Historical Events and Current Affairs on February 26

1266 : Battle of Benevento
1531 : Earthquake in Lisbon Spain, kills 20,000-30,000
1534 : Pope Paul II affirms George van Egmond as bishop of Utrecht
1590 : Mauritius of Nassaus sails to Breda
1616 : Spanish Inquisition delivers injunction to Galileo
1732 : 1st mass celebrated in 1st American Catholic church, Philadelphia
1732 : Mass celebrated for 1st time at St Joseph's Church (Phila)
1773 : Construction authorized for Walnut St jail (Phila) (1st solitary)
1797 : Bank of England issues 1st œ1-note
1804 : Vice-admiral William Bligh ends siege of Fort Amsterdam, Willemstad
1815 : Napoleon & 1,200 leave Elba to start 100-day re-conquest of France
1832 : Polish constitution abolished/replaced by Czar Nicholas I
1834 : 1st US interstate crime compact (NY-NJ) ratified
1839 : Jem Mason on Lottery wins 1st Grand National Steeplechase (Britain)
1848 : 2nd French Republic forms
1848 : 2nd French Republic proclaimed
1848 : Marx & Engels publish "Communist Manifesto"
1852 : British frigate Birkenhead sinks off South Africa-458 die
1859 : Paul Morphy's chess match vs Augustus Mongredien begins; Morphy wins
1862 : Battle of Woodburn, KY
1863 : Lincoln signs National Currency Act
1866 : New York Legislature forms NYC Metropolitan Board of Health
1869 : 15th Amendment guaranteeing right to vote sent to states
1869 : Franz Schubert's "4th Tragic," premieres
1870 : 1st NYC subway line opens (pneumatic powered)
1881 : -27] Natal: British troops under gen-major Colley occupy Majuba Hill
1881 : SS Ceylon begins 1st round-the-world cruise from Liverpool
1884 : British & Portuguese treaty signed in Congo by Leopold II
1885 : Congress of Berlin, gives Congo to Belgium & Nigeria to England
1891 : 1st buffalo purchased for Golden Gate Park
1891 : Henrik Ibsens "Hedda Gabler," premieres in Oslo
1893 : 2 Clydesdale horses set record by pulling 48 tons on a sledge, Mich
1893 : Einar Halvorsen skates world record 500m (48 sec)
1895 : Michael Owens of Toledo, Ohio patents a glass-blowing machine
1907 : Royal Oil & Shell merge to form British Petroleum (BP)
1907 : US Congress raised their own salaries to $7500
1912 : Coal miners strike in England (settle on 03/01)
1914 : New York Museum of Science & Industry incorporated
1915 : Malancourt, Argonnen (1st (German) flame-thrower
1916 : Germans sink French transport ship Provence II, killing 930
1916 : Mutual signs Charlie Chaplin to a film contract
1916 : Russian troops conquer Kermansjah Persia
1917 : 1st Annual fair at Utrecht Harbor (Netherlands)
1918 : Stands at Hong Kong Jockey Club collapse & burn, killing 604
1919 : Acadia National Park forms (as Lafayette N P), Maine
1919 : Congress forms Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona
1923 : Italian nationalist & fascists merge (blue-shirts & black-shirts)
1924 : Trial against Hitler in Munich begins
1925 : Jihad-Saint war against Turkish govt
1926 : Dark Street in the Bronx renamed Lustre Street
1929 : Pres Calvin Coolidge establishes Grand Teton National Park
1930 : "Green Pastures" opens at Mansfield Theater
1930 : 1st red & green traffic lights installed (Manhattan NYC)
1933 : Golden Gate Bridge ground-breaking ceremony held at Crissy Field
1933 : Marinus van der Lubbe kept overnight in a police cell
1935 : Germany begin Luftwaffe operation, under Reichsmarshall H Goering
1935 : NY Yankees release Babe Ruth, he signs with Boston Braves
1935 : RADAR-Radio Detection & Ranging 1st demonstrated (Robert Watson-Watt)
1936 : Hitler introduces Ferdinand Porsche's "Volkswagen"
1936 : Military coup in Japan
1937 : C Isherwood/WH Auden's "Ascent of F6," premieres in London
1938 : 1st passenger ship equipped with radar
1938 : Rie Van Veen swims world record 200m free style (2:24.6)
1938 : US female Figure Skating championship won by Joan Tozzer
1938 : US male Figure Skating championship won by Robin Lee
1940 : US Air Defense Command forms at Mitchel Field, LI, NY
1941 : 2 fighters unable to continued slugfest, referee declares double KO
1941 : Cowboys' Amateur Association of America organized (Calif)
1941 : Utrecht & Zaandam strike against raid on Jews
1941 : Vichy-France makes religious education in school mandatory
1942 : German battle cruiser Gneisenau deactivated by bomb
1942 : Radio Orange calls for March 1 day of prayer in Dutch Indies
1942 : Werner Heisenberger informs nazis about uranium project "Wunderwaffen"
1942 : WW II Navy flier Don Mason sends message "Sighted sub sank same"
1943 : German assault moves to Beja North Tunisia
1943 : L Oterma discovers asteroids #2841 Puijo & #5611
1944 : 1st female US navy captain, Sue Dauser of nurse corps, appointed
1945 : Very heavy bombing on Berlin by 8th US Air Force
1946 : 2 killed & 10 wounded in race riot in Columbia Tenn
1949 : USAF plane began 1st nonstop around-the-world flight
1950 : Leonard Bernstein's "Age of Anxiety," premieres in NYC
1951 : 22nd amendment to Constitution is ratified
1951 : Bread rationing in Czechoslovakia
1952 : Neth-Indonesian Unity conference
1952 : PM Winston Churchill announces Britain has its own atomic bomb
1953 : Allen W Dulles, promoted from deputy to 5th director of CIA
1954 : "obscene, lewd, lascivious or filthy" phonograph (rock & roll) records
1954 : 1st typesetting machine (photo engraving) used, Quincy Mass
1954 : Michigan rep Ruth Thompson (R) introduces legislation to ban mailing
1955 : "Peter Pan" closes at Winter Garden Theater NYC after 149 performances
1955 : 1st aviator to bail out at supersonic speed-GF Smith
1956 : Writers Sylvia Plath & Ted Hughes meet at a party in Cambridge
1960 : Soviet premier Khrushchev voices support for Indonesia
1960 : USA's David Jenkins wins Olympic Gold for men's figure skating
1960 : Verne Gagne beats Doctor X in Omaha, to become NWA wrestling champ
1962 : Arthur Kopit's "Oh, Dad, Poor Dad . . .," premieres in NYC
1962 : US Supreme court disallows race separation on public transportation
1962 : Wilt Chamberlain of NBA Phila Warriors scores 67 points vs NY
1965 : Dutch Govt of Marijnen falls
1965 : West Germany ceases military aid to Tanzania
1966 : KBIM TV channel 10 in Roswell, NM (CBS) begins broadcasting
1967 : USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1967 : Verne Gagne beats Mad Dog Vachon in St Paul, to become NWA champ
1968 : Clandestine Radio Voice of Iraqi People (Communist) final transmission
1970 : "Georgy" opens at Winter Garden Theater NYC for 4 performances
1970 : Beatles release "Beatles Again" aka "Hey Jude" album
1972 : Dam break in WV kills 107
1972 : Slag heap dam collapses above Buffalo Creek WV, kills 125
1973 : Triple Crown horse Secretariat bought for a record $5.7m
1974 : Gold hits record $188 an ounce in Paris
1975 : "Night... Made America Famous" opens at Barrymore NYC for 75 perfs
1975 : 1st televised kidney transplant (Today Show)
1976 : US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1977 : 1st flight of Space Shuttle (atop a Boeing 747)
1978 : Ira Levin's "Deathtrap," premieres in NYC
1979 : Last total eclipse of Sun in 20th century for continental US
1980 : Egypt & Israel exchange ambassadors for 1st time
1980 : Milt coup under Desi Bouterse in Suriname
1981 : 3 Anglican missionaries detained in Iran since Aug 1980 are released
1981 : 84 penalties (406 mins) assessed for a brawl between NHL Minn & Bost
1981 : French Train … Grande Vitesse averages 380 kph on trial run
1983 : Michael Jackson's "Thriller" album goes to #1 & stays #1 for 37 weeks
1983 : Shortwave pirate Radio USA (Wellsville, NY) begins transmission
1984 : H Debehogne discovers asteroids #6541 & #6691
1984 : Last US marines in multinatl peacekeeping force in Lebanon left Beirut
1984 : N Chernykh discovers asteroids #3575 & #3576
1984 : Pak Awang (84) marries 80th spouse
1984 : Rev Jesse Jackson acknowledges that he called NYC, "Hymietown"
1984 : Robert Penn Warren, Pulitzer Prize winner, named 1st US poet laureate
1985 : 27th Grammy Awards: Whats Love Got to Do With It, Cyndi Lauper wins
1986 : Evert van Benthem wins 14th Frisian 11-Cities skating race (6:55:16)
1987 : 1st release of Beatles compact discs
1987 : NASA launches GEOS-H
1987 : NBA's Michael Jordan's 58 points is a Chicago Bull record
1987 : Tower Commission probes Iran-Contra affair
1987 : USSR resumes nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1987 : Wash blocks 20 Indiana shots tying NBA regulation game record
1988 : Christa Rotherburger (GDR) skates ladies world record 1000m (1:17.65)
1989 : "Jerome Robbins' Broadway" opens at Imperial Theater NYC for 634 perfs
1989 : Calif court throws out most of Margo Adams's $12 million breach-of-
1989 : contract suit against Red Sox third baseman Wade Boggs
1989 : Lowest barometric pressure in Netherlands (95.5 hPa)
1989 : NY Yankees announce that Tom Seaver is their new TV sportscaster
1990 : USSR agrees to withdraw all 73,500 troops from Czech by July, 1991
1991 : Bill Veeck & Tony Lazzeri elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
1991 : Kuwaiti resistance leaders declare they have control of their capital
1991 : NY-NJ Knights (WLAF) players 1st come together
1992 : "Search & Destroy" opens at Circle in Sq Theater NYC for 46 perfs
1992 : Irish Supreme Court rules 14 year old rape victim may get an abortion
1993 : 2nd tallest building in world, NYC World Trade Center bombed, 7 die
1993 : 9th Soap Opera Digest Awards
1994 : Actor Dolph Lundgren (34) weds Anette Qviberg in Stockholm
1994 : St Louis Blues beat Ottawa Senators 11-1
1995 : by trader Nick Leeson
1995 : London finance house of Barings collapse after losses in Singapore
1997 : 39th Grammy Awards: Change the World Babyface, Beck & LeAnn Rimes wins
1998 : Oprah Winfrey beats Texas cattlemen in beef trial
1998 : Steven M Gluckstern completes sale of NY Islanders
1998 : Total solar eclipse in Venezuela-Pacific Ocean (4m09)
2008 : Blackout in Florida leaves about two millions without power
2008 : Ex-candidate Sen. Chris Dodd endorses Obama becoming first to endrose a rival candidate
2008 : Indian Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav presents his fifth Rail Budget
2008 : London Court convicts 7 persons of terrorist training
2008 : Mischa Barton has been charged with four misdemeanor counts
2008 : Pakistan lifts ban on YouTube
2008 : Siemens AG announces cut of 3800 jobs and transfer of 3000 jobs to partners or other subsidaries in corporate telecom unit
2008 : Sun Microsystems comples acquisition of MySQL AB
2008 : US consumer confidence hits a five-year low
2008 : US Defence Secretary Robert Gates begins two-day visit to India

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