What happened on February 26 ?

747 BC - Epoch (origin) of Ptolemy's Nabonassar Era.

364 - Valentinian I is proclaimed Roman Emperor.

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.

1794 - Christiansborg Castle, Copenhagen burns down.

1797 - The Bank of England issues the first one-pound note.

1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte escapes from Elba.

1848 - The second French Republic is proclaimed.

1857 - The Bengal Native Infantry refused to use new cartridges

1863 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs the National Currency Act into law.

1870 - In New York City, the first pneumatic-subway opens.

1887 - At the SCG, George Lohmann becomes the first bowler to take eight wickets in a Test innings.

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 reformed.

1935 - Robert Watson-Watt carried out a demonstration which led 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.

1944 - Shooting begins of the Nazi propaganda film, "The Fuhrer Gives a Village to the Jews" in Theresienstadt.

1952 - United Kingdom Prime Minister Winston Churchill announces that his nation has an atomic bomb.

1957 - Final radio broadcast of Dragnet.

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 - Buffalo Creek Flood caused by a burst dam kills 125 in West Virginia.

1986 - Robert Penn Warren is named poet laureate of the United States.

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 - Tim Berners-Lee introduces WorldWideWeb, the first web browser.

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 goes off, killing 6 and injuring over a thousand. The buildings would be destroyed in a subsequent attack on September 11, 2001.

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.

1995 - at The Houston Astrodome Selena Quintanilla-Perez performed in her last concert before she was killed. More then 64,000 fans were in attendance making it the astrodome's largest crowd at the time.

2001 - The Taliban destroy two giant Buddha statues in Bamiyan, 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.

2006 - Sweden beats Finland in the hockey final of the Turin Olympic games.