Feb 28 in History

202BC — Liu Bang is enthroned as China’s Emperor Gaozu of Han. He rules until June 1 195BC and the Han dynasty rules until December 11 220AD.

1824 — Charles Blondin, tightrope walker, is born Jean François Gravelet in Pas-de-Calais, France. He becomes famous for crossing the Niagara Gorge (on the Canada-US border) on a tightrope on June 30 1859 (and a number of times thereafter).

1874 — One of the longest trials in England (188 court days since April 21 1873) ends abruptly with the jury returning a verdict within 30 minutes. They find “the Claimant” guilty of perjury for attempting to assume the identity of the heir to the Tichborne baronetcy. He is sentenced to 14 years’ imprisonment. Roger Tichborne, 25, heir to the family’s title and fortunes, was presumed to have died in a shipwreck in 1854. 1910 — Vincente Minnelli, film director (“An American in Paris”, “Gigi”), is born in Chicago, Illinois.

1922 — The United Kingdom ends its protectorate over Egypt through a Unilateral Declaration of Independence.

1940 — Mario Andretti, the only racing driver to date to win the Daytona 500 (1967), Indianapolis 500 (1969) and Formula One World Championship (1978), and his identical twin Aldo (also a racing driver) are born in Montona, d’Istria, Kingdom of Italy (now Motovun, Istria, Croatia).

1979 — Ivo Karlovic, Croatian tennis player, is born in Zagreb. He turns pro in 2000 and is the tallest ranked professional player in history until 2015, when Reilly Opelka joins the ranks. They are both 2.11m. Karlovic holds the record for career aces (13,653). He is one of only four players since 1991 — when the APT World Tour begins tracking the metric — to surpass 10,000 aces, ahead of John Isner (12,400), Roger Federer (11,344) and Goran Ivaniševic (10,131).

1983 — The last (256th) episode of “M*A*S*H” (the 2½-hour “Goodbye, Farewell and Amen”) airs on CBS, attracting 125-million viewers and breaking the record for the highest percentage of US homes with TV sets to watch a season finale.

1993 — Agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms raid the ranch of David Koresh’s Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas. Four agents, trying to serve warrants on the sect, and six Davidians are killed in a shootout and a 51-day standoff begins.

1997 — GRB 970228, the first gamma-ray burst (GRB) for which an afterglow is observed, is detected at 2.58am UTC and lasts about 80 seconds. The position of the burst coincides with a galaxy about 8.1-billion light years away, providing early evidence that GRBs occur well beyond the Milky Way. It is proven decisively two months later by GRB 970508.