Today in history–February 28

1828: The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad is incorporated.  It will be the first railroad to offer both passenger and freight carriage.

1849: Regular steamship service between America’s two coast begins, as the S.S. California reaches San Francisco from New York after 4 months and 21 days.

1850: The University of Deseret, the forerunner of the University of Utah opens in Salt Lake City.

1854: A group of Whigs and antislavery Democrats meets at Ripon, Wisconsin, and creates the “Republican” party.

1875: Sir Goldsworthy Gurney, who built the first successful steam-powered passenger road car, dies at age 82.  He had opened a successful London-to-Bath car service, but fear for the loss of jobs in the horse carriage industry led to it being taxed out of existence.

1885: The American Telephone & Telegraph Co. is incorporated in New York as a subsidiary of American Bell Telephone.  Its mission: Develop a national long-distance system.

1955: Webb Pierce’s version of Jimmy Rodgers’s In the Jailhouse Now tops the U.S. country music charts.

1983: The final episode of M*A*S*H becomes the highest-rated television series episode of all time.