Chögyam Trungpa, Tibetan philosopher and scholar (d. 1987)
1939 – Daniel C. Tsui, Chinese-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1939 – Tommy Tune, American actor, singer, dancer, and director
1940 – Aldo Andretti, Italian-American race car driver
1940 – Mario Andretti, Italian-American race car driver
1940 – Joe South, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer (d. 2012)
1942 – Brian Jones, English guitarist, songwriter, and producer (d. 1969)
1942 – Dino Zoff, Italian footballer and manager
1943 – Barbara Acklin, American singer-songwriter (d. 1998)
1943 – Hans Dijkstal, Egyptian-Dutch educator and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands (d. 2010)
1943 – Donnie Iris, American rock singer-songwriter and guitarist
1944 – Kelly Bishop, American actress and dancer
1944 – Edward Greenspan, Canadian lawyer and author (d. 2014)
1944 – Sepp Maier, German footballer and manager
1944 – Storm Thorgerson, English graphic designer (d. 2013)
1945 – Mimsy Farmer, American-French actress and sculptor
1945 – Bubba Smith, American football player and actor (d. 2011)
1945 – Linda Preiss Rothschild, American mathematician and academic
1946 – Philip Bailhache, English lawyer and politician
1946 – Robin Cook, Scottish educator and politician, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (d. 2005)
1946 – Syreeta Wright, African-American singer songwriter (d. 2004)
1947 – Stephanie Beacham, English actress
1948 – Steven Chu, American physicist and politician, 12th United States Secretary of Energy, Nobel Prize laureate
1948 – Mike Figgis, English director, screenwriter, and composer
1948 – Bernadette Peters, American actress, singer, and author
1948 – Mercedes Ruehl, American actress
1948 – Alfred Sant, Maltese politician, 11th Prime Minister of Malta
1951 – Bill Cratty, American dancer and choreographer (d. 1998)
1951 – Debora Green, American physician convicted of murder
1953 – Ingo Hoffmann, Brazilian race car driver
1953 – Paul Krugman, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1953 – Ricky Steamboat, American wrestler, referee, and trainer
1954 – Brian Billick, American football player, coach, and sportscaster
1955 – Adrian Dantley, American basketball player and coach
1955 – Gilbert Gottfried, American comedian, actor, and singer
1956 – Terry Leahy, English businessman
1956 – Guy Maddin, Canadian director, screenwriter, and cinematographer
1957 – Paul Delph, American singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer (d. 1996)
1957 – Ainsley Harriott, English chef and author
1957 – Ian Smith, New Zealand cricketer and sportscaster
1957 – John Turturro, American actor, director, and screenwriter
1957 – Cindy Wilson, American singer-songwriter
1958 – Manuel Torres Félix, Mexican criminal and narcotics trafficker (d. 2012)
1958 – Natalya Estemirova, Russian journalist and activist (d. 2009)
1958 – Jeanne Mas, Spanish-French singer-songwriter and actress
1958 – David R. Ross, Scottish historian and author (d. 2010)
1959 – Jack Abramoff, American businessman and lobbyist
1959 – Megan McDonald, American librarian and author
1961 – Rae Dawn Chong, Canadian-American actress
1961 – Mark Latham, Australian politician
1961 – Barry McGuigan, Irish-British boxer
1962 – Gary Belcher, Australian rugby league player and sportscaster
1963 – Claudio Chiappucci, Italian cyclist
1964 – Djamolidine Abdoujaparov, Uzbekistan sprinter and cyclist
1965 – Colum McCann, Irish-American author and academic
1965 – Norman Smiley, English-American wrestler and trainer
1966 – Vincent Askew, American basketball player and coach
1966 – Paulo Futre, Portuguese footballer
1966 – Archbishop Jovan VI of Ohrid
1967 – Colin Cooper, English footballer and manager
1967 – Martin Tielli, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
1969 – Sean Farrel, English footballer, forward
1969 – Butch Leitzinger, American race car driver
1969 – Robert Sean Leonard, American actor
1969 – Patrick Monahan, American singer-songwriter and actor
1970 – Daniel Handler, American journalist, author, and accordion player
1970 – Noureddine Morceli, Algerian runner
1971 – Junya Nakano, Japanese pianist and composer
1971 – Peter Stebbings, Canadian actor and director
1972 – Rory Cochrane, American actor
1972 – Ville Haapasalo, Finnish actor and screenwriter
1973 – Eric Lindros, Canadian ice hockey player
1973 – Scott McLeod, New Zealand rugby player
1973 – Nicolas Minassian, French race car driver
1973 – Masato Tanaka, Japanese wrestler
1974 – Lee Carsley, English-Irish footballer and manager
1974 – Alexander Zickler, German footballer and manager
1975 – Mike Rucker, American football player
1976 – Ali Larter, American actress
1977 – Jason Aldean, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1977 – Lance Hoyt, American football player and wrestler
1978 – Jeanne Cherhal, French singer-songwriter and guitarist
1978 – Benjamin Raich, Austrian skier
1978 – Jamaal Tinsley, American basketball player
1978 – Mariano Zabaleta, Argentinian tennis player
1979 – Sébastien Bourdais, French race car driver
1979 – Ivo Karlović, Croatian tennis player
1979 – Primož Peterka, Slovenian ski jumper
1980 – Pascal Bosschaart, Dutch footballer
1980 – Lucian Bute, Romanian-Canadian boxer
1980 – Christian Poulsen, Danish footballer
1980 – Tayshaun Prince, American basketball player
1981 – Brian Bannister, American baseball player and scout
1982 – Natalia Vodianova, Russian-French model and actress
1984 – Noureen DeWulf, American actress
1984 – Karolína Kurková, Czech model and actress
1985 – Tim Bresnan, English cricketer
1985 – Jelena Janković, Serbian tennis player
1985 – Diego Ribas da Cunha, Brazilian footballer
1986 – Travis Stevens, American judoka
1987 – Antonio Candreva, Italian footballer
1988 – Aroldis Chapman, Cuban baseball player
1988 – Markéta Irglová, Czech singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actress
1989 – Carlos Dunlap, American football player
1989 – Charles Jenkins, American basketball player
1989 – Kevin Proctor, New Zealand rugby league player
1989 – Angelababy, Chinese actress
1990 – Takayasu Akira, Japanese sumo wrestler
1994 – Jake Bugg, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1994 – Arkadiusz Milik, Polish footballer
1999 – Luka Dončić, Slovenian basketball player
Deaths on February 28
628 – Khosrow II, Shah of Iran – Sasanian Empire (b. c. 570)
911 – Abu Abdallah al-Shi’i, Muslim Shia imam
1105 – Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse (b. c. 1042)
1261 – Henry III, Duke of Brabant (b. 1230)
1326 – Leopold I, Duke of Austria (b. 1290)
1453 – Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine (b. 1400)
1510 – Juan de la Cosa, Spanish cartographer and explorer (b. 1450)
1551 – Martin Bucer, German Protestant reformer (b. 1491)
1572 – Aegidius Tschudi, Swiss historian and author (b. 1505)
1621 – Cosimo II de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1590)
1648 – Christian IV of Denmark (b. 1577)
1786 – John Gwynn, English architect and engineer (b. 1713)
1788 – Thomas Cushing, American lawyer and politician, 1st Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts (b. 1725)
1857 – André Dumont, Belgian geologist and academic (b. 1809)
1869 – Alphonse de Lamartine, French author and poet (b. 1790)
2002 – Mary Stuart, American actress and singer (b. 1926)
2002 – Helmut Zacharias, German violinist and composer (b. 1920)
2003 – Chris Brasher, Guyanese-English runner and journalist, co-founded the London Marathon (b. 1928)
2003 – Fidel Sánchez Hernández, Salvadorian general and politician, President of El Salvador (b. 1917)
2004 – Daniel J. Boorstin, American historian and librarian (b. 1914)
2004 – Carmen Laforet, Spanish author (b. 1921)
2004 – Andres Nuiamäe, Estonian sergeant (b. 1982)
2005 – Chris Curtis, English singer and drummer (b. 1941)
2006 – Owen Chamberlain, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1920)
2007 – Charles Forte, Baron Forte, Italian-English businessman, founded the Forte Group (b. 1908)
2007 – Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. American historian and critic (b. 1917)
2007 – Billy Thorpe, English-Australian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (b. 1946)
2008 – Joseph M. Juran, Romanian-American engineer and businessman (b. 1904)
2009 – Paul Harvey, American radio host (b. 1918)
2011 – Annie Girardot, French actress (b. 1931)
2011 – Jane Russell, American actress and singer (b. 1921)
2012 – Frisner Augustin, Haitian drummer and composer (b. 1948)
2012 – Jim Green, American-Canadian educator and politician (b. 1943)
2012 – Hal Roach, Irish comedian and author (b. 1927)
2013 – Donald A. Glaser, American physicist and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1926)
2013 – Neil McCorkell, English cricketer and coach (b. 1912)
2014 – Hugo Brandt Corstius, Dutch linguist and author (b. 1935)
2014 – Lee Lorch, American mathematician and activist (b. 1915)
2015 – Alex Johnson, American baseball player (b. 1942)
2015 – Yaşar Kemal, Turkish journalist and author (b. 1923)
2016 – George Kennedy, American actor (b. 1925)
2017 – Pierre Pascau, Mauritian-Canadian journalist (b. 1938)
2019 – André Previn, German-American pianist, conductor, and composer. (b. 1929)
2020 – Joe Coulombe, founder of Trader Joe’s (b. 1930)
2020 – Freeman Dyson, British-born American physicist and mathematician (b. 1923)
2020 – Sir Lenox Hewitt, Australian public servant (b. 1917)
Holidays and observances on February 28
Christian feast day:
Abercius (martyr)
Anna Julia Cooper and Elizabeth Evelyn Wright (Episcopal Church (USA))
Hilarius
Mar Abba
Oswald of Worcester
Romanus of Condat
Rufinus
February 28 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Earliest day on which Rare Disease Day can fall, while February 29 is the latest; observed on the last day of February (international)
The third day of Ayyám-i-Há (Bahá’í Faith) (Please note that this observance is only locked into this date the Gregorian calendar on this date if Bahá’í Naw-Rúz takes place on March 21, which it doesn’t in all years)
Día de Andalucía (Andalusia, Spain)
Kalevala Day, the day of Finnish culture. (Finland)
