On This Day in History - February 26th - Almanac

Today is Friday, Feb. 26, the 57th day of 2021 with 308 to follow.

The moon is waxing. Morning stars are Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Saturn and Venus. Evening stars are Mars, Neptune and Uranus.

Those born this date are under the sign of Pisces. They include British playwright Christopher Marlowe in 1564; French novelist/poet Victor Hugo in 1802; Levi Strauss, who created the world's first pair of denim blue jeans, in 1829; American frontiersman William "Buffalo Bill" Cody in 1846; surgeon/cornflakes developer John Kellogg in 1852; Hall of Fame baseball pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander in 1887; actor/comedian Jackie Gleason in 1916; actor Tony Randall in 1920; actor Betty Hutton in 1921; rock star Antoine "Fats" Domino in 1928; former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 1928; political commentator Robert Novak in 1931; singer Johnny Cash in 1932; rock musician Mitch Ryder in 1945 (age 76); singer Michael Bolton in 1953 (age 68); Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 1954 (age 67); actor/singer Chase Masterson in 1963 (age 58); singer Erykah Badu, born Erica Abi Wright, in 1971 (age 50); comedian/actor DeRay Davis in 1982 (age 39); musician Nate Ruess in 1982 (age 39); actor Teresa Palmer in 1986 (age 35).

On this date in history:

In 1531, an earthquake in Lisbon, Portugal, killed more than 20,000 people.

In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte and 1,200 men left his exile on the Isle of Elba to start his 100-day campaign to regain France.

In 1919, 37 years after the first bill to establish the Grand Canyon as a national park was introduced, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Grand Canyon National Park Act, bringing the landmark under the protection of the National Park Service, preserving it for future generations.

In 1929, Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park was established following the signing of an executive order by President Calvin Coolidge.

In 1935, Germany began operation of its air force, the Luftwaffe, under Reichmarshal Hermann Goering.

In 1970, National Public Radio was founded.

In 1984, the last U.S. Marines sent to Lebanon as part of a multinational peacekeeping force left Beirut.

In 1993, a powerful bomb exploded in the parking garage below the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing six people and injuring more than 1,000. In Nov. 1997, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef and Eyad Ismoil were found guilty of plotting and carrying out the attack following a three-month trial.

In 1994, 11 members of the Branch Davidian religious cult were acquitted of murder and conspiracy charges stemming from a federal raid and siege at the compound near Waco, Texas, the year before.

In 1998, a federal jury in Amarillo, Texas, ruled in favor of Oprah Winfrey in a lawsuit filed by Texas cattlemen who said she caused beef prices to fall with a talk show about "mad cow" disease.

In 2005, Bank of America acknowledged it lost computer tapes containing account information on 1.2 million federal employee credit cards, including those of some U.S. senators.

In 2008, the New York Philharmonic performed a historic, 90-minute concert at the East Pyongyang Grand Theater in North Korea.

In 2012, George Zimmerman, a Neighborhood Watch volunteer, shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla. The case spawned debate over Florida's "Stand Your Ground" laws and racism.

In 2017, Moonlight won the Academy Award for Best Picture after a mixup by presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, who mistakenly said La La Land won.

In 2019, thousands of children who crossed the border into the United States reported being sexually assaulted while in U.S. government custody over a four-year span.

A thought for the day: "Maybe this world is another planet's hell." -- British author Aldous Huxley