Today in History - February 26
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747BCE Feb 26, Origin of Era of
Nabonassar.
(SC, 2/26/02)
364CE Feb 26, On the death of
Jovian, a conference at Nicaea chose Valentinan, an army officer who
was born in the central European region of Pannania, to succeed him
in Asia Minor.
(HN, 2/26/99)
1076 Feb 26, Godfried III with
the Hump, duke of Netherlands-Lutheran, was murdered. [see Feb 24]
(SC, 2/26/02)
1154 Feb 26, Rogier II Guiscard
(60), King of Sicily (1101-54), died. William the bad succeeded his
father, Roger the II.
(SC, 2/26/02)(HN, 2/26/99)
1266 Feb 26, Charles d’Anjou,
king of the two Sicilies, defeated Manfred (33), in the Battle of
Benevento. Manfred, the bastard son of Emperor Frederik II, king of
Sicily, was killed.
(PCh, 1992, p.114)(SC, 2/26/02)
1324 Feb 26, Dino Compagni,
Italian silk seller, poet, chronicler, died.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1361 Feb 26, Wenceslas of
Bohemia, Holy Roman Catholic German emperor (1378-1400), was born.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1505 Feb 26, In Brest
Polish Chancellor J. Laski invited the Lithuanian government to
reconfirm and expand the 1501 Union of Melnik, but the offer was
rejected.
(LHC, 2/26/03)
1534 Feb 26, Pope Paul III was
affirmed George van Egmond as bishop of Utrecht.
(PTA, 1980, p.440)(SC, 2/26/02)
1538 Feb 26, Worp van Thabor,
Frisian abbot of Thabor (Chronicon Frisiae), died.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1564 Feb 26, Christopher
Marlowe (d.1593), English, poet, dramatist, was baptized. His work
included "Doctor Faustus," "Tamburlaine," "The Jew of Malta," and
other plays. He was murdered at 29 in a Deptford tavern and was
suspected of being a spy to the Continent on behalf of the Crown. In
1993 Anthony Burgess had a novel published posthumously about
Marlowe titled "A Dead Man in Deptford."
(WSJ, 4/28/95,
p.A-8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Marlowe)
1577 Feb 26, Erik XIV Wasa
(43), King of Sweden (1560-69), died.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1616 Feb 26, Spanish
Inquisition delivered an injunction to Galileo.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1726 Feb 26, Maximilian II, M.
Emanuel, elector of Bavaria, governor of Netherlands, died.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1732 Feb 26, The 1st mass
celebrated in American Catholic church was at St Joseph's Church,
Philadelphia.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1773 Feb 26, Construction was
authorized for Walnut St. jail in Philadelphia, (1st solitary).
(SC, 2/26/02)
1790 Feb 26, As a result of the
Revolution, France was divided into 83 departments.
(HN, 2/26/99)
1797 Feb 26, Bank of England
issued 1st £1-note.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1802 Feb 26, Victor Hugo
(d.1885), French novelist and poet, was born in Besancon. In 1998
Graham Robb published the biography: “Victor Hugo.” "Initiative is
doing the right thing without being told."
(WSJ, 2/10/98, p.A16)(HN, 2/26/98)(AP, 6/13/99)
1804 Feb 26, Vice-Admiral
William Bligh ended the siege of Fort Amsterdam, Willemstad.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1805 Feb 26, Alexander
Stulginskis, the 2nd president of Lithuania, was born at Kutaliai in
the Silale region. He died Sep 22, 1969 in Kaunas.
(LHC, 2/26/03)
1813 Feb 26, Robert R.
Livingston (66), US diplomat (Declaration of Independence), died in
Clermont, NY. He had helped Robert Fulton develop the "North River
Steam Boat" (1807).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_R._Livingston_%28chancellor%29)(ON,
6/12, p.1)
1815 Feb 26, Napoleon and 1,200
of his men escaped from the Island of Elba to start the 100-day
re-conquest of France.
(HN, 2/26/98)(AP, 2/26/98)
1829 Feb 26, Levi Strauss,
creator of blue jeans, was born.
(HN, 2/26/98)
1832 Feb 26, Jo George Nicolay,
private secretary to Abraham Lincoln and his biographer, was
born.
(HN, 2/26/98)(SC, 2/26/02)
1832 Feb 26, The Polish
constitution was abolished by Czar Nicholas I.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1834 Feb 26, New York and New
Jersey ratified the 1st US interstate crime compact.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1842 Feb 26, Camille
Flammarion, Mars researcher and popularizer of astronomy, was born.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1845 Feb 26, Alexander III,
Russian tsar (1881-94), was born in St Petersburg. [see Mar 10]
(SC, 2/26/02)
1846 Feb 26, William Frederick
Cody, aka "Buffalo Bill," was born in Scott County, Iowa. He was a
"Wild West" frontiersman-turned-showman. Three weeks after the
disaster at the Little Bighorn, Buffalo Bill claimed he had taken
'the first scalp for Custer!'
(HN, 2/26/98)(AP, 2/26/98)
1848 Feb 26, The Second French
Republic was proclaimed. [see Feb 24]
(AP, 2/26/98)
1848 Feb 26, Karl Marx and
Frederich Engels published "The Communist Manifesto".
(HN, 2/26/98)
1852 Feb 26, Dr. John Harvey
Kellogg (d.1943) was born. He was 24 years old when he became staff
physician at the Battle Creek Sanitarium--a position he held for 62
years. Dr. Kellogg, a respected abdominal surgeon, ran "the San" as
a health institute where the wealthy could rejuvenate themselves
with Kellogg's offbeat cures. Illness was caused, Kellogg believed,
by poor eating habits that left poisons in the intestinal tract.
Among Kellogg's solutions to the dietary dilemma were
"fletcherizing," or chewing food hundreds of times before
swallowing, and a vegetarian diet high in bran. It was the bowels,
however, that received Kellogg's undivided attention. Patients at
the San were subjected to regimens of "cleansing enemas" that cured
"ulcers, diabetes, schizophrenia, acne...and premature old age." In
1895, Kellogg's search for the perfect food led to the development
of breakfast food flakes made of wheat called Granose. Will Keith
Kellogg, John's brother, improved on the Granose idea and founded
the W.K. Kellogg Company.
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/9840/kellogg.html
(HNPD, 2/26/99)
1852 Feb 26, The British
frigate Birkenhead sank off South Africa and 458 died.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1858 Feb 26, In India
pioneering tea-planter Maniram Dewan was hanged by British colonial
rulers for taking part in the 1857 rebellion. The Sepoy Mutiny
leader had introduced commercial tea production to the Assam region.
(AFP,
4/22/12)(http://pd.cpim.org/2007/0715/07152007_1857.htm)
1860 Feb 26, White settlers
massacred a band of Wiyot Indians at the village of Tuluwat on
Indian Island near Eureka, Ca. At least 60 women, children and
elders were killed. Bret Harte, newspaper reporter in Arcata, fed
the news to newspapers in San Francisco.
(SFC, 2/28/04, p.D1)
1861 Feb 26, Ferdinand I, 1st
tsar of modern Bulgaria (1908-18), was born in Vienna.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1862 Feb 26, Battle of
Woodburn, KY.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1862 Feb 26, Cornelius Felton
(b.1807), president of Harvard Univ., died in Chester, Pen., after 2
years in office.
(WSJ, 2/21/06,
p.A3)(www.nndb.com/people/711/000107390/)y
1863 Feb 26, Pres. Lincoln
signed a National Currency Act.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1866 Feb 26, Herbert Henry Dow,
pioneer in US chemical industry (Dow Chemical), was born.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1866 Feb 26, New York
Legislature established the NYC Metropolitan Board of Health.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1869 Feb 26, Nadezjda K.
Krupskaja, Russian revolutionary, wife of Lenin, was born.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1869 Feb 26, 15th Amendment,
guaranteeing right to vote, was sent to states.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1870 Feb 26, New York City's
first pneumatic-powered subway line was opened to the public. The
tunnel was only a block long, and the line had only one car.
(AP, 2/26/07)
1870 Feb 26, Wyatt Outlaw,
black leader of Union League in North Carolina, was lynched.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1871 Feb 26, France and Prussia
signed a preliminary peace treaty at Versailles.
(HN, 2/26/99)
1876 Feb 26, Agustin P. Justo y
Rolon, President of Argentina (1931-38), was born.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1877 Feb 26, Rudolph Dirks,
cartoonist, was born. He became the creator of the "Katzenjammer
Kids."
(HN, 2/26/01)
1877 Feb 26, Carel S. Adama van
Scheltema, Dutch poet, writer (socialism), was born.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1879 Feb 26, Mabel Dodge Luhan,
American biographer, was born.
(HN, 2/26/01)
1881 Feb 26, Natal British
troops under General-Major Colley occupied Majuba Hill.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1881 Feb 26, SS Ceylon began
its 1st round-the-world cruise from Liverpool.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1884 Feb 26, Leopold II in
Congo signed a British and Portuguese treaty.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1885 Feb 26, The Congress of
Berlin gave Congo to Belgium and Nigeria to England.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1887 Feb 26, Sir Benegal
Narsing Rau, president of UN Security Council (1950), was born in
India.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1891 Feb 26, Henrik Ibsen’s
"Hedda Gabler" premiered in Oslo.
(SFC, 4/14/01, p.B1)(SC, 2/26/02)
1891 Feb 26, The 1st buffalo
was purchased for Golden Gate Park in SF under John McLaren. A pair
of bison, named Benjamin Harrison and Sarah Bernhardt, were settled
in Golden Gate Park following reports that only 1000 were left in
the US.
(SFC, 12/13/99, p.A18)(SC, 2/26/02)(SFC,
10/30/08, p.B1)
1893 Feb 26, Ivor Armstrong
Richards (I.A. Richards), writer, critic and teacher (Meaning of
Meaning), was born.
(HN, 2/26/01)(SC, 2/26/02)
1893 Feb 26, 2 Clydesdale
horses set a record by pulling 48 tons on a sledge in Michigan.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1893 Feb 26, Einar Halvorsen
skated to a world record 500 meter (48 seconds).
(SC, 2/26/02)
1895 Feb 26, Michael Owens of
Toledo, OH., patented a glass-blowing machine.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1901 Feb 26, Boxer Rebellion
leaders Chi-Hsin (Chi-hsui) and Hsu-Cheng-Yu were publicly executed
in Peking.
(HN, 2/26/98)(SC, 2/26/02)
1903 Feb 26, Richard Gatling
(b.1818), American inventor, died. The Gatling gun, an early type of
machine gun, was named after him. In 2008 Julia Keller authored “Mr.
Gatling’s Terrible Marvel.”
(WSJ, 6/3/08,
p.A19)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Jordan_Gatling)
1907 Feb 26, Concerns about a
growing influx of foreigners, mostly Europeans, prompted Congress to
create what became known as the Dillingham Commission, which
examined the impact of immigrants on America. The panel later
recommended curtailing immigration from southern and eastern Europe
through use of quotas, higher entry fees, literacy tests and other
restrictions.
(AP, 2/26/07)
1907 Feb 26, Members of US
Congress raised their own salaries to $7500.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1907 Feb 26, Royal Oil and
Shell merged to form British Petroleum (BP).
(SC, 2/26/02)
1909 Feb 26, Diplomats gathered
in Shanghai agreed to set up the International Opium Commission.
This was the first international effort to ban trade in a narcotic
drug.
(Econ, 3/7/09, p.15)
1912 Feb 26, Coal miners struck
in England. They settled on 03/01.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1914 Feb 26, New York Museum of
Science and Industry was incorporated.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1914 Feb 26, Russian aviator
Igor Sikorsky carried 17 passengers in a twin engine plane in St.
Petersburg. Igor Sikorsky, founder of Sikorsky Aircraft, produced a
film in 1942 that promoted the capabilities of his VS-300
helicopter, highlighting its possible rescue and military
applications.
(HN, 2/26/98)
1915 Feb 26, The 1st
flame-thrower was used by the Germans at Malancourt, Argonnen.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1916 Feb 26, Jackie Gleason,
comedian (Ralph Kramden in the Honeymooners), was born in Brooklyn,
NY.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1916 Feb 26, Mutual signed
Charlie Chaplin to a film contract.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1916 Feb 26, General Henri
Philippe Petain took command of the French forces at Verdun. A line
of bayonets protruding from the earth still testifies to French
valor at Verdun in World War I.
(HN, 2/26/98)
1916 Feb 26, Germans sank the
French transport ship Provence II, killing 930.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1916 Feb 26, Russian troops
conquered Kermansjah, Persia.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1917 Feb 26, President Wilson
publicly asked congress for the power to arm merchant ships. When
the United States entered World War I, propagandist George Creel set
out to stifle anti-war sentiment. Pres. Wilson, following his 1916
re-election, had asked the NY publicist to design a public relations
campaign to swing the country’s interests to support Britain and
France.
(HN, 2/26/98)(AH, 6/07, p.46)
1917 Feb 26, Utrecht Harbor,
Netherlands, held its 1st Annual fair.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1918 Feb 26, Theodore
[Hamilton] Sturgeon, US sci-fi author (Starshine, A Way Home, Hugo,
Caviar), was born.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1918 Feb 26, Stands at the Hong
Kong Jockey Club collapsed and burned, killing 604.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1919 Feb 26, Congress
established Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona.
(SFEM, 10/12/97, p.17)(AP, 2/26/98)
1919 Feb 26, Acadia National
Park was established as Lafayette National Park in Maine.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1920 Feb 26, Tony Randall
[Leonard Rosenberg], actor (Felix-Odd Couple, Love Sidney), was born
in Tulsa, OK.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1921 Feb 26, Betty Hutton,
actress (Greatest Show on Earth), was born in Battle Creek, MI.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1923 Feb 26, Italian
nationalist blue-shirts merged with the fascist black-shirts.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1924 Feb 26, Noboru Takeshita,
Japanese PM (1987-89), was born.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1924 Feb 26, U.S. steel
industry finds claimed an eight-hour day increased efficiency and
employee relations.
(HN, 2/26/98)
1924 Feb 26, A trial against
Hitler began in Munich.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1925 Feb 26, James Moody, US
jazz saxophonist, orchestra leader, was born.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1925 Feb 26, Jihad-Saint war
against Turkish government.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1926 Feb 26, Dark Street in the
Bronx was renamed Lustre Street.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1928 Feb 26, Antonie "Fats"
Domino was born in New Orleans. He was an American Rock n' Roll
singer famous by his songs "Blueberry Hill" and "Ain't that a
Shame."
(HN, 2/26/99)(SC, 2/26/02)
1929 Feb 26, President Coolidge
signed a measure establishing Grand Teton National Park In Wyoming.
(AP, 2/26/98)(WUD, 1994, p.615)
1930 Feb 26, "The Green
Pastures" opened at Mansfield Theater.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1930 Feb 26, Manhattan, NYC,
installed the 1st red and green traffic lights.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1931 Feb 26, Otto Wallach (83),
German chemist (Nobel 1910), died.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1932 Feb 26, Johnny Cash
(d.2003) country singer (I Walk The Line, Folsom Prison Blues, Boy
Named Sue), was born in Kingsland, Arkansas.
(NW, 9/22/03, p.98)
1933 Feb 26, Sir James
Goldsmith (d.7/18/97), later financier and corporate raider
(Referendum Party), was born in Paris to a Catholic French mother
and a German Jewish father who later moved to Britain and served as
a Conservative member of parliament.
(SFEC, 7/20/97, p.B6)(SC, 2/26/02)
1933 Feb 26, Ground was broken
for the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Russell Cone was hired
to oversee the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge. He had
already worked on the Philadelphia-Camden (Ben Franklin) Bridge, the
Detroit-Windsor Ambassador Bridge and the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge.
(HN, 2/26/98) (SFC,12/20/97, p.A21)
1935 Feb 26, New York Yankees
released Babe Ruth. He signed with Boston Braves.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1935 Feb 26, Radio Detection
and Ranging (RADAR) was 1st demonstrated by Robert Watson-Watt.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1935 Feb 26, Germany began
Luftwaffe operations under Reichsmarshal H. Goering.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1936 Feb 26, Japanese military
troops marched into Tokyo to conduct a coup and assassinate
political leaders.
(HN, 2/26/99)(SC, 2/26/02)
1937 Feb 26, C. Isherwood and
W.H. Auden's "Ascent of F6" premiered in London.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1938 Feb 26, US female Figure
Skating championship was won by Joan Tozzer. US male Figure Skating
championship was won by Robin Lee.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1938 Feb 26, The 1st passenger
ship was equipped with radar.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1940 Feb 26, The U.S. Air
Defense Command was established at Mitchell Field, Long Island, NY.
(AP, 2/26/98)(SC, 2/26/02)
1941 Feb 26, Cowboys' Amateur
Association of America was organized in California.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1941 Feb 26, British took the
Somali capital in East Africa.
(HN, 2/26/98)
1941 Feb 26, Vichy-France made
religious education in school mandatory.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1941 Feb 26, Utrecht and
Zaandam struck against raid on Jews.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1941 Feb 26, Jan Keizer Zaanse,
February striker, was shot to death.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1942 Feb 26, Don Mason, WWII
Navy flier, sent the message: "Sighted sub sank same."
(SC, 2/26/02)
1942 Feb 26, German battle
cruiser Gneisenau was deactivated by bomb.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1942 Feb 26, Werner Heisenberg
informed Nazis about uranium project "Wunderwaffen."
(SC, 2/26/02)
1943 Feb 26, U.S. Flying
Fortresses and Liberators pounded the Reich docks and U-boat lairs
at Wilhelmshaven.
(HN, 2/26/98)
1943 Feb 26, The German assault
moved to Beja, North Tunisia.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1944 Feb 26, Sue Dauser was
appointed the 1st female US navy captain of nurse corps.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1945 Feb 26, Mitch Ryder,
rocker (Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels-Devil With the Blue
Dress), was born.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1945 Feb 26, A midnight curfew
on nightclubs, bars and other places of entertainment was set to go
into effect across the US.
(AP, 2/26/98)
1945 Feb 26, Very heavy bombing
on Berlin by 8th US Air Force.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1945 Feb 26, Syria declared war
on Germany and Japan. [see Mar 26]
(HN, 2/26/98)
1946 Feb 26, A race riot in
Columbia, TN, killed 2 people and 10 wounded.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1947 Feb 26, President Truman
named Lewis W. Douglas as ambassador to Britain.
(HN, 2/26/98)
1949 Feb 26, A USAF plane began
a 1st nonstop around-the-world flight.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1950 Feb 26, Leonard
Bernstein's "Age of Anxiety" premiered in NYC.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1950 Feb 26, Harry Lauder
(b.1870), notable Scottish entertainer, died. He was, at one time,
the highest-paid performer in the world, making the equivalent of
£12,700 a night plus expenses, and was the first British performer
to sell more than a million records.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Lauder)
1951 Feb 26, In the US the 22nd
Amendment to the Constitution, limiting a president to two terms of
office, was ratified.
(TMC, 1994, p.1951)(WSJ, 12/31/97, p.A11)(AP,
2/26/98)(HN, 2/26/98)
1951 Feb 26, Bread rationing
began in Czechoslovakia.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1952 Feb 26, The U.S. signed a
military aid pact with Ecuador.
(HN, 2/26/98)
1952 Feb 26, Prime Minister
Winston Churchill announced that Britain had developed its own
atomic bomb.
(AP, 2/26/98)
1952 Feb 26, A
Netherlands-Indonesian Unity conference took place.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1953 Feb 26, Allen W. Dulles
was promoted from deputy to 5th director of CIA.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1954 Feb 26, Michigan
Representative Ruth Thompson (R) introduced legislation to ban
mailing "obscene, lewd, lascivious or filthy" phonograph (rock and
roll records.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1954 Feb 26, 1st typesetting
machine (photo engraving) used at Quincy, MA.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1954 Feb 26, William R. Inge
(93), English theologist, philosopher, died.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1955 Feb 26, "Peter Pan" closed
at Winter Garden Theater in NYC after 149 performances.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1955 Feb 26, G.F. Smith became
the 1st aviator to bail out at supersonic speed.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1956 Feb 26, Writers Sylvia
Plath and Ted Hughes met at a party in Cambridge.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1960 Feb 26, USA's David
Jenkins won the Olympics Gold for men's figure skating.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1960 Feb 26, Soviet premier
Khrushchev voiced support for Indonesia.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1961 Feb 26, Mohammed V ibn
Yusuf (51), sultan, King of Morocco, died.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1962 Feb 26, Arthur Kopit's
"Oh, Dad, Poor Dad..." premiered in NYC.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1962 Feb 26, Wilt Chamberlain
of NBA Philadelphia Warriors scored 67 points vs. New York.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1962 Feb 26, US Supreme court
disallowed race separation on public transportation.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1962 Feb 26, After becoming the
first American to orbit the Earth, John Glenn told a joint meeting
of Congress, “Exploration and the pursuit of knowledge have always
paid dividends in the long run.”
(AP, 2/26/02)
1964 Feb 26, Lyndon B. Johnson
signed a tax bill with $11.5 billion in cuts. It was initially
proposed by Pres. Kennedy in Dec, 1962. It slashed the top marginal
income tax rate to 70% in 1965 from 91% in 1963.
(WSJ, 5/30/96, p.A14)(HN, 2/26/98)(WSJ, 12/12/03,
p.W15)
1965 Feb 26, Spoony Singh
Sundher (1922-2006), Indian-born entrepreneur, opened his Hollywood
Wax Museum on Hollywood Blvd. close to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. He
charged $1.50 admittance.
(www.foxnews.com/wires/2006Oct21/0,4670,ObitSingh,00.html)
1965 Feb 26, Norman Butler was
arrested for the murder of Malcolm X.
(HN, 2/26/98)
1965 Feb 26, West Germany
ceased military aid to Tanzania.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1965 Feb 26, Jimmie Lee
Jackson, civil rights activist, died of injuries.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1967 Feb 26, USSR performed an
underground nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan, Semipalitinsk, USSR.
(http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/pi/Monitoring/Arch/sts-table/sts-table.html)
1968 Feb 26, Thirty-two African
nations agreed to boycott the Olympics because of the presence of
South Africa.
(HN, 2/26/98)
1968 Feb 26, Lionel Rose
(1949-2011) outpointed Fighting Harada in Tokyo and became a
national sports hero and an icon for Australia's indigenous
community. Hundreds of thousands lined Melbourne's streets to
welcome him home after his title triumph. He lost the world
bantamweight title to Mexican Ruben Olivares in a fifth-round
knockout in August 1969.
(AFP,
5/9/11)(http://aso.gov.au/titles/radio/lionel-rose-wins-world-title/notes/)
1968 Feb 26, Clandestine Radio
Voice of Iraqi People (Communist) made its final transmission.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1969 Feb 26, Levi Eshkol
(b.1895), born in the Ukraine as Levi Shkolnik, died while serving
as Israel’s 3rd premier (1963-1969).
(Economist, 9/22/12,
p.93)((http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levi_Eshkol)
1969 Feb 26, Karl Jaspers
(b.1883), German psychiatrist, philosopher, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Jaspers)
1970 Feb 26, Beatles released
"Beatles Again," aka the "Hey Jude" album.
(www.dmbeatles.com/disk.php?disk=54)
1970 Feb 26, "Georgy" opened at
Winter Garden Theater in NYC for 4 performances.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1970 Feb 26, Five Marines were
arrested on charges of murdering 11 South Vietnamese women and
children.
(HN, 2/26/98)
1972 Feb 26, A coal sludge
spill killed 125 people and swallowed 500 homes in Buffalo Creek, W.
Va. Over 132 million gallons of water and mud hit 17 little towns
along Buffalo Creek.
(WSJ, 10/16/01,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Creek_Flood)
1972 Feb 26, Soviets recovered
Luna 20 with a cargo of moon rocks.
(HN, 2/26/98)
1973 Feb 26, A publisher and 10
reporters were subpoenaed to testify on Watergate.
(HN, 2/26/98)
1973 Feb 26, Claiborne Farm
announced that Triple Crown horse Secretariat had been syndicated
for a then-record $6,080,000, equivalent to 32 shares at $190,000
each.
(http://equisearch.com/horses_riding_training/sports/racing/racing022804/)
1975 Feb 26, "Night... Made
America Famous" opened at Barrymore in NYC for 75 performances.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night_That_Made_America_Famous)
1975 Feb 26, The 1st televised
kidney transplant was shown on the Today Show.
(http://intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSDSC/333/7087.html)
1976 Feb 26, US performed a
nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
(www.johnstonsarchive.net/nuclear/tests/USA-ntests3.html)
1978 Feb 26, Ira Levin's
"Deathtrap" premiered in NYC at the Music Box Theater.
(www.madstage.com/oldshows/MTGPast.html#Deathtrap)
1979 Feb 26, A total solar
eclipse cast a moving shadow 175 miles wide from Oregon to North
Dakota before moving into Canada. This was the last total solar
eclipse of the 20th century for the continental US.
(AP, 2/26/99)(SC, 2/26/02)
1980 Feb 26, Republican Ronald
Reagan won the New Hampshire primary over George H.W. Bush and
Howard Baker 49.8 to 22.8 to 12.9%. Democrat Jimmie Carter won over
Ted Kennedy, Jerry Brown and Birch Bayh 47.2 to 37.4 to 9.6%.
(SSFC, 1/25/04,
p.A19)(www.politicallibrary.org/TallState/1980rep.html)
1980 Feb 26, Al Mills (51), his
wife Jeannie (40) and their daughter Daphene (16) were shot to death
at 2731 Woolsey St. in Berkeley, Ca. In 2005 police arrested Edward
Michael Mills (43), the son and brother of the victims, based on new
evidence. Mills was soon released for lack of sufficient evidence to
try him.
(SFC, 12/8/05, p.B4)(SFC, 12/9/05, p.B3)
1980 Feb 26, Ricky Keel and
Jeffrey Taylor shot and killed Campbell liquor store owner Frank
Gummer during a robbery. Connie Keel (21), Ricky’s abused wife,
remained in a car during the robbery, but all 3 were convicted of
1st degree murder. In 2009 Connie Keel was allowed parole.
(SFC, 3/28/09, p.B2)(http://tinyurl.com/cqtzqv)
1980 Feb 26, Egypt and Israel
exchanged ambassadors for the 1st time.
(http://tinyurl.com/2rsjax)
1981
Feb 26, Howard Hanson (84), classical composer, teacher and
conductor, died in Rochester, New York. His Symphony No. 4
("Requiem"), written in memory of his father, won the 1944 Pulitzer
Prize. He was born in Wahoo, Nebraska on October 28, 1896.
(www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=41:7420)
1981 Feb 26, The French
Trainset 16 averaged 380 kph as part of Operation TGV 100.
(www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A711785)
1981 Feb 26, Three British
Anglican missionaries, detained in Iran since August 1980, were
released.
(www.cedmagic.com/museum/press/ced-timeline.html#02-1981)
1982 Feb 26, Gabor Szabo
(b.1936), Hungarian jazz pianist (Perfect Circle), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%A1bor_Szab%C3%B3)
1983 Feb 26, Michael Jackson's
"Thriller" album went to #1 and stayed #1 for 37 weeks.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1983 Feb 26, Short-wave pirate
Radio USA in Wellsville, NY, began transmission.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1984 Feb 26, Reverend Jesse
Jackson acknowledged that he had called NYC: "Hymietown."
(www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,921581,00.html)
1984 Feb 26, Last US marines in
multinational peace-keeping force in Lebanon left Beirut.
(www.history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=4791)
1985 Feb 26, In the 27th Grammy
Awards Tina Turner’s "What's Love Got to Do With It" won as record
and song of the year. Cyndi Lauper won as best new artist.
(www.rockonthenet.com/archive/1985/grammys.htm)
1986 Feb 26, Pulitzer
Prize-winning poet and author Robert Penn Warren was named the first
poet laureate of the US by Librarian of Congress Daniel J. Boorstin.
Warren was awarded the post of US poet laureate consultant to the
Library of Congress as the name was changed from consultant in
poetry.
(SSFC, 7/13/03, p.A27)(AP, 2/26/06)
1987 Feb 26, British stores
released the 1st Beatles compact discs.
(www.guardian.co.uk/thebeatles/story/0,,606496,00.html)
1987 Feb 26, NBA's Michael
Jordan's scored 58 points for a Chicago Bull record.
(www.nba.com/jordan/hoop_86-87.html)
1987 Feb 26, The Tower
Commission, which probed the Iran-Contra affair, issued its report,
which rebuked President Reagan for failing to control his national
security staff.
(AP, 2/26/98)
1987 Feb 26, NASA launched
GOES-H (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite). It
carried experimental search and rescue equipment.
(http://goespoes.gsfc.nasa.gov/goes/timeline.html)
1987 Feb 26, USSR resumed
nuclear testing at Semipalitinsk in Eastern Kazakhstan.
(www.nti.org/f_wmd411/1987.html)
1988 Feb 26, Eric Arturo
Delvalle, ousted as president of Panama by the country's National
Assembly, called for a national strike to repudiate Gen. Manuel
Antonio Noriega.
(AP, 2/26/98)
1988 Feb 26, The Soviet Union's
hockey team clinched the gold medal at the Winter Olympics in
Calgary, Canada.
(AP, 2/26/98)
1989 Feb 26, The musical
"Jerome Robbins' Broadway" opened at Imperial Theater in NYC for 634
performances.
(www.theatredb.com/QShow.php?sid=s0355)
1989 Feb 26, US Defense
Secretary-designate John Tower, dogged by questions about a possible
drinking problem, publicly pledged not to drink any alcohol during
his term of office if confirmed by the Senate.
(AP, 2/26/99)
1989 Feb 26, President Bush's
visit to China was marred by the refusal of Chinese authorities to
allow dissident Fang Lizhi to attend a banquet hosted by Bush.
(AP, 2/26/99)
1990 Feb 26, USSR agreed to
withdraw all 73,500 troops from Czechoslovakia by July, 1991.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1991 Feb 26, Allied troops took
control of Kuwait after a 100-hour ground war. It was later reported
that high concentrations of US armor-piercing depleted uranium
shells were detonated in Iraq and Kuwait.
(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A8)(SFC, 11/24/98, p.A4)
1991 Feb 26, Kuwaiti resistance
leaders declared themselves in control of their capital, following
nearly seven months of Iraqi occupation.
(AP, 2/26/01)
1991 Feb 26, Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein announced on Baghdad Radio that he had ordered his
forces to withdraw from Kuwait.
(AP, 2/26/98)
1991 Feb 26, In Iraq an
American armored unit of 9 tanks and 12 Bradley fighting vehicles
destroyed 28 Iraqi tanks, 16 armored vehicles, and 39 trucks without
a single loss in the Battle of 73 Easting.
(Econ, 3/3/12,
TQp.10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_73_Easting)
1992 Feb 26, "Search and
Destroy" opened at the Circle in the Square Theater in NYC for 46
performances.
(www.theatredb.com/QShow.php?sid=s0415)
1992 Feb 26, The US Supreme
Court ruled unanimously that sexually harassed students may sue to
collect monetary damages from their schools and school officials.
(AP, 2/26/02)
1992 Feb 26, According to
Azerbaijani authorities 613 Azerbaijanis were killed when Armenian
troops rushed into the village of Khodzhaly.
(AP, 2/26/12)
1992 Feb 26, The Supreme Court
of Ireland cleared the way for a 14-year-old girl to leave the
country for an abortion.
(AP, 2/26/02)
1993 Feb 26, The parking garage
of the 107-story World Trade Center was bombed in NYC by terrorists.
The bombing killed 6 and injured over 1000 people. 4 Islamic
extremists were convicted and each sentenced to 240 years in prison.
Militant Muslims Ramzi Yousef and Eyad Ismoil fled the country.
Yousef was captured in Pakistan in 1995 and Ismoil was picked up in
Jordan. The two were convicted in 1997 of conspiracy. In 1998 Yousef
was sentenced to life plus 240 years in prison after declaring: "I
am a terrorist and I am proud of it." Ismoil was sentenced to 240
years in prison. In 2000 Laurie Mylroie authored "Study of Revenge,"
an investigation of the bombing.
(WSJ, 10/24/96, p.A16)(SFC, 1/9/98, p.A2)(AP,
2/26/98)(SFC, 4/4/98, p.A3)(WSJ, 10/24/01, p.A20)
1993 Feb 26, In Egypt a bomb in
a coffee shop killed 3 people and injured 18 In Cairo.
(SFC,11/19/97, p.C2)
1994 Feb 26, A jury in San
Antonio acquitted 11 followers of David Koresh of murder, rejecting
claims they had ambushed federal agents; five were convicted of
manslaughter.
(AP, 2/26/99)
1994 Feb 26, Bill Hicks (32),
writer and comedian, died in Little Rock, Ark.
(www.asifproductions.com/saints/bill.html)
1995 Feb 26, The United States
and China averted a trade war by signing a comprehensive agreement.
(AP, 2/26/00)
1995 Feb 26, Barings PLC,
Britain's oldest investment banking firm, was forced into bankruptcy
after an employee in Singapore, Nicholas William Leeson (28),
speculated in derivatives on Tokyo stock prices that resulted in
losses exceeding $1.4 billion.
(WSJ, 2/27/95, p.A-1)(AP, 2/26/00)
1996 Feb 26, President Clinton
moved to step up economic sanctions on Cuba in response to Cuba’s
downing of two unarmed airplanes belonging to the Cuban-American
exile group Brothers to the Rescue.
(AP, 2/26/01)
1996 Feb 26, A car bomb in
Albania killed 5 people and wounded 30 outside a supermarket in the
center of Tirana. Two former senior officials of the disbanded
Communist era secret police were arrested shortly after the blast.
(WSJ, 2/27/96, p.A-1)
1996 Feb 26, In Israel an Arab
American drove a rental car into a Jerusalem bus stop and killed one
Israeli while wounded 23. The driver appeared to be acting on his
own but Hamas took responsibility.
(G&M, 7/31/97, p.A8)
1997 Feb 26, In the 39th Grammy
Awards "Change the World" won four awards, including record of the
year; Celine Dion's "Falling Into You" won album of the year and
best pop album.
(AP, 2/26/98)(SC, 2/26/02)
1997 Feb 26, President Clinton
defended White House fund-raising tactics as "entirely appropriate,"
a day after the disclosure of documents putting Clinton at the
center of all-out fund-raising efforts.
(AP, 2/26/98)
1997 Feb 26, US smokers were
required proof of age over 18 to purchase cigarettes.
(www.no-smoking.org/feb97/2-26-97-01.html)
1997 Feb 26, Israel's Netanyahu
cabinet approved the construction of 6,500 homes for Israelis in
Arab East Jerusalem.
(WSJ, 2/27/97, p.A1)(AP, 2/26/98)
1997 Feb 26, Thai soldiers
pushed Karen refugees back across the border into Burma as Burmese
troops massed for an offensive.
(WSJ, 2/27/97, p.A1)
1998 Feb 26, A jury in
Amarillo, Texas, rejected an $11 million lawsuit brought by Texas
cattlemen who blamed Oprah Winfrey's talk show for a price fall
after a segment on food safety that included a discussion about
mad-cow disease.
(AP, 2/26/99)
1998 Feb 26, The US waived the
2-year-old sanctions against Columbia. Military and economic aid
were expected to follow.
(WSJ, 2/27/98, p.A1)
1998 Feb 26, The US certified
Mexico as a fully cooperating partner in the war on drugs.
(SFC, 2/27/98, p.A18)
1998 Feb 26, Azerbaijan accused
Armenia of launching fresh attacks over the disputed
Nagorno-Karabakh.
(WSJ, 2/27/98, p.A1)
1998 Feb 26, Three Israeli
soldiers were killed in a Hezbollah attack in southern Lebanon.
(WSJ, 2/27/98, p.A1)
1998 Feb 26, Near Tokyo 3
businessmen hanged themselves in a suburban hotel due to
economic difficulties and the resulting loss of face.
(SFC, 2/27/98, p.D4)
1999 Feb 26, President Clinton,
outlining foreign policy goals for the final two years of his
administration, urged continued American engagement in the quest for
peace and freedom abroad.
(AP, 2/26/00)
1999 Feb 26, The Clinton
administration issued a condemnation of China for its human rights
policy.
(SFC, 2/27/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 26, The UN Security
Council voted to close its peacekeeping mission in Angola due to the
renewed civil war.
(SFC, 2/27/99, p.A16)
1999 Feb 26, In Landeck,
Austria, the death toll from recent avalanches reached 37.
(SFC, 2/27/99, p.A16)
1999 Feb 26, In Japan int'l.
donors at a 2 day conference pledged to provide $470 million in aid
to Cambodia, if the country takes steps to reduce its army and
promote democracy.
(SFC, 2/27/99, p.A16)
1999 Feb 26, Ethiopia claimed
to have shot down a 2nd Eritrean MiG-29.
(SFC, 2/27/99, p.A14)
1999 Feb 26, In Iran elections
were planned for cities, towns and village councils. These were the
first elections since the 1979 revolution.
(WSJ, 12/29/98, p.A1)
1999 Feb 26, Mexico was
certified as a US partner in the drug war by Pres. Clinton.
(WSJ, 3/1/99, p.A1)
2000 Feb 26, Jose Imperatori,
vice consul at the Cuban interests section in Washington, was
expelled from the US after he refused to leave voluntarily under
charges of spying.
(SFEC, 2/27/00, p.A15)
2000 Feb 26, In NYC thousands
of people marched to protest the acquittal in Albany of 4 police
officers for the 1999 shooting of Amadou Diallo. Diallo’s parent
filed a $61 million suit in April.
(WSJ, 2/228/00, p.A1)(WSJ, 4/19/00, p.A1)
2000 Feb 26, Pope John Paul II
visited the 6th century St. Catherine's monastery in Egypt, built on
the reputed site where Moses encountered the burning bush. He met
with Greek Orthodox Archbishop Damianos and held a short prayer
service in an olive garden outside the monastery.
(SFEC, 2/27/00, p.A20)
2000 Feb 26, Heavy rains
continued to ravage South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
33 people were reported dead in the northern province of South
Africa and 29 dead in Zimbabwe.
(SFEC, 2/27/00, p.A22)
2000 Feb 26, In the southern
Philippines a series of bombings aboard Super Five Express Buses
left 41 people dead and 45 injured. Muslim separatist rebels were
suspected.
(SFEC, 2/27/00, p.A29)
2000 Feb 26, From the United
Arab Emirates it was reported that hunters killed the last known
Arabian mountain goat, known as tahr, to restore their sexual
potency. The last known Arabian wold was also killed in the
mountains of Ras al-Khaimah by shepherds who feared for their
flocks.
(SFC, 2/26/00, p.A8)
2001 Feb 26, The US State Dept.
issued its annual report on the status of human rights and cited
“unconfirmed but credible” reports from China of continued use of
torture by police to obtain coerced confessions. The report also
faulted both Israel and the Palestinians for the current Middle East
bloodshed.
(SFC, 2/27/01, p.A10)(WSJ, 2/27/01, p.A1)
2001 Feb 26, The UN War Crimes
tribunal in the Hague convicted Dario Kordic, a former Bosnian Croat
leader, for crimes against humanity in the 1992-1995 Bosnian War.
Mario Cerkez (41), a brigade commander of Croatian troops in Bosnia,
was also convicted. They had carried out an “ethnic cleansing”
campaign in an area they wished to be joined to Croatia.
(SFC, 2/27/01, p.A12)(WSJ, 2/27/01, p.A1)(AP,
2/26/02)
2001 Feb 26, Taliban leader
Mullah Mohammed Omar ordered the destruction of all statues
including the Buddha statues carved into the stone cliffs of
Bamiyan, Afghanistan. He called on the Ministry for the promotion of
Virtue and the Repression of Vice as well as the Ministry of Culture
to destroy all pre-Islamic statues and sanctuaries.
(SFC, 2/27/01, p.A10)(WSJ, 12/20/01, p.A14)
2001 Feb 26, In Britain new
cases of hoof-and-mouth disease brought to 12 the number of farms or
slaughterhouses infected. The slaughter of pigs, cows and sheep rose
to some 7,000.
(SFC, 2/27/01, p.A1)
2001 Feb 26, In Indonesia Dayak
fighters declared victory and end to fighting.
(SFC, 2/27/01, p.A12)
2001 Feb 26, In Israel the
labor party voted reluctantly to join the incoming government of
Ariel Sharon.
(SFC, 2/27/01, p.A10)
2001 Feb 26, Russia’s Pres.
Putin arrived in Seoul for economic talks.
(SFC, 2/26/01, p.C14)
2001 Feb 26, In Yugoslavia the
parliament passed an amnesty law to free several hundred Kosovo
Albanians held in Serbian prisons since the 1999 Kosovo war.
(SFC, 2/27/01, p.A12)
2002 Feb 26, It was reported
that the US has begun providing the former Soviet Republic of
Georgia with military aid to counter terrorist threats in the
Pankisi Gorge region. Some 100-200 US soldiers were included in the
$64 million program to begin in mid-March.
(SFC, 2/27/02, p.A8)(WSJ, 2/27/02, p.A4)(SFC,
3/2/02, p.A11)
2002 Feb 26, Former Enron chief
executive Jeffrey Skilling, at times combative, insisted during a
Senate hearing that he knew nothing about manipulation of company
books and denied misleading Congress as alleged by some lawmakers
and Enron officials.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2002 Feb 26, Pharmacist Robert
R. Courtney pleaded guilty in Kansas City, Mo., to watering down
chemotherapy drugs. Courtney was later sentenced to 30 years in
prison.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2002 Feb 26, Lawrence Tierney,
actor in some 80 films, died at age 82.
(SFC, 3/1/02, p.A33)
2002 Feb 26, In Austria a train
wreck in Wampersdorf left 7 people dead.
(SFC, 2/27/02, p.A7)
2002 Feb 26, In Colombia 7
people were killed in various attacks blamed on the FARC. A rebel
bombing campaign against infrastructure continued.
(SFC, 2/27/02, p.A7)
2002 Feb 26, Congo peace talks
were suspended a day after the opening ceremony due to wrangling
over which political parties would be allowed to participate.
(SFC, 2/27/02, p.A7)
2002 Feb 26, Gunmen killed 11
people and wounded 17 others in an attack on the Shiite Sha-e-Najaf
mosque in Rawalpindi. The Sunni group Army of the Prophet’s
Companions was believed responsible.
(SFC, 2/27/02, p.A9)(SFC, 3/16/02, p.A14)
2003 Feb 26, The
National Book Critics Circle for general nonfiction went to Samantha
Power for "A Problem from Hell: American and the Age of Genocide."
(SFC, 2/27/03, A2)
2003 Feb 26, President Bush,
offering new justification for war in Iraq, told a think tank that
"ending this direct and growing threat" from Saddam Hussein would
pave the way for peace in the Middle East and encourage democracy
throughout the Arab world.
(AP, 2/26/04)
2003 Feb 26, In a victory for
abortion foes, the Supreme Court ruled that federal racketeering and
extortion laws had been wrongly used to try to stop blockades,
harassment and violent protests outside clinics.
(AP, 2/26/04)
2003 Feb 26, NYC chose
an airy spire, designed by Daniel Libeskind, for the site of the
former World Trade Center destroyed on 9/11/2001. The spire would be
taller than any other building in the world at a height of 1,776
feet.
(AP, 2/27/03)
2003 Feb 26, In
Washington DC war protesters tied up phones, fax machines and
computers as part of a "virtual march."
(SFC, 2/27/03, A14)
2003 Feb 26, In
Hartford, Conn., a nursing home fire at the Greenwood Health Center
killed 16 residents. A patient charged with setting the blaze was
later ruled incompetent to stand trial.
(SFC, 2/27/03, A5)(AP, 2/26/08)
2003 Feb 26, In Algeria
it was reported that more than 7,000 people were believed missing at
the hands of security forces during the 1990s.
(AP, 2/26/03)
2003 Feb 26, A Colombian
army Black Hawk helicopter carrying 23 crewmembers and elite troops
crashed in the northern mountains. All aboard were feared dead.
(AP, 2/27/03)
2003 Feb 26, Striking
Dominica public workers agreed to end a 6-day strike that slowed air
transportation and mail service, after the government agreed to
review its proposal to cut the work force.
(AP, 2/26/03)
2003 Feb 26, French
Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin warned that waging war against
Iraq now, would split the international community and "be perceived
as precipitous and illegitimate."
(AP, 2/26/03)
2003 Feb 26, In Guatemala
striking teachers seized a pumping station on the nation's only oil
pipeline to press their demands for a hefty wage increase and better
schools. About 60,000 of the country's 80,000 teachers are striking
to demand a near-doubling of salaries that now range from about $190
to $390 per month. They also seek improved school buildings, more
books and better school lunches.
(AP, 2/27/03)
2003 Feb 26, In India a
gun battle, kidnappings, ballot theft and destruction of voting
machines marked polling in two of the four Indian states where new
legislatures were elected.
(AP, 2/26/03)
2003 Feb 26, Israel's PM
Ariel Sharon established a coalition government dominated by fierce
opponents of Palestinian statehood.
(AP, 2/26/03)
2003 Feb 26, South
Korea's parliament approved Goh Kun, a former mayor of Seoul, to
become PM in the newly installed government of Pres. Roh Moo-hyun.
(AP, 2/26/03)
2004 Feb 26, President Bush
tightened U.S. travel restrictions against Cuba.
(AP, 2/27/04)
2004 Feb 26, Rosie O'Donnell,
TV comedian, married Kelli Carpenter in San Francisco.
(SFC, 2/27/04, p.A1)
2004 Feb 26, The US lifted a
long-standing ban on travel to Libya after Moammar Gadhafi's
government affirmed that it was responsible for the bombing of Pan
Am flight 103 in 1988.
(AP, 2/26/04)
2004 Feb 26, Two
church-sanctioned studies documenting sex abuse by U.S. Roman
Catholic clergy said that about 4 percent of clerics had been
accused of molesting minors since 1950 and blamed bishops' "moral
laxity" in disciplining offenders for letting the problem worsen.
(AP, 2/26/05)
2004 Feb 26, It was reported
that scientists had identified a protein, TRIM5-alpha, that shields
rhesus monkeys from the AIDS virus.
(WSJ, 2/26/04, p.D4)
2004 Feb 26, A mail bombing
injured Don Logan, the diversity director in Scottsdale, Arizona. In
2009 Illinois twins Dennis and Daniel Mahon (58) were indicted for
the bombing. They had allegedly intended to promote racial discord
on behalf of the White Aryan Resistance. On Feb 24, 2012, Dennis
Mahon was found guilty. Daniel Mahon was exonerated.
(SFC, 6/26/09,
p.A5)(www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,529121,00.html)(SFC, 2/25/12,
p.A5)
2004 Feb 26, The freighter Med
Taipei lost 15 steel containers in rough seas off of Monterey, Ca.
Scientists discovered one container 3 months later 4,200 feet down
in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. In 2006 3 int’l.
shipping companies paid $3.25 million to the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration for damaging the sanctuary’s ecology.
(www.montereyherald.com/local/ci_17563377?nclick_check=1)
2004 Feb 26, It was reported
that dentists were departing Britain's publicly funded National
Health Service in large numbers, leaving a growing number of Britons
without access to affordable care.
(AP, 2/26/04)
2004 Feb 26, In Canada about
400 police officers cracked down on the Hells Angels and their
affiliates in the Montreal area, targeting more than 60 people
authorities believe were involved in gangsterism and
drug-trafficking.
(AP, 2/26/04)
2004 Feb 26, Mikhail
Saakashvili, the new president of Georgia, said he is ready to
negotiate full autonomy for the separatist Abkhazia region to end
the decade-long conflict.
(AP, 2/26/04)
2004 Feb 26, Israeli soldiers
shot and killed two Palestinians during violent protests against
Israel's West Bank barrier. Two Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli
soldier at a Gaza Strip crossing before being gunned down by troops.
(AP, 2/26/04)
2004 Feb 26, Macedonian
President Boris Trajkovski, a moderate leader who helped unite his
ethnically divided country, was killed when his plane crashed in bad
weather in mountainous southern Bosnia.
(AP, 2/26/04)
2004 Feb 26, President Vladimir
Putin opened a stretch of highway in Russia's Far East that will
make it possible for the first time to drive by road to Asia. The
6,214-mile Moscow to Vladivostok trek will open a window to the East
and the ever-expanding Chinese market.
(AP, 2/27/04)
2004 Feb 26, Russian Foreign
Minister Igor Ivanov said that three Russian intelligence agents had
been arrested in Qatar on suspicion of involvement in the killing of
former Chechen President Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev. Ivanov said they
were innocent and demanded their release.
(AP, 2/26/04)
2004 Feb 26, In Siberia at
least 15 people were killed and 17 more injured in a cafe explosion,
which apparently was caused by a natural gas leak.
(AP, 2/26/04)
2005 Feb 26, Addressing the
nation's governors, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates delivered a
scathing critique of U.S. high schools, calling them obsolete and
saying that elected officials should be ashamed of a system that
leaves millions of students unprepared for college and for technical
jobs.
(LAT, 2/28/05)
2005 Feb 26, Walter Anderson
(51), telecommunications entrepreneur, was arrested and charged with
evading $200 million in federal and local taxes.
(SFC, 3/1/05, p.A3)
2005 Feb 26, The prosecution
and defense both rested their cases in the Robert Blake murder trial
in Los Angeles.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2005 Feb 26, Henry A. Grunwald
(82), former Time magazine editor and US ambassador to
Austria, died in New York.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2005 Feb 26, Jef Raskin (61),
computer pioneer, died in Pacifica, Ca. he led the shift to a
graphical interface with Apple’s Macintosh.
(WSJ, 3/1/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb 26, In Brazil Cleone
Santos and Magnaldo Santos, known as Negao, were taken into custody,
for aiding 2 gunmen who shot 73-year-old Dorothy Stang on Feb. 12.
(AP, 2/28/05)
2005 Feb 26, Fespaco, the
biennial pan-African festival of cinema and television, opened in
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
(Econ, 2/19/05, p.82)
2005 Feb 26, China state
television said China will gradually open its capital account in
2005, another step in its plan to make the yuan currency fully
convertible.
(AP, 2/26/05)
2005 Feb 26, Egyptian President
Hosni Mubarak ordered a revision of the country's election laws and
said multiple candidates could run in the nation's presidential
elections.
(AP, 2/26/05)
2005 Feb 26, In Haiti a
Brazilian peacekeeper was wounded and the charred body of a man
apparently burned alive with a tire around his neck lay in the
deserted street of a slum where shots rang out and people peered
fearfully from barred windows.
(AP, 2/26/05)
2005 Feb 26, Iraqi security
forces captured a son of one of Saddam Hussein's half brothers, who
allegedly financed the insurgency, in a raid on suspected militants
near Tikrit. Ayman Sabawi is the son of Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan, a
half brother of Saddam's, who served as a presidential adviser
before the US-led invasion.
(AP, 5/4/05)
2005 Feb 26, In Baghdad a
suicide bomber detonated his vehicle alongside an M1 Abrams tank and
killed himself and two Iraqis. A US soldier died during a sweep for
insurgents west of Baghdad. A car bomb in the Mussayyib district
south of Baghdad killed an Iraqi soldier.
(AP, 2/26/05)(SSFC, 2/27/05, p.A10)
2005 Feb 26, Japan put a
weather satellite into space for the first time since a humiliating
failure 15 months ago in hopes of entering the launch market.
(SSFC, 2/27/05, p.A3)
2005 Feb 26, Malaysia's PM
Badawi told Proton to set its sights abroad as he launched the
national carmaker's 1.8 billion ringgit (474 million dollar) new
manufacturing plant.
(AP, 2/26/05)
2005 Feb 26, Nepal's rebel
chief said he was lifting a crippling countrywide blockade of roads
by his fighters to ease the discomfort of common people.
(AP, 2/26/05)
2005 Feb 26, Palestinian and
Israeli security forces arrested 7 suspected militants in connection
with a suicide bombing that killed four Israelis at a Tel Aviv
nightclub. The bomber was identified as Abdullah Badran (21), a
student from the West Bank village of Deir al-Ghusun.
(AP, 2/26/05)(SSFC, 2/27/05, p.A7)
2005 Feb 26, In Taiwan a fire
raged through the top floors of a highrise building in the central
city of Taichung, killing at least two people.
(AP, 2/26/05)
2005 Feb 26, Thailand police
reported 4 more people killed in surging violence in the Muslim
south. PM Shinawatra defended his hard-line policies and accused his
critics of sympathizing with separatists.
(AP, 2/26/05)
2005 Feb 26, Togo’s Congress
named deputy speaker Bonfoh Abbass as interim president until
nationwide elections can be held in the coming months.
(AP, 2/27/05)
2005 Feb 26, The Ukraine
cabinet stripped former president Leonid Kuchma of a plush and
widely criticized retirement package that featured a monthly
pension, two cars, a government home and much more.
(AP, 2/26/05)
2006 Feb 26, The Bush
administration said it has accepted a proposal from Dubai Ports
World for a 45-day review of national security implications of its
plans to take control of operations at 6 US ports.
(SFC, 2/27/06, p.A3)
2006 Feb 26, Sixty former
Taliban, including 5 high-ranking figures, surrendered as part of a
government amnesty scheme and vowed to lay down arms and work to
rebuild Afghanistan.
(AFP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 26, In Australia
Joseph Terrence Thomas (32), a former taxi driver known as "Jihad
Jack" and alleged by prosecutors to be an agent for Osama bin
Laden's Al-Qaeda network, was convicted of receiving funds from the
group but acquitted on more serious terrorism charges.
(AFP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 26, British police
searching for thieves who got away with around $87 million from a
security company said they found weapons and $2.3 million in a van
they believe the gang used.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 26, Hans Singer (95),
British development theorist, died. He helped set up the UN
Development Program. His work with Raul Prebisch of Argentina led to
the Prebisch-Singer thesis which said that the benefits of trade
were distributed unequally between countries that imported
agricultural commodities and those that exported them, to the
disadvantage of the exporters.
(Econ, 3/11/06, p.79)
2006 Feb 26, In Canada, 19
Catholic priests singed an open letter in Montreal’s La Presse
newspaper denouncing Vatican opposition to gay marriage and having
homosexuals into the priesthood.
(AP, 3/1/06)
2006 Feb 26, Egypt's
antiquities chief said archaeologists had discovered a pharaonic sun
temple with large statues believed to be of King Ramses II
(1270-1213BC) under an outdoor marketplace in Cairo.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 26, In Guyana gunmen
on a rampage left 8 people dead and a dozen bystanders wounded on
the outskirts of Georgetown. About 15 gunmen armed with rifles tried
to rob a gas station when security guards responded. They escaped
with about $40.
(AP, 2/27/06)
2006 Feb 26, Iran's nuclear
chief said an agreement was reached with Moscow to set up a joint
uranium enrichment facility on Russian soil, a deal that could
assuage global concerns that Tehran wants to build atomic bombs.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 26, In Iraq bomb
blasts and gunfire killed over 2 dozen people, including 3 US
soldiers. A ban on driving in Baghdad and its suburbs kept daytime
attacks down. Mortal shells at night hit the Shiite quarter killing
16 people with 53 wounded.
(AP, 2/26/06)(SFC, 2/27/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 26, On the final day
of the Turin Winter Olympics, Sweden beat Finland 3-2 to win the
men's hockey gold. Germany led the gold medal count with 29. The US
won 25 medals including 9 gold, Canada won 24, Austria 23 and Russia
22. Drew Lachey leaped to victory with professional partner Cheryl
Burke on ABC's "Dancing with the Stars." Shizuka Arakawa won a gold
medal for Japan in figure skating.
(SFC, 2/27/06, p.A1)(SFC, 2/27/06, p.A1)(AP,
2/26/07)
2006 Feb 26, In Pakistan about
25,000 people, some chanting "Death to America," rallied against the
Prophet Muhammad caricatures in Karachi, but police prevented a
rally in the eastern city of Lahore by arresting the religious
ringleader and detaining scores of supporters. Assailants fired
rockets at the home of a provincial Cabinet in Pakistan's restive
southwestern Baluchistan province, killing a guest and wounding
eight other people.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 26, In the Philippines
a challenge to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's state of
emergency ended peacefully after disgruntled marine officers ended a
five-hour standoff that started when their commander was relieved of
duties.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 26, More than 1,000
demonstrators chanting anti-FBI slogans and carrying Puerto Rican
flags marched through the capital of this U.S. island territory.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 26, The Saudi Interior
Ministry identified two Feb 24 attackers as Abdullah Abdul-Aziz
al-Tweijri and Mohammed Saleh al-Gheith. Both were on a list of the
15 most-wanted terrorists the kingdom issued in June.
(AP, 2/27/06)
2006 Feb 26, In Thailand some
50 thousand people gathered in Bangkok for a new mass rally to
demand the ousting of PM Thaksin Shinawatra as opposition parties
said they were considering boycotting a snap election which he has
called in response.
(AFP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 26, Yemeni President
Ali Abdullah Saleh said three al-Qaida convicts among the two dozen
who escaped earlier this month have turned themselves in.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2007 Feb 26, A independent US
Postal Regulatory Commission recommended a new “forever” stamp good
for first class letters no matter how much rates go up. The panel
also recommended a 2-cent increase in first-class rates to 41 cents.
(SFC, 2/27/07, p.A3)
2007 Feb 26, Former US Federal
Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned that the American economy
might slip into recession by year's end.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 26, A US Treasury
Department delegation was in Macau discussing with local officials
how to resolve sanctions on a bank that allegedly was involved in
North Korean money laundering and counterfeiting.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 26, Five Western US
states (Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington)
announced an agreement to create a regional effort to lower
greenhouse gas emissions.
(SFC, 2/27/07, p.A7)
2007 Feb 26, The SEC sued Blue
Bottle, a Hong Kong firm, alleging they hacked into computer systems
to get corporate news releases early and traded on that information,
making a profit of $2.7 million.
(Econ, 3/10/07, p.71)
2007 Feb 26, Texas' largest
electricity producer, said it has agreed to be sold to a group of
private-equity firms for about $32 billion in what would be the
largest private buyout in US corporate history if shareholders go
along.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 26, A storm that
pounded the US Midwest brought snow and sleet across the Northeast,
closing schools, turning highways sloppy and slowing air travelers.
JetBlue canceled 68 flights because of snow.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 26, The World Vision
humanitarian group said that more than 50% of children in refugee
camps around Africa's volatile Great Lakes area have experienced
some form of sexual abuse. The data, collected in camps in the
Burundi, Congo (DRC), Tanzania, northern Uganda and Rwanda, said
widespread poverty made children vulnerable to abuses.
(AFP, 2/27/07)
2007 Feb 26, In Bangladesh a
fire swept through a building that housed two private TV stations
and a newspaper in Dhaka, killing at least three people and injuring
scores.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 26, In Bolivia police
said the body of Simon Matthew Boily (23), a Canadian cyclist, has
been found in a mountain ravine more than a month after he set out
on the "Highway of Death" from the La Paz on Jan 21.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 26, In Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, the concrete awning of a hotel in the Copacabana beach
district collapsed, killing two people and injuring six.
(AP, 2/27/07)
2007 Feb 26, Coordinated
international efforts led to the capture in Brazil of Manuel Juan
Cordero (67) a retired Uruguayan colonel wanted in "dirty war"
probes in both Argentina and Uruguay. He was detained in Santana do
Livramento, a town near the Uruguayan border where he was living.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Feb 26, In London Abu
Qatada, a radical Muslim cleric and suspected key Al-Qaeda figure,
lost an appeal against deportation from Britain to Jordan.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 26, China’s state
media said falling water levels in the Yangtze River have left 1
million people short of drinking water.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 26, In Costa Rica tens
of thousands of union members, farmers and political activists
marched through San Jose to protest a free-trade pact with the US
they say will be harmful to local businesses.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 26, Indonesian
engineers dropped several large concrete balls into Lusi, a volcano,
to try to stem a gushing mud eruption that has engulfed hundreds of
homes and displaced 11,000 people. Over the next few weeks,
authorities plan to drop nearly 1,500 balls, each weighing up to 88
pounds, into the crater that started spewing mud at a gas drilling
field on Java island nine months ago.
(AP, 2/26/07)(Econ, 3/10/07, p.79)
2007 Feb 26, The Iraqi Cabinet
approved a draft law to manage the country's vast oil industry and
distribute its wealth among the population, a major breakthrough in
US efforts to press the country's Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish groups
to reach agreements to achieve stability. Adel Abdul-Mahdi, Iraq's
Shiite vice president, escaped an apparent assassination attempt
after a bomb exploded in municipal offices where he was making a
speech, knocking him down with the force of the blast that left at
least 10 people dead. A statement from the US military said that 63
weapons caches have been discovered during major US-Iraqi security
sweeps around Baghdad that began Feb. 14. The arsenals included
anti-aircraft weapons, armor-piercing bullets, bomb components and
mortar rounds.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 26, Israeli troops
sealed off the center of Nablus' old city with cement blocks and
trash containers, and searched apartments for seven Palestinian
fugitives whose names the army broadcast over local TV and radio
stations.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 26, Officials said
that after nearly a decade of trying, Japan has succeeded in
establishing a network of spy satellites that can peer at any point
on the globe.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 26, Audrius Bruzga
(b.1966) became ambassador of Lithuania to the United States.
(www.washdiplomat.com/ambprof/Lithuania.html)
2007 Feb 26, Malawi's vice
president pleaded innocent to charges of treason and conspiring to
murder the president at the start of his trial.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 26, Malaysia's
securities watchdog said it has frozen two local bank accounts, shut
down two Web sites and questioned several people suspected to be
involved in a global Internet investment scam. In March 3 men were
indicted by the US for securities fraud. The indictment named
Jaisankar Marimuthu (32) of India, Thirugnanam Ramanathan (34), an
Indian residing in Malaysia, and Chockalingam Ramanathan (33) of
Chennai, India. The 1st two were arrested in Hong Kong, while the
3rd remained at large.
(AP, 2/26/07)(WSJ, 3/13/07, p.B5)
2007 Feb 26, Four Mexican
soldiers were arrested and accused of raping and murdering a
73-year-old woman a day earlier in a case that outraged Indian
groups in Soledad Atzompa in Veracruz state. In May a special
prosecutor found no evidence that soldiers beat and raped Ernestina
Ascensio Rosario. An autopsy on Ascensio's body showed that she died
of acute anemia from internal bleeding in her digestive tract.
(AP, 3/1/07)(AP, 5/1/07)
2007 Feb 26, Nepal’s Cabinet
appointed Gopal Man Shrestha to head the three-member committee,
which will have a month to investigate, locate, seize and
nationalize King Gyanendra's property.
(AP, 2/27/07)
2007 Feb 26, Pakistani security
forces in Quetta reportedly captured Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, the
former Taliban defense minister. US VP Cheney, accompanied by CIA
deputy director Steve Kappes, made an unannounced stop in Pakistan
en route to Afghanistan. Cheney held detailed talks with Pres.
Musharraf, including a one-on-one lunch.
(AP, 3/2/07)(www.nysun.com/article/49331)
2007 Feb 26, In Poland a new
book, "Priests In The Face Of The Security Services" by Rev. Tadeusz
Isakowicz-Zaleski, dredged up more painful allegations from Poland's
Communist era, naming some 30 Roman Catholic priests, including
several bishops, as registered informants with the secret police.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 26, Three Frenchmen
who lived in Saudi Arabia were killed by gunmen on the side of a
desert road leading to the holy city of Medina in an area restricted
to Muslims only. Soon after a 4th died from his wounds. An
investigation later revealed that Waleed bin Mutlaq al-Radadi, among
the kingdom's most wanted terrorists, was the mastermind and one of
the triggermen in the shooting. Al-Radadi was killed on April 6 in a
gunbattle with Saudi forces.
(AP, 2/26/07)(AP, 4/18/07)
2007 Feb 26, Sudan rejected the
legitimacy of the International Criminal Court in pressing charges
over the conflict in Darfur, still ravaged by war and famine four
years after the violence erupted.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 26, The United
Nations' highest court exonerated Serbia of direct responsibility
for the mass slaughter of Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica during the
1992-95 Bosnia war, but ruled that it failed to prevent genocide.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 26, President Hugo
Chavez ordered by decree the takeover of oil projects run by foreign
oil companies in Venezuela's Orinoco River region.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2008 Feb 26, Buddy Miles (60),
former drummer with Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana and other popular
rock musicians, died in Texas. Over his career he appeared in over
70 albums.
(SFC, 2/29/08, p.A2)
2008 Feb 26, Porter Thompson,
former president of SF-based Bechtel Inc. (1975-1983), died.
(SSFC, 3/30/08, p.B6)
2008 Feb 26, In Afghanistan a
rocket attack on an Afghan National Army patrol killed two soldiers
and wounded six others in southern Kandahar province. A roadside
bomb killed two Polish soldiers patrolling in eastern Afghanistan.
(AP, 2/27/08)
2008 Feb 26, In Algeria the
"emir" Hamza (alias Abdi Abdi), a suspected leader of al-Qaida's
local affiliate, was killed during the sweep in the town of Legatha.
(AP, 2/27/08)
2008 Feb 26, In Brazil a
helicopter had just left an oil rig with 17 oil workers and three
crew members on board when it went down some 75 miles off the coast.
15 people aboard were rescued mostly unharmed. Rescuers located two
bodies inside the sunken wreck, bringing the death toll to three.
Two others remain missing.
(AP, 2/27/08)
2008 Feb 26, Brunei’s Prince
Jefri effectively lost control of the 55-story New York Palace
Hotel, formerly known as the Helmsley Palace. A firm owned by prince
Jefri paid $202 million for the hotel in 1993 using funds from the
Brunei Investment Agency (BAI).
(WSJ, 3/1/08, p.A6)
2008 Feb 26, Mohammed Hamid
(50), a man who dubbed himself "Osama bin London" was found guilty
by a British court of organizing extremist training camps and
soliciting murder.
(AFP, 2/26/08)
2008 Feb 26, In Cameroon the
death toll after a 2nd day of strike-related violence reached 8. A
taxi drivers' strike over rising fuel costs triggered widespread
rioting exacerbated by anger over the cost of food, high
unemployment and plans by President Paul Biya (75) to change the
constitution to extend his 25-year rule for a third term of 7 years.
Government ministers said around 25 to 40 people were killed,
although a human rights group put the toll at over 100.
(AP, 2/27/08)(Econ, 3/1/08, p.49)(Reuters,
3/31/08)
2008 Feb 26, Canada confirmed a
new case of mad cow disease, the 12th since 2003, and said the
animal in question was a six-year-old dairy cow from Alberta that
had most probably eaten infected feed.
(Reuters, 2/26/08)
2008 Feb 26, The mayor of Koui,
a town in northwest Central African Republic (CAR), was abducted
along with four other people. 3 captives including the mayor were
later killed. 2 captives were released by ransom.
(AFP, 3/14/08)
2008 Feb 26, Hungary’s central
bank adopted a new currency regime allowing its currency to float
rather than trade in a band against the euro, which began in 2001.
Adoption of the euro was predicted to take place in 2014 at the
earliest.
(WSJ, 2/26/08, p.A5)
2008 Feb 26, The Iraqi
government demanded for the first time that Turkey immediately
withdraw from northern Iraq, warning it feared the ongoing incursion
could lead to clashes with the official forces of the semiautonomous
Kurdish region.
(AP, 2/26/08)
2008 Feb 26, A suicide bomber
attacked a bus outside the city of Mosul. The Iraqi army said 9 were
killed and 9 injured. The US military put the toll at 8 dead and 8
injured. Gunmen in civilian clothes stopped two buses at a fake
checkpoint on a highway in volatile Diyala province and kidnapped 21
men. They later released three women. 15 gunmen broke into a house
in the village of Tuz Khormato, killing an Iraqi soldier and
wounding his brother. In Hawija two members of the local awakening
council, Sunni fighters who have turned against al-Qaida, were
killed after gunmen opened fire on a checkpoint.
(AP, 2/26/08)
2008 Feb 26, Israel's highest
court upheld a much-criticized plea bargain that allowed former
President Moshe Katsav to avoid rape charges and a possible prison
term. Israeli troops seized the facilities of a Hamas-affiliated
charity in the West Bank city of Hebron, saying it funneled money to
the Islamic group's militant activities and recruited members to its
ranks.
(AP, 2/26/08)
2008 Feb 26, Mediator Kofi
Annan suspended the talks to end Kenya's deadly postelection crisis
after weeks of negotiations brought little progress.
(AP, 2/26/08)
2008 Feb 26, A Nigerian
election tribunal upheld the president's declared victory in last
year's disputed election.
(AP, 2/26/08)
2008 Feb 26, Mexican lawmakers
approved judicial reform that would introduce public, oral trials
and guarantee the presumption of innocence, even as lawmakers
deleted a proposal to allow police to search homes without a
warrant. Mexico's Senate approved a law that would ban smoking in
workplaces, public buildings and public transportation across the
country, allowing it in private businesses only if special,
ventilated smoking areas are set up. Investigators found parts from
at least 8 bodies in a series of backyard pits at a house in Ciudad
Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas. In March the body
count increased to 36.
(AP, 2/27/08)(AP, 2/26/08)(AP, 3/3/08)(AP,
3/16/08)
2008 Feb 26, An audience of
North Korea's communist elite gave America's oldest orchestra a
standing ovation after a rousing set that took in Dvorak, Gershwin
and a Korean folk song. Some Philharmonic members were so overcome
they left the stage in tears.
(Reuters, 2/26/08)
2008 Feb 26, A "doomsday" seed
vault, built to protect millions of food crops from climate change,
wars and natural disasters, opened deep within an Arctic mountain in
the remote Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard.
(AP, 2/26/08)(Econ, 3/10/12, p.71)
2008 Feb 26, The deadly
conflict in Darfur entered its sixth year with no solution in sight,
as Khartoum continued to resist the full deployment of a
peacekeeping force amid a fresh wave of bombings.
(AP, 2/26/08)
2008 Feb 26, The WHO said
drug-resistant TB had reached its highest levels ever at 5% of all
new TB cases worldwide. In parts of the former Soviet Union and
China it reached 15-22% of new cases.
(SFC, 2/27/08, p.A2)
2009 Feb 26, President
Barack Obama unveiled a $3.6 trillion budget and promised to slash
federal spending by $2 trillion, even as the administration
initially invests large sums of money to revive the faltering
economy. The budget included $630 billion to start pushing toward a
national health insurance program. Defense Secretary Robert Gates
said the Obama administration is reversing an 18-year ban on news
coverage of the return of war dead, allowing photographs of
flag-covered caskets when families of the fallen troops agree.
(AP, 2/26/09)(WSJ, 2/27/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 26, Virgin Megastore,
a music and video retailer, announced the closures of its San
Francisco and New York stores. This would leave the company with 3
stores (Hollywood, Denver, and Orlando) from a peak of 23 stores in
2002. The San Francisco, which opened in 1995, planned to shut down
in late April.
(SFC, 2/27/09, p.A8)
2009 Feb 26, General Motors
reported a $9.6 billion 4th quarter loss bringing its loss for the
year 2008 to $30.9 billion. This was its 2nd worst financial
performance in its 100 year history.
(WSJ, 2/27/09, p.B1)
2009 Feb 26, The Australian
government announced a multi-million dollar investment in research
on reducing gas emissions from farm animals as part of the fight
against global warming.
(AFP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 26, In Bangladesh
mutinous members of a paramilitary unit in Dhaka surrendered their
weapons as tanks surrounded their headquarters after a second day of
gunfire in a mutiny that killed about 50 people. Security forces
searching the headquarters of a mutinous border guard unit soon
discovered the bodies of dozens of officers in shallow graves on the
compound, raising the death toll to 76. The trial of some 3,500
paramilitary troops began in November. At least 48 had already died
while in custody. In April, 2010, 136 guards were given sentences
ranging from four months to seven years for their 2-day uprising.
(Reuters, 2/26/09)(AP, 2/27/09)(AP,
2/28/09)(Econ, 11/28/09, p.44)(AP, 4/18/10)
2009 Feb 26, British
prosecutors said they would not bring charges against Gary McKinnon,
a computer expert accused by a US attorney of the "biggest military
hack of all time," dealing a blow to his bid to avoid extradition.
(AP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 26, Former EastEnders
star Wendy Richard (65), who was diagnosed with cancer in January,
died in London. She best known for her role as Pauline Fowler in the
London-based soap whom she played for more than two decades.
(AFP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 26, In Canada PM
Harper announced a new law to crack down on a wave of gang-related
murders in Vancouver, which was preparing to host the 2010 Winter
Olympic Games.
(SFC, 2/27/09, p.A2)
2009 Feb 26, Colombian
President Alvaro Uribe said he's no longer allowing wiretapping by
the scandal-ridden domestic intelligence agency. The announcement
followed allegations that the spy agency, or DAS, has continued
illegal wiretapping of prominent journalists, Supreme Court justices
and opposition politicians. By the end of April 33 people were
dismissed from Colombia’s Dept. of Administrative Security in the
wiretapping scandal.
(AP, 2/26/09)(SFC, 4/29/09, p.A2)
2009 Feb 26, In Iraq an
American soldier died while conducting a combat patrol in Baghdad.
(AP, 2/27/09)
2009 Feb 26, Kazakhstan
announced it was pulling out of the Central Asian power grid to
protect its energy supplies, a move that forced rolling blackouts
and electricity rationing on Kyrgyzstan, its tiny, power-starved
neighbor.
(AP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 26, At The Hague
UN judges in the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal acquitted former Serb
President Milan Milutinovic of ordering a deadly campaign of terror
by Serb forces against Kosovo Albanians in 1999. The court convicted
five other senior Serbs and gave them prison sentences of between 15
and 22 years. The marathon trial started July 10, 2006.
(AP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 26, In Nigeria a
source close to negotiations said US drug giant Pfizer has agreed to
settle a multi-billion dollar damages case with 200 alleged victims
of a drugs trial in Kano. Pfizer and families of the victims of the
drug trial reportedly reached an out-of-court settlement in
principle and agreed to meet in Rome in March to put the deal in
writing.
(AFP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 26, The Nigerian
military raided and destroyed a militant camp in the volatile Niger
Delta as part of its drive to end unrest in the oil-producing
region.
(AFP, 2/27/09)
2009 Feb 26, In Pakistan
thousands of supporters of former Pakistan premier Nawaz Sharif
protested, a day after a court ruling to exclude him and his brother
from elected office raised fears of renewed political turmoil.
(Reuters, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 26, The Royal Bank of
Scotland posted a 2008 loss of 24.1 billion pounds, the largest in
British corporate history, because of the credit crunch and the
mis-timed takeover of ABN Amro. The British government has meanwhile
agreed to insure RBS "toxic" assets worth 325 billion pounds in its
Asset Protection Scheme (APS) and will cover 90 percent of losses
stemming from such holdings. Sir Fred Goodwin (50), head of RBS for
a decade, insisted that he is entitled to his full pension of over
£700,000 ($980,000) a year. In March Goodwin received a $4 million
tax-free advance as part of his negotiated pension package.
(AFP, 2/26/09)(Econ, 3/7/09, p.22)(SFC, 3/18/09,
p.A2)
2009 Feb 26, Sudan’s President
Omar al-Beshir, who faces a possible arrest warrant for alleged war
crimes in Darfur, said he wanted to hold "free" elections soon to
guarantee stability.
(AFP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 26, Venezuela
condemned a US State Department report on human rights problems in
the South American country, saying Washington has no right to pass
judgment on its record.
(AP, 2/26/09)
2010 Feb 26, An unceasing
winter storm unleashed multiple dangers across the Northeast,
blasting the coast with hurricane-force winds that fanned a New
Hampshire hotel fire, flooding parts of Maine, dropping 2 feet of
snow on parts of New York, and cutting power to more than a million
homes and businesses.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, New York Gov.
David Paterson abandoned his campaign for a full term as state
governor.
(SFC, 2/27/10, p.A5)
2010 Feb 26, In Washington
state Jed Waits (30) shot and killed Jennifer Paulson (30), a
special education teacher as she walked into her Tacoma elementary
school classroom. Waits, who was apparently infatuated with Paulson,
was killed in a shootout with a deputy.
(SFC, 2/27/10, p.A5)
2010 Feb 26, In Afghanistan
insurgents struck in the heart of the Kabul with suicide attackers
and a car bomb, targeting hotels used by foreigners and killing at
least 17 people and wounding dozens. Pres. Karzai said were aimed at
Indians working in Kabul. The dead included 6 Indians, an Italian
diplomat, a French filmmaker and 3 police officers.
(AP, 2/26/10)(SFC, 2/27/10, p.A3)
2010 Feb 26, Australia warned
Japan that "diplomacy comes to an end this year" on whaling, after
presenting a bold plan to phase out the controversial hunts in the
Southern Ocean.
(AFP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, In Belize a
single-engine aircraft crashed. Michael and Jill Casey of Albany,
NY, and their two young children died in the accident on the island
of San Pedro along with former senator and bottling magnate Sir
Barry Bowen as the group headed to a fundraising event hosted by
Bowen. The Caseys taught at a school in northwestern Belize owned by
Bowen.
(AP, 2/28/10)
2010 Feb 26, London-listed
Petra Diamonds sold a 507-carat diamond for $35.3 million, breaking
a record as the highest price ever paid for a rough diamond.
(Reuters, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, Canada won the
Olympic men's short track 5,000 meters relay with Charles Hamelin
picking up his second gold of the day.
(Reuters, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, In Colombia a
Constitutional Court ruling blocked a referendum on whether Alvaro
Uribe should be allowed to seek a third consecutive term. The high
court ruled, in a 7-2 decision that is not subject to appeal, that a
law passed by Congress to set up the referendum was
unconstitutional.
(AP, 2/27/10)
2010 Feb 26, The Danish daily
Politiken newspaper apologized for offending Muslims by reprinting a
cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb-shaped turban,
rekindling heated debate about the limits of freedom of speech.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, In Egypt a Costa
Europa luxury cruise liner carrying nearly 1,500 passengers slammed
into the pier as it docked Friday at the Red Sea resort of Sharm
el-Sheik in fierce winds, leaving three crew members dead. Bad
weather wreaked havoc across Egypt, pelting the capital with a freak
hail storm.
(AP, 2/26/10)(AFP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, In France a strike
by air traffic controllers disrupted flight for a 4th day and some
Air France pilots walked off the job to protest cost cutting
measures.
(SFC, 2/27/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 26, German lawmakers
voted 429-111 with 46 abstentions to increase the maximum number of
German troops allowed to serve in Afghanistan to 5,350 from 4,500.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, The Jundallah
insurgency, which says it's fighting for equal rights for the Sunni
minority in southeast Iran, named al-Hajj Mohammed Dhahir Baluch as
its new leader. The statement described the capture of former leader
Abdulmalik Rigi's by Iranian forces on Feb 23, but said all the
tribes of Baluchistan had pledged allegiance to the new leader.
(AP, 2/28/10)
2010 Feb 26, Iraq reinstated
20,000 former army officers dismissed after the 2003 US-led invasion
for serving under the former dictator, a landmark gesture at
reconciliation ahead of the March 7 elections.
(AP, 2/27/10)
2010 Feb 26, In Italy telecoms
billionaire Silvio Scaglia spent the night in police custody after
flying in by private jet from the Caribbean to face charges in a
money-laundering probe. Scaglia, the founder of Italy's second
biggest telecoms company, Fastweb, was among 56 people for whom
arrest warrants were issued in a case where prosecutors allege more
than 2 billion euros (1.8 billion pound) was laundered via fake
international phone service purchases and sales from 2003-2006.
(Reuters, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, In Liberia
religious clashes in the northern county of Lofa killed four people.
The violence erupted in the town of Vionjama after the body of a
child "with body parts extracted" was found near a mosque. Witnesses
said rioters had burned down the Catholic, Baptist and Episcopal
churches in the area.
(Reuters, 2/27/10)
2010 Feb 26, Mozambique state
media said 2 young men accused of having sex with a goat in central
Mozambique are facing criminal charges, and the goat's owner is
demanding they make traditional wedding arrangements.
(AFP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, Health officials
in Puerto Rico declared an epidemic of dengue fever. Health
Secretary Lorenzo Gonzalez says 210 cases have been confirmed for
January, more than triple the number in the same month of 2007.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, Sierra Leone and
five other west African countries (Mauritania, Senegal,
Guinea-Bissau, Gambia and Guinea) signed onto an action plan in
Freetown for sustainable mangrove management.
(AFP, 2/27/10)
2010 Feb 26, Somali pirates
hijacked the Sakoba, a Kenyan-flagged fishing vessel. It was
reported freed on July 20, 2010.
(AP, 7/20/10)
2010 Feb 26, In Sudan rebels
and UN officials said heavy fighting between government forces and a
rebel group in central Darfur led a French-aid group to suspend its
activities. A government offensive on the rebel Sudan Liberation
Army's (SLA) stronghold in Jebel Marrah began two weeks ago, but
fighting intensified in the last few days, with confirmed reports of
aerial bombardments in Deribat, a town of 50,000, and two other
surrounding areas.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, Thailand's highest
court ruled to seize 46 billion baht ($1.4 billion) from ousted PM
Thaksin Shinawatra's $2.29 billion in frozen assets, saying he had
abused his political power for personal gain.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, Turkey's PM
Erdogan vowed to put everyone who conspired against the country's
democracy on trial, as the number of military officers charged and
jailed for allegedly plotting a 2003 coup against his Islamic-based
government rose to 31.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, In Zimbabwe a
cabinet minister said Zimbabwe stands by a new law requiring major
foreign firms to sell 51 percent stakes to locals, but will allow
companies to choose their own partners. The law takes effect on
March 1, giving 45 days for companies valued at more than 500,000 US
dollars to sell 51 percent stakes to locals. The Indigenization and
Empowerment Bill was passed by parliament in 2007 and signed by
President Robert Mugabe in 2008, before the creation of a unity
government with long-time rival, PM Morgan Tsvangirai.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2011 Feb 26, In Wisconsin a
crowd estimated at more than 70,000 people waved American flags,
sang the national anthem and called for the defeat of a state plan
to curb public sector unions that has galvanized opposition from the
American labor movement.
(Reuters, 2/27/11)
2011 Feb 26, In Kingston, NY, a
privately owned, vintage military jet crashed into the Hudson River.
Divers the next day recovered the body of pilot Michael Faraldi
(38).
(SSFC, 2/27/11, p.A9)(SSFC, 2/27/11, p.A5)
2011 Feb 26, In San Francisco
snow fell briefly overnight on the city's Twin Peaks neighborhood
and some other areas with higher elevations.
(AP, 2/26/11)
2011 Feb 26, In northwest
Afghanistan amid screams of "Suicide bomber! Suicide bomber!" an
insurgent detonated his vest of explosives, killing at least four
people at a sports field. A roadside bomb killed nine people near
the eastern city of Khost.
(AP, 2/26/11)
2011 Feb 26, In Algeria
hundreds of demonstrators protested in Algiers to demand the ouster
of President Bouteflika, but police were out in far larger numbers
to counter the protesters.
(AP, 2/26/11)
2011 Feb 26, A prominent
Bahraini opposition leader, Hassan Mushaima, returned home from
exile and urged the Gulf kingdom's rulers to back up promises of
political reform with action. Thousands of protesters marched from
the capital's landmark Pearl Square to the prime minister's office,
calling for him to resign.
(AP, 2/26/11)
2011 Feb 26, In Canada the
governing Liberal Party of British Columbia elected Christy Clark as
their new leader, setting the stage for her to become premier of the
resource-rich province on the Pacific coast.
(Reuters, 2/26/11)
2011 Feb 26, In Croatia some
15,000 people have gathered at a protest in Zagreb organized by the
veterans of the country's 1991-95 independence war. They were
protesting in support of a fellow veteran awaiting extradition to
Serbia in a Bosnian prison. Officers used tear gas to disperse the
group. At least 25 people were injured.
(AP, 2/26/11)
2011 Feb 26, Egypt's ruling
military council apologized after military police a day earlier beat
protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square. activists called for fresh
protests to denounce violence by the authorities. A judicial
committee formed to draft changes to Egypt's constitution proposed
capping to eight years the time a president can stay in office and
loosening the rules that curbed competition for the post.
(AFP, 2/26/11)(Reuters, 2/26/11)
2011 Feb 26, Iran confirmed it
was having to remove nuclear fuel from the reactor of its only
nuclear power station, signaling more problems for the Russian-built
Bushehr plant after decades of delay.
(Reuters, 2/26/11)
2011 Feb 26, In Iraq gunmen
before dawn attacked the Baiji Refinery, Iraq's largest oil
refinery, killing one engineer and forcing a shutdown that
threatened to exacerbate acute electricity shortages that have
prompted violent protests. The bodies of three protesters turned up
in Kirkuk. Police said all three took part in a Feb 25
demonstration. They were shot in the head and their hands bound.
(AP, 2/26/11)(SSFC, 2/27/11, p.A8)(AP, 3/8/11)
2011 Feb 26, Israeli warplanes
bombed militant training camps in the Gaza Strip for a second time,
wounding four people, including a toddler. The raids came after
pre-dawn strikes against two other training camps of the hardline
Islamic Jihad group.
(AFP, 2/26/11)
2011 Feb 26, In Japan
Nintendo's latest game machine, offering glasses-free 3-D images,
went on sale ahead of a global rollout. Analysts said it promises to
be the world's first 3-D mass-market product.
(AP, 2/26/11)
2011 Feb 26, Libyan residents
said the embattled regime of Moammar Gadhafi is arming civilian
supporters to set up checkpoints and roving patrols around Tripoli
to control movement and quash dissent.
(AP, 2/26/11)
2011 Feb 26, In Mexico’s
Coahuila state, across the US border from Texas, nine men died when
gunmen opened fire inside two bars in separate attacks. Assailants
killed another five men in a bar in the cartel-plagued border city
of Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 2/28/11)
2011 Feb 26, Nigerian police
arrested Boko Haram arms dealer Mohammed Zakaria in the town of
Maiduguri. Police shot dead, Alhaji Salisu Damaturu, a man financing
the radical Islamist sect. Mohammed Goni was identified as another
financier of the group. Weapons recovered from their hideout
included 12 rocket launchers, two pistols, one loaded AK-47 rifle,
two detonating bomb cables and more than 3,000 rounds of ammunition.
(AFP, 2/27/11)
2011 Feb 26, Oman's ruler,
Sultan Qaboos bin Said, replaced six Cabinet members in a bid to
defuse tensions in the country.
(AP, 2/27/11)
2011 Feb 26, In the Philippines
communist rebels killed three soldiers and wounded four others in an
ambush in the foothills of a mountain near Asipulo township in
Ifugao province. Government and rebel negotiators last week resumed
talks in Norway after more than six years and agreed to negotiate a
settlement of the 42-year conflict.
(AP, 2/27/11)
2011 Feb 26, Russia joined
other UN Security Council members in ordering an arms embargo
against Libya and other sanctions. Russia stood to lose a total of
up to $10 billion in arms sales, including almost $4 billion with
Libya, from the wave of unrest currently destabilizing regimes in
north Africa and the Middle East. The UN Security Council agreed to
tell the prosecutor of the Int’l. Criminal Court (ICC) to probe the
Libyan crisis.
(AFP, 2/27/11)(Econ, 3/5/11, p.67)
2011 Feb 26, In Russia a man,
apparently distraught after an argument with his wife, died after
pulling the pin on a grenade and blowing himself up at the entrance
of a discount retail store in northeast Moscow.
(Reuters, 2/26/11)(SSFC, 2/27/11, p.A4)
2011 Feb 26, In Spain Austin
Bice (22), a San Diego State University exchange student, was last
seen outside the Riviera concert venue and discotheque in Madrid.
Bice’s body was pulled out of the Manzanares River in western Madrid
on March 8. An autopsy report on his body suggested an accidental
death.
(AP, 3/6/11)(AP, 3/8/11)(AP, 5/10/11)
2011 Feb 26, In Yemen two
powerful tribal chiefs joined opposition forces demanding the ouster
of the country's longtime president, a new sign the embattled leader
might be losing his grip on the impoverished, conflict-ridden
country.
(AP, 2/26/11)
2011 Feb 26, Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe repeated calls for elections to end the
power-sharing government and vowed to punish companies from
countries that imposed sanctions on him and his allies.
(AFP, 2/26/11)
2012 Feb 26, Hollywood gave its
best film award to the silent French movie "The Artist." It also
collected Oscars for its star Jean Dujardin and director Michel
Hazanavicius, as well as for musical score and costume design. Meryl
Streep won as Best Actress for playing former British PM Margaret
Thatcher in "The Iron Lady." Veteran Christopher Plummer made
history by becoming the oldest winner ever at age 82 with his role
as an elderly gay man in "Beginners."
(Reuters, 2/27/12)
2012 Feb 26, In Los Angeles the
Iranian film “A Separation” won an Oscar for best foreign film.
Director Asghar Farhadi's movie explores troubles in Iranian society
through the story of a marriage in collapse.
(AP, 2/27/12)
2012 Feb 26, In Los Angeles
Pakistani director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy won her country's first
Oscar for a filmmaker for "Saving Face," a short documentary about
acid attacks on women, and those who help them recover.
(AFP, 2/27/12)
2012 Feb 26, In Florida Trayvon
Martin (17) of Miami was shot dead by George Zimmerman (28), a white
Neighborhood Watch captain, after he took a break from watching NBA
All-Star game television coverage to walk 10 minutes to a
convenience store to buy snacks. He was visiting his father and
stepmother in a gated townhome community called The Retreat at Twin
Lakes in Sanford, 20 miles north of Orlando. On April 11 Zimmerman
was charged with second-degree murder. An autopsy report released on
May 17 said Martin was shot through the heart at close range.
Medical examiners also reported a low level of THC, the psychoactive
ingredient in marijuana, when they tested Martin's blood and urine.
It was also reported that Zimmerman had a broken nose, bruises and
bloody cuts on the back of his head.
(Reuters, 3/7/12)(http://tinyurl.com/74n7rwe)(AP,
4/11/12)(AP, 5/17/12)
2012 Feb 26, In West Tennessee
one man was killed and 19 other people were injured early today when
gunmen opened fire at the Karma Lounge in downtown Jackson.
(AP, 2/26/12)
2012 Feb 26, In northern
Afghanistan protesters angry over Quran burnings by American troops
lobbed grenades at a US base in Kunduz province and clashed with
police and troops in a 6th day of violence that left 7 American
troops wounded and two Afghans dead.
(AP, 2/26/12)(AFP, 2/27/12)
2012 Feb 26, In Brazil the
Anglican bishop for the northeastern state of Pernambuco was killed
along with his wife. Edward Robinson Cavalcanti (68) and his wife
Miriam (64) were stabbed to death in their home in the city of
Olinda. Their adopted son was the chief suspect. The son was
hospitalized after he tried to commit suicide by drinking poison.
(AP, 2/28/12)
2012 Feb 26, Rupert Murdoch's
Sun tabloid hit British news stands, replacing the defunct News of
the World with a pledge to meet high ethical standards after a
"challenging" chapter in its history. Inside, an editorial titled "A
new Sun rises today" said the newspaper was appointing a so-called
Readers' Champion to deal with complaints and correct errors, while
also vowing that its journalists would be ethical.
(AFP, 2/26/12)
2012 Feb 26, In Canada a
passenger train derailed near Burlington in southern Ontario,
killing at least 3 VIA Rail employees.
(Reuters, 2/27/12)
2012 Feb 26, Colombia's main
rebel group said it is abandoning the practice of kidnapping and
will soon free its last remaining "prisoners of war," 10 security
force members held for as long as 14 years.
(AP, 2/26/12)
2012 Feb 26, Israeli defense
officials confirmed $1.6 billion in deals to sell drones as well as
anti-aircraft and missile defense systems to Azerbaijan.
(AP, 2/26/12)
2012 Feb 26, A Jordanian
government official said more than 80,000 Syrian refugees have fled
the nearly 11 months of violence in their homeland and settled in
neighboring Jordan.
(AP, 2/26/12)
2012 Feb 26, In Malaysia
thousands rallied in Kuantan against an Australian miner's rare
earths plant in the biggest protest yet over fears it will produce
radioactive waste harmful to them and the environment.
(AFP, 2/26/12)
2012 Feb 26, Authorities in
Morocco banned the Spanish-language daily newspaper El País from
distributing its February 26 issue because of an excerpt it featured
from the French book “Le Roi Predateur” (The Predator King) by
Catherine Graciet and Eric Laurent. The book described how the king
has quintupled his wealth in his 11 years on the throne.
(Econ, 3/17/12, p.58)(http://tinyurl.com/7jwkfnm)
2012 Feb 26, Chandra Bahadur
Dangi (72) of southwestern Nepal was declared the shortest man ever
documented after being measured by Guinness World Records officials.
Dangi stood just 54.6 cm (21.5 inches) tall.
(AFP, 2/26/12)
2012 Feb 26, In Nigeria a
suicide bomber detonated an explosives laden car outside a packed
church during Sunday service in Jos, killing three people and
injuring dozens. Gunmen shot four people dead and wounded six in a
rural area of the central state of Kaduna.
(AFP, 2/26/12)(AP, 2/28/12)
2012 Feb 26, In Russia
thousands of protesters held hands to form a 16-km (10-mile) human
chain encircling central Moscow to keep up the pressure on PM
Vladimir Putin as he prepares to extend his rule for six more years.
(AP, 2/26/12)
2012 Feb 26, Senegal held
elections. Voters booed Pres. Wade so loudly when he went to cast
his ballot that his bodyguards whisked him away. The opposition was
split between 13 candidates. Wade was dealt a humiliating blow and
forced into a run-off election after failing to secure an outright
majority for a disputed third term. Final results on March 6 showed
Wade won 34.81 percent of votes, followed by Sall with 26.58
percent.
(AP, 2/26/12)(AP, 2/27/12)(AFP, 2/28/12)(AFP,
3/6/12)
2012 Feb 26, A powerful
earthquake with a magnitude of 6.8 shook southwestern Siberia, the
second to hit the area in two months. There were no immediate
reports of damage or injuries.
(AP, 2/26/12)
2012 Feb 26, In Sudan rebels in
a "revolutionary front" aimed at toppling the Khartoum regime
claimed their first joint attack against government forces. The
offensive happened at Jau, a disputed area in an oil-rich region on
the poorly defined border. Rebels later said 150 government soldiers
were killed in the attack along the disputed border.
(AFP, 2/26/12)(AFP, 2/28/12)
2012 Feb 26, Syria held a
referendum on a new constitution. Western leaders called it a farce.
The Local Coordination Committees (LCC) said attacks by government
soldiers killed 55 people, most of them in Homs. On Feb 28 the
Interior Ministry said the charter won 89.4 percent of votes cast
with a turnout of 57.4 percent.
(SFC, 2/27/12, p.A3)(AFP, 2/28/12)
2012 Feb 26, Syrian activists
said Emirati authorities have cancelled the residencies of dozens of
Syrians for taking part in a Feb 10 protest against their regime
outside the consulate in Dubai.
(AP, 2/26/12)
2012 Feb 26, Yemeni troops
killed five suspected Al-Qaeda militants in an artillery attack in
the southern city of Zinjibar. In the nearby town of Loder security
forces arrested four Al-Qaeda-linked militants. Tribesman captured a
fifth Al-Qaeda suspect who was in possession of an explosive belt.
(AFP, 2/26/12)
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