#TodayInHistory – February 28
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February 28 – Some important events on this day
202 BC 👉🏼 Coronation ceremony of Liu Bang as Emperor Gaozu of Han takes place, initiating four centuries of the Han Dynasty’s rule over China
1710 👉🏼 In the Battle of Helsingborg, 14,000 Danish invaders under Jørgen Rantzau are decisively defeated by an equally sized Swedish force under Magnus Stenbock
1854 👉🏼 Republican Party formally organized in Ripon, Wisconsin
1874 👉🏼 Arthur Orton, who became known as the Tichborne Claimant, was found guilty of perjury on this day after the longest trial in English history. The bizarre case, which gripped and fascinated all society, involved the son of a butcher in London’s East End, a missing English aristocrat, and the claims of a butcher from Wagga Wagga, Australia.
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1915 👉🏼 WWI: After the French try to drive the Germans forces back into the Champagne region, they gain a few hundred yards – at the cost of 50,000 casualties
1933 👉🏼 On Adolf Hitler’s advice, German President Paul von Hindenburg signs the Reichstag Fire Decree after the building is destroyed by fire in Berlin; this eliminates many civil liberties in Germany.
1939 👉🏼 The erroneous word “Dord” is discovered in the Webster’s New International Dictionary, Second Edition, prompting an investigation.
1947 👉🏼 February 28 Massacre: Anti-government uprising in Taiwan is violently put down by Chiang Kai-shek and his Kuomintang-led Republic of China government with the loss of 18,000-28,000 lives. Marks the beginning of the White Terror.
Unspoken about publicly for years, the 28th February is now a national day of remembrance in Taiwan commemorating the brutal repression of an anti-government uprising by the ruling Chinese mainland Kuomintang Party against native Taiwanese. An estimated 28,000 Taiwanese died in 1947 and it began 38 years of martial law now called the White Terror.
The flash point happened on the 27th February when a native Taiwanese woman was hit over the head for selling contraband cigarettes. People around her protested and Tobacco agents fired into the crowd killing one person. The next day crowds gathered around Taipei demanding justice but were met with violence by authorities who had declared martial law by the end of the day.
1953 👉🏼 Francis Crick and James Watson discover the chemical structure of DNA-molecule (double-helix polymer)
1988 👉🏼 XV Winter Olympic Games close in Calgary, Canada
1991 👉🏼 Gulf War ends after Iraq accepts a ceasefire following their retreat from Kuwait
2013 👉🏼 The brains of two rats successfully connected so that they share information
2018 👉🏼 700 illegal churches closed in Rwanda for being too noisy and lacking building permits