Paracultural Calendar for Feb 28

[Mark Thibodeau]

On this day in *1525*, the Aztec king *Cuauhtémoc* is executed by *Hernán
Cortés*'s forces.

***

On this day in *1883*, the first ever American "vaudeville" theater opens,
in Boston. The entire entertainment industry as we know it ensues.

***

On this day in *1933*, "Gleichschaltung", the Reichstag Fire Decree is
passed in Germany a day after the Reichstag fire.

***

On this day in *1953*, *James D. Watson* and *Francis Crick* announce to
friends that they have determined the chemical structure of *DNA*; the
formal announcement takes place on April 25 following publication in
April's *Nature* (pub. April 2).

***

On this day in *1954*, the first color television sets using the NTSC
standard are offered for sale to the general public.

***

On this day in *1958*, a school bus in Floyd County, Kentucky hits a
wrecker truck and plunges down an embankment into the rain-swollen Levisa
Fork River. The driver and 26 children die in what remains one of the worst
school bus accidents in U.S. history.

***

On this day in *1975*, in London an underground train fails to stop at
Moorgate terminus station and crashes into the end of the tunnel, killing
43 people.

***

On this day in *1977*, Marineland staff successfully breed a killer whale
in captivity for the first time, thus marking the beginnings of the
potentially lucrative but still highly secretive whale meat trade.
Unfortunately, the Japanese continue to prefer free range whale meat, for
the time being.

***

On this day in *1983*, the final episode of *M*A*S*H* airs on CBS. It
breaks all previous records when 125 million people tune in to watch, and
be disappointed by, the show.

***

On this day in *1993*, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents raid
the *Branch Davidian *church in Waco, Texas with a warrant to arrest the
group's leader *David Koresh*. Four BATF agents and five Davidians die in
the initial raid, starting a 51-day standoff.

***

On this day in *1997*, GRB 970228, a highly luminous flash of gamma rays,
strikes the Earth for 80 seconds, providing early evidence that gamma-ray
bursts occur well beyond the Milky Way.

***

On this day in *1998*, first flight of *RQ-4 Global Hawk*, the first
unmanned aerial vehicle certified to file its own flight plans and fly
regularly in U.S. civilian airspace.

***

On this day in *2013*, Pope *Benedict XVI* resigns as the pope of the
Catholic Church becoming the first pope to do so since 1415.
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