more events on February 26
-
1993
A bomb rocks the World Trade Center in New York City. Five people are killed and hundreds suffer from smoke inhalation.
-
1990
Daniel Ortega, communist president of Nicaragua, suffers a shocking election defeat at the hands of Violeta Chamorro.
-
1973
A publisher and 10 reporters are subpoenaed to testify on Watergate.
-
1972
Soviets recover Luna 20 with a cargo of moon rocks.
-
1970
Five Marines are arrested on charges of murdering 11 South Vietnamese women and children.
-
1968
Thirty-two African nations agree to boycott the Olympics because of the presence of South Africa.
-
1965
Norman Butler is arrested for the murder of Malcom X.
-
1964
Lyndon B. Johnson signs a tax bill with $11.5 billion in cuts.
-
1951
The 22nd Amendment is added to the Constitution limiting the Presidency to two terms.
-
1945
Syria declares war on Germany and Japan.
-
1943
U.S. Flying Fortresses and Liberators pound German docks and U-boat lairs at Wilhelmshaven.
-
1941
British take the Somali capital in East Africa.
-
1936
Japanese military troops march into Tokyo to conduct a coup and assassinate political leaders.
-
1933
Ground is broken for the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
-
1928
Antoine “Fats” Domino, American singer.
-
1924
U.S. steel industry finds claims an eight-hour day increases efficiency and employee relations.
-
1917
President Wilson publicly asks congress for the power to arm merchant ships.
-
1916
General Henri Philippe Petain takes command of the French forces at Verdun.
-
1914
Russian aviator Igor Sikorsky carries 17 passengers in a twin engine plane in St. Petersburg.
-
1901
Boxer Rebellion leaders Chi-Hsin and Hsu-Cheng-Yu are publicly executed in Peking.
-
1893
I(vor) A(rmstrong) Richards, writer, critic and teacher.
-
1879
Mabel Dodge Luhan, American biographer.
-
1877
Rudolph Dirks, cartoonist, creator of the “Katzenjammer Kids.”
-
1871
France and Prussia sign a preliminary peace treaty at Versailles.
-
1848
Karl Marx and Frederick Engels publish The Communist Manifesto in London.
-
1846
William Frederick Cody, aka “Buffalo Bill”.
-
1832
John George Nicolay, private secretary to Abraham Lincoln
-
1829
Levi Strauss, creator of blue jeans.
-
1815
Napoleon and 1,200 of his men leave Elba to start the 100-day re-conquest of France.
-
1802
Victor Hugo, French novelist and poet (Les Misérables).
-
1790
As a result of the Revolution, France is divided into 83 departments.
-
1154
William the Bad succeeds his father, Roger the II, in Sicily.
-
364
On the death of Jovian, a conference at Nicaea chooses Valentinan, an army officer who was born in the central European region of Pannania, to succeed him in Asia Minor.