February 26

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY ~ FEBRUARY 26

 

 

 1928 - Fats Domino is born

 

 

 

 

 1929 - Pres Calvin Coolidge establishes Grand Teton National Park
 1930 - "Green Pastures" opens at Mansfield Theater
 1930 - 1st red & green traffic lights installed (Manhattan NYC)
 1930 - West Indies make 1st Test Cricket win, by 289 runs over England

 1932 - Johnny Cash is born, Kingsland Ark, country singer

 

 1933 - Golden Gate Bridge ground-breaking ceremony held at Crissy Field
 1933 - Marinus van der Lubbe kept overnight in a police cell
 1935 - Germany begin Luftwaffe operation, under Reichsmarshall H Goering
 1935 - NY Yankees release Babe Ruth, he signs with Boston Braves
 1935 - RADAR-Radio Detection & Ranging 1st demonstrated (Robert Watson-Watt)
 1935 - The Luftwaffe is re-formed.
 1936 - Hitler introduces Ferdinand Porsche's "Volkswagen"
 1936 - Military coup in Japan
 1937 - C Isherwood/WH Auden's "Ascent of F6," premieres in London
 1938 - 1st passenger ship equipped with radar
 1938 - Rie Van Veen swims world record 200m free style (2:24.6)
 1938 - US female Figure Skating championship won by Joan Tozzer

 

 1938 - US male Figure Skating championship won by Robin Lee
 1940 - US Air Defense Command forms at Mitchel Field, LI, NY
 1941 - 2 fighters unable to continued slugfest, referee declares double KO
 1941 - Cowboys' Amateur Association of America organized (California)
 1941 - Utrecht & Zaandam strike against raid on Jews
 1941 - Vichy-France makes religious education in school mandatory
 1942 - German battle cruiser Gneisenau deactivated by bomb
 1942 - Radio Orange calls for March 1 day of prayer in Dutch Indies
 1942 - WW II Navy flier Don Mason sends message "Sighted sub sank same"
 1942 - Werner Heisenberger informs nazis about uranium project "Wunderwaffen"
 1943 - German assault moves to Beja North Tunisia
 1944 - 1st female US navy captain, Sue Dauser of nurse corps, appointed
 1945 - Very heavy bombing on Berlin by 8th US Air Force

 

 1946 - 2 killed & 10 wounded in race riot in Columbia Tenn
 1949 - USAF plane began 1st nonstop around-the-world flight
 1950 - Leonard Bernstein's "Age of Anxiety," premieres in NYC
 1951 - Bread rationing in Czechoslovakia
 1952 - Neth-Indonesian Unity conference
 1952 - PM Winston Churchill announces Britain has its own atomic bomb
 1953 - Allen W Dulles, promoted from deputy to 5th director of CIA

 1953 - Michael Bolton, Ct, rock vocalist

 

 1954 - 1st typesetting machine (photo engraving) used, Quincy Mass
 1954 - Michigan rep Ruth Thompson (R) introduces legislation to ban mailing "obscene, lewd, lascivious or filthy" phonograph (rock & roll) records

 

 1955 - "Peter Pan" closes at Winter Garden Theater NYC after 149 performances
 1955 - 1st aviator to bail out at supersonic speed-GF Smith
 1956 - Betsy Rawls wins LPGA Sarasota Golf Open
 1956 - Writers Sylvia Plath & Ted Hughes meet at a party in Cambridge
 1960 - Soviet premier Khrushchev voices support for Indonesia
 1960 - USA's David Jenkins wins Olympic Gold for men's figure skating
 1960 - Verne Gagne beats Doctor X in Omaha, to become NWA wrestling champ
 1962 - Arthur Kopit's "Oh, Dad, Poor Dad . . .," premieres in NYC
 1962 - US Supreme court disallows race separation on public transportation
 1962 - Wilt Chamberlain of NBA Phila Warriors scores 67 points vs NY
 1965 - Dutch government of Marijnen falls
 1965 - West Germany ceases military aid to Tanzania
 1966 - KBIM TV channel 10 in Roswell, NM (CBS) begins broadcasting

 1966 - Jennifer Grant, actress (Celeste-Beverly Hills 90210)

 

 1967 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
 1967 - Verne Gagne beats Mad Dog Vachon in St Paul, to become NWA champ
 1968 - Clandestine Radio Voice of Iraqi People (Communist) final transmission
 1970 - "Georgy" opens at Winter Garden Theater NYC for 4 performances
 1970 - Beatles release "Beatles Again" aka "Hey Jude" album

 

 1971 - Secretary-General U Thant signs United Nations proclamation of the vernal equinox as Earth Day.
 1972 - Dam break in WV kills 107
 1972 - Slag heap dam collapses above Buffalo Creek WV, kills 125
 1973 - Triple Crown horse Secretariat bought for a record $5.7m
 1974 - Gold hits record $188 an ounce in Paris
 1975 - "Night... Made America Famous" opens at Barrymore NYC for 75 perfs
 1975 - 1st televised kidney transplant (Today Show)
 1976 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
 1977 - 1st flight of Space Shuttle (atop a Boeing 747)
 1978 - Ira Levin's "Deathtrap," premieres in NYC
 1979 - Last total eclipse of Sun in 20th century for continental US
 1980 - Egypt & Israel exchange ambassadors for 1st time
 1981 - 3 Anglican missionaries detained in Iran since Aug 1980 are released
 1983 - Michael Jackson's "Thriller" album goes to #1 & stays #1 for 37 weeks

 

 1983 - Shortwave pirate Radio USA (Wellsville, NY) begins transmission
 1984 - Last US marines in multinatl peacekeeping force in Lebanon left Beirut
 1984 - Rev Jesse Jackson acknowledges that he called NYC, "Hymietown"
 1984 - Robert Penn Warren, Pulitzer Prize winner, named 1st US poet laureate
 1985 - 27th Grammy Awards: Whats Love Got to Do With It, Cyndi Lauper wins

 

 1986 - Evert van Benthem wins 14th Frisian 11-Cities skating race (6:55:16)
 1986 - People Power Revolution in the Philippines.
 1987 - 1st release of Beatles compact discs
 1987 - NASA launches GEOS-H
 1987 - NBA's Michael Jordan's 58 points is a Chicago Bull record
 1987 - Tower Commission probes Iran-Contra affair
 1987 - USSR resumes nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
 1987 - Wash blocks 20 Indiana shots tying NBA regulation game record
 1988 - Christa Rotherburger (GDR) skates ladies world record 1000m (1:17.65)
 1989 - "Jerome Robbins' Broadway" opens at Imperial Theater NYC for 634 perfs
 1989 - NY Yankees announce that Tom Seaver is their new TV sportscaster
 1989 - California court throws out most of Margo Adams's $12 million breach-of- contract suit against Red Sox third baseman Wade Boggs
 1990 - USSR agrees to withdraw all 73,500 troops from Czech by July, 1991
  1991 - Bill Veeck & Tony Lazzeri elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
 1991 - Kuwaiti resistance leaders declare they have control of their capital