Today in History - February 26
Return to home
747BCE Feb 26, Origin of Era of
Nabonassar.
(SC, 2/26/02)
364CE Feb 26, On the death of
Jovian, a conference at Nicaea chose Valentinan, an army officer who
was born in the central European region of Pannania, to succeed him in
Asia Minor.
(HN, 2/26/99)
1076 Feb 26, Godfried III with the
Hump, duke of Netherlands-Lutheran, was murdered. [see Feb 24]
(SC, 2/26/02)
1154 Feb 26, Rogier II Guiscard
(60), King of Sicily (1101-54), died. William the bad succeeded his
father, Roger the II.
(SC, 2/26/02)(HN, 2/26/99)
1266 Feb 26, Charles d’Anjou, king
of the two Sicilies, defeated Manfred (33), in the Battle of Benevento.
Manfred, the bastard son of Emperor Frederik II, king of Sicily, was
killed.
(PCh, 1992, p.114)(SC, 2/26/02)
1324 Feb 26, Dino Compagni,
Italian silk seller, poet, chronicler, died.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1361 Feb 26, Wenceslas of Bohemia,
Holy Roman Catholic German emperor (1378-1400), was born.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1505 Feb 26, In Brest
Polish Chancellor J. Laski invited the Lithuanian government to
reconfirm and expand the 1501 Union of Melnik, but the offer was
rejected.
(LHC, 2/26/03)
1534 Feb 26, Pope Paul III was
affirmed George van Egmond as bishop of Utrecht.
(PTA, 1980, p.440)(SC, 2/26/02)
1538 Feb 26, Worp van Thabor,
Frisian abbot of Thabor (Chronicon Frisiae), died.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1564 Feb 26, Christopher Marlowe,
English, poet, dramatist, was baptized. His work included “Doctor
Faustus,” “Tamburlaine,” “The Jew of Malta,” and other plays. He was
murdered at 29 in a Deptford tavern and was suspected of being a spy to
the Continent on behalf of the Crown. In 1993 Anthony Burgess had a
novel published posthumously about Marlowe titled “A Dead Man in
Deptford.”
(WSJ, 4/28/95, p.A-8)(DTnet, 6/1/97)(SC, 2/26/02)
1577 Feb 26, Erik XIV Wasa (43),
King of Sweden (1560-69), died.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1616 Feb 26, Spanish Inquisition
delivered an injunction to Galileo.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1726 Feb 26, Maximilian II, M.
Emanuel, elector of Bavaria, governor of Netherlands, died.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1732 Feb 26, The 1st mass
celebrated in American Catholic church was at St Joseph's Church,
Philadelphia.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1773 Feb 26, Construction was
authorized for Walnut St. jail in Philadelphia, (1st solitary).
(SC, 2/26/02)
1790 Feb 26, As a result of the
Revolution, France was divided into 83 departments.
(HN, 2/26/99)
1797 Feb 26, Bank of England
issued 1st £1-note.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1802 Feb 26, Victor Hugo (d.1885),
French novelist and poet, was born in Besancon. In 1998 Graham Robb
published the biography: “Victor Hugo.” "Initiative is doing the right
thing without being told."
(WSJ, 2/10/98, p.A16)(HN, 2/26/98)(AP, 6/13/99)
1804 Feb 26, Vice-Admiral William
Bligh ended the siege of Fort Amsterdam, Willemstad.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1805 Feb 26, Alexander
Stulginskis, the 2nd president of Lithuania, was born at Kutaliai in
the Silale region. He died Sep 22, 1969 in Kaunas.
(LHC, 2/26/03)
1813 Feb 26, Robert R. Livingston
(66), US diplomat (Declaration of Independence), died.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1815 Feb 26, Napoleon and 1,200 of
his men escaped from the Island of Elba to start the 100-day
re-conquest of France.
(HN, 2/26/98)(AP, 2/26/98)
1829 Feb 26, Levi Strauss, creator
of blue jeans, was born.
(HN, 2/26/98)
1832 Feb 26, Jo George Nicolay,
private secretary to Abraham Lincoln and his biographer, was
born.
(HN, 2/26/98)(SC, 2/26/02)
1832 Feb 26, The Polish
constitution was abolished by Czar Nicholas I.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1834 Feb 26, New York and New
Jersey ratified the 1st US interstate crime compact.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1842 Feb 26, Camille Flammarion,
Mars researcher and popularizer of astronomy, was born.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1845 Feb 26, Alexander III,
Russian tsar (1881-94), was born in St Petersburg. [see Mar 10]
(SC, 2/26/02)
1846 Feb 26, William Frederick
Cody, aka "Buffalo Bill," was born in Scott County, Iowa. He was a
"Wild West" frontiersman-turned-showman. Three weeks after the disaster
at the Little Bighorn, Buffalo Bill claimed he had taken 'the first
scalp for Custer!'
(HN, 2/26/98)(AP, 2/26/98)
1848 Feb 26, The Second French
Republic was proclaimed. [see Feb 24]
(AP, 2/26/98)
1848 Feb 26, Karl Marx and
Frederich Engels published "The Communist Manifesto".
(HN, 2/26/98)
1852 Feb 26, Dr. John Harvey
Kellogg (d.1943) was born. He was 24 years old when he became staff
physician at the Battle Creek Sanitarium--a position he held for 62
years. Dr. Kellogg, a respected abdominal surgeon, ran "the San" as a
health institute where the wealthy could rejuvenate themselves with
Kellogg's offbeat cures. Illness was caused, Kellogg believed, by poor
eating habits that left poisons in the intestinal tract. Among
Kellogg's solutions to the dietary dilemma were "fletcherizing," or
chewing food hundreds of times before swallowing, and a vegetarian diet
high in bran. It was the bowels, however, that received Kellogg's
undivided attention. Patients at the San were subjected to regimens of
"cleansing enemas" that cured "ulcers, diabetes, schizophrenia,
acne...and premature old age." In 1895, Kellogg's search for the
perfect food led to the development of breakfast food flakes made of
wheat called Granose. Will Keith Kellogg, John's brother, improved on
the Granose idea and founded the W.K. Kellogg Company.
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/9840/kellogg.html
(HNPD, 2/26/99)
1852 Feb 26, The British frigate
Birkenhead sank off South Africa and 458 died.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1860 Feb 26, White settlers
massacred a band of Wiyot Indians at the village of Tuluwat on Indian
Island near Eureka, Ca. At least 60 women, children and elders were
killed. Bret Harte, newspaper reporter in Arcata, fed the news to
newspapers in San Francisco.
(SFC, 2/28/04, p.D1)
1861 Feb 26, Ferdinand I, 1st tsar
of modern Bulgaria (1908-18), was born in Vienna.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1862 Feb 26, Battle of Woodburn,
KY.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1862 Feb 26, Cornelius Felton
(b.1807), president of Harvard Univ., died in Chester, Pen., after 2
years in office.
(WSJ, 2/21/06,
p.A3)(www.nndb.com/people/711/000107390/)y
1863 Feb 26, Pres. Lincoln signed
a National Currency Act.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1866 Feb 26, Herbert Henry Dow,
pioneer in US chemical industry (Dow Chemical), was born.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1866 Feb 26, New York Legislature
established the NYC Metropolitan Board of Health.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1869 Feb 26, Nadezjda K.
Krupskaja, Russian revolutionary, wife of Lenin, was born.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1869 Feb 26, 15th Amendment,
guaranteeing right to vote, was sent to states.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1870 Feb 26, New York City's first
pneumatic-powered subway line was opened to the public. The tunnel was
only a block long, and the line had only one car.
(AP, 2/26/07)
1870 Feb 26, Wyatt Outlaw, black
leader of Union League in North Carolina, was lynched.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1871 Feb 26, France and Prussia
signed a preliminary peace treaty at Versailles.
(HN, 2/26/99)
1876 Feb 26, Agustin P. Justo y
Rolon, President of Argentina (1931-38), was born.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1877 Feb 26, Rudolph Dirks,
cartoonist, was born. He became the creator of the "Katzenjammer Kids."
(HN, 2/26/01)
1877 Feb 26, Carel S. Adama van
Scheltema, Dutch poet, writer (socialism), was born.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1879 Feb 26, Mabel Dodge Luhan,
American biographer, was born.
(HN, 2/26/01)
1881 Feb 26, Natal British troops
under General-Major Colley occupied Majuba Hill.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1881 Feb 26, SS Ceylon began its
1st round-the-world cruise from Liverpool.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1884 Feb 26, Leopold II in Congo
signed a British and Portuguese treaty.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1885 Feb 26, The Congress of
Berlin gave Congo to Belgium and Nigeria to England.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1887 Feb 26, Sir Benegal Narsing
Rau, president of UN Security Council (1950), was born in India.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1891 Feb 26, Henrik Ibsen’s "Hedda
Gabler" premiered in Oslo.
(SFC, 4/14/01, p.B1)(SC, 2/26/02)
1891 Feb 26, The 1st buffalo was
purchased for Golden Gate Park in SF under John McLaren. A pair of
bison, named Benjamin Harrison and Sarah Bernhardt, were settled in
Golden Gate Park following reports that only 1000 were left in the US.
(SFC, 12/13/99, p.A18)(SC, 2/26/02)(SFC, 10/30/08,
p.B1)
1893 Feb 26, Ivor Armstrong
Richards (I.A. Richards), writer, critic and teacher (Meaning of
Meaning), was born.
(HN, 2/26/01)(SC, 2/26/02)
1893 Feb 26, 2 Clydesdale horses
set a record by pulling 48 tons on a sledge in Michigan.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1893 Feb 26, Einar Halvorsen
skated to a world record 500 meter (48 seconds).
(SC, 2/26/02)
1895 Feb 26, Michael Owens of
Toledo, OH., patented a glass-blowing machine.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1901 Feb 26, Boxer Rebellion
leaders Chi-Hsin (Chi-hsui) and Hsu-Cheng-Yu were publicly executed in
Peking.
(HN, 2/26/98)(SC, 2/26/02)
1903 Feb 26, Richard Gatling
(b.1818), American inventor, died. The Gatling gun, an early type of
machine gun, was named after him. In 2008 Julia Keller authored “Mr.
Gatling’s Terrible Marvel.”
(WSJ, 6/3/08,
p.A19)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Jordan_Gatling)
1907 Feb 26, Concerns about a
growing influx of foreigners, mostly Europeans, prompted Congress to
create what became known as the Dillingham Commission, which examined
the impact of immigrants on America. The panel later recommended
curtailing immigration from southern and eastern Europe through use of
quotas, higher entry fees, literacy tests and other restrictions.
(AP, 2/26/07)
1907 Feb 26, Members of US
Congress raised their own salaries to $7500.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1907 Feb 26, Royal Oil and Shell
merged to form British Petroleum (BP).
(SC, 2/26/02)
1909 Feb 26, Diplomats gathered in
Shanghai agreed to set up the International Opium Commission. This was
the first international effort to ban trade in a narcotic drug.
(Econ, 3/7/09, p.15)
1912 Feb 26, Coal miners struck in
England. They settled on 03/01.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1914 Feb 26, New York Museum of
Science and Industry was incorporated.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1914 Feb 26, Russian aviator Igor
Sikorsky carried 17 passengers in a twin engine plane in St.
Petersburg. Igor Sikorsky, founder of Sikorsky Aircraft, produced a
film in 1942 that promoted the capabilities of his VS-300 helicopter,
highlighting its possible rescue and military applications.
(HN, 2/26/98)
1915 Feb 26, The 1st flame-thrower
was used by the Germans at Malancourt, Argonnen.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1916 Feb 26, Jackie Gleason,
comedian (Ralph Kramden in the Honeymooners), was born in Brooklyn, NY.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1916 Feb 26, Mutual signed Charlie
Chaplin to a film contract.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1916 Feb 26, General Henri
Philippe Petain took command of the French forces at Verdun. A line of
bayonets protruding from the earth still testifies to French valor at
Verdun in World War I.
(HN, 2/26/98)
1916 Feb 26, Germans sank the
French transport ship Provence II, killing 930.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1916 Feb 26, Russian troops
conquered Kermansjah, Persia.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1917 Feb 26, President Wilson
publicly asked congress for the power to arm merchant ships. When the
United States entered World War I, propagandist George Creel set out to
stifle anti-war sentiment. Pres. Wilson, following his 1916
re-election, had asked the NY publicist to design a public relations
campaign to swing the country’s interests to support Britain and
France.
(HN, 2/26/98)(AH, 6/07, p.46)
1917 Feb 26, Utrecht Harbor,
Netherlands, held its 1st Annual fair.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1918 Feb 26, Theodore [Hamilton]
Sturgeon, US sci-fi author (Starshine, A Way Home, Hugo, Caviar), was
born.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1918 Feb 26, Stands at the Hong
Kong Jockey Club collapsed and burned, killing 604.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1919 Feb 26, Congress established
Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona.
(SFEM, 10/12/97, p.17)(AP, 2/26/98)
1919 Feb 26, Acadia National Park
was established as Lafayette National Park in Maine.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1920 Feb 26, Tony Randall [Leonard
Rosenberg], actor (Felix-Odd Couple, Love Sidney), was born in Tulsa,
OK.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1921 Feb 26, Betty Hutton, actress
(Greatest Show on Earth), was born in Battle Creek, MI.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1923 Feb 26, Italian nationalist
blue-shirts merged with the fascist black-shirts.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1924 Feb 26, Noboru Takeshita,
Japanese PM (1987-89), was born.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1924 Feb 26, U.S. steel industry
finds claimed an eight-hour day increased efficiency and employee
relations.
(HN, 2/26/98)
1924 Feb 26, A trial against
Hitler began in Munich.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1925 Feb 26, James Moody, US jazz
saxophonist, orchestra leader, was born.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1925 Feb 26, Jihad-Saint war
against Turkish government.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1926 Feb 26, Dark Street in the
Bronx was renamed Lustre Street.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1928 Feb 26, Antonie "Fats" Domino
was born in New Orleans. He was an American Rock n' Roll singer famous
by his songs "Blueberry Hill" and "Ain't that a Shame."
(HN, 2/26/99)(SC, 2/26/02)
1929 Feb 26, President Coolidge
signed a measure establishing Grand Teton National Park In Wyoming.
(AP, 2/26/98)(WUD, 1994, p.615)
1930 Feb 26, "The Green Pastures"
opened at Mansfield Theater.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1930 Feb 26, Manhattan, NYC,
installed the 1st red and green traffic lights.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1931 Feb 26, Otto Wallach (83),
German chemist (Nobel 1910), died.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1932 Feb 26, Johnny Cash (d.2003)
country singer (I Walk The Line, Folsom Prison Blues, Boy Named Sue),
was born in Kingsland, Arkansas.
(NW, 9/22/03, p.98)
1933 Feb 26, Sir James Goldsmith
(d.7/18/97), later financier and corporate raider (Referendum Party),
was born in Paris to a Catholic French mother and a German Jewish
father who later moved to Britain and served as a Conservative member
of parliament.
(SFEC, 7/20/97, p.B6)(SC, 2/26/02)
1933 Feb 26, Ground was broken for
the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Russell Cone was hired to
oversee the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge. He had already
worked on the Philadelphia-Camden (Ben Franklin) Bridge, the
Detroit-Windsor Ambassador Bridge and the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge.
(HN, 2/26/98) (SFC,12/20/97, p.A21)
1935 Feb 26, New York Yankees
released Babe Ruth. He signed with Boston Braves.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1935 Feb 26, Radio Detection and
Ranging (RADAR) was 1st demonstrated by Robert Watson-Watt.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1935 Feb 26, Germany began
Luftwaffe operations under Reichsmarshal H. Goering.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1936 Feb 26, Japanese military
troops marched into Tokyo to conduct a coup and assassinate political
leaders.
(HN, 2/26/99)(SC, 2/26/02)
1937 Feb 26, C. Isherwood and W.H.
Auden's "Ascent of F6" premiered in London.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1938 Feb 26, US female Figure
Skating championship was won by Joan Tozzer. US male Figure Skating
championship was won by Robin Lee.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1938 Feb 26, The 1st passenger
ship was equipped with radar.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1940 Feb 26, The U.S. Air Defense
Command was established at Mitchell Field, Long Island, NY.
(AP, 2/26/98)(SC, 2/26/02)
1941 Feb 26, Cowboys' Amateur
Association of America was organized in California.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1941 Feb 26, British took the
Somali capital in East Africa.
(HN, 2/26/98)
1941 Feb 26, Vichy-France made
religious education in school mandatory.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1941 Feb 26, Utrecht and Zaandam
struck against raid on Jews.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1941 Feb 26, Jan Keizer Zaanse,
February striker, was shot to death.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1942 Feb 26, Don Mason, WWII Navy
flier, sent the message: "Sighted sub sank same."
(SC, 2/26/02)
1942 Feb 26, German battle cruiser
Gneisenau was deactivated by bomb.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1942 Feb 26, Werner Heisenberg
informed Nazis about uranium project "Wunderwaffen."
(SC, 2/26/02)
1943 Feb 26, U.S. Flying
Fortresses and Liberators pounded the Reich docks and U-boat lairs at
Wilhelmshaven.
(HN, 2/26/98)
1943 Feb 26, The German assault
moved to Beja, North Tunisia.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1944 Feb 26, Sue Dauser was
appointed the 1st female US navy captain of nurse corps.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1945 Feb 26, Mitch Ryder, rocker
(Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels-Devil With the Blue Dress), was
born.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1945 Feb 26, A midnight curfew on
nightclubs, bars and other places of entertainment was set to go into
effect across the US.
(AP, 2/26/98)
1945 Feb 26, Very heavy bombing on
Berlin by 8th US Air Force.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1945 Feb 26, Syria declared war on
Germany and Japan. [see Mar 26]
(HN, 2/26/98)
1946 Feb 26, A race riot in
Columbia, TN, killed 2 people and 10 wounded.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1947 Feb 26, President Truman
named Lewis W. Douglas as ambassador to Britain.
(HN, 2/26/98)
1949 Feb 26, A USAF plane began a
1st nonstop around-the-world flight.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1950 Feb 26, Leonard Bernstein's
"Age of Anxiety" premiered in NYC.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1950 Feb 26, Harry Lauder
(b.1870), notable Scottish entertainer, died. He was, at one time, the
highest-paid performer in the world, making the equivalent of
£12,700 a night plus expenses, and was the first British
performer to sell more than a million records.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Lauder)
1951 Feb 26, In the US the 22nd
Amendment to the Constitution, limiting a president to two terms of
office, was ratified.
(TMC, 1994, p.1951)(WSJ, 12/31/97, p.A11)(AP,
2/26/98)(HN, 2/26/98)
1951 Feb 26, Bread rationing began
in Czechoslovakia.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1952 Feb 26, The U.S. signed a
military aid pact with Ecuador.
(HN, 2/26/98)
1952 Feb 26, Prime Minister
Winston Churchill announced that Britain had developed its own atomic
bomb.
(AP, 2/26/98)
1952 Feb 26, A
Netherlands-Indonesian Unity conference took place.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1953 Feb 26, Allen W. Dulles was
promoted from deputy to 5th director of CIA.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1954 Feb 26, Michigan
Representative Ruth Thompson (R) introduced legislation to ban mailing
"obscene, lewd, lascivious or filthy" phonograph (rock and roll records.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1954 Feb 26, 1st typesetting
machine (photo engraving) used at Quincy, MA.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1954 Feb 26, William R. Inge (93),
English theologist, philosopher, died.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1955 Feb 26, "Peter Pan" closed at
Winter Garden Theater in NYC after 149 performances.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1955 Feb 26, G.F. Smith became the
1st aviator to bail out at supersonic speed.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1956 Feb 26, Writers Sylvia Plath
and Ted Hughes met at a party in Cambridge.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1960 Feb 26, USA's David Jenkins
won the Olympics Gold for men's figure skating.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1960 Feb 26, Soviet premier
Khrushchev voiced support for Indonesia.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1961 Feb 26, Mohammed V ibn Yusuf
(51), sultan, King of Morocco, died.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1962 Feb 26, Arthur Kopit's "Oh,
Dad, Poor Dad..." premiered in NYC.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1962 Feb 26, Wilt Chamberlain of
NBA Philadelphia Warriors scored 67 points vs. New York.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1962 Feb 26, US Supreme court
disallowed race separation on public transportation.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1962 Feb 26, After becoming the
first American to orbit the Earth, John Glenn told a joint meeting of
Congress, “Exploration and the pursuit of knowledge have always paid
dividends in the long run.”
(AP, 2/26/02)
1964 Feb 26, Lyndon B. Johnson
signed a tax bill with $11.5 billion in cuts. It was initially proposed
by Pres. Kennedy in Dec, 1962. It slashed the top marginal income tax
rate to 70% in 1965 from 91% in 1963.
(WSJ, 5/30/96, p.A14)(HN, 2/26/98)(WSJ, 12/12/03,
p.W15)
1965 Feb 26, Spoony Singh Sundher
(1922-2006), Indian-born entrepreneur, opened his Hollywood Wax Museum
on Hollywood Blvd. close to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. He charged $1.50
admittance.
(www.foxnews.com/wires/2006Oct21/0,4670,ObitSingh,00.html)
1965 Feb 26, Norman Butler was
arrested for the murder of Malcolm X.
(HN, 2/26/98)
1965 Feb 26, West Germany ceased
military aid to Tanzania.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1965 Feb 26, Jimmie Lee Jackson,
civil rights activist, died of injuries.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1967 Feb 26, USSR performed an
underground nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan, Semipalitinsk, USSR.
(http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/pi/Monitoring/Arch/sts-table/sts-table.html)
1968 Feb 26, Thirty-two African
nations agreed to boycott the Olympics because of the presence of South
Africa.
(HN, 2/26/98)
1969 Feb 26, Levi Eshkol (b.1895),
born in the Ukraine as Levi Shkolnik, died. He had served as the 3rd
Israeli premier (1963-1969).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levi_Eshkol)
1969 Feb 26, Karl Jaspers
(b.1883), German psychiatrist, philosopher, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Jaspers)
1970 Feb 26, Beatles released
"Beatles Again," aka the "Hey Jude" album.
(www.dmbeatles.com/disk.php?disk=54)
1970 Feb 26, "Georgy" opened at
Winter Garden Theater in NYC for 4 performances.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1970 Feb 26, Five Marines were
arrested on charges of murdering 11 South Vietnamese women and
children.
(HN, 2/26/98)
1972 Feb 26, A coal sludge spill
killed 125 people and swallowed 500 homes in Buffalo Creek, W. Va. Over
132 million gallons of water and mud hit 17 little towns along Buffalo
Creek.
(WSJ, 10/16/01,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Creek_Flood)
1972 Feb 26, Soviets recovered
Luna 20 with a cargo of moon rocks.
(HN, 2/26/98)
1973 Feb 26, A publisher and 10
reporters were subpoenaed to testify on Watergate.
(HN, 2/26/98)
1973 Feb 26, Claiborne Farm
announced that Triple Crown horse Secretariat had been syndicated for a
then-record $6,080,000, equivalent to 32 shares at $190,000 each.
(http://equisearch.com/horses_riding_training/sports/racing/racing022804/)
1975 Feb 26, "Night... Made
America Famous" opened at Barrymore in NYC for 75 performances.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night_That_Made_America_Famous)
1975 Feb 26, The 1st televised
kidney transplant was shown on the Today Show.
(http://intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSDSC/333/7087.html)
1976 Feb 26, US performed a
nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
(www.johnstonsarchive.net/nuclear/tests/USA-ntests3.html)
1978 Feb 26, Ira Levin's
"Deathtrap" premiered in NYC at the Music Box Theater.
(www.madstage.com/oldshows/MTGPast.html#Deathtrap)
1979 Feb 26, A total solar eclipse
cast a moving shadow 175 miles wide from Oregon to North Dakota before
moving into Canada. This was the last total solar eclipse of the 20th
century for the continental US.
(AP, 2/26/99)(SC, 2/26/02)
1980 Feb 26, Republican Ronald
Reagan won the New Hampshire primary over George H.W. Bush and Howard
Baker 49.8 to 22.8 to 12.9%. Democrat Jimmie Carter won over Ted
Kennedy, Jerry Brown and Birch Bayh 47.2 to 37.4 to 9.6%.
(SSFC, 1/25/04,
p.A19)(www.politicallibrary.org/TallState/1980rep.html)
1980 Feb 26, Al Mills (51), his
wife Jeannie (40) and their daughter Daphene (16) were shot to death at
2731 Woolsey St. in Berkeley, Ca. In 2005 police arrested Edward
Michael Mills (43), the son and brother of the victims, based on new
evidence. Mills was soon released for lack of sufficient evidence to
try him.
(SFC, 12/8/05, p.B4)(SFC, 12/9/05, p.B3)
1980 Feb 26, Ricky Keel and
Jeffrey Taylor shot and killed Campbell liquor store owner Frank Gummer
during a robbery. Connie Keel (21), Ricky’s abused wife, remained in a
car during the robbery, but all 3 were convicted of 1st degree murder.
In 2009 Connie Keel was allowed parole.
(SFC, 3/28/09, p.B2)(http://tinyurl.com/cqtzqv)
1980 Feb 26, Egypt and Israel
exchanged ambassadors for the 1st time.
(http://tinyurl.com/2rsjax)
1981 Feb
26, Howard Hanson (84), classical composer, teacher and conductor, died
in Rochester, New York. His Symphony No. 4 ("Requiem"), written in
memory of his father, won the 1944 Pulitzer Prize. He was born in
Wahoo, Nebraska on October 28, 1896.
(www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=41:7420)
1981 Feb 26, The French Trainset
16 averaged 380 kph as part of Operation TGV 100.
(www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A711785)
1981 Feb 26, Three British
Anglican missionaries, detained in Iran since August 1980, were
released.
(www.cedmagic.com/museum/press/ced-timeline.html#02-1981)
1982 Feb 26, Gabor Szabo (b.1936),
Hungarian jazz pianist (Perfect Circle), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%A1bor_Szab%C3%B3)
1983 Feb 26, Michael Jackson's
"Thriller" album went to #1 and stayed #1 for 37 weeks.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1983 Feb 26, Short-wave pirate
Radio USA in Wellsville, NY, began transmission.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1984 Feb 26, Reverend Jesse
Jackson acknowledged that he had called NYC: "Hymietown."
(www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,921581,00.html)
1984 Feb 26, Last US marines in
multinational peace-keeping force in Lebanon left Beirut.
(www.history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=4791)
1985 Feb 26, In the 27th Grammy
Awards Tina Turner’s "What's Love Got to Do With It" won as record and
song of the year. Cyndi Lauper won as best new artist.
(www.rockonthenet.com/archive/1985/grammys.htm)
1986 Feb 26, Pulitzer
Prize-winning poet and author Robert Penn Warren was named the first
poet laureate of the US by Librarian of Congress Daniel J. Boorstin.
Warren was awarded the post of US poet laureate consultant to the
Library of Congress as the name was changed from consultant in poetry.
(SSFC, 7/13/03, p.A27)(AP, 2/26/06)
1987 Feb 26, British stores
released the 1st Beatles compact discs.
(www.guardian.co.uk/thebeatles/story/0,,606496,00.html)
1987 Feb 26, NBA's Michael
Jordan's scored 58 points for a Chicago Bull record.
(www.nba.com/jordan/hoop_86-87.html)
1987 Feb 26, The Tower Commission,
which probed the Iran-Contra affair, issued its report, which rebuked
President Reagan for failing to control his national security staff.
(AP, 2/26/98)
1987 Feb 26, NASA launched GOES-H
(Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite). It carried
experimental search and rescue equipment.
(http://goespoes.gsfc.nasa.gov/goes/timeline.html)
1987 Feb 26, USSR resumed nuclear
testing at Semipalitinsk in Eastern Kazakhstan.
(www.nti.org/f_wmd411/1987.html)
1988 Feb 26, Eric Arturo Delvalle,
ousted as president of Panama by the country's National Assembly,
called for a national strike to repudiate Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega.
(AP, 2/26/98)
1988 Feb 26, The Soviet Union's
hockey team clinched the gold medal at the Winter Olympics in Calgary,
Canada.
(AP, 2/26/98)
1989 Feb 26, The musical "Jerome
Robbins' Broadway" opened at Imperial Theater in NYC for 634
performances.
(www.theatredb.com/QShow.php?sid=s0355)
1989 Feb 26, US Defense
Secretary-designate John Tower, dogged by questions about a possible
drinking problem, publicly pledged not to drink any alcohol during his
term of office if confirmed by the Senate.
(AP, 2/26/99)
1989 Feb 26, President Bush's
visit to China was marred by the refusal of Chinese authorities to
allow dissident Fang Lizhi to attend a banquet hosted by Bush.
(AP, 2/26/99)
1990 Feb 26, USSR agreed to
withdraw all 73,500 troops from Czechoslovakia by July, 1991.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1991 Feb 26, Allied troops took
control of Kuwait after a 100-hour ground war. It was later reported
that high concentrations of US armor-piercing depleted uranium shells
were detonated in Iraq and Kuwait.
(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A8)(SFC, 11/24/98, p.A4)
1991 cFeb 26, A cease-fire was
called by Pres. Bush after 100 hours of ground combat. Following the
cease-fire a retreating Iraqi unit stumbled into the Gen. McCaffrey’s
24th infantry division and some 400 Iraqis were reported killed. Army
investigations concluded that the Iraqis started the Rumaylah battle.
(SFC, 5/15/00, p.A3)(WSJ, 5/19/00, p.A38)
1991 Feb 26, Kuwaiti resistance
leaders declared themselves in control of their capital, following
nearly seven months of Iraqi occupation.
(AP, 2/26/01)
1991 Feb 26, Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein announced on Baghdad Radio that he had ordered his
forces to withdraw from Kuwait.
(AP, 2/26/98)
1992 Feb 26, "Search and Destroy"
opened at the Circle in the Square Theater in NYC for 46 performances.
(www.theatredb.com/QShow.php?sid=s0415)
1992 Feb 26, The US Supreme Court
ruled unanimously that sexually harassed students may sue to collect
monetary damages from their schools and school officials.
(AP, 2/26/02)
1992 Feb 26, The Supreme Court of
Ireland cleared the way for a 14-year-old girl to leave the country for
an abortion.
(AP, 2/26/02)
1992 Feb 26, S.I. Hayakawa (85),
Senator-R-CA, died of a stroke.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1993 Feb 26, The parking garage of
the 107-story World Trade Center was bombed in NYC by terrorists. The
bombing killed 6 and injured over 1000 people. 4 Islamic extremists
were convicted and each sentenced to 240 years in prison. Militant
Muslims Ramzi Yousef and Eyad Ismoil fled the country. Yousef was
captured in Pakistan in 1995 and Ismoil was picked up in Jordan. The
two were convicted in 1997 of conspiracy. In 1998 Yousef was sentenced
to life plus 240 years in prison after declaring: "I am a terrorist and
I am proud of it." Ismoil was sentenced to 240 years in prison. In 2000
Laurie Mylroie authored "Study of Revenge," an investigation of the
bombing.
(WSJ, 10/24/96, p.A16)(SFC, 1/9/98, p.A2)(AP,
2/26/98)(SFC, 4/4/98, p.A3)(WSJ, 10/24/01, p.A20)
1993 Feb 26, In Egypt a bomb in a
coffee shop killed 3 people and injured 18 In Cairo.
(SFC,11/19/97, p.C2)
1994 Feb 26, A jury in San Antonio
acquitted 11 followers of David Koresh of murder, rejecting claims they
had ambushed federal agents; five were convicted of manslaughter.
(AP, 2/26/99)
1994 Feb 26, Bill Hicks (32),
writer and comedian, died in Little Rock, Ark.
(www.asifproductions.com/saints/bill.html)
1995 Feb 26, The United States and
China averted a trade war by signing a comprehensive agreement.
(AP, 2/26/00)
1995 Feb 26, Barings PLC,
Britain's oldest investment banking firm, was forced into bankruptcy
after an employee in Singapore, Nicholas William Leeson (28),
speculated in derivatives on Tokyo stock prices that resulted in losses
exceeding $1.4 billion.
(WSJ, 2/27/95, p.A-1)(AP, 2/26/00)
1996 Feb 26, President Clinton
moved to step up economic sanctions on Cuba in response to Cuba’s
downing of two unarmed airplanes belonging to the Cuban-American exile
group Brothers to the Rescue.
(AP, 2/26/01)
1996 Feb 26, A car bomb in Albania
killed 5 people and wounded 30 outside a supermarket in the center of
Tirana. Two former senior officials of the disbanded Communist era
secret police were arrested shortly after the blast.
(WSJ, 2/27/96, p.A-1)
1996 Feb 26, In Israel an Arab
American drove a rental car into a Jerusalem bus stop and killed one
Israeli while wounded 23. The driver appeared to be acting on his own
but Hamas took responsibility.
(G&M, 7/31/97, p.A8)
1997 Feb 26, In the 39th Grammy
Awards "Change the World" won four awards, including record of the
year; Celine Dion's "Falling Into You" won album of the year and best
pop album.
(AP, 2/26/98)(SC, 2/26/02)
1997 Feb 26, President Clinton
defended White House fund-raising tactics as "entirely appropriate," a
day after the disclosure of documents putting Clinton at the center of
all-out fund-raising efforts.
(AP, 2/26/98)
1997 Feb 26, US smokers were
required proof of age over 18 to purchase cigarettes.
(www.no-smoking.org/feb97/2-26-97-01.html)
1997 Feb 26, Israel's Netanyahu
cabinet approved the construction of 6,500 homes for Israelis in Arab
East Jerusalem.
(WSJ, 2/27/97, p.A1)(AP, 2/26/98)
1997 Feb 26, Thai soldiers pushed
Karen refugees back across the border into Burma as Burmese troops
massed for an offensive.
(WSJ, 2/27/97, p.A1)
1998 Feb 26, A jury in Amarillo,
Texas, rejected an $11 million lawsuit brought by Texas cattlemen who
blamed Oprah Winfrey's talk show for a price fall after a segment on
food safety that included a discussion about mad-cow disease.
(AP, 2/26/99)
1998 Feb 26, The US waived the
2-year-old sanctions against Columbia. Military and economic aid were
expected to follow.
(WSJ, 2/27/98, p.A1)
1998 Feb 26, The US certified
Mexico as a fully cooperating partner in the war on drugs.
(SFC, 2/27/98, p.A18)
1998 Feb 26, Azerbaijan accused
Armenia of launching fresh attacks over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh.
(WSJ, 2/27/98, p.A1)
1998 Feb 26, Three Israeli
soldiers were killed in a Hezbollah attack in southern Lebanon.
(WSJ, 2/27/98, p.A1)
1998 Feb 26, Near Tokyo 3
businessmen hanged themselves in a suburban hotel due to economic
difficulties and the resulting loss of face.
(SFC, 2/27/98, p.D4)
1999 Feb 26, President Clinton,
outlining foreign policy goals for the final two years of his
administration, urged continued American engagement in the quest for
peace and freedom abroad.
(AP, 2/26/00)
1999 Feb 26, The Clinton
administration issued a condemnation of China for its human rights
policy.
(SFC, 2/27/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 26, The UN Security
Council voted to close its peacekeeping mission in Angola due to the
renewed civil war.
(SFC, 2/27/99, p.A16)
1999 Feb 26, In Landeck, Austria,
the death toll from recent avalanches reached 37.
(SFC, 2/27/99, p.A16)
1999 Feb 26, In Japan int'l.
donors at a 2 day conference pledged to provide $470 million in aid to
Cambodia, if the country takes steps to reduce its army and promote
democracy.
(SFC, 2/27/99, p.A16)
1999 Feb 26, Ethiopia claimed to
have shot down a 2nd Eritrean MiG-29.
(SFC, 2/27/99, p.A14)
1999 Feb 26, In Iran elections
were planned for cities, towns and village councils. These were the
first elections since the 1979 revolution.
(WSJ, 12/29/98, p.A1)
1999 Feb 26, Mexico was certified
as a US partner in the drug war by Pres. Clinton.
(WSJ, 3/1/99, p.A1)
2000 Feb 26, Jose Imperatori, vice
consul at the Cuban interests section in Washington, was expelled from
the US after he refused to leave voluntarily under charges of spying.
(SFEC, 2/27/00, p.A15)
2000 Feb 26, In NYC thousands of
people marched to protest the acquittal in Albany of 4 police officers
for the 1999 shooting of Amadou Diallo. Diallo’s parent filed a $61
million suit in April.
(WSJ, 2/228/00, p.A1)(WSJ, 4/19/00, p.A1)
2000 Feb 26, Pope John Paul II
visited the 6th century St. Catherine's monastery in Egypt, built on
the reputed site where Moses encountered the burning bush. He met with
Greek Orthodox Archbishop Damianos and held a short prayer service in
an olive garden outside the monastery.
(SFEC, 2/27/00, p.A20)
2000 Feb 26, Heavy rains
continued to ravage South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. 33
people were reported dead in the northern province of South Africa and
29 dead in Zimbabwe.
(SFEC, 2/27/00, p.A22)
2000 Feb 26, In the southern
Philippines a series of bombings aboard Super Five Express Buses left
41 people dead and 45 injured. Muslim separatist rebels were suspected.
(SFEC, 2/27/00, p.A29)
2000 Feb 26, From the United Arab
Emirates it was reported that hunters killed the last known Arabian
mountain goat, known as tahr, to restore their sexual potency. The last
known Arabian wold was also killed in the mountains of Ras al-Khaimah
by shepherds who feared for their flocks.
(SFC, 2/26/00, p.A8)
2001 Feb 26, The US State Dept.
issued its annual report on the status of human rights and cited
“unconfirmed but credible” reports from China of continued use of
torture by police to obtain coerced confessions. The report also
faulted both Israel and the Palestinians for the current Middle East
bloodshed.
(SFC, 2/27/01, p.A10)(WSJ, 2/27/01, p.A1)
2001 Feb 26, The UN War Crimes
tribunal in the Hague convicted Dario Kordic, a former Bosnian Croat
leader, for crimes against humanity in the 1992-1995 Bosnian War. Mario
Cerkez (41), a brigade commander of Croatian troops in Bosnia, was also
convicted. They had carried out an “ethnic cleansing” campaign in an
area they wished to be joined to Croatia.
(SFC, 2/27/01, p.A12)(WSJ, 2/27/01, p.A1)(AP,
2/26/02)
2001 Feb 26, Taliban leader Mullah
Mohammed Omar ordered the destruction of all statues including the
Buddha statues carved into the stone cliffs of Bamiyan, Afghanistan. He
called on the Ministry for the promotion of Virtue and the Repression
of Vice as well as the Ministry of Culture to destroy all pre-Islamic
statues and sanctuaries.
(SFC, 2/27/01, p.A10)(WSJ, 12/20/01, p.A14)
2001 Feb 26, In Britain new cases
of hoof-and-mouth disease brought to 12 the number of farms or
slaughterhouses infected. The slaughter of pigs, cows and sheep rose to
some 7,000.
(SFC, 2/27/01, p.A1)
2001 Feb 26, In Indonesia Dayak
fighters declared victory and end to fighting.
(SFC, 2/27/01, p.A12)
2001 Feb 26, In Israel the labor
party voted reluctantly to join the incoming government of Ariel Sharon.
(SFC, 2/27/01, p.A10)
2001 Feb 26, Russia’s Pres. Putin
arrived in Seoul for economic talks.
(SFC, 2/26/01, p.C14)
2001 Feb 26, In Yugoslavia the
parliament passed an amnesty law to free several hundred Kosovo
Albanians held in Serbian prisons since the 1999 Kosovo war.
(SFC, 2/27/01, p.A12)
2002 Feb 26, It was reported that
the US has begun providing the former Soviet Republic of Georgia with
military aid to counter terrorist threats in the Pankisi Gorge region.
Some 100-200 US soldiers were included in the $64 million program to
begin in mid-March.
(SFC, 2/27/02, p.A8)(WSJ, 2/27/02, p.A4)(SFC,
3/2/02, p.A11)
2002 Feb 26, Former Enron chief
executive Jeffrey Skilling, at times combative, insisted during a
Senate hearing that he knew nothing about manipulation of company books
and denied misleading Congress as alleged by some lawmakers and Enron
officials.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2002 Feb 26, Pharmacist Robert R.
Courtney pleaded guilty in Kansas City, Mo., to watering down
chemotherapy drugs. Courtney was later sentenced to 30 years in prison.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2002 Feb 26, Lawrence Tierney,
actor in some 80 films, died at age 82.
(SFC, 3/1/02, p.A33)
2002 Feb 26, In Austria a train
wreck in Wampersdorf left 7 people dead.
(SFC, 2/27/02, p.A7)
2002 Feb 26, In Colombia 7 people
were killed in various attacks blamed on the FARC. A rebel bombing
campaign against infrastructure continued.
(SFC, 2/27/02, p.A7)
2002 Feb 26, Congo peace talks
were suspended a day after the opening ceremony due to wrangling over
which political parties would be allowed to participate.
(SFC, 2/27/02, p.A7)
2002 Feb 26, Gunmen killed 11
people and wounded 17 others in an attack on the Shiite Sha-e-Najaf
mosque in Rawalpindi. The Sunni group Army of the Prophet’s Companions
was believed responsible.
(SFC, 2/27/02, p.A9)(SFC, 3/16/02, p.A14)
2003 Feb 26, The National
Book Critics Circle for general nonfiction went to Samantha Power for
"A Problem from Hell: American and the Age of Genocide."
(SFC, 2/27/03, A2)
2003 Feb 26, President Bush,
offering new justification for war in Iraq, told a think tank that
"ending this direct and growing threat" from Saddam Hussein would pave
the way for peace in the Middle East and encourage democracy throughout
the Arab world.
(AP, 2/26/04)
2003 Feb 26, In a victory for
abortion foes, the Supreme Court ruled that federal racketeering and
extortion laws had been wrongly used to try to stop blockades,
harassment and violent protests outside clinics.
(AP, 2/26/04)
2003 Feb 26, NYC chose an
airy spire, designed by Daniel Libeskind, for the site of the former
World Trade Center destroyed on 9/11/2001. The spire would be taller
than any other building in the world at a height of 1,776 feet.
(AP, 2/27/03)
2003 Feb 26, In Washington
DC war protesters tied up phones, fax machines and computers as part of
a "virtual march."
(SFC, 2/27/03, A14)
2003 Feb 26, In Hartford,
Conn., a nursing home fire at the Greenwood Health Center killed 16
residents. A patient charged with setting the blaze was later ruled
incompetent to stand trial.
(SFC, 2/27/03, A5)(AP, 2/26/08)
2003 Feb 26, In Algeria it
was reported that more than 7,000 people were believed missing at the
hands of security forces during the 1990s.
(AP, 2/26/03)
2003 Feb 26, A Colombian
army Black Hawk helicopter carrying 23 crewmembers and elite troops
crashed in the northern mountains. All aboard were feared dead.
(AP, 2/27/03)
2003 Feb 26, Striking
Dominica public workers agreed to end a 6-day strike that slowed air
transportation and mail service, after the government agreed to review
its proposal to cut the work force.
(AP, 2/26/03)
2003 Feb 26, French Prime
Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin warned that waging war against Iraq now,
would split the international community and "be perceived as
precipitous and illegitimate."
(AP, 2/26/03)
2003 Feb 26, In Guatemala
striking teachers seized a pumping station on the nation's only oil
pipeline to press their demands for a hefty wage increase and better
schools. About 60,000 of the country's 80,000 teachers are striking to
demand a near-doubling of salaries that now range from about $190 to
$390 per month. They also seek improved school buildings, more books
and better school lunches.
(AP, 2/27/03)
2003 Feb 26, In India a gun
battle, kidnappings, ballot theft and destruction of voting machines
marked polling in two of the four Indian states where new legislatures
were elected.
(AP, 2/26/03)
2003 Feb 26, Israel's PM
Ariel Sharon established a coalition government dominated by fierce
opponents of Palestinian statehood.
(AP, 2/26/03)
2003 Feb 26, South Korea's
parliament approved Goh Kun, a former mayor of Seoul, to become PM in
the newly installed government of Pres. Roh Moo-hyun.
(AP, 2/26/03)
2004 Feb 26, President Bush
tightened U.S. travel restrictions against Cuba.
(AP, 2/27/04)
2004 Feb 26, Rosie O'Donnell, TV
comedian, married Kelli Carpenter in San Francisco.
(SFC, 2/27/04, p.A1)
2004 Feb 26, The US lifted a
long-standing ban on travel to Libya after Moammar Gadhafi's government
affirmed that it was responsible for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103
in 1988.
(AP, 2/26/04)
2004 Feb 26, Two church-sanctioned
studies documenting sex abuse by U.S. Roman Catholic clergy said that
about 4 percent of clerics had been accused of molesting minors since
1950 and blamed bishops' "moral laxity" in disciplining offenders for
letting the problem worsen.
(AP, 2/26/05)
2004 Feb 26, It was reported that
scientists had identified a protein, TRIM5-alpha, that shields rhesus
monkeys from the AIDS virus.
(WSJ, 2/26/04, p.D4)
2004 Feb 26, A mail bombing
injured Don Logan, the diversity director in Scottsdale, Arizona. In
2009 Illinois twins Dennis and Daniel Mahon (58) were indicted for the
bombing. They had allegedly intended to promote racial discord on
behalf of the White Aryan Resistance.
(SFC, 6/26/09,
p.A5)(www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,529121,00.html)
2004 Feb 26, It was reported that
dentists were departing Britain's publicly funded National Health
Service in large numbers, leaving a growing number of Britons without
access to affordable care.
(AP, 2/26/04)
2004 Feb 26, In Canada about 400
police officers cracked down on the Hells Angels and their affiliates
in the Montreal area, targeting more than 60 people authorities believe
were involved in gangsterism and drug-trafficking.
(AP, 2/26/04)
2004 Feb 26, Mikhail Saakashvili,
the new president of Georgia, said he is ready to negotiate full
autonomy for the separatist Abkhazia region to end the decade-long
conflict.
(AP, 2/26/04)
2004 Feb 26, Israeli soldiers shot
and killed two Palestinians during violent protests against Israel's
West Bank barrier. Two Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli soldier at
a Gaza Strip crossing before being gunned down by troops.
(AP, 2/26/04)
2004 Feb 26, Macedonian President
Boris Trajkovski, a moderate leader who helped unite his ethnically
divided country, was killed when his plane crashed in bad weather in
mountainous southern Bosnia.
(AP, 2/26/04)
2004 Feb 26, President Vladimir
Putin opened a stretch of highway in Russia's Far East that will make
it possible for the first time to drive by road to Asia. The 6,214-mile
Moscow to Vladivostok trek will open a window to the East and the
ever-expanding Chinese market.
(AP, 2/27/04)
2004 Feb 26, Russian Foreign
Minister Igor Ivanov said that three Russian intelligence agents had
been arrested in Qatar on suspicion of involvement in the killing of
former Chechen President Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev. Ivanov said they were
innocent and demanded their release.
(AP, 2/26/04)
2004 Feb 26, In Siberia at least
15 people were killed and 17 more injured in a cafe explosion, which
apparently was caused by a natural gas leak.
(AP, 2/26/04)
2005 Feb 26, Addressing the
nation's governors, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates delivered a
scathing critique of U.S. high schools, calling them obsolete and
saying that elected officials should be ashamed of a system that leaves
millions of students unprepared for college and for technical jobs.
(LAT, 2/28/05)
2005 Feb 26, Walter Anderson (51),
telecommunications entrepreneur, was arrested and charged with evading
$200 million in federal and local taxes.
(SFC, 3/1/05, p.A3)
2005 Feb 26, The prosecution and
defense both rested their cases in the Robert Blake murder trial in Los
Angeles.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2005 Feb 26, Henry A. Grunwald
(82), former Time magazine editor and US ambassador to Austria,
died in New York.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2005 Feb 26, Jef Raskin (61),
computer pioneer, died in Pacifica, Ca. he led the shift to a graphical
interface with Apple’s Macintosh.
(WSJ, 3/1/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb 26, In Brazil Cleone
Santos and Magnaldo Santos, known as Negao, were taken into custody,
for aiding 2 gunmen who shot 73-year-old Dorothy Stang on Feb. 12.
(AP, 2/28/05)
2005 Feb 26, Fespaco, the biennial
pan-African festival of cinema and television, opened in Ouagadougou,
Burkina Faso.
(Econ, 2/19/05, p.82)
2005 Feb 26, China state
television said China will gradually open its capital account in 2005,
another step in its plan to make the yuan currency fully convertible.
(AP, 2/26/05)
2005 Feb 26, Egyptian President
Hosni Mubarak ordered a revision of the country's election laws and
said multiple candidates could run in the nation's presidential
elections.
(AP, 2/26/05)
2005 Feb 26, In Haiti a Brazilian
peacekeeper was wounded and the charred body of a man apparently burned
alive with a tire around his neck lay in the deserted street of a slum
where shots rang out and people peered fearfully from barred windows.
(AP, 2/26/05)
2005 Feb 26, Iraqi security forces
captured a son of one of Saddam Hussein's half brothers, who allegedly
financed the insurgency, in a raid on suspected militants near Tikrit.
Ayman Sabawi is the son of Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan, a half brother of
Saddam's, who served as a presidential adviser before the US-led
invasion.
(AP, 5/4/05)
2005 Feb 26, In Baghdad a suicide
bomber detonated his vehicle alongside an M1 Abrams tank and killed
himself and two Iraqis. A US soldier died during a sweep for insurgents
west of Baghdad. A car bomb in the Mussayyib district south of Baghdad
killed an Iraqi soldier.
(AP, 2/26/05)(SSFC, 2/27/05, p.A10)
2005 Feb 26, Japan put a weather
satellite into space for the first time since a humiliating failure 15
months ago in hopes of entering the launch market.
(SSFC, 2/27/05, p.A3)
2005 Feb 26, Malaysia's PM Badawi
told Proton to set its sights abroad as he launched the national
carmaker's 1.8 billion ringgit (474 million dollar) new manufacturing
plant.
(AP, 2/26/05)
2005 Feb 26, Nepal's rebel chief
said he was lifting a crippling countrywide blockade of roads by his
fighters to ease the discomfort of common people.
(AP, 2/26/05)
2005 Feb 26, Palestinian and
Israeli security forces arrested 7 suspected militants in connection
with a suicide bombing that killed four Israelis at a Tel Aviv
nightclub. The bomber was identified as Abdullah Badran (21), a student
from the West Bank village of Deir al-Ghusun.
(AP, 2/26/05)(SSFC, 2/27/05, p.A7)
2005 Feb 26, In Taiwan a fire
raged through the top floors of a highrise building in the central city
of Taichung, killing at least two people.
(AP, 2/26/05)
2005 Feb 26, Thailand police
reported 4 more people killed in surging violence in the Muslim south.
PM Shinawatra defended his hard-line policies and accused his critics
of sympathizing with separatists.
(AP, 2/26/05)
2005 Feb 26, Togo’s Congress named
deputy speaker Bonfoh Abbass as interim president until nationwide
elections can be held in the coming months.
(AP, 2/27/05)
2005 Feb 26, The Ukraine cabinet
stripped former president Leonid Kuchma of a plush and widely
criticized retirement package that featured a monthly pension, two
cars, a government home and much more.
(AP, 2/26/05)
2006 Feb 26, The Bush
administration said it has accepted a proposal from Dubai Ports World
for a 45-day review of national security implications of its plans to
take control of operations at 6 US ports.
(SFC, 2/27/06, p.A3)
2006 Feb 26, Sixty former Taliban,
including 5 high-ranking figures, surrendered as part of a government
amnesty scheme and vowed to lay down arms and work to rebuild
Afghanistan.
(AFP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 26, In Australia Joseph
Terrence Thomas (32), a former taxi driver known as "Jihad Jack" and
alleged by prosecutors to be an agent for Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda
network, was convicted of receiving funds from the group but acquitted
on more serious terrorism charges.
(AFP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 26, British police
searching for thieves who got away with around $87 million from a
security company said they found weapons and $2.3 million in a van they
believe the gang used.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 26, Hans Singer (95),
British development theorist, died. He helped set up the UN Development
Program. His work with Raul Prebisch of Argentina led to the
Prebisch-Singer thesis which said that the benefits of trade were
distributed unequally between countries that imported agricultural
commodities and those that exported them, to the disadvantage of the
exporters.
(Econ, 3/11/06, p.79)
2006 Feb 26, In Canada, 19
Catholic priests singed an open letter in Montreal’s La Presse
newspaper denouncing Vatican opposition to gay marriage and having
homosexuals into the priesthood.
(AP, 3/1/06)
2006 Feb 26, Egypt's antiquities
chief said archaeologists had discovered a pharaonic sun temple with
large statues believed to be of King Ramses II (1270-1213BC) under an
outdoor marketplace in Cairo.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 26, In Guyana gunmen on a
rampage left 8 people dead and a dozen bystanders wounded on the
outskirts of Georgetown. About 15 gunmen armed with rifles tried to rob
a gas station when security guards responded. They escaped with about
$40.
(AP, 2/27/06)
2006 Feb 26, Iran's nuclear chief
said an agreement was reached with Moscow to set up a joint uranium
enrichment facility on Russian soil, a deal that could assuage global
concerns that Tehran wants to build atomic bombs.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 26, In Iraq bomb blasts
and gunfire killed over 2 dozen people, including 3 US soldiers. A ban
on driving in Baghdad and its suburbs kept daytime attacks down. Mortal
shells at night hit the Shiite quarter killing 16 people with 53
wounded.
(AP, 2/26/06)(SFC, 2/27/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 26, On the final day of
the Turin Winter Olympics, Sweden beat Finland 3-2 to win the men's
hockey gold. Germany led the gold medal count with 29. The US won 25
medals including 9 gold, Canada won 24, Austria 23 and Russia 22. Drew
Lachey leaped to victory with professional partner Cheryl Burke on
ABC's "Dancing with the Stars." Shizuka Arakawa won a gold medal for
Japan in figure skating.
(SFC, 2/27/06, p.A1)(SFC, 2/27/06, p.A1)(AP, 2/26/07)
2006 Feb 26, In Pakistan about
25,000 people, some chanting "Death to America," rallied against the
Prophet Muhammad caricatures in Karachi, but police prevented a rally
in the eastern city of Lahore by arresting the religious ringleader and
detaining scores of supporters. Assailants fired rockets at the home of
a provincial Cabinet in Pakistan's restive southwestern Baluchistan
province, killing a guest and wounding eight other people.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 26, In the Philippines a
challenge to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's state of emergency
ended peacefully after disgruntled marine officers ended a five-hour
standoff that started when their commander was relieved of duties.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 26, More than 1,000
demonstrators chanting anti-FBI slogans and carrying Puerto Rican flags
marched through the capital of this U.S. island territory.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 26, The Saudi Interior
Ministry identified two Feb 24 attackers as Abdullah Abdul-Aziz
al-Tweijri and Mohammed Saleh al-Gheith. Both were on a list of the 15
most-wanted terrorists the kingdom issued in June.
(AP, 2/27/06)
2006 Feb 26, In Thailand some 50
thousand people gathered in Bangkok for a new mass rally to demand the
ousting of PM Thaksin Shinawatra as opposition parties said they were
considering boycotting a snap election which he has called in response.
(AFP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 26, Yemeni President Ali
Abdullah Saleh said three al-Qaida convicts among the two dozen who
escaped earlier this month have turned themselves in.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2007 Feb 26, A independent US
Postal Regulatory Commission recommended a new “forever” stamp good for
first class letters no matter how much rates go up. The panel also
recommended a 2-cent increase in first-class rates to 41 cents.
(SFC, 2/27/07, p.A3)
2007 Feb 26, Former US Federal
Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned that the American economy might
slip into recession by year's end.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 26, A US Treasury
Department delegation was in Macau discussing with local officials how
to resolve sanctions on a bank that allegedly was involved in North
Korean money laundering and counterfeiting.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 26, Five Western US
states (Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington) announced
an agreement to create a regional effort to lower greenhouse gas
emissions.
(SFC, 2/27/07, p.A7)
2007 Feb 26, The SEC sued Blue
Bottle, a Hong Kong firm, alleging they hacked into computer systems to
get corporate news releases early and traded on that information,
making a profit of $2.7 million.
(Econ, 3/10/07, p.71)
2007 Feb 26, Texas' largest
electricity producer, said it has agreed to be sold to a group of
private-equity firms for about $32 billion in what would be the largest
private buyout in US corporate history if shareholders go along.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 26, A storm that pounded
the US Midwest brought snow and sleet across the Northeast, closing
schools, turning highways sloppy and slowing air travelers. JetBlue
canceled 68 flights because of snow.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 26, The World Vision
humanitarian group said that more than 50% of children in refugee camps
around Africa's volatile Great Lakes area have experienced some form of
sexual abuse. The data, collected in camps in the Burundi, Congo (DRC),
Tanzania, northern Uganda and Rwanda, said widespread poverty made
children vulnerable to abuses.
(AFP, 2/27/07)
2007 Feb 26, In Bangladesh a fire
swept through a building that housed two private TV stations and a
newspaper in Dhaka, killing at least three people and injuring scores.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 26, In Bolivia police
said the body of Simon Matthew Boily (23), a Canadian cyclist, has been
found in a mountain ravine more than a month after he set out on the
"Highway of Death" from the La Paz on Jan 21.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 26, In Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, the concrete awning of a hotel in the Copacabana beach district
collapsed, killing two people and injuring six.
(AP, 2/27/07)
2007 Feb 26, Coordinated
international efforts led to the capture in Brazil of Manuel Juan
Cordero (67) a retired Uruguayan colonel wanted in "dirty war" probes
in both Argentina and Uruguay. He was detained in Santana do
Livramento, a town near the Uruguayan border where he was living.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Feb 26, In London Abu Qatada,
a radical Muslim cleric and suspected key Al-Qaeda figure, lost an
appeal against deportation from Britain to Jordan.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 26, China’s state media
said falling water levels in the Yangtze River have left 1 million
people short of drinking water.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 26, In Costa Rica tens of
thousands of union members, farmers and political activists marched
through San Jose to protest a free-trade pact with the US they say will
be harmful to local businesses.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 26, Indonesian engineers
dropped several large concrete balls into Lusi, a volcano, to try to
stem a gushing mud eruption that has engulfed hundreds of homes and
displaced 11,000 people. Over the next few weeks, authorities plan to
drop nearly 1,500 balls, each weighing up to 88 pounds, into the crater
that started spewing mud at a gas drilling field on Java island nine
months ago.
(AP, 2/26/07)(Econ, 3/10/07, p.79)
2007 Feb 26, The Iraqi Cabinet
approved a draft law to manage the country's vast oil industry and
distribute its wealth among the population, a major breakthrough in US
efforts to press the country's Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish groups to
reach agreements to achieve stability. Adel Abdul-Mahdi, Iraq's Shiite
vice president, escaped an apparent assassination attempt after a bomb
exploded in municipal offices where he was making a speech, knocking
him down with the force of the blast that left at least 10 people dead.
A statement from the US military said that 63 weapons caches have been
discovered during major US-Iraqi security sweeps around Baghdad that
began Feb. 14. The arsenals included anti-aircraft weapons,
armor-piercing bullets, bomb components and mortar rounds.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 26, Israeli troops sealed
off the center of Nablus' old city with cement blocks and trash
containers, and searched apartments for seven Palestinian fugitives
whose names the army broadcast over local TV and radio stations.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 26, Officials said that
after nearly a decade of trying, Japan has succeeded in establishing a
network of spy satellites that can peer at any point on the globe.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 26, Audrius Bruzga
(b.1966) became ambassador of Lithuania to the United States.
(www.washdiplomat.com/ambprof/Lithuania.html)
2007 Feb 26, Malawi's vice
president pleaded innocent to charges of treason and conspiring to
murder the president at the start of his trial.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 26, Malaysia's securities
watchdog said it has frozen two local bank accounts, shut down two Web
sites and questioned several people suspected to be involved in a
global Internet investment scam. In March 3 men were indicted by the US
for securities fraud. The indictment named Jaisankar Marimuthu (32) of
India, Thirugnanam Ramanathan (34), an Indian residing in Malaysia, and
Chockalingam Ramanathan (33) of Chennai, India. The 1st two were
arrested in Hong Kong, while the 3rd remained at large.
(AP, 2/26/07)(WSJ, 3/13/07, p.B5)
2007 Feb 26, Four Mexican soldiers
were arrested and accused of raping and murdering a 73-year-old woman a
day earlier in a case that outraged Indian groups in Soledad Atzompa in
Veracruz state. In May a special prosecutor found no evidence that
soldiers beat and raped Ernestina Ascensio Rosario. An autopsy on
Ascensio's body showed that she died of acute anemia from internal
bleeding in her digestive tract.
(AP, 3/1/07)(AP, 5/1/07)
2007 Feb 26, Nepal’s Cabinet
appointed Gopal Man Shrestha to head the three-member committee, which
will have a month to investigate, locate, seize and nationalize King
Gyanendra's property.
(AP, 2/27/07)
2007 Feb 26, Pakistani security
forces in Quetta reportedly captured Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, the
former Taliban defense minister. US VP Cheney, accompanied by CIA
deputy director Steve Kappes, made an unannounced stop in Pakistan en
route to Afghanistan. Cheney held detailed talks with Pres. Musharraf,
including a one-on-one lunch.
(AP, 3/2/07)(www.nysun.com/article/49331)
2007 Feb 26, In Poland a new book,
"Priests In The Face Of The Security Services" by Rev. Tadeusz
Isakowicz-Zaleski, dredged up more painful allegations from Poland's
Communist era, naming some 30 Roman Catholic priests, including several
bishops, as registered informants with the secret police.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 26, Three Frenchmen who
lived in Saudi Arabia were killed by gunmen on the side of a desert
road leading to the holy city of Medina in an area restricted to
Muslims only. Soon after a 4th died from his wounds. An investigation
later revealed that Waleed bin Mutlaq al-Radadi, among the kingdom's
most wanted terrorists, was the mastermind and one of the triggermen in
the shooting. Al-Radadi was killed on April 6 in a gunbattle with Saudi
forces.
(AP, 2/26/07)(AP, 4/18/07)
2007 Feb 26, Sudan rejected the
legitimacy of the International Criminal Court in pressing charges over
the conflict in Darfur, still ravaged by war and famine four years
after the violence erupted.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 26, The United Nations'
highest court exonerated Serbia of direct responsibility for the mass
slaughter of Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica during the 1992-95 Bosnia
war, but ruled that it failed to prevent genocide.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 26, President Hugo Chavez
ordered by decree the takeover of oil projects run by foreign oil
companies in Venezuela's Orinoco River region.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2008 Feb 26, Buddy Miles (60),
former drummer with Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana and other popular rock
musicians, died in Texas. Over his career he appeared in over 70 albums.
(SFC, 2/29/08, p.A2)
2008 Feb 26, Porter Thompson,
former president of SF-based Bechtel Inc. (1975-1983), died.
(SSFC, 3/30/08, p.B6)
2008 Feb 26, In Afghanistan a
rocket attack on an Afghan National Army patrol killed two soldiers and
wounded six others in southern Kandahar province. A roadside bomb
killed two Polish soldiers patrolling in eastern Afghanistan.
(AP, 2/27/08)
2008 Feb 26, In Algeria the "emir"
Hamza (alias Abdi Abdi), a suspected leader of al-Qaida's local
affiliate, was killed during the sweep in the town of Legatha.
(AP, 2/27/08)
2008 Feb 26, In Brazil a
helicopter had just left an oil rig with 17 oil workers and three crew
members on board when it went down some 75 miles off the coast. 15
people aboard were rescued mostly unharmed. Rescuers located two bodies
inside the sunken wreck, bringing the death toll to three. Two others
remain missing.
(AP, 2/27/08)
2008 Feb 26, Brunei’s Prince Jefri
effectively lost control of the 55-story New York Palace Hotel,
formerly known as the Helmsley Palace. A firm owned by prince Jefri
paid $202 million for the hotel in 1993 using funds from the Brunei
Investment Agency (BAI).
(WSJ, 3/1/08, p.A6)
2008 Feb 26, Mohammed Hamid (50),
a man who dubbed himself "Osama bin London" was found guilty by a
British court of organizing extremist training camps and soliciting
murder.
(AFP, 2/26/08)
2008 Feb 26, In Cameroon the death
toll after a 2nd day of strike-related violence reached 8. A taxi
drivers' strike over rising fuel costs triggered widespread rioting
exacerbated by anger over the cost of food, high unemployment and plans
by President Paul Biya (75) to change the constitution to extend his
25-year rule for a third term of 7 years. Government ministers said
around 25 to 40 people were killed, although a human rights group put
the toll at over 100.
(AP, 2/27/08)(Econ, 3/1/08, p.49)(Reuters, 3/31/08)
2008 Feb 26, Canada confirmed a
new case of mad cow disease, the 12th since 2003, and said the animal
in question was a six-year-old dairy cow from Alberta that had most
probably eaten infected feed.
(Reuters, 2/26/08)
2008 Feb 26, The mayor of Koui, a
town in northwest Central African Republic (CAR), was abducted along
with four other people. 3 captives including the mayor were later
killed. 2 captives were released by ransom.
(AFP, 3/14/08)
2008 Feb 26, Hungary’s central
bank adopted a new currency regime allowing its currency to float
rather than trade in a band against the euro, which began in 2001.
Adoption of the euro was predicted to take place in 2014 at the
earliest.
(WSJ, 2/26/08, p.A5)
2008 Feb 26, The Iraqi government
demanded for the first time that Turkey immediately withdraw from
northern Iraq, warning it feared the ongoing incursion could lead to
clashes with the official forces of the semiautonomous Kurdish region.
(AP, 2/26/08)
2008 Feb 26, A suicide bomber
attacked a bus outside the city of Mosul. The Iraqi army said 9 were
killed and 9 injured. The US military put the toll at 8 dead and 8
injured. Gunmen in civilian clothes stopped two buses at a fake
checkpoint on a highway in volatile Diyala province and kidnapped 21
men. They later released three women. 15 gunmen broke into a house in
the village of Tuz Khormato, killing an Iraqi soldier and wounding his
brother. In Hawija two members of the local awakening council, Sunni
fighters who have turned against al-Qaida, were killed after gunmen
opened fire on a checkpoint.
(AP, 2/26/08)
2008 Feb 26, Israel's highest
court upheld a much-criticized plea bargain that allowed former
President Moshe Katsav to avoid rape charges and a possible prison
term. Israeli troops seized the facilities of a Hamas-affiliated
charity in the West Bank city of Hebron, saying it funneled money to
the Islamic group's militant activities and recruited members to its
ranks.
(AP, 2/26/08)
2008 Feb 26, Mediator Kofi Annan
suspended the talks to end Kenya's deadly postelection crisis after
weeks of negotiations brought little progress.
(AP, 2/26/08)
2008 Feb 26, A Nigerian election
tribunal upheld the president's declared victory in last year's
disputed election.
(AP, 2/26/08)
2008 Feb 26, Mexican lawmakers
approved judicial reform that would introduce public, oral trials and
guarantee the presumption of innocence, even as lawmakers deleted a
proposal to allow police to search homes without a warrant. Mexico's
Senate approved a law that would ban smoking in workplaces, public
buildings and public transportation across the country, allowing it in
private businesses only if special, ventilated smoking areas are set
up. Investigators found parts from at least 8 bodies in a series of
backyard pits at a house in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El
Paso, Texas. In March the body count increased to 36.
(AP, 2/27/08)(AP, 2/26/08)(AP, 3/3/08)(AP, 3/16/08)
2008 Feb 26, An audience of North
Korea's communist elite gave America's oldest orchestra a standing
ovation after a rousing set that took in Dvorak, Gershwin and a Korean
folk song. Some Philharmonic members were so overcome they left the
stage in tears.
(Reuters, 2/26/08)
2008 Feb 26, A "doomsday" seed
vault built to protect millions of food crops from climate change, wars
and natural disasters opened deep within an Arctic mountain in the
remote Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard.
(AP, 2/26/08)
2008 Feb 26, The deadly conflict
in Darfur entered its sixth year with no solution in sight, as Khartoum
continued to resist the full deployment of a peacekeeping force amid a
fresh wave of bombings.
(AP, 2/26/08)
2008 Feb 26, The WHO said
drug-resistant TB had reached its highest levels ever at 5% of all new
TB cases worldwide. In parts of the former Soviet Union and China it
reached 15-22% of new cases.
(SFC, 2/27/08, p.A2)
2009 Feb 26, President
Barack Obama unveiled a $3.6 trillion budget and promised to slash
federal spending by $2 trillion, even as the administration initially
invests large sums of money to revive the faltering economy. The budget
included $630 billion to start pushing toward a national health
insurance program. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Obama
administration is reversing an 18-year ban on news coverage of the
return of war dead, allowing photographs of flag-covered caskets when
families of the fallen troops agree.
(AP, 2/26/09)(WSJ, 2/27/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 26, Virgin Megastore, a
music and video retailer, announced the closures of its San Francisco
and New York stores. This would leave the company with 3 stores
(Hollywood, Denver, and Orlando) from a peak of 23 stores in 2002. The
San Francisco, which opened in 1995, planned to shut down in late April.
(SFC, 2/27/09, p.A8)
2009 Feb 26, General Motors
reported a $9.6 billion 4th quarter loss bringing its loss for the year
2008 to $30.9 billion. This was its 2nd worst financial performance in
its 100 year history.
(WSJ, 2/27/09, p.B1)
2009 Feb 26, The Australian
government announced a multi-million dollar investment in research on
reducing gas emissions from farm animals as part of the fight against
global warming.
(AFP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 26, In Bangladesh
mutinous members of a paramilitary unit in Dhaka surrendered their
weapons as tanks surrounded their headquarters after a second day of
gunfire in a mutiny that killed about 50 people. Security forces
searching the headquarters of a mutinous border guard unit soon
discovered the bodies of dozens of officers in shallow graves on the
compound, raising the death toll to 76. The trial of some 3,500
paramilitary troops began in November. At least 48 had already died
while in custody. In April, 2010, 136 guards were given sentences
ranging from four months to seven years for their 2-day uprising.
(Reuters, 2/26/09)(AP, 2/27/09)(AP, 2/28/09)(Econ,
11/28/09, p.44)(AP, 4/18/10)
2009 Feb 26, British prosecutors
said they would not bring charges against Gary McKinnon, a computer
expert accused by a US attorney of the "biggest military hack of all
time," dealing a blow to his bid to avoid extradition.
(AP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 26, Former EastEnders
star Wendy Richard (65), who was diagnosed with cancer in January, died
in London. She best known for her role as Pauline Fowler in the
London-based soap whom she played for more than two decades.
(AFP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 26, In Canada PM Harper
announced a new law to crack down on a wave of gang-related murders in
Vancouver, which was preparing to host the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.
(SFC, 2/27/09, p.A2)
2009 Feb 26, Colombian President
Alvaro Uribe said he's no longer allowing wiretapping by the
scandal-ridden domestic intelligence agency. The announcement followed
allegations that the spy agency, or DAS, has continued illegal
wiretapping of prominent journalists, Supreme Court justices and
opposition politicians. By the end of April 33 people were dismissed
from Colombia’s Dept. of Administrative Security in the wiretapping
scandal.
(AP, 2/26/09)(SFC, 4/29/09, p.A2)
2009 Feb 26, In Iraq an American
soldier died while conducting a combat patrol in Baghdad.
(AP, 2/27/09)
2009 Feb 26, Kazakhstan announced
it was pulling out of the Central Asian power grid to protect its
energy supplies, a move that forced rolling blackouts and electricity
rationing on Kyrgyzstan, its tiny, power-starved neighbor.
(AP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 26, At The Hague UN
judges in the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal acquitted former Serb
President Milan Milutinovic of ordering a deadly campaign of terror by
Serb forces against Kosovo Albanians in 1999. The court convicted five
other senior Serbs and gave them prison sentences of between 15 and 22
years. The marathon trial started July 10, 2006.
(AP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 26, In Nigeria a source
close to negotiations said US drug giant Pfizer has agreed to settle a
multi-billion dollar damages case with 200 alleged victims of a drugs
trial in Kano. Pfizer and families of the victims of the drug trial
reportedly reached an out-of-court settlement in principle and agreed
to meet in Rome in March to put the deal in writing.
(AFP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 26, The Nigerian military
raided and destroyed a militant camp in the volatile Niger Delta as
part of its drive to end unrest in the oil-producing region.
(AFP, 2/27/09)
2009 Feb 26, In Pakistan thousands
of supporters of former Pakistan premier Nawaz Sharif protested, a day
after a court ruling to exclude him and his brother from elected office
raised fears of renewed political turmoil.
(Reuters, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 26, The Royal Bank of
Scotland posted a 2008 loss of 24.1 billion pounds, the largest in
British corporate history, because of the credit crunch and the
mis-timed takeover of ABN Amro. The British government has meanwhile
agreed to insure RBS "toxic" assets worth 325 billion pounds in its
Asset Protection Scheme (APS) and will cover 90 percent of losses
stemming from such holdings. Sir Fred Goodwin (50), head of RBS for a
decade, insisted that he is entitled to his full pension of over
£700,000 ($980,000) a year. In March Goodwin received a $4
million tax-free advance as part of his negotiated pension package.
(AFP, 2/26/09)(Econ, 3/7/09, p.22)(SFC, 3/18/09,
p.A2)
2009 Feb 26, Sudan’s President
Omar al-Beshir, who faces a possible arrest warrant for alleged war
crimes in Darfur, said he wanted to hold "free" elections soon to
guarantee stability.
(AFP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 26, Venezuela condemned a
US State Department report on human rights problems in the South
American country, saying Washington has no right to pass judgment on
its record.
(AP, 2/26/09)
2010 Feb 26, An unceasing winter
storm unleashed multiple dangers across the Northeast, blasting the
coast with hurricane-force winds that fanned a New Hampshire hotel
fire, flooding parts of Maine, dropping 2 feet of snow on parts of New
York, and cutting power to more than a million homes and businesses.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, New York Gov. David
Paterson abandoned his campaign for a full term as state governor.
(SFC, 2/27/10, p.A5)
2010 Feb 26, In Washington state
Jed Waits (30) shot and killed Jennifer Paulson (30), a special
education teacher as she walked into her Tacoma elementary school
classroom. Waits, who was apparently infatuated with Paulson, was
killed in a shootout with a deputy.
(SFC, 2/27/10, p.A5)
2010 Feb 26, In Afghanistan
insurgents struck in the heart of the Kabul with suicide attackers and
a car bomb, targeting hotels used by foreigners and killing at least 17
people and wounding dozens. Pres. Karzai said were aimed at Indians
working in Kabul. The dead included 6 Indians, an Italian diplomat, a
French filmmaker and 3 police officers.
(AP, 2/26/10)(SFC, 2/27/10, p.A3)
2010 Feb 26, Australia warned
Japan that "diplomacy comes to an end this year" on whaling, after
presenting a bold plan to phase out the controversial hunts in the
Southern Ocean.
(AFP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, In Belize a
single-engine aircraft crashed. Michael and Jill Casey of Albany, NY,
and their two young children died in the accident on the island of San
Pedro along with former senator and bottling magnate Sir Barry Bowen as
the group headed to a fundraising event hosted by Bowen. The Caseys
taught at a school in northwestern Belize owned by Bowen.
(AP, 2/28/10)
2010 Feb 26, London-listed Petra
Diamonds sold a 507-carat diamond for $35.3 million, breaking a record
as the highest price ever paid for a rough diamond.
(Reuters, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, Canada won the
Olympic men's short track 5,000 meters relay with Charles Hamelin
picking up his second gold of the day.
(Reuters, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, In Colombia a
Constitutional Court ruling blocked a referendum on whether Alvaro
Uribe should be allowed to seek a third consecutive term. The high
court ruled, in a 7-2 decision that is not subject to appeal, that a
law passed by Congress to set up the referendum was unconstitutional.
(AP, 2/27/10)
2010 Feb 26, The Danish daily
Politiken newspaper apologized for offending Muslims by reprinting a
cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb-shaped turban, rekindling
heated debate about the limits of freedom of speech.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, In Egypt a Costa
Europa luxury cruise liner carrying nearly 1,500 passengers slammed
into the pier as it docked Friday at the Red Sea resort of Sharm
el-Sheik in fierce winds, leaving three crew members dead. Bad weather
wreaked havoc across Egypt, pelting the capital with a freak hail storm.
(AP, 2/26/10)(AFP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, In France a strike by
air traffic controllers disrupted flight for a 4th day and some Air
France pilots walked off the job to protest cost cutting measures.
(SFC, 2/27/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 26, German lawmakers
voted 429-111 with 46 abstentions to increase the maximum number of
German troops allowed to serve in Afghanistan to 5,350 from 4,500.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, The Jundallah
insurgency, which says it's fighting for equal rights for the Sunni
minority in southeast Iran, named al-Hajj Mohammed Dhahir Baluch as its
new leader. The statement described the capture of former leader
Abdulmalik Rigi's by Iranian forces on Feb 23, but said all the tribes
of Baluchistan had pledged allegiance to the new leader.
(AP, 2/28/10)
2010 Feb 26, Iraq reinstated
20,000 former army officers dismissed after the 2003 US-led invasion
for serving under the former dictator, a landmark gesture at
reconciliation ahead of the March 7 elections.
(AP, 2/27/10)
2010 Feb 26, In Italy telecoms
billionaire Silvio Scaglia spent the night in police custody after
flying in by private jet from the Caribbean to face charges in a
money-laundering probe. Scaglia, the founder of Italy's second biggest
telecoms company, Fastweb, was among 56 people for whom arrest warrants
were issued in a case where prosecutors allege more than 2 billion
euros (1.8 billion pound) was laundered via fake international phone
service purchases and sales from 2003-2006.
(Reuters, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, In Liberia religious
clashes in the northern county of Lofa killed four people. The violence
erupted in the town of Vionjama after the body of a child "with body
parts extracted" was found near a mosque. Witnesses said rioters had
burned down the Catholic, Baptist and Episcopal churches in the area.
(Reuters, 2/27/10)
2010 Feb 26, Mozambique state
media said 2 young men accused of having sex with a goat in central
Mozambique are facing criminal charges, and the goat's owner is
demanding they make traditional wedding arrangements.
(AFP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, Health officials in
Puerto Rico declared an epidemic of dengue fever. Health Secretary
Lorenzo Gonzalez says 210 cases have been confirmed for January, more
than triple the number in the same month of 2007.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, Sierra Leone and five
other west African countries (Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau,
Gambia and Guinea) signed onto an action plan in Freetown for
sustainable mangrove management.
(AFP, 2/27/10)
2010 Feb 26, Somali pirates
hijacked the Sakoba, a Kenyan-flagged fishing vessel. It was reported
freed on July 20, 2010.
(AP, 7/20/10)
2010 Feb 26, In Sudan rebels and
UN officials said heavy fighting between government forces and a rebel
group in central Darfur led a French-aid group to suspend its
activities. A government offensive on the rebel Sudan Liberation Army's
(SLA) stronghold in Jebel Marrah began two weeks ago, but fighting
intensified in the last few days, with confirmed reports of aerial
bombardments in Deribat, a town of 50,000, and two other surrounding
areas.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, Thailand's highest
court ruled to seize 46 billion baht ($1.4 billion) from ousted PM
Thaksin Shinawatra's $2.29 billion in frozen assets, saying he had
abused his political power for personal gain.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, Turkey's PM Erdogan
vowed to put everyone who conspired against the country's democracy on
trial, as the number of military officers charged and jailed for
allegedly plotting a 2003 coup against his Islamic-based government
rose to 31.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, In Zimbabwe a cabinet
minister said Zimbabwe stands by a new law requiring major foreign
firms to sell 51 percent stakes to locals, but will allow companies to
choose their own partners. The law takes effect on March 1, giving 45
days for companies valued at more than 500,000 US dollars to sell 51
percent stakes to locals. The Indigenization and Empowerment Bill was
passed by parliament in 2007 and signed by President Robert Mugabe in
2008, before the creation of a unity government with long-time rival,
PM Morgan Tsvangirai.
(AP, 2/26/10)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Go to February 27