February 28, 1948

1948Steven Chu, American physicist and politician, 12th United States Secretary of Energy, Nobel Prize laureate^[†]

Steven Chu is an American physicist and former government official. He is a Nobel laureate and was the 12th U.S. secretary of energy. He is currently the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Physics and Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology at Stanford University. He is known for his research at the University of California, Berkeley, and his research at Bell Laboratories and Stanford University regarding the cooling and trapping of atoms with laser light, for which he shared the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics with Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and William Daniel Phillips.

1948Mike Figgis, English film director, screenwriter, and composer^[†]

Michael Figgis is an English film director, screenwriter, and composer. He received two Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for his work on Leaving Las Vegas (1995). Figgis was the founding patron of the independent filmmakers' online community Shooting People.

1948Bernadette Peters, American actress, singer, and author^[†]

Bernadette Peters is an American actress and singer. Over a career spanning more than six decades, she has starred in musical theatre, television and film, performed in solo concerts and released recordings. She is a critically acclaimed Broadway performer, having received seven nominations for Tony Awards, winning two, and nine Drama Desk Award nominations, winning three. Four of the Broadway cast albums on which she has starred have won Grammy Awards.

1948Mercedes Ruehl, American actress^[†]

Mercedes J. Ruehl is an American screen, stage, and television actress. She is the recipient of several accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Tony Award.

1948The 1948 Accra riots erupted following a march by ex-servicemen of the Gold Coast Regiment towards the seat of the colonial government at Christiansborg Castle where they were fired upon by Superintendant Colin Imray leading to the killing of Sergeant Adjetey, Corporal Attipoe and Private Odartey Lamptey and the arrest of the Big Six in the Gold Coast.^[†]

The Accra riots started on 28 February 1948 in Accra, the capital of the then British colony of the Gold Coast. A protest march by unarmed ex-servicemen who were agitating for their benefits as veterans of World War II, having fought with the Gold Coast Regiment of the Royal West African Frontier Force, was broken up by police, leaving three leaders of the group dead. They were Sergeant Nii Adjetey, Corporal Patrick Attipoe and Private Odartey Lamptey, who have since been memorialized in Accra.