February 26




1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from the Island of Elba. He then began his second conquest of France.

1848 - The second French Republic was proclaimed.

1863 - U.S. President Lincoln signed the National Currency Act.

1870 - In New York City, the first pneumatic-powered subway line was opened to the public.

1881 - S.S. Ceylon began his world-wide cruise, beginning in Liverpool, England.

1907 - The U.S. Congress raised their own pay to $7500.

1916 - Mutual signed Charlie Chaplin to a film contract.

1919 - In Arizona, the Grand Canyon was established as a National Park with an act of the U.S. Congress.

1929 - U.S. President Coolidge signed a bill creating the Grand Teton National Park.

1930 - New York City installed traffic lights.

1933 - A ground-breaking ceremony was held at Crissy Field for the Golden Gate Bridge.

1945 - In the U.S., a nationwide midnight curfew went into effect.

1952 - British Prime Minister Winston Churchill announced that Britain had developed an atomic bomb.

1957 - The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award was established by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

1979 - "Flatbush" debuted on CBS-TV.

1986 - Corazon Aquino was inaugurated president of the Phillipines. Long time President Ferdinand Marcos went into exile.

1987 - The Tower Commission rebuked U.S. President Reagan for failing to control his national security staff in the wake of the Iran-Contra affair.

1987 - The U.S.S.R. conducted its first nuclear weapons test after a 19-month moratorium period.

1991 - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein announced on Baghdad Radio that Iraqi troops were being withdrawn from Kuwait.

1993 - Six people were killed and more than a thousand injured when a van exploded in the parking garage beneath the World Trade Center in New York City. The bomb had been built by Islamic extremists.

1995 - Barings PLC collapsed after a securities dealer lost more than $1.4 billion by gambling on Tokyo stock prices. The company was Britain's oldest investment banking firm.

1998 - A Texas jury rejected an $11 million lawsuit by Texas cattlemen who blamed Oprah Winfrey for price drop after on-air comment about mad-cow disease.

1998 - In Oregon, a health panel rules that taxpayers must help to pay for doctor-assisted suicides.

2002 - In Rome, Italy, a bomb exploded near the Interior Ministry. No injuries were reported.