On This Day - What happened 28 February

Napoleon escaped from Elba, in the brig Inconstant on 26 February 1815 with 700 men. Two days later, he landed on the French mainland at Golfe-Juan and started heading north.

On February 27, 1860, powerful New York Republicans invited Lincoln to give a speech at Cooper Union, in which he argued that the Founding Fathers had little use for popular sovereignty and had repeatedly sought to restrict slavery. He insisted that morality required opposition to slavery, and rejected any "groping for some middle ground between the right and the wrong". Many in the audience thought he appeared awkward and even ugly. But Lincoln demonstrated intellectual leadership that brought him into contention. Journalist Noah Brooks reported, "No man ever before made such an impression on his first appeal to a New York audience".

On 28 February 1919, at the Paris Peace Conference, the council of the Allied nations notified Hungary of a new demarcation line to which the Romanian army would advance. This line coincided with railways connecting Szatmárnémeti, Nagyvárad, and Arad. However, the Romanian army was not to enter these cities.

This was the last time he would see the US. On February 28, after a 17-day voyage, Luciano's ship arrived in Naples. On arrival, Luciano told reporters he would probably reside in Sicily.

Indira Gandhi won the 1971 Indian general election.

Iraq and IPC reach an agreement on compensation for nationalization.

The opposition Labour Party won the February 1974 general election without a majority and then contested the subsequent October 1974 general election with a commitment to renegotiate Britain's terms of membership of the EC, believing them to be unfavorable, and then hold a referendum on whether to remain in the EC on the new terms.

In February 1986 Australia launched its Cellular Telephone System by Telecom Australia. Peter Reedman was the first Telecom Customer to be connected on 6 January 1986 along with five other subscribers as test customers prior to the official launch date of 28 February.

NATO became actively involved when its jets shot down four Serb aircraft over central Bosnia on 28 February 1994 for violating the UN no-fly zone.

On 28 February 2014, Sony, M3 and Illumina established a joint venture called P5, Inc. to provide a genome analysis service for research institutions and enterprises in Japan.

On 28 February 2014, his application for naturalization was approved, and he is now a Croatian passport holder.

On February 28, 2019, Tesla announced that they would begin to roll out the Standard Range base model starting at $35,000.

On 28 February, WHO officials said that the coronavirus threat assessment at the global level will be raised from "high" to "very high," its highest level of alert and risk assessment. Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO’s health emergency program, warned in a statement that "This is a reality check for every government on the planet: Wake up. Get ready. This virus may be on its way and you need to be ready. You have a duty to your citizens, you have a duty to the world to be ready," urging that the right response measures could help the world avoid “the worst of it." Ryan further stated that the current data does not warrant public health officials to declare a global pandemic, saying that the declaration would mean "we’re essentially accepting that every human on the planet will be exposed to that virus."

The German architect, city builder, Elias Hill, was born in Augsburg.