This day in history . Today is Sunday, Feb. 28, the 59th day of 2016.
There are 307 days left in the year. Today's birthdays: Architect Frank
Gehry is 87. Actor Gavin MacLeod is 85. Actor Don Francks is 84. Singer
Sam the Sham is 79. Actor-director-dancer Tommy Tune is 77. Hall of
Fame auto racer Mario Andretti is 76. Actor Frank Bonner is 74. Actress
Kelly Bishop is 72. Actress Stephanie Beacham is 69. Writer-director
Mike Figgis is 68. Actress Mercedes Ruehl is 68. Actress Bernadette
Peters is 68. Former Energy Secretary Steven Chu is 68. Actress Ilene
Graff is 67. Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman is 63. Comedian
Gilbert Gottfried is 61. Basketball Hall-of-Famer Adrian Dantley is 61.
Actor John Turturro is 59. Rock singer Cindy Wilson is 59. Actress Rae
Dawn Chong is 55. Actress Maxine Bahns is 47. Actor Robert Sean Leonard
is 47. Rock singer Pat Monahan is 47. Author Daniel Handler (AKA
"Lemony Snicket") is 46. Actress Tasha Smith is 45. Actor Rory Cochrane
is 44. Actress Ali Larter is 40. Country singer Jason Aldean is 39.
Actor Geoffrey Arend is 38.Actress Michelle Horn is 29. Actress Madisen
Beaty is 21. Actress Quinn Shephard is 21. Actor Bobb'e J. Thompson is
20. 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. In
1861, the Territory of Colorado was organized. In 1916, American-born
novelist Henry James, known for such works as "Daisy Miller," "The
Portrait of a Lady" and "The Bostonians," died in London at age 72. In
1940, the first televised college basketball games were broadcast by
New York City station W2XBS as Pittsburgh defeated Fordham, 57-37, and
New York University beat Georgetown, 50-27, at Madison Square Garden.
In 1942, the heavy cruiser USS Houston and the Australian light cruiser
HMAS Perth were attacked by Japanese forces during the World War II
Battle of Sunda Strait; both were sunk shortly after midnight. In 1953,
scientists James D. Watson and Francis H.C. Crick announced they had
discovered the double-helix structure of DNA. In 1960, a day after
defeating the Soviets at the Winter Games in Squaw Valley, Calif., the
United States won its first Olympic hockey gold medal by defeating
Czechoslovakia, 9-4. In 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 visit to China. In 1975, 42 people were killed in London's
Underground when a train smashed into the end of a tunnel. In 1986,
Prime Minister Olof Palme of Sweden was shot to death in central
Stockholm. (The killing remains unsolved.) In 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 standoff began.In 1996, Britain's Princess Diana
agreed to divorce Prince Charles. (Their marriage officially ended in
August 1996; Diana died in a car crash in Paris a year after that.) In
2006, a 20-year-old legal fight over protests outside abortion clinics
ended with the US Supreme Court ruling, 8 to 0, that federal extortion
and racketeering laws could not be used against demonstrators. The
first Mardi Gras since Hurricane Katrina drew a smaller-than-usual
turnout. In 2011, the United States and European allies intensified
efforts to isolate Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, redoubling demands for him
to step down, questioning his mental state, and warning that those who
stayed loyal to him risked losing their wealth and facing prosecution
for human rights abuses. Actress Jane Russell died in Santa Maria,
Calif., at age 89. French actress Annie Girardot died in Paris at age
79. In 2015, President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela announced his
country would shrink the size of the US Embassy staff, limit the
activities of US diplomats, and require American tourists to apply for
visas, saying that "gringo" meddling had forced him to adopt the series
of restrictive measures. An Egyptian court declared Hamas a "terror
organization," further isolating the rulers of the Gaza Strip. Death
claimed NFL player and coach Tom Bettis at age 81; baseball player Alex
Johnson at age 72; and basketball player Anthony Mason at age 48.
