On This Day: February 28

This is the 59th day of the year.

Fact of the Day: basketball on TV

The first basketball game to be shown on television was played on February 28, 1940 at Madison Square Garden, televised by W2XBS. The University of Pittsburgh defeated Fordham University, followed by New York University beating Georgetown University.

Holidays

Feast day of St. Oswald of Worcester, St. Lupicinus, St. Hilarius, pope, St. Proterius, and St. Romanus.

Finland: Kalevala Day.

Events

1066 - Westminster Abbey, the most famous church in England, opened.

1827 - The first U.S. railroad chartered to carry passengers and freight, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, was incorporated.

1854 - A new political party was organized -- the Republican party -- in Wisconsin.

1861 - The Territory of Colorado was organized.

1912 - The first parachute jump was made, over Missouri.

1916 - Haiti became the first U.S. protectorate.

1940 - The first televised basketball game was shown, from Madison Square Garden in New York.

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 cult called the Branch Davidians; a 51-day standoff began.

1994 - In the first military action in the 45-year history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), U.S. fighter planes shot down four Serbian warplanes engaged in a bombing mission in violation of Bosnia's no-fly zone.

1996 - The Diana, princess of Wales consented to a divorce from Prince Charles.

2002 - At least 55 are killed in Ahmadabad, India when Hindus burn Muslim homes.

2005 - A suicide bombing at a police recruiting center in Al Hillah, Iraq kills 127.

Births

1894 - Ben Hecht, American novelist, playwright, scriptwriter.

1901 - Linus Pauling, American Nobel Peace Prize winner (1962), Nobel Prize for chemistry (1954).

1906 - Bugsy Siegel, American gangster, who was behind large-scale development of Las Vegas.

1926 - Svetlana Alliluyeva, Soviet defector, daughter of Joseph Stalin.

1940 - Mario Andretti, Italian-born American race car driver.

1942 - Brian Jones, founding member in the English rock group, The Rolling Stones.

1955 - Gilbert Gottfried, a stand-up comedian born in Brooklyn, New York.

Deaths

1963 - Rajendra Prasad, first President of India.

1967 - Henry R. Luce, American magazine publisher.

1977 - Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, American comic television actor.

1989 - Richard Armour, American poet and author.