Australian History
Sunday, February 28, 1790. : John Irving becomes the first convict to be freed in the New South Wales colony.
John Irving, sometimes written as Irwin or Irvine, was born around 1760, exact date unknown. He came to the penal colony of New South Wales with the First Fleet, after being sentenced in 1784 to seven years for stealing a silver cup. Originally interred on the ‘Scarborough’, he was later transferred to the ‘Lady Penrhyn’ for transportation.
Irving proved an able surgeon’s assistant, both on the voyage to New South Wales, and once the settlement was established. His hard work and “unremitting good conduct and meritorious behaviour” earned him an early reprieve from his sentence. Governor Phillip signed his Warrant of Emancipation on 28 February 1790, making Irving the first convict to be freed. He accompanied surgeon Dennis Considen to Norfolk Island, where he remained as surgeon’s assistant for over a year before returning to Port Jackson in May 1791. He was then awarded 30 acres of land at Parramatta.
World History
Thursday, February 28, 1574. : In conjunction with the Spanish Inquisition, three people are burned at the stake in Mexico, convicted of espousing “Lutheran heresies”.
During the period of the Spanish Inquisition which lasted from the late 15th century to the 17th century, thousands of Jews and Muslims were executed for their “heretical” beliefs amidst a predominantly Roman Catholic population. Many people sought to escape the persecution, fleeing to the Americas. They were assisted by numerous explorers and “conquistadors” of the New World. Because of this, the Inquisition travelled over to the Americas, and on 27 June 1535, Brother Juan de Zumárraga, the first bishop of Mexico, was named the Chief Inquisitor of New Spain. This resulted in the “Mexican Inquisition”, which was also directed at the suppression of heresy.
The Mexican Inquisition was not limited to persecution of Jews: any heretical books, especially those referring to the “Lutheran heresy”, were banned from entering the territory. The first victims of the Mexican Inquisition were two Englishmen and an Irishman, who were pronounced guilty of “Lutheran Heresies” and burned at the stake in Mexico City on 28 February 1574.
World History
Monday, February 28, 1944. : Nazi soldiers arrest Dutch Christian Corrie ten Boom and her family for harbouring Jews.
Corrie ten Boom was born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on 15 April 1892. She was instrumental in assisting Jewish refugees to safety during the WWII holocaust, and her family was very active in the Dutch underground, hiding refugees. Although Corrie’s family was Christian, they helped Jews unconditionally, even providing Kosher food and honouring the Sabbath. During any given time in 1943 and into 1944, the ten Boom family averaged 6-7 people illegally living in their home, usually 4 Jews and 2 or 3 members of the Dutch underground. It is estimated that the family saved around 800 Jews during the holocaust.
On 28 February 1944, Nazi soldiers arrested the entire ten Boom family. They were sent first to Dutch prisons, where they were interrogated. Corrie’s father died ten days after the family’s arrest, and other family members were sent to different prisons. After being shunted around various prisons, Corrie and Betsie were interred at the notorious Ravensbrück concentration camp, which held around 35,000 women, in September 1944. There, Betsie actively led daily Bible studies with the women, bringing hope in a place where torture and death was commonplace. Betsie died a week before Corrie was released, and it was years later that Corrie discovered her release was due to a “clerical error”, and should not have been permitted. A week after her release, all women of her age were executed.
The story of Corrie ten Boom’s family and their work during World War II is told in the book ‘The Hiding Place’. Corrie actively used the rest of her life to aid others after the war, and to spread the ministry of the gospel of Christ around the world. She died on 15 April 1983, on her 91st birthday.
World History
Friday, February 28, 1986. : Swedish Prime Minister, Olof Palme, is assassinated.
Sven Olof Joachim Palme was born on 30 January 1927 in Östermalm, Stockholm, Sweden. He became leader of the Social Democratic Party from 1969 to 1986 and was Prime Minister of Sweden with a Privy Council Government from 1969 to 1976 and with a Cabinet Government from 1982. Palme was known as a controversial politician, outspoken against the US involvement in the Vietnam war, campaigning against nuclear weapons proliferation, and condemning apartheid and advocating economic sanctions against South Africa.
Late in the evening of 28 February 1986, Palme and his wife were shot as they left a cinema. Palme was rushed to hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival, whilst his wife, who was shot in the back, made a full recovery. More than a year and a half after Palme’s death Christer Pettersson, a petty criminal, drug user and alcoholic, was arrested for the murder in December 1988. Identified by Mrs Palme as the killer, Pettersson was tried and convicted of the murder, but was later acquitted on appeal to the High Court, which succeeded mainly because the murder weapon had not been found. Pettersson died in September 2004, and reportedly confessed to the killing before his death. The police file on the investigation cannot be closed until the murder weapon is found.
World History
Sunday, February 28, 1993. : Federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms raid the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas.
The Branch Davidians were a religious group which split from the Seventh-day Adventist church. In 1981 a young man named Vernon Wayne Howell moved to Waco, Texas where he joined the Branch Davidians. He became leader at the cult’s Mt Carmel complex, located some fifteen kilometres out of Waco, and in 1990 changed his name to David Koresh. He declared himself to be the incarnation of the Second Coming of Christ, began filling the cult member’s heads with apocalyptic warnings and insisted that they arm themselves.
On 28 February 1993, agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms raided the Branch Davidian cult compound in Waco. As the agents attempted to enter the complex, a gun battle erupted, ultimately leaving four ATF agents and six Davidians dead. The standoff between the Branch Davidians and the FBI continued for 51 days. Negotiations stalled, as the Davidians had stockpiled years’ worth of food and other necessities prior to the raid. When federal agents moved in to end the siege at dawn on 19 April 1993 with tear gas, a fire broke out that killed approximately eighty cult members. Koresh was shot by his right-hand man, Steve Schneider, but the reasons for this remain unknown. Only eight Branch Davidians escaped with their lives.