Historical Events on 26 Feb

Historical Events on 26 Feb

1266 - Battle of Benevento: An army led by Charles, Count of Anjou, defeats a combined German and Sicilian force led by King Manfred of Sicily. Manfred is killed in the battle and Pope Clement IV invests Charles as king of Sicily and Naples.
1658 - Treaty of Roskilde: After a devastating defeat in the Northern Wars (1655-1661), the King of Denmark-Norway is forced to give up nearly half his territory to Sweden to save the rest.
1794 - Christiansborg Castle, Copenhagen burns down.
1797 - The Bank of England issues the first one-pound and two-pound notes.
1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte escapes from Elba.
1848 - The second French Republic is proclaimed.
1863 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs the National Banking Act into law.
1870 - In New York City, the first pneumatic-subway opens.
1885 - The Berlin Act, which resulted from the Berlin Conference regulating European colonization and trade in Africa, is signed
1887 - At the SCG, George Lohmann becomes the first bowler to take eight wickets in a Test innings.
1914 - HMHS Britannic, sister to the Titanic, is launched at Harland & Wolff, Belfast.
1917 - The Original Dixieland Jass Band records the first ever jazz record for the Victor Talking Machine Company in New York.
1919 - An act of the U.S. Congress establishes most of the Grand Canyon as a United States National Park (see Grand Canyon National Park).
1929 - The Grand Teton National Park is created.
1935 - The Luftwaffe is re-formed.
1935 - The Daventry Experiment, 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.
1952 - United Kingdom Prime Minister Winston Churchill announces that his nation has an atomic bomb.
1966 - Apollo Program: Launch of AS-201, the first flight of the Saturn IB rocket
1970 - National Public Radio incorporates as a non-profit corporation.
1971 - 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.
1984 - US troops withdraw from Beirut. President Ronald Reagan had sent the troops as a peacekeeping force in August 1982.
1986 - People Power Revolution in the Philippines.
1987 - Iran-Contra affair: The Tower Commission rebukes American President Ronald Reagan for not controlling his national security staff.
1990 - The Sandinistas are defeated in Nicaraguan elections.
1991 - Gulf War: On Baghdad Radio Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein announces the withdrawal of Iraqi troops from Kuwait.
1993 - World Trade Center bombing: In New York City, a truck bomb parked below the North Tower of the World Trade Center explodes, killing 6 and injuring over a thousand.
1995 - The United Kingdom's oldest investment banking firm, Barings Bank collapses after a securities broker, Nick Leeson, loses $1.4 billion by speculating on the Singapore International Monetary Exchange using futures contracts.
2001 - The Taliban destroy two giant Buddha statues in Bamyan, Afghanistan.
2004 - The United States lifts a ban on travel to Libya, ending travel restrictions to the nation that had lasted for 23 years.
2004 - Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski is killed in a plane crash near Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
2005 - Hosni Mubarak the president of Egypt orders the constitution changed to allow multi-candidate presidential elections before September 2005 by asking Egyptian parliament to amend Article 76 of the constitution.
364 - Valentinian I is proclaimed Roman Emperor.
747 BC - Epoch (origin) of Ptolemy's Nabonassar Era.