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Historical Events

26 Feb 1266
Battle of Benevento fought in Southern Italy between Manfred of Sicily and army of Charles of Anjou
26 Feb 1534
Pope Paul II affirms George van Egmond as bishop of Utrecht
26 Feb 1732
1st mass celebrated in 1st American Catholic church St Josephs Philadelphia
26 Feb 1773
Construction authorized for Walnut St jail (Philadelphia) (1st solitary)
26 Feb 1832
Polish constitution abolished and replaced by Tsar Nicholas I
26 Feb 1834
1st US interstate crime compact (NY-NJ) ratified
26 Feb 1839
1st Grand National steeplechase race held at Aintree Racecourse Jem Mason aboard Lottery wins in Liverpool England (disputed)
26 Feb 1851
13th Grand National T. Abbott aboard Abd-El-Kader IRE wins
26 Feb 1852
British troopship Birkenhead sinks off South Africa 458 die 193 survive
26 Feb 1859
Paul Morphys chess match vs Augustus Mongredien begins Morphy wins
26 Feb 1866
New York Legislature forms NYC Metropolitan Board of Health
26 Feb 1869
15th Amendment guaranteeing right to vote sent to states to ratify
26 Feb 1870
Beach Pneumatic Transit - 1st attempt to demonstrate a subway in New York opens (pneumatic powered)
26 Feb 1881
-27] Natal British troops under Major General Colley occupy Majuba Hill
26 Feb 1881
P&Os SS Ceylon begins worlds 1st round-the-world pleasure cruise from Liverpool
26 Feb 1884
British & Portuguese treaty signed in Congo by Leopold II
26 Feb 1885
Berlin Conference gives Congo to Belgium and Nigeria to Great Britain
26 Feb 1887
George Lohmann took 1st 8-wkt haul in test cricket 8-35 at SCG
26 Feb 1891
Henrik Ibsens Hedda Gabler premieres in Oslo
26 Feb 1893
2 Clydesdale horses set record by pulling 48 tons on a sledge Mich
26 Feb 1893
Einar Halvorsen skates world record 500m (48 sec)
26 Feb 1895
Michael Owens of Toledo Ohio patents a glass-blowing machine
26 Feb 1907
Royal Oil & Shell merge to form British Petroleum (BP)
26 Feb 1907
US Congress raised their own salaries to 7500
26 Feb 1907
Louis Botha Het Volk Party wins a majority in the election in Transvaal South Africa
26 Feb 1909
Austria and Turkey conclude an agreement in which Turkey recognizes Austrias 1908 annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and is to receive compensation
26 Feb 1912
Coal miners strike in Britain (settle on 1st March)
26 Feb 1914
New York Museum of Science & Industry incorporated
26 Feb 1914
HMHS Britannic sister to the Titanic is launched at Harland & Wolff Belfast
26 Feb 1915
Malancourt Argonnen 1st (German) flame-thrower
26 Feb 1916
Germans sink French transport ship Provence II killing 930
26 Feb 1917
1st jazz records recorded - Dixie Jazz Band One Step and Livery Stable Blues by Original Dixieland Jass Band for the Victor Talking Machine Company
26 Feb 1917
1st Annual fair at Utrecht Harbor (Netherlands)
26 Feb 1918
Stands at Hong Kong Jockey Club collapse & burn killing 604
26 Feb 1919
Acadia National Park forms (as Lafayette N P) Maine
26 Feb 1919
Congress forms Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona
26 Feb 1921
The USSR signs treaties respecting the integrity of Persia and of Afghanistan
26 Feb 1923
Italian nationalist & fascists merge (blue-shirts & black-shirts)
26 Feb 1926
Dark Street in the Bronx renamed Lustre Street
26 Feb 1930
1st red & green traffic lights installed (Manhattan NYC)
26 Feb 1930
West Indies make 1st Test Cricket win by 289 runs over England
26 Feb 1933
Golden Gate Bridge groundbreaking ceremony held at Crissy Field
26 Feb 1933
Marinus van der Lubbe kept overnight in a police cell
26 Feb 1935
Adolf Hitler secretly authorizes formation of the Luftwaffe with Hermann Gring commander-in-chief
26 Feb 1936
Adolf Hitler introduces Ferdinand Porsches Volkswagen
26 Feb 1937
Christopher Isherwood and W. H. Audens Ascent of F6 premieres in London
26 Feb 1938
Rie Van Veen swims world record 200m free style (224.6)
26 Feb 1940
US Air Defense Command forms at Mitchel Field LI NY
26 Feb 1941
2 fighters unable to continued slugfest referee declares double KO
26 Feb 1941
Cowboys Amateur Association of America organized (California)
26 Feb 1941
Vichy-France makes religious education in school mandatory
26 Feb 1942
German battle cruiser Gneisenau deactivated by bomb
26 Feb 1942
Radio Orange calls for March 1 day of prayer in Dutch Indies
26 Feb 1942
Werner Heisenberger informs nazis about uranium project Wunderwaffen
26 Feb 1944
1st female US navy captain Sue Dauser of nurse corps appointed
26 Feb 1945
Very heavy bombing on Berlin by 8th US Air Force
26 Feb 1946
2 killed & 10 wounded in race riot in Columbia Tenn
26 Feb 1949
USAF plane began 1st nonstop around-the-world flight
26 Feb 1950
Leonard Bernsteins Age of Anxiety premieres in NYC
26 Feb 1953
Allen Dulles officially promoted from deputy director to become the 5th Director of the Central Intelligence Agency
26 Feb 1954
1st typesetting machine (photo engraving) used Quincy Mass
26 Feb 1954
Michigan rep Ruth Thompson (R) introduces legislation to ban mailing obscene lewd lascivious or filthy phonograph (rock & roll) records
26 Feb 1955
Peter Pan closes at Winter Garden Theater NYC after 149 performances
26 Feb 1955
1st aviator to bail out at supersonic speed-GF Smith
26 Feb 1960
USAs David Jenkins wins Olympic Gold for mens figure skating
26 Feb 1960
Verne Gagne beats Doctor X in Omaha to become NWA wrestling champ
26 Feb 1960
David Jenkins wins the mens figure skating gold medal at the Squaw Valley Winter Olympics US takes the singles double after Carol Heiss wins womens event
26 Feb 1961
3rd Daytona 500 Marvin Panch wins in a 1960 Pontiac owned by Smokey Yunick when race leader Fireball Roberts car suffered a blown engine with 13 laps remaining
26 Feb 1962
Arthur Kopits Oh Dad Poor Dad . . . premieres in NYC
26 Feb 1962
US Supreme court disallows race separation on public transportation
26 Feb 1966
KBIM TV channel 10 in Roswell NM (CBS) begins broadcasting
26 Feb 1967
Verne Gagne beats Mad Dog Vachon in St Paul to become NWA champ
26 Feb 1968
Clandestine Radio Voice of Iraqi People (Communist) final transmission
26 Feb 1970
Georgy opens at Winter Garden Theater NYC for 4 performances
26 Feb 1970
Beatles release Beatles Again aka Hey Jude album
26 Feb 1971
Secretary-General U Thant signs United Nations proclamation of the vernal equinox as Earth Day.
26 Feb 1971
Two Royal Ulster Constabulary officers are shot and killed by the Irish Republican Army while on a mobile patrol in the Ardoyne area of Belfast North Ireland
26 Feb 1972
Slag heap dam collapses above Buffalo Creek West Virginia kills 125
26 Feb 1973
Triple Crown horse Secretariat bought for a record 5.7m
26 Feb 1975
Night... Made America Famous opens at Barrymore NYC for 75 performances
26 Feb 1977
1st flight of Space Shuttle (atop a Boeing 747)
26 Feb 1979
Last total eclipse of Sun in 20th century for continental US
26 Feb 1979
CBS premiere of NYC sitcom Flatbush which received many derision phone calls about it from Brooklynites to CBS
26 Feb 1980
Egypt & Israel exchange ambassadors for 1st time
26 Feb 1989
Lowest barometric pressure in Netherlands (95.5 hPa)
26 Feb 1989
NY Yankees announce that Tom Seaver is their new TV sportscaster
26 Feb 1981
3 Anglican missionaries detained in Iran since Aug 1980 are released
26 Feb 1981
84 penalties (406 mins) assessed for a brawl between NHL Minn & Bost
26 Feb 1981
French Train Grande Vitesse averages 380 kph on trial run
26 Feb 1983
Shortwave pirate Radio USA (Wellsville NY) begins transmission
26 Feb 1984
Last US marines in multinational peacekeeping force in Lebanon left Beirut
26 Feb 1984
Reverend Jesse Jackson acknowledges that he called NYC Hymietown
26 Feb 1984
Robert Penn Warren Pulitzer Prize winner named 1st US poet laureate
26 Feb 1985
27th Grammy Awards Whats Love Got to Do With It Cyndi Lauper wins
26 Feb 1986
Evert van Benthem wins 14th Frisian 11-Cities skating race (65516)
26 Feb 1987
USSR resumes nuclear test at Eastern KazakhSemipalitinsk USSR
26 Feb 1987
Wash blocks 20 Indiana shots tying NBA regulation game record
26 Feb 1988
Christa Rotherburger (GDR) skates ladies world record 1000m (117.65)
26 Feb 1989
Jerome Robbins Broadway opens at Imperial Theater NYC for 634 performances
26 Feb 1989
California court throws out most of Margo Adamss 12 million breach-of- contract suit against Red Sox third baseman Wade Boggs
26 Feb 1990
USSR agrees to withdraw all 73500 troops from Czech by July 1991
26 Feb 1990
The Sandinistas are defeated in Nicaraguan elections.
26 Feb 1991
Asanka Gurusinha scores twin Test Cricket tons v NZ (119 & 102)
26 Feb 1991
Bill Veeck & Tony Lazzeri elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
26 Feb 1991
Kuwaiti resistance leaders declare they have control of their capital
26 Feb 1991
NY-NJ Knights (WLAF) players 1st come together
26 Feb 1991
Signs of Iran crude now an option for US refiners but no imports from Iran likely in near future
26 Feb 1992
Search & Destroy opens at Circle in Sq Theater NYC for 46 performances
26 Feb 1992
Irish Supreme Court rules 14 year old rape victim may get an abortion
26 Feb 1993
World Trade Center bombing of truck bomb explodes in parking garage of NYC World Trade Center at 1218pm killing 6 and injuring over 1000 in what was the deadliest act of terrorism perpetrated on US soil at the time
26 Feb 1993
9th Soap Opera Digest Awards - Days of Our Lives wins
26 Feb 1993
Allan Border beats Gavaskars record for most Test Cricket runs 10123
26 Feb 1995
London finance house Barings collapses after huge losses in Singapore by rogue trader Nick Leeson
26 Feb 1997
39th Grammy Awards Change the World Babyface Beck & LeAnn Rimes wins
26 Feb 1998
Steven M Gluckstern completes sale of NY Islanders
26 Feb 1998
Total solar eclipse in Venezuela-Pacific Ocean (4m09)
26 Feb 1999
15th Soap Opera Digest Awards - General Hospital wins
26 Feb 2001
The Taliban destroy two giant Buddha statues in Bamyan Afghanistan.
26 Feb 2004
Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski is killed in a plane crash near Mostar Bosnia and Herzegovina.
26 Feb 2004
The United States lifts a ban on travel to Libya ending travel restrictions to the nation that had lasted for 23 years.
26 Feb 2010
41st NAACP Image Awards Precious wins Outstanding Motion Picture
26 Feb 2011
31st Golden Raspberry Awards The Last Airbender wins
26 Feb 2012
Bus plunges off a cliff in Shanxi China causing 15 deaths
26 Feb 2012
Train derailment kills 3 and injures 45 in Burlington Ontario
26 Feb 2012
61st NBA All-Star Game Amway Centre Orlando FL West beats East 152-149 MVP Kevin Durant OKC Thunder F
26 Feb 2013
A rocket launched from the Gaza strip into Israel ends the ceasefire since November 2012
26 Feb 2013
A hot air balloon crashes in Luxor Egypt killing 19 tourists
26 Feb 2013
A flexible battery capable of being charged wirelessly and folded and stretched is developed
26 Feb 2016
Iranian elections reformers and moderates win control of parliament
26 Feb 2017
59th Daytona 500 Kurt Busch wins after Kyle Larson runs out of gas on last lap Jeffrey Earnhardt makes NASCAR history 1st ever 4th generation driver to compete in Daytona 500
26 Feb 2018
Cold weather nicknamed the Beast from the East hits Europe killing 7 and covering Pompeii in snow
26 Feb 2018
Global Seed Vault in Svalbard Norway receives its 1 millionth seed on 10 year anniversary
26 Feb 2018
Global Seed Vault opens in Svalbard Norway to help preserve diversity and loss from other genebanks
26 Feb 1606
First known European landing in Australia by Dutch navigator Willem Jansz (or Janszoon) at the Pennefather River Cape York northern Australia
26 Feb 1839
1st Grand National steeplechase Aintree Racecourse Liverpool Jem Mason wins aboard 51 favourite Lottery
26 Feb 1851
13th Grand National Terry Abbott wins aboard Irish stallion Abd-El-Kader at 71 first dual winner and first to win back-to-back
26 Feb 1942
Werner Heisenberg a principal scientist in the German nuclear weapons program delivers a lecture to Nazi officials about extracting energy from nuclear fission
26 Feb 1972
Ireland-Wales Five Nations Rugby match scheduled for Lansdowne Road Dublin is cancelled because of escalating political situation Championship not completed for first time since World War II
26 Feb 1773
Construction of Walnut Street Jail is approved by the state of Pennsylvania it will become the first experiment with the practice of solitary confinement in the United States
26 Feb 1869
US 15th Amendment guaranteeing right to vote sent to states to ratify
26 Feb 1887
George Lohmann took 1st 8-wkt haul in test cricket 8-35 at Sydney Cricket Ground
26 Feb 1907
US Congress raise their own salaries to 7500
26 Feb 1930
Play Green Pastures opens at Mansfield Theater
26 Feb 1930
1st red & green traffic lights installed in Manhattan NYC
26 Feb 1946
2 killed & 10 wounded in race riot in Columbia Tennessee
26 Feb 1954
1st typesetting machine (photo engraving) used Quincy Massachusetts
26 Feb 1967
Verne Gagne beats Mad Dog Vachon in St Paul to become NWA champion
26 Feb 1401
English Catholic priest William Sawtrey convicted of heresy and later becomes 1st Lollard martyr to be publicly burnt at the stake
26 Feb 1606
First known European landing in Australia by Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon at the Pennefather River Cape York northern Australia
26 Feb 1970
Carole Bayer (Sager) and George Fischoffs musical Georgy opens at Winter Garden Theater NYC runs for 4 performances
26 Feb 1970
The Beatles release Hey Jude compilation album (originally to be titled Beatles Again)
26 Feb 1971
Two Royal Ulster Constabulary officers shot and killed by the Irish Republican Army while on mobile patrol in the Ardoyne area of Belfast North Ireland
26 Feb 1985
27th Grammy Awards Whats Love Got to Do With It and Cyndi Lauper win
26 Feb 1987
1st release of Beatles on compact disc Please Please Me With The Beatles A Hard Days Night and Beatles For Sale [1]
26 Feb 1992
Search & Destroy opens at Circle in Square Theater NYC runs for 46 performances
26 Feb 1548
Ottoman fleet under Piri Reis retakes the port of Aden (modern Yemen) from the Portuguese
26 Feb 1893
2 Clydesdale horses set record by pulling 48 tons on a sledge in Michigan
26 Feb 1893
Norwegian Einar Halvorsen skates world record 500m (48 sec)
26 Feb 1919
US Congress establishes Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona
26 Feb 1920
German silent horror film classic The Cabinet of Dr Caligari starring Werner Krauss is released
26 Feb 1954
Michigan Representative Ruth Thompson (R) introduces legislation to ban mailing obscene lewd lascivious or filthy phonograph (rock & roll) records
26 Feb 1970
The Beatles release Hey Jude compilation album in US (originally to be titled Beatles Again)
26 Feb 1975
Night... Made America Famous opens at Barrymore NYC runs for 75 performances
26 Feb 1984
Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Penn Warren is named the 1st US poet laureate
26 Feb 1992
200 Azerbaijanis mostly civilians are killed by local Armenian forces and the 366th CIS regiment in the Khojaly massacre in Nagorno-Karabakh
26 Feb 2012
17-year old black teenager Trayvon Martin shot and killed by George Zimmerman in Sanford Florida highlighted issue of racial profiling in the US
26 Feb 1773
State of Pennsylvania approves construction of Walnut Street Jail in Philadelphia it will become the first experiment with the practice of solitary confinement in the United States
26 Feb 1895
Michael Owens of Toledo Ohio patents a glass-blowing machine to make glass bottles
26 Feb 1917
1st jazz records recorded - Dixie Jazz Band One Step and Livery Stable Blues by Original Dixieland Jass Band for the Victor Talking Machine Company in NYC
26 Feb 1975
Harry Chapins musical revue The Night That Made America Famous opens at Barrymore Theatre NYC runs for 75 performances
26 Feb 1980
Military coup under Desi Bouterse in Suriname overthrows the Henck Arron government
26 Feb 1991
Gulf War Battle of 73 Easting - Coalition forces win decisive victory over Iraq in tank battle involving 500-700 combined vehicles
26 Feb 1991
Gulf War Kuwaiti resistance leaders declare they have control of their capital
26 Feb 1992
Irish Supreme Court rules 14-year-old rape victim may get an abortion
26 Feb 2008
Global Seed Vault officially opens in Svalbard Norway to help preserve diversity and loss from other genebanks
26 Feb 2010
Opera Madame White Snake by Boston Opera composed by Zhou Long premieres at the Cutler Majestic Theatre Boston (Pulitzer Prize for Music 2011)
26 Feb 1955
Jean Shepherd American humorist and storyteller begins long-running radio program on WOR-AM in NYC
26 Feb 1987
USSR resumes nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
26 Feb 2018
7.5 magnitude earthquake in central Papa New Guinea kills at least 100
26 Feb 2018
Global Seed Vault in Svalbard Norway receives its 1 millionth seed on its 10 year anniversary
26 Feb 2019
Catholic Cardinal George Pell convicted of child sexual abuse in Melbourne Australia. As treasurer at the Vatican the highest-ranking church official to be convicted overturned in 2020
26 Feb 2019
City of Venice in Italy introduces a day visitors tax
26 Feb 2019
India launches air strikes on alleged terrorist camps within Pakistan
26 Feb 2019
More than 4500 complaints of child sexual abuse against migrant children received by US Health Department Department of Justice received 1300 more
26 Feb 2019
UK reaches its highest-ever winter temperature with 21.2C (70.2F) in Kew Gardens London
26 Feb 2020
Saudi Arabia bars overseas pilgrims from accessing religious sites of Mecca and Medina because of COVID-19 fears for 1st time in living memory
26 Feb 2021
Amnesty International Report says that Eritrean troops might have committed crimes against humanity killing hundreds of civilians in attack on Ethiopian city of Aksum 28-29 November [1]
26 Feb 2021
Toymaker Hasbro announces that the Mr Potato Head brand name will be changed to be gender-neutral [1]
26 Feb 2022
Rain bomb due to a slow-moving low pressure trough begins major flooding in south-east Queensland Australia leaving at least seven people dead [1]
26 Feb 1732
First Mass celebrated in the first American Catholic church St. Josephs Philadelphia
26 Feb 1839
First Grand National steeplechase at Aintree Racecourse Liverpool Jem Mason wins aboard 51 favorite Lottery
26 Feb 1881
P&Os SS Ceylon begins the worlds first round-the-world pleasure cruise from Liverpool
26 Feb 1885
Berlin Conference gives Congo to Belgium and Nigeria to the United Kingdom
26 Feb 1917
First jazz records are recorded Dixie Jazz Band One Step and Livery Stable Blues by the Original Dixieland Jass Band for the Victor Talking Machine Company in NYC
26 Feb 1944
First female US Navy captain Sue Dauser of the Nurse Corps appointed
26 Feb 1954
First typesetting machine (photo engraving) used in Quincy Massachusetts
26 Feb 1974
Price of gold hits record 188 an ounce in Paris
26 Feb 1990
South African President F.W. Willem de Klerk orders the destruction of the six completed nuclear weapons and a seventh device under construction
26 Feb 1990
USSR agrees to withdraw all 73500 troops from Czechoslovak Socialist Republic by July 1991
26 Feb 1998
Steven Gluckstern completes the sale of the NY Islanders
26 Feb 1998
Total solar eclipse in Venezuela-Pacific Ocean lasts for 4 minutes and 9 seconds
26 Feb 2001
Taliban destroy two giant 1500-year-old Buddha statues in Bamyan Afghanistan a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a holy site for Buddhists on the Silk Road
26 Feb 2004
Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski is killed in a plane crash during thick fog and heavy rain near Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina
26 Feb 2004
US lifts a ban on travel to Libya ending restrictions that had lasted for 23 years
26 Feb 2009
Yugoslav Army General Nebojsa Pavkovic is convicted of committing crimes against humanity during the Kosovo War and sentenced to 22 years in prison [1]
26 Feb 2022
Scientists publish findings into lost continent Balkanatolia that linked southern Europe with Asia providing passageway for animal migrations 35 to 38 million years ago [1]
26 Feb 2023
At least 59 migrants are killed after a boat breaks up in rough seas off the eastern coast of Calabria Italy with 80 survivors [1]
26 Feb 2023
Dilbert comic strip creator Scott Adams faces widespread condemnation for his comments about African Americans in a YouTube show prompting his strip and up-coming book to be cancelled [1]
26 Feb 2023
ICC Womens Cricket T20 World Cup Cape Town Defending champions Australia score a 19-run victory over South Africa to win their sixth title Player of the series Australian all-rounder Ash Gardner
26 Feb 2023
Large rallies in Mexico cities (organizers estimate 500000) protest cuts to the National Electoral Institute (INE) seen as undermining electoral neutrality [1]
26 Feb 2023
One of the most violent incidents of revenge by mobs of Israeli settlers who burn 200 buildings in Palestinian villages and kill at least one person after a Palestinian gunman kills two Israeli in the northern West Bank [1]
26 Feb 2023
Winter storm deposits snow in parts of southern California for the first time in decades down to 1000 feet elevation with snow accumulations up to 7 feet deep in San Bernardino Mountains [1]
26 Feb 2025
First death from measles in the US occurs in Texas in a decade and the first child to die in 22 years amid an outbreak affecting 124 people [1]