Today in History
February 26th
747 BC – Epoch (origin) of Ptolemy’s Nabonassar Era.
364 – Valentinian I is proclaimed Roman Emperor.
1233 – Mongol–Jin War: The Mongols capture Kaifeng, the capital of the Jin dynasty, after besieging it for months.
1266 – Battle of Benevento: An army led by Charles, Count of Anjou, defeats a combined German and Sicilian force led by Manfred, King of Sicily. Manfred is killed in the battle and Pope Clement IV invests Charles as king of Sicily and Naples.
1616 – Galileo Galilei is formally banned by the Roman Catholic Church from teaching or defending the view that the earth orbits the sun.
1794 – The first Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen burns down.
1815 – Napoleon Bonaparte escapes from Elba.
1876 – Japan and Korea sign a treaty granting Japanese citizens extraterritoriality rights, opening three ports to Japanese trade, and ending Korea’s status as a tributary state of Qing dynasty China.
1909 – Kinemacolor, the first successful colour motion picture process, is first shown to the general public at the Palace Theatre in London.
1914 – HMHS Britannic, sister to the RMS Titanic, is launched at Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast.
1917 – The Original Dixieland Jass Band records the first jazz record, for the Victor Talking Machine Company in New York.
1919 – President Woodrow Wilson signs an act of the U.S. Congress establishing most of the Grand Canyon as a United States National Park – the Grand Canyon National Park.
1929 – President Calvin Coolidge signs an Executive Order establishing the 96,000 acre Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.
1935 – Adolf Hitler orders the Luftwaffe to be re-formed, violating the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles.
1935 – Robert Watson-Watt carries out a demonstration near Daventry which leads directly to the development of radar in the United Kingdom.
1936 – In the February 26 Incident, young Japanese military officers attempt to stage a coup against the government.
1946 – Finnish observers report the first of many thousands of sightings of ghost rockets.
1952 – Vincent Massey is sworn in as the first Canadian-born Governor General of Canada.
1960 – A New York-bound Alitalia airliner crashes into a cemetery in Shannon, Ireland, shortly after takeoff, killing 34 of the 52 persons on board.
1966 – Apollo program: Launch of AS-201, the first flight of the Saturn IB rocket
1966 – Vietnam War: The ROK Capital Division of the South Korean Army massacres 380 unarmed civilians in South Vietnam.
1971 – U.N. Secretary General U Thant signs United Nations proclamation of the vernal equinox as Earth Day.
1972 – The Buffalo Creek Flood caused by a burst dam kills 125 in West Virginia.
1980 – Egypt and Israel establish full diplomatic relations.
1987 – Iran–Contra affair: The Tower Commission rebukes President Ronald Reagan for not controlling his national security staff.
1991 – Gulf War: United States Army forces capture the town of Al Busayyah.
1992 – Nagorno-Karabakh War: Khojaly Massacre: Armenian armed forces open fire on Azeri civilians at a military post outside the town of Khojaly leaving hundreds dead.
1993 – World Trade Center bombing: In New York City, a truck bomb parked below the North Tower of the World Trade Center explodes, killing six and injuring over a thousand.
1995 – The United Kingdom’s oldest investment banking institute, Barings Bank, collapses after securities broker Nick Leeson loses $1.4 billion by speculating on the Singapore International Monetary Exchange using futures contracts.
2008 – The New York Philharmonic performs in Pyongyang, North Korea. The first event of its kind to take place in North Korea.
2012 – A train derails in Burlington, Ontario, Canada killing at least three people and injuring 45.
2013 – A hot air balloon crashes near Luxor, Egypt, killing 19 people.
All above information obtained from Wikipedia.org
Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_26