Jupiter flyby of the New Horizons Pluto-observer spacecraft.

A suicide bombing at a police recruiting centre in Al Hillah, Iraq kills 127.

Lebanon's pro-Syrian prime minister, Omar Karami, resigns amid large anti-Syria street demonstrations in Beirut.

Over 1 million Taiwanese participating in the 228 Hand-in-Hand Rally form a 500-kilometre (300-mile) long human chain to commemorate the 228 Incident in 1947

Six passengers and four railway staff are killed and a further 82 people suffer serious injuries in the Selby rail crash.

The Nisqually Earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter Scale hits the Nisqually Valley and the Seattle, Tacoma, and Olympia area of the U.S. state of Washington.

Kosovo War: Serbian police begin the offensive against the Kosovo Liberation Army in Kosovo.

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.

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.

A postmodern coup takes places in Turkey.

The North Hollywood shootout takes place.

Denver International Airport officially opens in Denver, Colorado to replace Stapleton International Airport

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.

The first Gulf War ends.

Olof Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden, is assassinated in Stockholm.

The Provisional Irish Republican Army carries out a mortar attack on the Royal Ulster Constabulary police station at Newry, killing nine officers in the highest loss of life for the RUC on a single day.

Andalusia approves its statute of autonomy through a referendum.

A major tube train crash at Moorgate station, London kills 43 people.

After seven years, the United States and Egypt re-establish diplomatic relations.

Sino-American relations: The United States and People's Republic of China sign the Shanghai Communiqué.

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 the worst school bus accident in U.S. history.

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 Nature (pub. April 2).

228 Incident: In Taiwan, civil disorder is put down with the loss of 30,000 civilian lives.

The heavy cruiser USS Houston (CA-30) is sunk in the Battle of Sunda Strait with 693 crew members killed, along with HMAS Perth (D29) which lost 375 men.

The erroneous word "Dord" is discovered in the ''Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition'', prompting an investigation.

The first issue of Serbian weekly magazine Politikin zabavnik is published.

DuPont scientist Wallace Carothers invents Nylon.

The England cricket team led by Douglas Jardine wins the acrimonious Bodyline Test series against Australia 4–1.

''Gleichschaltung'': The Reichstag Fire Decree is passed in Germany a day after the Reichstag fire.

C.V. Raman discovered Raman effect.

The United Kingdom ends its protectorate over Egypt through a Unilateral Declaration of Independence.

The Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus is proclaimed in Gjirokastër, by the Greeks living in southern Albania.

The Second Boer War: The 118-day "Siege of Ladysmith" is lifted.

Queen Ranavalona III, the last monarch of Madagascar, is deposed by a French military force.

The USS ''Indiana'', the lead ship of her class and the first battleship in the United States Navy comparable to foreign battleships of the time, is launched.

The American Telephone and Telegraph Company is incorporated in New York State as the subsidiary of American Bell Telephone. (American Bell would later merge with its subsidiary.)

The first vaudeville theater opens in Boston, Massachusetts.

The Bulgarian Exarchate is established by decree of Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz of the Ottoman Empire.

Colorado is organized as a United States territory.

The Republican Party of the United States is organized in Ripon, Wisconsin.

Regular steamboat service from the west to the east coast of the United States begins with the arrival of the SS ''California'' in San Francisco Bay, 4 months 22 days after leaving New York Harbor.

A gun on USS ''Princeton'' explodes while the boat is on a Potomac River cruise, killing eight people, including two United States Cabinet members.

Robert Nelson, leader of the Patriotes, proclaims the independence of Lower Canada (today Quebec)

The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad is incorporated, becoming the first railroad in America offering commercial transportation of both people and freight.

The charter establishing the institution now known as the University of Pittsburgh is granted.

John Wesley charters the Methodist Church.

An earthquake hits Iran, killing 200,000 people and causing several damages.

In the Battle of Helsingborg, 14,000 Danish invaders under Jørgen Rantzau are decisively defeated by an equally sized Swedish force under Magnus Stenbock.

Today is followed by March 1 in Sweden, thus creating the Swedish calendar.

The Scottish National Covenant is signed in Edinburgh.

The Fourth Council of Constantinople closes.