February 26
1401 The State Council in London rules that the penalty for heresy is to be death by burning.
1616 An Inquisition delivers an injunction against the astronomer Galileo.
1686 Death: Godefroi L. Comte d'Estrades, French diplomat, in Paris; born 1607, Agen, France; Marshal of France and one of Louis XIV's ablest diplomats; served with distinction in the Low Countries during the Thirty Years' War, conducted a famous defense of Dunkirk. 1651–52, and took part in later campaigns in Catalonia, 1655, Italy, 1657, and Holland, 1672. He was mayor perpétuel of Bordeaux, to which the title of count (comte) was attached, from 1653 to 1674.
1732 The first mass is celebrated in the first American Catholic church, in Philadelphia.
1773 Construction is authorized for the Walnut St Jail in Philadelphia; on the cutting edge of correctional innovation, it is the first prison to provide for solitary confinement.
1797 The Bank of England issues the first pound note, a form of currency that will endure for 191 years.
1813 Death: Robert R. Livingston, US diplomat; signed the Declaration of Independence, at 66. Robert R. Livingston (November 27, 1746 - February 26, 1813), of New York, was a delegate to the New York state constitutional convention and a member of the committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence, although he was recalled by his state before he could sign it. Livingston served as Secretary of Foreign Affairs from 1781 to 1783, under the Articles of Confederation. He was a candidate for governor of New York in 1798, was U.S. Minister to France from 1801 to 1804, and negotiated the Louisiana Purchase. Of his many political duties, the position of Chancellor was one whose title followed Livingston throughout his life. It was during his time as Minister to France that the Chancellor met Robert Fulton, with whom he developed the first viable steamboat, whose home port was the Livingston home at Clermont, NY. The first steamboat voyage went from New York City to Albany up the Hudson River in just under 24 hours, a journey which had previously taken nearly a week by sloop. Robert R. Livingston was the eldest son of Judge Robert R. Livingston and Margaret Beekman Livingston. He had nine brothers and sisters, all of whom wed and made their homes on the Hudson River near the family seat of Clermont. The Chancellor built a home for himself and wife Mary Stevens Livingston just south of Clermont, called Belvedere, which was burned to the ground along with Clermont in 1777 by the British Army. In 1794 he built a new home, called New Clermont but subsequently named Arryl House (phonetic spelling of his initials "RRL") which was deemed "the most commodius home in America" and contained a library of 4,000 volumes, and after his trip to France, an orangerie. Livingston County, Kentucky, Livingston Parish, Louisiana, and Livingston County, New York are named for him."
1815 Napoleon, with 1,200 others, escapes from exile on the island of Elba with the intention of conquering France. "On February 26th, 1815, Napoleon escaped from Elba. On March 2nd, Lord Burghersh, His Majesty's Minister in Florence, wrote to the Foreign Secretary Lord Castlereagh, regretting: ... that a feeling has very generally been excited at Elba, at Leghorn, and to a degree at this place, that the English were privy to and connived at the escape of Bonaparte. This report originated in the language of Bonaparte's officers, who were perhaps instructed to hold it. A dissatisfaction with the King of France's governement was given as a reason why the English wished again to see Napoleon in that country. The British sloop-of-war Partridge was stated to have brought him a letter to that effect on Friday. Napoleon did foster these rumours of British complicity, with a view to creating mayhem among the Allies, his ploy was unwittingly seconded not only by his British admirers but also by the bungling of..."
1832 Birth: John George Nicolay, US author; Lincoln's biographer. "...an American newspaperman, served as President Abraham Lincoln's private secretary from 1860 to 1865. With John Kay, he wrote Abraham Lincoln': A History (1890), a 10-volume biography. He also served as United States consul in Paris from 1865 to 1869, and as marshal of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1872 to 1887. He was born in Essingen, Bavaria (now part of Germany), and came to the United States in 1838. He became editor of a Pittsfield, Illinois, newspaper in 1854."
1832 The Russian czar declares the realm of Poland-Russia.
1834 The first US interstate crime compact, between New York and New Jersey, was ratified.
1835 Birth: Richard Andree, German geographist, etnologist; Andree's Handatlas.
1842 Birth: Camille Flammarion. "...at Montigny-le-Roi in the department of Haute Marne, France. He first studied theology, but early got interested in astronomy. At age 16, in 1858, he wrote a 500-page manuscript, Cosmologie Universelle, and became an assistent of LeVerrier (the man whose calculations had led to the discovery of Neptune) at Paris Observatory. From 1862 to 1867, he temporarily worked at the Bureau of Longitudes, then returning to the Observatory where he got involved in the program of double star observing. This project resulted in publishing a catalog of 10,000 double stars in 1878. Besides, Flammarion observed the Moon and planet Mars. In 1873 and 1885, he brought up the hypothesis that Mars' color might be attributed to vegetation. He published several popular books (L'astronomie Populaire in 1879, of which over 100,000 copies were sold and an English translation by J.E. Gore appeared in 1894, as well as a book on Mars, La Planète Mars, supporting the existence of "canals", built by an advanced civilization..."
1846 Birth: William Cody, better known as Buffalo Bill, in Davenport, Iowa, US showman; will kill approximately 4000 buffaloes.
1848 29 year-old German philosopher Karl Marx and his partner Frederick Engels publish The Communist Manifesto.
1852 The British troop ship Birkenhead sinks off South Africa, killing 458.
1866 Birth: Herbert Henry Dow, pioneer in US chemical industry; Dow Chemical.
1867 Birth: Siegfried Passarge, German geographer; Cameroon, South Africa, America.
1869 Birth: Nadezjda K. Krupskaja, Russian revolutionary, wife of Lenin.
1870 Death: Wyatt Outlaw, black leader of Union League in North Carolina, lynched.
1884 Birth: Hildo Krop, modernistic sculptor.
1885 Conference of Berlin: While eating pickled herrings with both hands, Count Otto von Bismarck presides over the division of Africa by the colonial powers. Congo goes to Belgium and Nigeria goes to England.
1891 The first buffalo is purchased for Golden Gate Park.
1895 Michael Owens of Toledo, Ohio patents a glassblowing machine.
1901 Death: Chi-hsui and Hsu-cheng-yu, leaders of the failed Boxer Revolution, executed in Bejiing.
1907 Royal Oil and Shell merge to form British Petroleum (BP).
1915 WW1: Flame-throwers are used in battle for the first time when the 3rd Guard German pioneer regiment utilizes them against the French at Malancourt, Argonnen.
1916 WW1: The French cruiser Province sinks in the Mediterranean Sea, killing 3100.
1916 WW1: Russian troops conquer Kermansjah, Persia.
1917 Wilson asks Congress for permission to arm merchant ships. Pacifist Senator La Follette leads a filibuster against the legislation.
1918 Birth: Theodore Sturgeon, US sci-fi author; Hugo Award, It, Caviar.
1919 Weimar: Rudolf Hess returns to Munich, depressed and embittered at the "treason" of the government in Berlin, and soon begins running errands for Baron Rudolf von Sebottendorff's secretive anti-Marxist, anti-Semitic Thule Society. (Missing Years)
1923 Weimar: Hitler publishes an article in the newspaper published by Walter Riehl's Austrian Nazi Party (DNSAP). (See August 1918)
1924 Weimar: The trial of Hitler, Ludendorff and a number of other participants in the Munich Putsch begins in Munich. Hitler's opening statement: "By Marxism I understand a doctrine which in principle rejects the idea of the worth of personality, which replaces individual energy by the masses and thereby works the destruction of our whole cultural life. This movement has utilized monstrously effective methods and exercised tremendous influence on the masses, which in the course of three or four decades could have no other result than that the individual has become his own brother's foe, while at the same time calling a Frenchman, an Englishman, or a Zulu his brother. This movement is distinguished by incredible terror, which is based on a knowledge of mass psycholgy..."
1925 Reports indicate that the Leaning Tower of Pisa is in danger of collapse.
1932 Volkishness: Jorg Lanz von Liebenfels writes a letter to a member of the (ONT) Order of the New Templars stating "Hitler is one of our pupils...you will one day experience that he, and through him we, will one day be victorious and develop a movement that makes the world tremble." (Ellic Howe; Roots)
1933 Albert Einstein, lecturing in California at the time of Hitler's appointment as Chancellor, decides to take up residence in America. From this time until his death in 1955, he will hold an analogous research position at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J. (Grolier)
1933 During a seance in Berlin, Eric Hanussen predicts that a great fire will soon strike a large building in the Capital. An eagle, he declares, will rise from the smoke and flames. Note: Hanussen had previously predicted Hitler's rise to power.
1935 Robert Watson-Watt gives the first demonstration of his war-winning RADAR - Radio Detection and Ranging Device - in Daventry.
1936 Adolf Hitler opens the first factory for the manufacture of his 'people's car' - the Volkswagen - at Saxony. Designed by Ferdinand Porsche, the car is intended for mass production and low prices. Its features include an air-cooled rear mounted engine. Hitler wants the car to put his nation on wheels and do for Germany what Henry Ford did for America.
1939 WW2: The British government submits a proposal calling for an independent Palestine state allied to Britain. (Edelheit)
1940 The US Air Defense Command is established at Mitchel Field, Long Island, New York.
1941 WW2: Press Reaction to Hitler's Feb 24 Speech: "The most interesting passages in regard to the development and the outcome of the war are those which concern the alliance with Italy, submarine warfare, and the new phase of the struggle. His attitude on Italo-German cooperation is identical with that of Il Duce. The Chancellor pointed to the solidarity of the German people, the army, the Party and the State. He left this subject to point out that there lies before the Reich a new year which must bring grave decisions. This obviously means that the heavy fighting which has been threatened for weeks and months past can no longer be delayed. What form will it take? We can be sure that Chancellor Hitler took care not to furnish details on the matter, since the element of surprise is one of the chief factors in any large-scale military or naval venture."--Le Temps (Edition de Lyon)
1941 Those Vichy French: The German puppet state of France makes religious education in school mandatory.
1942 WW2: The German battle cruiser Gneisenau is disabled by a bomb.
1942 WW2: Navy flier Don Mason sends his famous message "Sighted sub sank same."
1942 WW2: Werner Heisenberger informs the Nazis about the uranium project 'Wunderwaffen.'
1943 Birth: Bob van Reeth, Flemish architect.
1945 WW2: Berlin is subjected to very heavy bombing.
1946 Birth: Phyllis Eisenstein, US sci-fi author; Sorcerer's Son, Born to Exile.
1946 Two are killed and 10 wounded in a race riot in Columbia, Tennessee.
1951 From this date, with the passing of the 22nd amendment, US presidents can serve no more than two consecutive terms of four years.
1951 Bread rationing begins in Czechoslovakia.
1952 Prime Minister Winston Churchill announces that Britain has its own atomic bomb.
1952 Death: Josef Thorak, said to have been Hitler's favorite sculptor. He specialized in heroic male figures and creating colossal sculptures. Acquitted of all crimes during the denazification trials.
1954 The first photo engraving typesetting machine is used, in Quincy, Massachusetts.
1961 Death: Karl Albiker, German sculptor; Problem of the Plastic, at 83.
1962 The US Supreme court disallows race separation on public transportation.
1965 West Germany cuts off military aid to Tanzania.
1974 Gold hits a record $188 an ounce in Paris.
1975 Americans are treated to the first televised kidney transplant when the Today Show airs the same.
1979 The last total eclipse of the Sun in 20th century for the continental US occurs.
1980 Egypt and Israel exchange ambassadors for the first time.
1981 British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher meets US president Ronald Reagan for the first time.
1984 The Reverend Jesse Jackson acknowledges that he had called New York City, Hymietown.
1987 NASA launches GEOS-H.
1989 Burke's Peerage reports that King Arthur's Round Table has been found near Stirling, Scotland.
1990 Moscow begins pulling 73,000 troops out of Czechoslovakia. Note: At the time, everyone assumed it was a good idea.
1991 Desert Storm: Kuwaiti resistance leaders declare that they have control of their capital.
1993 Death: Fletcher Knebel, of suicide at 81,author; 7 Days in May.
1993 Death: Mark Kolthoff, painter, photographer, at 92.
1993 A bomb explodes at the World Trade Center in New York, the second tallest building in world; 7 people die.
1997 Death: US songwriter Ben Raleigh, after setting fire to his bath robe while cooking. Raleigh's claim to fame is that he was the CO-writer of Scooby Doo Where Are You.
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