The Simon Commission arrived in Bombay to study constitutional reform in British India. The delegation was immediately met with a hartal and protestors holding black flags and banners reading "Simon Go Back".[4]
Prominent Americans and Frenchmen held a celebration in Paris commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Franco-American Treaty of Alliance of 1778.[10]
British inventor John Logie Baird broadcast a transatlantic television signal from a transmitter in London to the United States, where it was seen on a receiver located in a laboratory in Hartsdale, New York.[14]
French playwright Pierre Veber challenged author Maurice Rostand to a duel with pistols after Rostand wrote a negative review of Veber's latest play, En Bordée. Rostand declined the challenge.[21]
Canadian Minister of FinanceJames Robb presented the government's budget for the next year, projecting a surplus of over $45.8 million. The income tax, cut 10 percent last year, was cut an additional 10 percent, and the sales tax was cut from 4 percent to 3 percent.[28]
Died:Ōtsuki Fumihiko, 80, Japanese lexicographer, linguist and historian
Saturday, February 18, 1928
A light plane crashed in downtown Macon, Georgia. Both pilots were killed when one of the bombs they were tossing out of the plane as part of a carnival exhibition caught in the wings and exploded, causing the plane to plummet 7,000 feet. A third person was killed and two injured as the plane crashed into the street.[30]
It was announced that the tooth attributed to the prehistoric primate species Nebraska Man (Hesperopithecus haroldcookii) was positively identified as belonging to an extinct wild pig.[32]
The U.S. Supreme Court decided the case of Miller v. Schoene, holding that a government could, without a hearing, exercise its police power over property "by deciding upon the destruction of one class of property in order to save another which, in the judgment of the legislature, is of greater value to the public" without violating the Due Process Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published a 19-page essay, "A Word of Warning", recommending that Christianity be abandoned and replaced by a new religion based on spiritualism.[34]
Industrialist Harry Ford Sinclair and three associates were found guilty of criminal contempt of court for jury shadowing in the Teapot Dome scandal trial. Sinclair was sentenced to six months in prison.[35]
A U.S. M1918 tankA U.S. 1928 T1 Light Tank
The United States Department of War announced that tank development in the past several years had made it a far more effective weapon than it was a decade earlier. "The tank of the World War was formerly regarded as an auxiliary of the infantryman", the department said. "Today it has undergone a complete transformation and while it will still, in certain circumstances, continue its role in aiding the doughboy, the future will find it utilized as the nucleus of the army's mechanized units."[36]
The Emir of Afghanistan Amānullāh Khān and his wife Soraya Tarzi rode in a royal procession through Berlin. Former Crown Prince Wilhelm attempted to join the procession uninvited but the crowd rushed his car and blocked it.[37]
Hungarian Prime Minister István Bethlen's statement to the League of Nations that Hungary "would not find it possible" to comply with the demand to halt the sale of the machine guns angered League officials.[39]
The controversial British war film Dawn was discussed on the floor of the House of Commons. Foreign Affairs Secretary Austen Chamberlain had not viewed the film and did not plan to, but objected to a scene depicting Edith Cavell's execution which had reportedly been embellished for dramatic effect. "I believe that account of the execution to be wholly apocryphal, and I hold it is an outrage on a noble woman's memory to turn into melodrama, for the purposes of commercial gain, so heroic a story", Chamberlain said, though he did not propose to censor the film as had been suggested.[41]
A French court refused to grant American lawyer and politician Bainbridge Colby a divorce, declaring itself "incompetent" to do so because both parties involved were foreigners and Mrs. Colby was not present. The ruling was viewed as an end to the practice of Americans coming to France for easy dissolutions of marriage in the country's "divorce mills".[43]
^"Ask Beacon Plant Permit Be Revoked". The Boston Daily Globe. March 13, 1928.
^"Pirates and Giants Trade Star Pitchers". Chicago Daily Tribune. February 12, 1928. p. Part 2 p. 1.
^Allen, Jay (February 13, 1928). "Duel at Dawn? No! Rostand to Playwright". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 1.
^Duke, Jason (2004). Tennessee Coal Mining, Railroading, and Logging in Cumberland, Fentress, Overton and Putnam Counties. Turner Publishing Co. p. 91. ISBN978-1-56311-932-3.
^ abHolston, Kim R. (2013). Movie Roadshows: A History and Filmography of Reserved-Seat Limited Showings, 1911–1973. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. p. 62. ISBN978-0-7864-6062-5.
^"Labor Wins Big Victory in N.Y. Traction Fight". Chicago Daily Tribune. February 16, 1928. p. 2.
^Kinsley, Philip (February 17, 1928). "Acquit Governor of Indiana". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 1.
^Smith, George (February 17, 1928). "Canada Budget Gives Heavy Tax and Tariff Cuts". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 12.
^"Virginia Senate Passes, 32 to 9, Anti-Lynching Bill". Chicago Daily Tribune. February 18, 1928. p. 2.
^"Bomb Kills 2 in Plane; Crash Into Crowd 1". Chicago Daily Tribune. February 19, 1928. p. 1.
^"Old Rip". Texas Twisted. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
^""Ape-Man's" Tooth Turns Out Wild Pig's". Chicago Daily Tribune. February 20, 1928. p. 1.
^"Japan Election Today Will Mark Era in Country", Associated Press report in Asheville (NC) Citizen-Times, February 20, 1928, p. 1
^"Conan Doyle Assails Church; Asks New Faith". Chicago Daily Tribune. February 21, 1928. p. 1.
