DAILY ALMANAC
Today is Tuesday, Feb. 28, the 59th day of 2023. There are 306 days left in the year.
On this date in:
1844: A 12-inch gun aboard the USS Princeton exploded as the ship was sailing on the Potomac River, killing Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur, Navy Secretary Thomas W. Gilmer and several others.
1849: The California gold rush began in earnest as regular steamship service started bringing gold-seekers to San Francisco.
1911: President William Howard Taft nominated William H. Lewis to be the first Black Assistant Attorney General of the United States.
1953: Scientists James D. Watson and Francis H.C. Crick announced they had discovered the double-helix structure of DNA.
1972; President Richard M. Nixon and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai issued the Shanghai Communique, which called for normalizing relations between their countries, at the conclusion of Nixon’s historic visit to China.
1975: Forty-two people were killed in London’s Underground when a train smashed into the end of a tunnel.
1993: A gun battle erupted at a religious compound near Waco, Texas, when Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents tried to arrest Branch Davidian leader David Koresh on weapons charges; four agents and six Davidians were killed as a 51-day standoff began.
1996: Britain’s Princess Diana agreed to divorce Prince Charles. (Their 15-year marriage officially ended in August 1996; Diana died in a car crash in Paris a year after that.)
2009: Paul Harvey, the news commentator and talk-radio pioneer whose staccato style made him one of the nation’s most familiar voices, died in Phoenix at age 90.
2014: Delivering a blunt warning to Moscow, President Barack Obama expressed deep concern over reported military activity inside Ukraine by Russia and warned “there will be costs” for any intervention.
2018: Walmart announced that it would no longer sell firearms and ammunition to people younger than 21 and would remove items resembling assault-style rifles from its website. Dick’s Sporting Goods said it would stop selling assault-style rifles and ban the sale of all guns to anyone under 21.
2020: The number of countries touched by the coronavirus climbed to nearly 60.
Singer Sam the Sham is 86. Actordirector-dancer Tommy Tune is 84. Actor Kelly Bishop (“Gilmore Girls”) is 79. Actor Stephanie Beacham (“Beverly Hills, 90210,” “Seaquest DSV”) is 76. Writer-director Mike Figgis is 75. Actor Mercedes Ruehl is 75. Actor
Bernadette Peters is 75. Actor Ilene Graff (“Mr. Belvedere”) is 74. Actor
John Turturro is 66. Singer Cindy Wilson of The B-52’s is 66. Actor
Rae Dawn Chong (“The Color Purple”) is 62. Actor Maxine Bahns (“The Brothers Mcmullen”) is 54. Actor Robert Sean Leonard (“House, M.D.”) is 54. Singer Pat Monahan of Train is 54. Author Lemony Snicket (aka Daniel Handler) is 53. Actor Tasha Smith (“Empire”) is 52.