History for February 28

History for February 28 - On-This-Day.com
Linus Pauling 1901 - Nobel prize for chemistry in 1954, Nobel peace prize winner in 1962, Earl Scheib 1907, Milton Caniff 1907 - Cartoonist 


Charles Durning 1923 - Actor ("Spy Hard", "Dick Tracy", "The Hindenburg"), Chris Kraft 1924 - NASA flight director and voice of Mission Control for all Mercury and many Gemini missions, Gavin MacLeod 1931 - Actor ("Love Boat", "The Mary Tyler Moore Show") 


Tommy Tune 1939 - Dancer, actor, choreographer, Mario Andretti 1940 - Auto racer, twin of Aldo Andretti, Bubba Smith 1945 - Football player 


 1854 - The Republican Party was organized in Ripon, WI. About 50 slavery opponents began the new political group. 


1861 - The U.S. territory of Colorado was organized. 


1953 - In a Cambridge University laboratory, scientists James D. Watson and Francis H.C. Crick discovered the double-helix structure of DNA. 


1979 - Mr. Ed, the talking horse from the TV show "Mr. Ed", died. 


1983 - "M*A*S*H" became the most watched television program in history when the final episode aired. 


1986 - Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was assassinated in Stockholm. 


1993 - U.S. Federal agents raided the compound of an armed religious cult in Waco, TX. The ATF had planned to arrest the leader of the Branch Davidians, David Koresh, on federal firearms charges. Four agents and six Davidians were killed and a 51-day standoff followed. 


2013 - Benedict XVI resigned as pope. He was the first pope to resign since Gregory XII in 1415 and the first to resign voluntarily since Celestine V in 1294.