On Feb. 28, 1784, John Wesley signed a declaration formalizing the establishment of the Wesleyan faith, or Methodism.
In 1827 the first U.S. railroad chartered to carry passengers and freight, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Co., was incorporated.
In 1844 a 12-inch gun aboard the USS Princeton exploded, killing Secretary of State Abel Upshur, Navy Secretary Thomas Gilmer and several others.
In 1849 the ship California arrived at San Francisco, carrying the first of the gold-seekers.
In 1854 about 50 slavery opponents met in Ripon, Wis., to call for creation of a new political group, which became the Republican Party.
In 1861 the Territory of Colorado was organized.
In 1901 Linus Pauling, the chemist and physicist who won two Nobel Prizes and was an outspoken advocate of vitamin C, was born in Portland, Ore.
In 1910 film director Vincente Minnelli was born in Chicago.
In 1915 entertainer Zero Mostel was born Samuel Joel Mostel in New York.
In 1917 The Associated Press reported the United States had intercepted a German communication. The Zimmerman note proposed a German alliance with Mexico and Japan should the United States enter World War I.
In 1940 the first televised college basketball games were broadcast, by New York City station W2XBS, as Pittsburgh defeated Fordham, 57-37, and New York University beat Georgetown, 50-27, at Madison Square Garden. Also in 1940 race car driver Mario Andretti was born in Montona, Italy.
In 1942 the Dutch East Indies island of Java was invaded by the Japanese during World War II.
In 1946 Switzerland announced that its army would stop using the Prussian Goose Step when marching.
In 1951 the Senate committee headed by Estes Kefauver (D-Tenn.) issued a preliminary report saying at least two major crime syndicates were operating in the U.S.
In 1953 scientists James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the double-helix structure of DNA, the molecule that contains the human genes.
In 1966 astronauts Elliot See Jr. and Charles Bassett II were killed when their jet trainer crashed into an aerospace plant in St. Louis.
In 1970 a federal court in Chicago ordered “the Chicago 7” released on bail pending appeal of their convictions in connection with the 1968 riots at the Democratic National Convention.
In 1974 the United States and Egypt re-established diplomatic relations after a seven-year break.
In 1975 more than 40 people were killed in London’s Underground when a subway train smashed into the end of a tunnel.
In 1983 the final episode of “M*A*S*H” aired on CBS; it was the most watched television program in history.
In 1986 Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was shot to death in central Stockholm.
In 1987 Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev announced the Kremlin was ready for a separate accord with the United States to rid Europe of medium-range nuclear missiles.
In 1989, in Chicago, Richard M. Daley, son of Mayor Richard J. Daley, defeated acting Mayor Eugene Sawyer in a Democratic primary election.
In 1991 Allied and Iraqi forces suspended their attacks as Iraq pledged to accept all UN resolutions concerning Kuwait.
In 1993 a gun battle erupted at a compound near Waco, Texas, when Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents tried to serve warrants on the Branch Davidians; four agents and six Davidians were killed as a 51-day standoff began.
In 1995 Denver International Airport opened after 16 months of delays and $3.2 billion in budget overruns.
In 1996 Britain’s Princess Diana agreed to divorce Prince Charles.
In 2001 a 6.8-magnitude earthquake, the strongest to hit the Pacific Northwest in more than 50 years, left about 300 injured and caused extensive damage in the Seattle area.
In 2003 NASA released video taken aboard Columbia that had miraculously survived the fiery destruction of the space shuttle with the loss of all seven astronauts; in the footage, four of the crew members can be seen doing routine chores and admiring the view outside the cockpit. Also in 2003 the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stood by its ruling that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools was unconstitutional because of the words “under God.” Also in 2003 the Food and Drug Administration announced that every bottle of ephedra would soon bear stern warnings that the popular herb could cause heart attacks or strokes, even kill.
In 2004 Iraq’s U.S.-picked leaders failed to meet a deadline for adopting an interim constitution.
In 2005 U.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow discovered the bodies of her husband and mother inside her Chicago home. (An unemployed electrician confessed to the murders in a suicide note.)
In 2008 President George W. Bush told a White House news conference the country was not recession-bound; Democratic candidate Barack Obama said the economy was “on the brink of a recession.”
