28 February History
- 1066 - Westminster Abbey, the most famous church in England, opens its doors.
- 1574 - On the orders of the Holy Office of the Inquisition, two Englishmen and an Irishman are burnt for heresy.
- 1610 - Thomas West is appointed governor of Virginia.
- 1704 - Indians attack Deerfield, Mass. killing 40 and kidnapping 100.
- 1847 - Colonel Alexander Doniphan and his ragtag Missouri Mounted Volunteers ride to victory at the Battle of Sacramento, during the Mexican War.
- 1861 - The territory of Colorado is established.
- 1900 - After a 119-day siege by the Boers, the surrounded British troops in Ladysmith, South Africa, are relieved.
- 1863 - Four Union gunboats destroy the CSS Nashville near Fort McAllister, Georgia.
- 1916 - Haiti becomes the first U.S. protectorate.
- 1924 - U.S. troops are sent to Honduras to protect American interests during an election conflict.
- 1936 - The Japanese Army restores order in Tokyo and arrests officers involved in a coup.
- 1945 - U.S. tanks break the natural defense line west of the Rhine and cross the Erft River.
- 1946 - The U.S. Army declares that it will use V-2 rocket to test radar as an atomic rocket defense system.
- 1953 - Greece, Turkey and Yugoslavia sign a 5-year defense pact in Ankara.
- 1967 - In Mississippi, 19 are indicted in the slayings of three civil rights workers.
- 1969 - A Los Angeles court refuses Robert Kennedy assassin Sirhan Sirhan's request to be executed.
- 1971 - The male electorate in Lichtenstein refuses to give voting rights to women.
- 1994 - U.S. warplanes shoot down four Serb aircraft over Bosnia in the first NATO use of force in the troubled area.
28 February Birthdays
- 1533 - Michel de Montaigne, French moralist who created the personal essay.
- 1820 - John Tenniel, illustrator of various books (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland).
- 1824 - Charles Blondin, tightrope walker.
- 1894 - Ben Hecht, writer.
- 1901 - Linus Pauling, Nobel Prize-winning American chemist.
- 1909 - Stephen Spender, English poet, critic.
- 1911 - Denis Burkitt, British medical researcher.
- 1926 - Svetlana Stalin, daughter of Josef Stalin.