Chicago Daily Tribune

ON FEBRUARY 28 ...

In 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 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 1906 gangster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel was born in Brooklyn, N.Y.

In 1907 comic-strip artist Milton Caniff, creator of “Terry and the Pirates” and “Steve Canyon,” was born in Hillsboro, Ohio.

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 1953 scientists James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the double-helix structure of DNA, the nucleic acid that contains genetic instructions for all known living things.

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 during the Democratic National Convention.

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 for nearly 27 years, until being supplanted by Super Bowl XLIV in 2010.

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 U.N. resolutions concerning Kuwait.

In 1993 a gunbattle 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 magnitude 6.8 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.

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 2013 Pope Benedict XVI became the first leader of the Roman Catholic Church to resign in nearly 600 years.

In 2015 Boris Nemtsov, a Russian opposition leader and sharp critic of President Vladimir Putin, was shot dead near the Kremlin a day before a planned protest against Putin’s rule.

In 2017 two residents were killed when numerous tornados, one a powerful EF3 funnel, struck small towns in north central and southeastern Illinois.