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Events, deaths, births, of FEB 26
[For Feb 26 Julian go to Gregorian date (leap years one day earlier) 1583~1699: Mar 08 — 1700s: Mar 09 — 1800s: Mar 10 — 1900~2099: Mar 11]
AYE price chartOn a 26 February:
2003 After the previous evening's forecast by electric utility Allegheny Energy (AYE) of earnings per share of $1 in 2003 and $0.96 in 2004 (instead of the expected $1.29 and $1.51), 16.7 million of the 126 million AYE shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange, dropping from their previous close of $8.20 to an intraday low of $5.30 and close at $5.55. While they had reached a low of $2.95 on 09 October 2002, they had traded as high as $43.86 as recently as 23 April 2002 and $54.80 os 21 May 2001. [5~year price chart >]
2002 The San Francisco Chronicle reports that 110-kg exercise enthusiast Jennifer wanted to be an instructor at Jazzercise in San Francisco. When the company said no, she sued saying she was qualified and it was a violation of the “short and fat law” which says that you can’t discriminate against anyone for a job because of their size. Jazzercise company decided to settle out-of-court. However, after the settlement Jennifer decided she didn’t want the job after all.
2001 The Treaty of Nice [a nice treaty] which updates previous treaties of the European Community, is signed by its 15 states: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands; Denmark, Ireland, the UK; Greece; Spain, Portugal; Austria, Finland, and Sweden.It would be ratified by the parliaments of all except Ireland, whose constitution requires a referendum. Ireland would hold its referendum on 07 June 2001, 34% of eligible voters would participate, of which 54% reject the treaty. Ireland would repeat the referendum on 19 October 2002 and this time the Nice Treaty would be approved by 65% of the voters. The Treaty of Nice is not a stand-alone document. It follows the format of the previous Treaties (the Single European Act, the Maastricht Treaty and the Treaty of Amsterdam) in being a series of amendments and additions to the Treaty of Rome. Once the Nice Treaty in ratified, the EU invites Cyprus, Malta, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia to join in 2004. Romania and Bulgaria may get invitations to join in 2007, and Turkey is also a candidate.
Hornbill head ^ 2001 No more killing of Indian Hornbills
      Thousands of tribesmen in northeastern India promise to give up killing hornbills for their beaks and to adorn their traditional headgear with fiberglass imitations instead. Powerful village chiefs in Arunachal Pradesh have agreed to break the Nishi tribe's age-old tradition for the sake of conservation.
      Every self-respecting Nishi man wears a hornbill beak attached to his cap. This not only identifies him as a Nishi, but is also a sign of manhood. This also makes Nishis the largest killers of hornbills.
      An estimated 2000 to 3000 hornbills were killed in the state every year and although not officially endangered, the combined population of Great Hornbills, Oriental Pied Hornbills and Wreathed Hornbills is probably not more than 10'000.
     The Nishis are the largest tribe in the far-flung state bordering China and Bhutan, with a strong hold on local politics and business.
      Village chiefs agreed in November 2000 to impose a fine of $107 on anyone found killing the birds. Notices announcing the penalty were erected around a local sanctuary and the tribals chose today, the day of their biggest annual festival, to make their communal pledge.
      What clinched it for the chiefs was an artificial beak crafted in fiberglass by a "master animal modeler" in New Delhi which will now be mass produced.
Description:
Large bird, length about 1 m, with a large bill on which a large, light weight casque is found. Weight: 2.5-3.5 kg. The plumage is boldly patterned in black, white and yellow. The male has a larger casque and red irises, while the female's iris is white. Like all hornbills, the great hornbill has fused axis and atlas vertebrae. They have long, heavy bills with a light, hollow casque on the upper mandible. The casque is rectangular in cross section, double-pointed in front, round in back, and concave or convex on top. Great hornbills have bristles around the eyes that resemble eyelashes. Their toes are syndactylous. Their flight is often noisy as air rushes through the bases of the flight feathers which are not covered with stiff coverts. The plumage is black with patches of white on the neck, abdomen, wings, and tail; the tail has a subterminal black bar. Preen-gland oil provides a yellow stain for the bill and some of the white areas.
Hornbill      The great hornbills are sexually dimorphic. In the female the iris is pearly white, and the bare circumorbital skin is pink to bright red whereas in the male the iris is deep red and the skin surrounding the eye is black. Males are slightly larger than females. It has been noted that the posterior surface of the casque on the female is red and on the male it is black.
      Immature animals of both sexes can have the male coloration for as long as four years; although changes may be noted earlier in the iris color and the color on the back of the casques. Casque does not begin to develop until about six months of age.
Range: Great hornbills are found in India, Southwestern China, Bangladesh, Western Ghats of India, Thailand, Mainland Southeast Asia, Malaya, and Sumatra.
Habitat: Great hornbills inhabit the canopy of tall evergreen diptocarp and moist deciduous forests, ranging from 600 to 2000 meters.
Diet: Great hornbills feed primarily on fruits, especially figs. They also hunt actively for small animals, snakes, lizards, bird nestlings, beetles, and insects. It is interesting to note that they have never been recorded drinking water [they prefer beer?].
Social Organization: Great hornbills are monogamous and are without helpers at the nest. When breeding they are territorial, but non-breeding birds form flocks of between 6 and 21; these flocks probably include immature animals from previous years. Mated pairs may return to the same nest-site year after year.
     Breeding is remarkable because the female is walled into a nest chamber in a tree cavity during the 40 day incubation, and fed by the male. The wall is a mixture of saliva, droppings, food remains, and moist earth. The female breaks out of the nest hole when the young are 2-3 weeks old, securing the hole after she leaves. She helps the male to feed the young. About 30 days later the young chip away the wall and leave the nest. While in the nest, females may undergo a complete moult and become temporarily flightless.
Conservation Status: Great hornbills are listed as "vulnerable". Sizes of extant free-ranging populations are not known, however Asian hornbills have been designated as a priority taxon for worldwide concern, and more surveys are being initiated. Although actual numbers can not be given, the decrease in their habitat is well-documented and the indication is that the populations are similarly decreasing.
Threats to Survival: Great hornbills have been hunted traditionally in India and Indonesia for both food and medicine, not to mention cap ornaments. Deforestation is the main threat to their survival as it eliminates sites for nesting as well as territory for foraging.
Conservation: Hornbills are of significant interest to field conservationists, as they can be used to indicate the health of a community and because they are seed dispersers, important for forest regeneration. The number of field projects involving Hornbills has increased substantially in recent years.
      Zoo conservation efforts are directed at developing artificial nest sites, recording life history data impossible to obtain in the field and developing support for field conservation through exhibition and publication.
Education: Education will be an important tool for conservation of Hornbill species. Work in India, for example, reduced use of key Hornbill food trees as elephant browse. The role of Hornbills in the health of forests is a useful concept here.
Reintroduction: It is not possible to consider reintroduction for any Hornbill species at the present time. Knowledge of husbandry and propagation techniques is insufficient to develop self-sustaining captive populations. More importantly, wild populations and their habitats continue to be under pressure — there is no habitat where Hornbills could be released.
Giant Buddha ^
2001 Iconoclastic Taliban destroys archeological treasures.
      The extremist Islamic Taliban regime in Afghanistan decrees the destruction of all statues in the country. These include ancient Buddhist statues, some of monumental size, that are a cultural treasure of humanity. Civilized people, including Muslims, throughout the world are outraged.

     The greatest concern is about a pair of famous Buddha statues in the Bamian valley of central Afghanistan. The sandstone statues are believed to date back to the third and to the fifth centuries and with a height of 55 meters and 38 meters respectively, the two Buddhas are believed to be among the tallest in the world. They clearly show diverse cultural influences, illustrated by the Greek robes draping the Buddhas and the Indian and central Asian sculptural styles. The artistic quality of the statues displays Bamian's legacy as a stopover on the ancient silk road that linked central Asia with China.

      Weather and war have had already conspired to deface the Buddahs. The Buddhas were already without faces, and the rest of the bodies were weather-beaten and pockmarked. Archeologists had for years been asking the international community to provide technical assistance to save the precious statues.

      Nearby caves, once were Buddhist monasteries, adorned with lavish frescoes. Refugees sought refuge in those caves in recent years during the Taliban's civil war. The soot from their wood fires has blackened the frescoes.

      Humanity is loosing one of its ancient artistic treasures and Afghanistan is losing forever part of its cultural heritage and the tourist trade that prospered in the Bamian valley in the 1970s.
^ 2001 The US State Department presents to Congress its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2000.
     The State Department concludes that despite seven years of deepening American economic engagement with China, the human rights situation there had worsened significantly, with "intensified crackdowns" on religious organizations, political dissenters and "any person or group perceived to threaten the government."
      The department's annual review of human rights in 195 countries and territories, the Bush administration's first, also offered a harsh assessment of how Israel dealt with Palestinian uprisings last year. It described Indonesia as a nation increasingly out of control, where random killings and lawlessness are becoming the norms. And the report concluded that Colombia, whose president, Andrés Pastrana, is to meet Mr. Bush in the White House on Tuesday 27 February, is far from bringing paramilitary groups under control. In what could prove a particularly sensitive section, the report concludes that in Colombia, where the United States is providing a $1.3 billion, two-year aid package, mostly military, "paramilitary forces find a ready support base within the military and police, as well as among local civilian elites in many areas." While the report praises President Pastrana, it denounces massacres and abuses by private and government security forces in the struggle against leftist rebels. The department's report was assembled and drafted largely during the Clinton administration. But Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and the national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, had time to review the findings and in a few sensitive chapters, particularly on Israel, to alter some wording, Bush administration officials said. Today the administration, as expected, announced that the United States would pursue a resolution condemning China's record at the United Nations Human Rights Commission, which is to meet in Geneva next month. The Clinton administration never succeeded in getting enough countries to join in the annual resolution to win passage, and it is unclear how much political capital the Bush administration is willing to expend to win support for a resolution that is almost certain to be defeated once again. But the report poses a deeper problem for Mr. Bush: He must now choose the best path for influencing the rights records of other nations, a issue that vexed his predecessor for eight years. Mr. Clinton insisted that over time, economic engagement with China would force the government to loosen its control over the political process. There is little evidence yet that the strategy is working, though the acting assistant secretary for human rights, Michael Parmly, noted today that "the Internet has resulted in some improvements" in China, "largely in spite of government actions to control it." But he noted that in dealings in Tibet and in the crackdown on the Falun Gong and other religious groups, "the situation has worsened in significant areas." At the same time, the report is also harshly critical of conditions in three countries where the United States has maintained nearly a full economic embargo: Cuba, Myanmar and North Korea. In each, the report found conditions were no better, and in some cases were worse. Critics of both approaches — engagement and isolation — will find ammunition in the voluminous report (so voluminous that the State Department now publishes it only on a CD-ROM and on its Web site, www .state.gov).
     "Their dilemma is the same as the one Clinton faced," said Mike Jendrzejczyk, who follows Asia for Human Rights Watch. "It hasn't changed one iota. The issue hasn't been whether to engage, but how." An early test of whether the administration plans to turn the findings into new policy may come as General Powell pursues the resolution against China. He and Mr. Bush could press Mexico, or European allies, to support the resolution, or they could save their political influence for another issue. Diplomats at the State Department said it is too early to know how far General Powell is willing to go. Clinton administration officials who worked on the early drafts of the report said today that after their brief review of it on the Internet, it appears largely unchanged. "The key was Israel," one said, "and there they left the main conclusion, which is that there was excessive force on the Israeli side, and human rights violations on the Palestinian side as well." On Colombia, the report concluded that while "the government's human rights record remained poor," still "there were some improvements in the legal framework and in institutional mechanisms." The report for the first time explicitly discussed links between the United States-backed Colombian security forces and paramilitary groups, whose attacks are increasing, saying such collusion ranged from allowing the militia members to pass through roadblocks to sharing intelligence and ammunition. President Pastrana, who was in Washington today, said his government was developing a strategy to crack down on such groups, including efforts to disrupt their financing. He said conditions "are improving, though there is still much work to be done in this area." Despite a similarly grim portrait of conditions in Colombia last year, President Clinton waived a series of human rights benchmarks mandated by Congress in order for the military aid to flow. Bush officials say their Colombia policy is still under review.
2000 Pope John Paul II visits Mount Sinai in Egypt, where he prayed for religious tolerance in a garden under the peak revered as the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments.
^ 1999 Clinton impeachment aftermath
     Sealed court records in a criminal case involving presidential accuser Kathleen Willey contain evidence that some of prosecutor Kenneth Starr's witnesses ran into problems when they took lie detector tests, a defense lawyer says today in federal court.
  • Eric Dubelier makes the assertion twice during a court hearing in arguing unsuccessfully that Starr improperly assembled an obstruction indictment against Julie Hiatt Steele after she contradicted part of Mrs. Willey's allegations of an unwelcome sexual advance in the White House.
  • Dubelier does not say how many of Starr's witnesses in the Steele case, scheduled to be tried May 3, were affected by the polygraph issue. "There is a substantial polygraph issue with regard to their own witnesses," Dubelier says. At another point, he says that "results of polygraph examinations" are "an issue for some of their own witnesses." This is part of a sealed submission to the judge, Dubelier adds.
  • Polygraph test results are not ordinarily admissible in court, but Mrs. Steele's lawyers could argue that they are entitled to use results to call into question the credibility of a prosecution witness who testifies against Mrs. Steele.
  • At Starr's request, some of the evidence that prosecutors are turning over to Mrs. Steele before her trial is being filed in secret with the judge. The reason for the secrecy, Starr says, is that he is still investigating allegations of perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with the Willey matter. Clinton testified that Mrs. Willey's story was untrue.
  • Appearing before US District Judge Claude Hilton, Dubelier, a former prosecutor on Starr's staff who recently joined Mrs. Steele's legal team, denies that legal assistance to the Virginia woman is "part of some vast White House conspiracy to interfere with" Starr's investigation. Dubelier, a prosecutor for 17 years, left the US attorney's office in Washington to join a law firm. While working for Starr's office in 1996, he investigated White House use of FBI files. Dubelier says Mrs. Steele's lawyers are serving her free of charge.
  • Mrs. Steele has undercut Mrs. Willey's account alleging that Clinton made an unwanted sexual advance in 1993. Mrs. Steele said Mrs. Willey tried to get her to lie, asking her friend in 1997 to back up Mrs. Willey's story to a Newsweek reporter. Mrs. Steele said she had never heard of Mrs. Willey's accusation before 1997.
  • Mrs. Steele said she was acting on Mrs. Willey's instructions in telling a Newsweek reporter that Mrs. Willey had confided the alleged Clinton advance immediately after it occurred.
  • Mrs. Steele subsequently signed an affidavit saying that Mrs. Willey had asked her to lie to the Newsweek reporter. Mrs. Steele repeated the information from the affidavit in an FBI interview last March and in grand jury testimony.
    • 1998 Total solar eclipse in Venezuela-Pacific Ocean (4m09)
    1996 President Clinton moved to step up economic sanctions on Cuba in response to Cuba's downing of two unarmed airplanes belonging to a Cuban-American exile group, Brothers to the Rescue
    1996 British Telecom announces mass-market Internet service After long delays, British Telecom announced its plans to launch a mass-market dial-up Internet service in March 1996. Until now, the British had lagged behind many other Western countries in updating its telecommunications systems to allow better Internet connections.
    1995 London finance house of Barings collapse after losses in Singapore by trader Nick Leeson.
    1992 Irish Supreme Court rules that 14-year-old rape victim may get an abortion.
    1991 Kuwaiti resistance leaders declared themselves in control of their capital, following nearly seven months of Iraqi occupation. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein announced on Baghdad Radio that he had ordered his forces to withdraw from Kuwait. (celebrated in 2001 as Liberation Day, while mourning the disappeared)
    1990 USSR agrees to withdraw all its 73'500 soldiers from Czechoslovakia by July 1991.
    ^ 1990 Sandinistas are defeated in Nicaraguan elections
          A year after agreeing to free elections, Nicaragua's leftist Sandinista government loses at the polls. The elections brought an end to more than a decade of US efforts to unseat the Sandinista government. The Sandinistas came to power when they overthrew long-time dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979. From the outset, US officials opposed the new regime, claiming that it was Marxist in its orientation. In the face of this opposition, the Sandinistas turned to the communist bloc for economic and military assistance. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan gave his approval for covert US support of the so-called Contras-anti-Sandinista rebels based mostly in Honduras and Costa Rica. This support continued for most of the Reagan administration, until disapproval from the US public and reports of Contra abuses pushed Congress to cut off funding. In 1989, Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega met with the presidents of El Salvador, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Guatemala to hammer out a peace plan for his nation. In exchange for promises from the other nations to close down Contra bases within their borders, Ortega agreed to free elections within a year. These were held on 26 February 1990. Ortega and the Sandinistas suffered a stunning defeat when Violeta Barrios de Chamarro, widow of a newspaper editor assassinated during the Somoza years, polled over 55% of the presidential vote. The opposition also captured the National Assembly. Chamarro's election was a repudiation of over 10 years of Sandinista rule that had been characterized by a destructive war with the Contras and a failing economic system. The United States saw Chamarro's victory as validation of its long-time support of the Contras, and many analysts likened the electoral defeat of the Sandinistas to the crumbling of communist regimes in Eastern Europe during the same period. Critics of the US policy toward Nicaragua retorted that negotiations among the Central American presidents had brought free elections to Nicaragua-which nearly 10 years of US support of armed conflict had been unable to accomplish. In the wake of the election, the administration of President George Bush immediately announced an end to the US embargo against Nicaragua and pledged new economic assistance. Though rumors flew that the Sandinista-controlled army and security forces would not accept Chamarro, she was inaugurated without incident. The Sandinistas, however, continued to play a role in Nicaraguan politics and still actively campaign for, and occasionally win, political office.
    1987 The Tower Commission (headed by senator Tower), which probed the Iran-Contra affair, issues its report rebuking President Reagan for failing to control his national security staff.
    1986 Former Philippines President Ferdinand E Marcos fled in defeat
    ^ 1984 Last US Marines leave Beirut
          The last US Marines sent to Lebanon as part of a multinational peacekeeping force leave Beirut, the war-torn Lebanese capital where some 250 of the original eight hundred Marines lost their lives during the problem-plagued year-and-half mission. In 1975, a bloody civil war erupted in Lebanon, with Palestinian and leftist Muslim guerillas battling militias of the Christian Phalange Party, the Maronite Christian community, and other groups. Over the next few years, Syrian, Israeli, and United Nations interventions failed to resolve the factional fighting, and on 20 August 1982, a multinational force featuring US Marines landed in Beirut to oversee the Palestinian withdrawal from Lebanon. They Marines left Lebanese territory on September 10, but returned on 29 September following the massacre of Palestinian refugees by a Christian militia. The next day, the first US Marine to die during the mission was killed while defusing a bomb, and on April 18, 1983, the US embassy in Beirut was devastated by a car bomb, killing sixty-three people, including seventeen Americans. On 23 October 1983, Lebanese terrorists evaded security measures and drove a truck packed with explosives into the US Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 US military persons. Fifty-eight French soldiers were killed the same evening in a separate suicide terrorist attack. On 07 February 1984, US President Ronald Reagan announced the end of US participation in the peacekeeping force, and, on 26 February, the last US Marines left Beirut.
    1981 French Train à Grande Vitesse averages 380 kph on trial run.
    1980 Military coup under Desi Bouterse in Suriname.
    1980 Egypt and Israel exchange ambassadors for the first time.
    1979 Last total eclipse of Sun in 20th century for continental US casts a moving shadow 280 km wide from Oregon to North Dakota to Canada.
    ^ 1976 Spain departs from Spanish Sahara
          Spain completes its withdrawal from Spanish Sahara, a former colonial territory in northeastern Africa. The next day, the people of the phosphate-rich desert territory proclaim the independent Saharan Arab Democratic Republic with Spanish approval. However, on 06 November 1976, King Hassan II of Morocco launches the "Green March," a mass migration in which over 300'000 unarmed Moroccans pour into the newly sovereign nation of Western Sahara, waving Moroccan flags and brandishing copies of the Koran. The Moroccans rapidly settle the area in support of their government's contention that the northern part of the territory was historically a part of Morocco. The origins of King Hassan's claim lie in the fact that the Sahrawis tribes of the region once paid an allegiance to Moroccan monarchs. Following the Moroccan takeover, Mauritania occupies the southern portion of Western Sahara, despite opposition by the native Polisario Spanish Sahara liberation movement. Spain, the former colonial power in the territory, threatens to resist the actions of Morocco and Mauritania, but within a few days withdraws its opposition, abandoning its commitment to self-determination for its former protectorate. In 1979, as part of a peace treaty, Mauritania cedes the southern half of Western Sahara to Morocco
    1974 Gold hits record $188 an ounce in Paris
    1968 Clandestine Radio Voice of Iraqi People (Communist) final transmission
    ^ 1968 Mass graves discovered in Hue
          Allied troops who had recaptured the imperial capital of Hue from the North Vietnamese during the Tet Offensive discover the first mass graves in Hue. It was discovered that communist troops who had held the city for 25 days had massacred about 2,800 civilians whom they had identified as sympathizers with the government in Saigon. One authority estimated that communists might have killed as many as 5,700 people in Hue. The Tet Offensive had begun at dawn on the first day of the Tet holiday truce (January 30), when Viet Cong forces, supported by large numbers of North Vietnamese troops, launched the largest and best coordinated offensive of the war. During the attack, they drove into the center of South Vietnam's seven largest cities and attacked 30 provincial capitals ranging from the Delta to the DMZ. Among the cities taken during the first four days of the offensive were Hue, Dalat, Kontum, and Quang Tri; in the north, all five provincial capitals were overrun. At the same time, enemy forces shelled numerous allied airfields and bases. By February 10, the offensive was largely crushed, but resulted in heavy casualties on both sides.
    ^ 1965 First South Korean troops arrive in Vietnam.
          The first contingent of South Korean troops arrives in Saigon. Although assigned to non-combat duties, they came under fire on April 3. The South Korean contingent was part of the Free World Military Forces, an effort by President Lyndon B. Johnson to enlist allies for the United States and South Vietnam. By securing support from other nations, Johnson hoped to build an international consensus behind his policies in Vietnam. The effort was also known as the "many flags" program. By the close of 1969, there were over 47,800 Korean soldiers actively involved in combat operations in South Vietnam. Seoul began to withdraw its troops in February 1972.
    1965 West Germany ceases military aid to Tanzania.
    1962 US Supreme court disallows race separation on public transportation.
    1953 Allen W Dulles, promoted from deputy to 5th director of CIA.
    1952 PM Winston Churchill announces that Britain has its own atomic bomb.
    1951 22nd amendment to the US Constitution is ratified, limiting a president to two terms of office.
    ^ 1946 Start of first nonstop around-the-world flight
          From Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth, Texas, the Lucky Lady II, a B-50 Superfortress, takes off on the first nonstop round-the-world flight. Under the command of Captain James Gallagher, and featuring a crew of fourteen men, the aircraft averages 401 km/h on its 37742-km trek. The Luck Lady II is refueled four times in the air by B-29 tanker planes, and on 02 March, returns to the United States after ninety-four hours in the air. On 23 December 1986, Voyager, a light-weight propeller plane constructed mainly of plastic, landed at Edwards Air Force Base in Muroc, California, having completed the first global flight without refueling.
    1945 Very heavy bombing on Berlin by 8th US Air Force.
    1943 German assault moves to Beja North Tunisia.
    1942 German battle cruiser Gneisenau deactivated by bomb.
    1941 Vichy-France makes religious education in school mandatory.
    1938 First passenger ship equipped with radar: the flagship New York. The following year, the first battleship to be equipped with radar was put into service. Radar would be tremendously important during World War II in the detection of submarines and airplanes.
    1936 Military coup in Japan
    1936 Hitler introduces Ferdinand Porsche's "Volkswagen"
    1925 Jihad against Turkish government
    1924 Trial against Hitler in Munich begins
    1923 Italian nationalist and fascists merge (blue-shirts and black-shirts)
    1919 Congress established Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona
    1919 Congress approved An Act to Establish the Lafayette National Park at Mt. Desert Island on the coast of Maine on 26 February 1919. The park, expanded and renamed Acadia National Park in 1929, was the first national park east of the Mississippi.
    1916 Russian troops conquer Kermansjah Persia
    1914 First long-distance telephone calls over underground cables The first long-distance call over underground cables took place between Boston, Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C., on this day in 1914.
    1907 US Congress raised their own salaries to $7500
    ^ 1885 US Congress regulates contract labor of immigrants.
          Congress heeds the call of labor leaders and passes the Contract Labor Law, which promises to clamp down on business agents who contract abroad for immigrant labor. The passage of the Contract Labor Law represented something of a change of heart for legislators who, in 1864, had greenlighted legislation that sanctioned the practice of employers securing the services of foreign workers in return for free admission to the United States. While this legislation was designed to fuel the rapid rise of industry, as well as the nation's westward expansion, employers used the foreign workers as a potent tool to fight against the burgeoning labor movement, primarily by deploying immigrant labor to break strikes. The result was a deluge of brutal and sometimes bloody conflicts. By the 1880s, the union movement, most notably the Knights of Labor, wielded enough clout to sway legislators and force the decline of contract labor.
    ^ Congress of Berlin, gives Congo to Belgium and Nigeria to England
    1885 Fin de la conférence de Berlin sur l'Afrique noire
         Elle a été organisée par le chancelier Bismarck. En trois mois, les représentants des Etats-Unis et de treize pays européens ont fixé les règles qui doivent présider à la colonisation du continent africain. La conférence de Berlin proclame la liberté de navigation sur les grands fleuves, le Niger et le Congo. Elle permet aux Etats européens déjà présents sur le littoral africain d'annexer l'arrière-pays correspondant. Le Portugal et l'Allemagne sont dans ce cas. La France obtient des droits sur les vastes territoires de l'Afrique de l'ouest. Le chancelier Bismarck espère, mais à tort, que les Français se résigneront de la sorte à la perte de l'Alsace-Lorraine. L'Angleterre se réserve la possibilité de constituer un axe continu du Caire au Cap, à la pointe sud du continent. Le principal bénéficiaire de la conférence de Berlin est le roi des Belges, Léopold II. Ce géant exubérant aime la bonne chère, les femmes et les très jeunes filles. Il cultive aussi un intérêt très vif pour l'outre-mer et rêve d'imiter les Hollandais qui exploitent avec une brutalité sans égale leur colonie des Indes orientales, l'actuelle Indonésie. C'est ainsi que Léopold II consacre sa fortune personnelle à l'exploration de l'Afrique centrale. Il finance les expéditions du célèbre journaliste britannique John Stanley dans le but d'«ouvrir à la civilisation la seule partie de notre globe où elle n'a pas encore pénétré». Ses efforts sont récompensés par la conférence de Berlin. Celle-ci lui reconnaît la possession à titre privé d'un vaste territoire au coeur de l'Afrique noire, qui sera baptisé État indépendant du Congo! Léopold II promet aux grandes puissances que le territoire sera ouvert à leur commerce. Lui-même va s'efforcer de tirer de sa colonie un maximum de ressources en instituant le travail forcé. A sa mort, il lèguera le Congo à la Belgique mais celle-ci ne l'acceptera qu'à son corps défendant. Malgré son importance pour le continent africain, la conférence de Berlin ne suscite qu'indifférence en Europe. L'opinion publique se désintéresse dans son immense majorité des conquêtes coloniales.
    1884 British and Portuguese treaty signed in Congo by Leopold II.
    1881 Natal British troops under General-Major Colley occupy Majuba Hill.
    1870 First NYC subway line opens (pneumatic powered)
    1869 15th Amendment guaranteeing right to vote sent to states.
    1863 Attack at Woodburn, Tennessee.
    1863 The Cherokee Indian National Council leaves the Confederacy to join the Union
    1848 2nd French Republic is proclaimed.
    1832 Polish constitution abolished/replaced by Czar Nicholas I.
    1815 Napoléon and 1200 escape Elba to start 100-day re-establishment of his regime in France
    1797 Bank of England issues first £1-note.
    1732 In Philadelphia, Mass was celebrated for the first time at St Joseph's Church the only Roman Catholic church built and maintained in the American colonies before the Revolutionary War.
    1616 Spanish Inquisition delivers injunction to Galileo.
    1266 Battle of Benevento
    747 -BC- Origin of Era of Nabonassar
    TO THE TOP
    Deaths which occurred on a 26 February:
    1996 Fathi Abu Jabarrah, 62, “killed twice”.       ^top^
          Abu Jabarrah, Palestinian of Qalqilyah, West Bank, dies of a pulmonary embolism in Rafidiyah Hospital in Nablus 18 hours after Kfar Sava's Meir Hospital insisted transfering him there.
          Abu Jabarrah was shot in Qalqilyah two weeks earlier on his way to visit relatives during the Muslim Id al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice). The Israeli army raided a number of homes on the town's main street, in an attempt to stop a suspect. Abu Jabarrah and other civilians were caught in the crossfire between Israeli troops and armed Palestinian militants near the former military administration headquarters.
          Abu Jabarrah placed himself in front of an eight-year-old boy in an attempt to shield him from the bullets. He was badly wounded in the abdomen and transfered in critical condition to Al-Ittihad Hospital in Nablus.
          The hospital was unable to perform the surgery needed to save Abu Jabarrah's life and his family insisted on moving him to Meir Hospital in Kfar Sava. The hospital agreed to take Abu Jabarrah once the family paid about NIS 10'000 ($2080). When they reached the hospital Abu Jabarrah was put in the intensive care unit and diagnosed with fractures in the pelvis and and wounds in the spleen and intestines. For two weeks he underwent a number of operations, including ones to remove his spleen and to shorten his intestine.
          As the complicated treatment continued, the hospital demanded payment for the growing expenses but the family failed to raise the required funds. On 25 February the hospital decided that Abu Jabarrah's condition had stabilized and transferred him to a Palestinian hospital. “His transfer was decided on a medical basis when he was stable and according to regulations,” Meir Hospital said.
          The doctors may have examined him in the hospital but did not take into account the extreme weather conditions of those days. In the morning of 25 February, Abu Jabarrah's sister and sister-in-law visited him in Kfar Sava. After they left, the hospital arranged for an ambulance to transport Abu Jabarrah, despite the pouring rain and below-zero (Celsius) temperatures. It took him to the Jaljulya checkpoint on the Green Line. Despite a prior arrangement with the Red Crescent, the ambulance was forced to wait at the checkpoint for two hours until a Palestinian ambulance arrived to take him to Rafidiyah Hospital in Nablus.
          At about 08:00 on 26 February, 18 hours after he arrived, Abu Jabarrah's condition suddenly deteriorates. All attempts to save his life fail. "The deterioration occurred in seconds," hospital director Dr. Husam Al-Jawari said. "A blood clot passed into his lung, causing a pulmonary embolism, and there was nothing we could do to save him. Abu Jabarrah received excellent care but he should not have been transferred from Meir Hospital in his condition and in such weather."
         That same day Knesset Member Ahmad Tibi (of Ta'al party) sent a letter of protest to the Israeli Health Ministry, saying: “Abu Jabarrah was killed twice, once by the Israeli Defense Force who shot him and another by the hospital which transfered him to Nablus.”
          Meir hospital responds: “Abu Jabarrah received devoted medical care even though he was brought without prior notice and in serious condition. He received professional care for two weeks including surgery. The hospital did ask for payment, but the complicated treatment was not conditional at any stage on financial payment or anything else. The transfer to the Palestinian hospital was arranged with the health coordinator for the Palestinian Authority, Dalia Basa. To our regret, when the ambulance arrived at the barrier, the Red Crescent ambulance was not there and arrived two hours late. The hospital regrets Mr. Jabarrah's death but before the transfer he was examined by the doctors. His condition was stable, with no evidence of any acute problem, and we have no way of knowing what happened to him after he left the hospital.”

    2003 Ten persons after fire starts at 02:35 (07:35 UT) in one of the three sections of the nursing home Greenwood Health Center in Hartford CT, where many are bedridden, confined to wheelchairs, blind, or mentally retarded. 23 are injured. The nursing home had 148 patients, and about 100 of them had to be evacuated. The temperature outside was about–10ºC with snow on the ground.
    2003 Lin Wang “Grandpa Lin”, 85, who had not eaten since falling sick a few days earlier. Lin was a World War II veteran who was assigned to transportation of supplies and artillery. At first he was in the Japanese army, but in its Burma campaign he was taken prisoner by the Chinese and later served in the Nationalist Chinese army on the mainland and in Taiwan, where, on 30 October 1954, the Commander in Chief, General Sun Li-jen [27 Nov 1900 – 19 Nov 1990], placed him in a retirement home where Lin met his spouse Ma Lan, who died in October 2002 at age 52, since when Lin had suffered from depression. Lin's retirement home was the Taipei City Zoo in Mucha, where he was a great favorite, especially of children who, every year since 1983, came for his birthday party on the last Sunday in October (in the absence of a birth certificate, he is assumed to have been born on 30 Oct 1917), his last being shown in the photo below, celebrated with a birthday cake made of fresh grass and bananas. Lin is believed to have been the world's oldest Asian elephant.
    -Lin Wang 29 Oct 2002-
    ^ 2001 More settlers from Madura, massacred in Indonesian Borneo by native Dayak mobs
    who are also burning homes and businesses. In 8 days of rioting, unchecked by Indonesian police and army, already 1000 Madurese may have been killed, many more thousands turned into terrified refugees hiding in the forests.
          Since the 1960s, more than 100'000 Madurese have been resettled to Borneo as part of an Indonesian government program to relieve overcrowding on Madura. The Dayaks claim the immigrants pushed them off their traditional lands and stole their jobs in gold, tin and copper mines. The Madurese, who are strict Muslims, resent the Dayak habits of eating pork and keeping dogs. They also consider them lazy and backward. Most Dayaks are Christians, although many still practice ancient animist beliefs. Before Indonesia's former Dutch colonial rulers outlawed headhunting in the late 19th century, the Dayaks were widely known as cannibals. Approximately 3000 people were killed in 1997 in the first major outbreak of ethnic violence on Borneo, which is divided between Indonesia and Malaysia. At the time, the province of West Kalimantan — one of four on the Indonesian part of the island — was purged of almost all of its Madurese inhabitants. Unrelated violence has also plagued several other parts of Indonesia. On Monday, villagers found the bodies of seven unidentified people in Aceh province, where separatist rebels are fighting the government.
    ^ 1993 Six persons killed as World Trade Center is bombed
          At 12:18, a truck bomb explodes in a parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York City, leaving a crater sixty-meters-wide and causing several interior walls and floors of the twin towers to collapse. Although the terrorist bomb fails to seriously damage the main structures of the skyscrapers, six people are killed and several hundred are injured. The World Trade Center itself suffers over five hundred million dollars in damage. After the attack, authorities evacuate some 50'000 people from the buildings, hundreds of whom are suffering from smoke inhalation.
          City authorities and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) undertake a massive manhunt for suspects. Hours after the explosion, an informant identified a group of Serbians in New York as the culprits. However, when the FBI conducted surveillance of the gang they found not terrorists but jewel thieves, putting an end to a major diamond-laundering operation.
          Fortunately, investigators at the bomb scene found a 140-kg section of a van frame that had been at the center of the blast. The van's vehicle identification number was still visible, leading detectives to the Ryder Rental Agency in Jersey City, New Jersey. Their records indicated that Mohammed Salameh had rented the van and reported it stolen on 25 February.
          Salameh was already in the FBI's database as a potential terrorist, so agents knew that they had probably found their man. Salameh compounded his mistake by insisting that Ryder return his $400 deposit. When he returned to collect it, the FBI arrested him. A search of his home and records led to two other suspects.
          Meanwhile, the owner of a storage facility in Jersey City came forward to say that he had seen four men loading a Ryder van on 25 February. When this storage space was checked, they found enough chemicals, including very unstable nitroglycerin, to make another massive bomb. Investigators also found videotapes with instructions on bomb making that led to the arrest of a fourth suspect.
          Other evidence showed that one of the terrorists had bought hydrogen tanks from AGL Welding Supply in New Jersey. In the wreckage under the World Trade Center, three tanks marked "AGL Welding" were found. In addition, the terrorists had sent a letter to the New York Times claiming responsibility for the blast. Portions of this letter were found on the hard drive of one of the suspect's computers. Finally, DNA analysis of saliva on the envelope matched that of the suspect.
         By the end of June, nine radical Islamic fundamentalists are arrested. In the subsequent criminal trial, the Trade Center attack is alleged to be part of a larger terrorist conspiracy to bomb various New York landmarks in protest of America's continuing support of Israel and Egypt's secular governments.
          On 04 March 1994, Mohammed A. Salmeh, Ahmad M. Ajaj, Nidal A. Ayyad, and Mahmud Abouhalima are convicted by a federal jury for planning and executing the attack, and on 24 March, they are sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole. On 06 October 1995, in a separate federal trial, Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, a radical Islamic cleric, is convicted along with nine others for their role in the alleged terrorist conspiracy, although none of the defendants are found guilty of carrying out the actual World Trade Center bombing.
          Finally, on 12 July 1997, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef and Eyad Ismoil, arrested in Pakistan and Jordan respectively in 1995, are convicted of masterminding the bombing and are subsequently sentenced to life in prison without parole (each of the men was sentenced to 240 years in prison).
          During the trial, US agents testified that, after his capture, Yousef revealed to them that he had considered a poison gas attack on the World Trade Center, but instead decided to bomb the building in an attempt to topple one of the twin 110-story towers into the other, a disaster which would have killed as many as 250'000 people. Despite the fact that the terrorists did not succeed in destroying the World Trade Center, the bombing remains one of the worst acts of foreign terrorism on US soil.
    1986 Robert Penn Warren, 84, author and poet. His Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, All the King's Men, was made into a movie in 1949.
    1972: 125 die as slag heap dam collapses above Buffalo Creek WV
    1969 Karl Jaspers, German psychiatrist and Existentialist philosopher born on 23 February 1881..
    1961 Mohammed V, 51, ibn Yusuf, sultan/King of Morocco.
    ^ 1945 Soldiers killed by Japanese exploding ammunition at Corregidor
          An ammunition dump on the Philippine island of Corregidor is blown up by a remnant of the Japanese garrison, causing more American casualties on the eve of US victory there. In May 1942, Corregidor, a small rock island at the mouth of Manila Bay, remained one of the last Allied strongholds in the Philippines after the Japanese victory at Bataan. Constant artillery shelling and aerial bombardment attacks ate away at the American and Filipino defenders. Although still managing to sink many Japanese barges as they approached the northern shores of the island, the Allied troops could not hold the invader off any longer. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright, commander of the US armed forces in the Philippines, offered to surrender Corregidor to Japanese Gen. Masaharu Homma, but Homma wanted the complete, unconditional capitulation of all American forces throughout the Philippines. Wainwright had little choice given the odds against him and the poor physical condition of his troops — he had already lost 800 men. He surrendered at midnight. All 11'500 surviving Allied troops were evacuated to a prison stockade in Manila. But the Americans returned to the Philippines in full strength in October 1944, beginning with the recapture of Leyte, the Philippines' central island. It took 67 days to subdue, with the loss of more than 55'000 Japanese soldiers during the two months of battle, and approximately another 25'000 mopping up pockets of resistance in early 1945. The US forces lost about 3500. Following the American victory of Leyte was the return of Gen. Douglas MacArthur and the struggle for Luzon and the race for Manila, the Philippine capital. One week into the Allied battle for Luzon, US airborne troops parachuted onto Corregidor to take out the Japanese garrison there, which was believed to be 1000 strong, but was actually closer to 5000. Fierce fighting resulted in the deaths of most of the Japanese soldiers, with the survivors left huddling in the Malinta Tunnel for safety. Ironically, the tunnel, 1400 feet long and dug deep in the heart of Corregidor, had served as MacArthur's headquarters and a US supply depot before the American defeat there. MacArthur feared the Japanese soldiers could sit there for months. The garrison had no such intention, though, and ignited a nearby ammunition dump — an act of defiance, and possibly of mass suicide. Most of the Japanese were killed in the explosion, along with 52 Americans. Those Japanese who survived the blast were forced out into the open and decimated by the US troops. Corregidor was officially in US hands by early March.
    ^ 1940 Day 89 of Winter War: USSR aggression against Finland.
    More deaths due to Stalin's desire to grab Finnish territory.
    Enemy pushes north in force along the banks of the Vuoksi
           Marshall Timoshenko orders his troops to take Viipuri. The Soviet force is ordered to surround and totally destroy the city's Finnish defenders. The plan of attack includes an assault by two army corps across Viipurinlahti bay to encircle the city from the southwest.
          Further east the enemy also attacks to the north along the banks of the Vuoksi with another two army corps.
          Colonel Oinonen, the new commander of the Finnish 23rd Division, decides to launch a counterattack on the enemy troops which have overrun the Honkaniemi area. The counterattacking force includes a strengthened battalion with its own tanks. H-hour is set for 5.00 a.m. H-hour has to be put back when the attacking force is unable to establish contact with its own artillery. When contact is finally established about an hour later, part of the preliminary artillery bombardment comes down among the Finnish troops, killing or wounding 30 men.
          When the troops on the Isthmus at Lake Näykkijärvi move into battle between 06:15 and 10:00, a fierce tank battle ensues in the area around Honkaniemi station. The Finns lose five of the six old Vickers tanks used in the attack. The attacking troops are finally forced to withdraw to their starting positions. The Russians bring more men into the area to support the breakthrough. Two strongholds are initially lost in the Terenttilä area in Taipale, but are retaken in a counterattack.
          Eight Finnish aircraft bomb the Lotinanpelto airfield near the mouth of the River Syväri and the Murmansk railway line.
          Foreign Minister Tanner arrives in the evening in Stockholm and meets Professor T.M. Kivimäki, who has just returned from a fact-finding mission to Germany and urges acceptance of even harsh peace terms. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs communicates the peace terms to Finland's diplomatic representatives in Paris and London.
          80 enemy bombers pound the marshalling yard and the surrounding district in Kouvola, causing a temporary break in traffic to the east and south.
          Eastern Finland: British pilots bring 12 Bristol Blenheim bombers directly to Jukajärvi airstrip in Juva.
          Abroad: in Stockholm, holders of steel von Döbeln rings bearing the election slogan "Honour - Duty - Will" exchange them for gold rings, the proceeds from the sale to go to help the Finnish cause.
          Finland's good will envoys in the United States, the great runners Taisto Mäki and Paavo Nurmi, are today guests of honour at the US indoor championships in New York's Madison Square Garden. Finland's blue and white flags are raised on the flag poles side by side with the Stars and Stripes.
    ^ Idässä vihollinen hyökkää kahden armeijakunnan voimin Vuoksen vartta pohjoiseen Talvisodan 89. päivä, 26.helmikuuta.1940
           Venäläinen marsalkka Timosenko antaa joukoilleen käskyn Viipurin valtaamiseksi. Käskyn mukaan neuvostojoukkojen toiminta tähtää Viipuria puolustavien suomalaisten joukkojen saartamiseen ja täydelliseen tuhoamiseen. Vihollisen suunnitelmiin kuuluu hyökkäys kahden armeijakunnan voimin Viipurinlahden yli kaupungin saartamiseksi lounaasta.
          Idässä vihollinen hyökkää myös kahden armeijakunnan voimin Vuoksen vartta pohjoiseen.
          23. Divisioonan uusi komentaja eversti Oinonen päättää tuhota Honkaniemen maaston vallanneen vihollisen vastahyökkäyksellä, jossa on mukana vahvennettu pataljoona ja omia panssarvaunuja. H-hetki on 05.00. H-hetkeä joudutaan siirtämään, sillä omaan tykistööön ei saada yhteyttä. Kun yhteys saadaan osa tuntia myöhemmin ammutusta tykistö-valmistelusta osuu omiin joukkoihin ja aiheuttaa 30 miehen tappiot.
          Kun joukot saadaan liikkeelle 6.15-10.00 Karjalan kannaksella Näykkijärvellä, käydään Honkaniemen pysäkin maastossa raivokas panssaritaistelu. Suomi menettää viisi kuudesta vanhentuneesta hyökäykseen osallistuneesta Vickers-panssarivaunustaan. Joukkojen on vetäydyttävä takaisin lähtöasemiin. Venäläiset siirtävät murto-alueelle lisää joukkoja. Taipaleessa Terenttilän alueella menetetään kaksi tukikohtaa, jotka saadaan kuitenkin vastaiskulla takaisin.
          Kahdeksan suomalaiskonetta pommittaa Muurmannin radan varrella, lähellä Syvärin joen suuta sijaitsevaa Lotinanpellon lentotukikohtaa.
          Ulkomininisteri Tanner saapuu illalla Tukholmaan ja tapaa Saksasta tunnustelumatkalta saapuneen professori T. M. Kivimäen joka esittää raskaidenkin rauhanehtojen hyväksymistä. Ulkoministeriö informoi rauhanehdoista Suomen Pariisin lähettilästä Holmaa sekä Lontoon lähettilästä Gripenpergiä. 80 vihollisen pommikonetta pommittaa raskaasti Kouvolan asemanseutua ja ratapihaa ja saa liikenteen poikki itään ja etelään joksikin aikaa.
          Englantilaiset lentäjät tuovat suoraan Juvan Jukajärven kentälle 12 englantilaista Bristol Blenheim-pommikonetta.
          Ulkomailta: Tukholmassa aletaan vaihtaa teräksisiä von Döbeln-vaalilauseella "Kunnia - Velvollisuus - Tahto" -varustettuja sormuksia kultasormuksiin, joiden arvo tulee Suomen keräyksen hyväksi.
          Suomen hyväntahdon lähettiläät Yhdysvalloissa, suurjuoksijat Taisto Mäki ja Paavo Nurmi ovat tänään kunniavieraina USA:n hallimestaruuskilpailuissaMadison Square Gardenissa. Yhdysvaltain lippujen kanssa nousevat yhtaikaa salkoihin Suomen siniristiliput.
    ^ I öst anfaller fienden med två armékårer norrut längs Vuoksen Vinterkrigets 89 dag, den 26 februari 1940
          Den ryska marskalken Timosenko beordrar sina trupper att ockupera Viborg. Enligt order strävar de ryska trupperna efter att inringa och förinta de finska styrkorna som försvarar Viborg. I fiendens planer ingår ett anfall med en styrka på två armékårer över Viborgska viken för att inringa staden från sydväst.
          I öst anfaller fienden likaledes med två armékårer norrut längs Vuoksen.
          Överste Oinonen, den nya kommendören för den 23. Divisionen, besluter att förinta de ryska trupper som erövrat terrängen kring Honkaniemi i en motattack med stöd av en förstärkt bataljon och egna pansarvagnar. Det avgörande ögonblicket är kl. 05.00. På grund av att man inte får kontakt med det egna artilleriet är man tvungen att skjuta upp tidpunkten för motoffensiven. När man får kontakt träffar en del av den en timme senare avfyrade artilleriförberedningen de egna trupperna och förorsakar en förlust på 30 man.
          När trupperna börjar röra på sig kl. 6.15-10.00 vid Näykkijärvi på Karelska näset flammar pansarstriderna upp vid terrängen kring Honkaniemi hållplats. Finland förlorar fem av sex föråldrade Vickers-pansarvagnar som deltar i offensiven. Trupperna tvingas retirera till utgångsläget. Ryssarna förflyttar fler trupper till inbrytningsområdet. Finland förlorar två baser vid Terenttilä i Taipale, men lyckas återerövra dem genom motattacker.
          Åtta finska plan bombar flygbasen i Lotinanpelto som är belägen intill Muurmannibanan nära mynningen av floden Syväri.
          Utrikesminister Tanner anländer på kvällen till Stockholm och träffar professor T. M. Kivimäki som återvänt från en rekognoseringsresa till Tyskland. Kivimäki föreslår att Finland ska godkänna de tunga fredsvillkoren. Utrikesministeriet informerar Finlands ambassadörer Holma i Paris och Gripenberg i London.
          80 fientliga bombplan bombar häftigt stationsområdet och bangården i Kouvola och lyckas för en tid skära av trafiken österut och söderut.
          Engelska piloter hämtar 12 engelska Bristol Blenheim-bombplan direkt till Jukajärvi flygfält i Juva.
          Utrikes: I Stockholm börjar man byta ringar i stål med von Döbelns valslagord "Ära -Plikt - Vilja" mot guldringar. Värdet på guldringarna kommer att tillfalla Finlandsinsamlingen.
          Finlands goodwillambassadörer i USA, löparstjärnorna Taisto Mäki och Paavo Nurmi är idag hedersgäster i USA:s hallmästerskapstävlingar i Madison Square Garden. Finlands blåvita flagga hissas samtidigt som den amerikanska flaggan.
    1930 Raffaele Merry del Val, 64, Spanish Cardinal
    1916 Germans sink French transport ship Provence II, killing 930
    ^ 1903 Richard J. Gatling, 84, US inventor (Gatling Gun)
         American inventor best known for his invention of the Gatling gun, a crank-operated, multibarrel machine gun, which he patented in 1862. Gatling's career as an inventor began when he assisted his father in the construction and perfecting of machines for sowing cotton seeds and for thinning cotton plants. In 1839 he perfected a practical screw propeller for steamboats, only to find that a patent had been granted to John Ericsson for a similar invention a few months earlier. He established himself in St. Louis, Mo., in 1844, and, taking the cotton-sowing machine as a basis, he adapted it for sowing rice, wheat, and other grains. The introduction of these machines did much to revolutionize the agricultural system in the country. Becoming interested in the study of medicine during an attack of smallpox, Gatling completed a course at the Ohio Medical College in 1850. In the same year, he invented a hemp-breaking machine, and in 1857 a steam plow. At the outbreak of the American Civil War he devoted himself at once to the perfecting of firearms. In 1861 he conceived the idea of the rapid-fire machine gun that is associated with his name. By 1862 he had succeeded in perfecting the weapon; but the war was practically over before the federal authorities consented to its official adoption.
    1901 Chi-hsui during Boxer Rebellion in China, beheaded
    1859 Ferdinand Lukas Schubert, 64, composer
    1638 Bachet, mathematician.
    1577 Erik XIV Wasa, 43, King of Sweden (1560-69)
    1531 Some 20'000 in earthquake in Lisbon.
    1154 Rogier II Guiscard, 60, King of Sicily (1101-54)
    0616 Saint Ethelbert, 63, King of Kent(baptized 05970602 by Saint Augustine)
    Births which occurred on a 26 February:
    ^ 1991 Web browser is introduced
          Tim Berners-Lee presents an early version of a Web browser to a work group at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland. He conceived the Web as a way for physicists at different universities around the world to instantaneously share information. Throughout the next year, he modified the architecture, released early Web browsers on the Internet, and solicited feedback and input from Internet programmers. By late 1991 and early 1992, the Web was widely discussed, and in early 1993, when Marc Andreessen released his Mosaic browser (Netscape's precursor), the Web rapidly became a popular communications medium.
    1954 first typesetting machine (photo engraving) used, Quincy MA
    1936 José Policarpo da Cruz, Portuguese, ordained a Catholic priest on 15 August 1961, appointed auxiliary of Lisbon on 26 May 1978 and consecrated bishop on 29 June 1978; appointed Coadjutor Archbishop of Lisbon on 05 March 1997; succeeded Cardinal António Ribeiro as Patriarch of Lisbon on 24 March 1998; made a cardinal on 21 February 2001.
    ^ 1935 The Luftwaffe is created by Hitler.
          Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler signs a secret decree authorizing the founding of the Reich Luftwaffe as a third German military service to join the Reich army and navy. In the same decree, Hitler appointed Hermann Goering, a German air hero from World War I and high-ranking Nazi, as commander in chief of the new German air force. The Versailles Treaty that ended World War I prohibited military aviation in Germany, but a German civilian airline — Lufthansa — was founded in 1926 and provided flight training for the men who would later become Luftwaffe pilots. After coming to power in 1933, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler began to secretly develop a state-of-the-art military air force and appointed Goering as German air minister. (During World War I, Goering commanded the celebrated air squadron in which the great German ace Manfred von Richthofen — "The Red Baron" — served.) In February 1935, Hitler formally organized the Luftwaffe as a major step in his program of German rearmament. The Luftwaffe was to be uncamouflaged step-by-step so as not to alarm foreign governments, and the size and composition of Luftwaffe units were to remain secret as before. However, in March 1935, Britain announced it was strengthening its Royal Air Force (RAF), and Hitler, not to be outdone, revealed his Luftwaffe, which was rapidly growing into a formidable air force. As German rearmament moved forward at an alarming rate, Britain and France protested but failed to keep up with German war production. The German air fleet grew dramatically, and the new German fighter — the Me-109 — was far more sophisticated than its counterparts in Britain, France, or Russia. The Me-109 was bloodied during the Spanish Civil War; Luftwaffe pilots received combat training as they tried out new aerial attack formations on Spanish towns such as Guernica, which suffered more than 1000 killed during a brutal bombing by the Luftwaffe in April 1937.
          The Luftwaffe was configured to serve as a crucial part of the German blitzkrieg, or "lightning war" — the deadly military strategy developed by General Heinz Guderian. As German panzer divisions burst deep into enemy territory, lethal Luftwaffe dive-bombers would decimate the enemy's supply and communication lines and cause panic. By the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, the Luftwaffe had an operational force of 1000 fighters and 1050 bombers. First Poland and then Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium, and France fell to the blitzkrieg.
          After the surrender of France, Germany turned the Luftwaffe against Britain, hoping to destroy the RAF in preparation for a proposed German landing. However, in the epic air battle known as the Battle of Britain, the outnumbered RAF fliers successfully resisted the Luftwaffe, relying on radar technology, their new, highly maneuverable Spitfire aircraft, bravery, and luck. For every British plane shot down, two German warplanes were destroyed.
          In the face of British resistance, Hitler changed strategy in the Battle of Britain, abandoning his invasion plans and attempting to bomb London into submission. However, in this campaign, the Luftwaffe was hampered by its lack of strategic, long-range bombers, and in early 1941 the Battle of Britain ended in failure. Britain had handed the Luftwaffe its first defeat. Later that year, Hitler ordered an invasion of the USSR, which after initial triumphs turned into an unqualified disaster. As Hitler stubbornly fought to overcome Russia's bitter resistance, the depleted Luftwaffe steadily lost air superiority over Europe in the face of increasing British and US air attacks. By the time of the D-Day invasion of Normandy in June 1944, the Luftwaffe air fleet was a skeleton of its former self.
    1935 RADAR— Radio Detection and Ranging first demonstrated (Robert Watson-Watt)
    1933 Lubomyr Husar, in Lviv, Ukraine, ordained a priest of the Ukrainian rite of Stamford US on 30 March 1958, consecrated bishop on 02 April 1977 for Kiev, appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Lviv on 22 February 1996 and Major Archbishop of Lviv on 25 January 2001, made a cardinal on 21 February 2001.
    1930 First red and green traffic lights installed (Manhattan NYC)
    ^ 1929 Grand Teton National Park is established
          In a controversial move that inspires charges of eastern domination of the West, the Congress establishes Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. Home to some of the most stunning alpine scenery in the United States, the territory in and around Grand Teton National Park also has a colorful human history. The first Anglo-American to see the saw-edged Teton peaks is believed to be John Colter. After traveling with Lewis and Clark to the Pacific, Colter left the expedition during its return trip down the Missouri in 1807 to join two fur trappers headed back into the wilderness. He spent the next three years wandering through the northern Rocky Mountains, eventually finding his way into the valley at the base of the Tetons, which would later be called Jackson Hole. Other adventurers followed in Colter's footsteps, including the French-Canadian trappers who gave the mountain range the bawdy name of "Grand Tetons," meaning "big breasts" in French. For decades trappers, outlaws, traders, and Indians passed through Jackson Hole, but it was not until 1887 that settlers established the first permanent habitation. The high northern valley with its short growing season was ill suited to farming, but the early settlers found it ideal for grazing cattle.
          Tourists started coming to Jackson Hole not long after the first cattle ranches. Some of the ranchers supplemented their income by catering to "dudes," eastern tenderfoots yearning to experience a little slice of the Old West in the shadow of the stunning Tetons. The tourists began to raise the first concerns about preserving the natural beauty of the region. The vast acres of Yellowstone Park, America's first national park founded in 1872, were just north of Jackson Hole. Surely, they asked, the spectacular Grand Tetons deserved similar protection. In 1916, Horace M. Albright, the director of the National Park Service, was the first to seriously suggest that the region be incorporated into Yellowstone. The ranchers and businesses catering to tourists, however, strongly resisted the suggestion that they be pushed off their lands to make a "museum" of the Old West for eastern tourists. Finally, after more than a decade of political maneuvering, Grand Teton National Park was created in 1929. As a concession to the ranchers and tourist operators, the park only encompassed the mountains and a narrow strip at their base. Jackson Hole itself was excluded from the park and designated merely as a scenic preserve. Albright, though, had persuaded the wealthy John D. Rockefeller to begin buying up land in the Jackson Hole area for possible future incorporation into the park. This semisecret, private means of enlarging the park inspired further resentment among the residents, and some complained that it was a typical example of how "eastern money interests" were dictating the future of the West. By the late 1940s, however, local opposition to the inclusion of the Rockefeller lands in the park had diminished, in part because of the growing economic importance of tourism. In 1949, Rockefeller donated his land holdings in Jackson Hole to the federal government that then incorporated them into the national park. Today, Grand Teton National Park encompasses 309,993 acres. Working ranches still exist in Jackson Hole, but the local economy is increasingly dependent on services provided to tourists and the wealthy owners of vacation homes.
    1924 Noboru Takeshita Japanese PM (1987-89)
    1917 Robert Taft Jr (Senator-R-OH)
    1907 British Petroleum (BP) formed by merger of Royal Oil and Shell.
    1887 Sir Benegal Narsing Rau India, president of UN Security Council (1950)
    1887 Benegal Narsing Rau India, president of UN Security Council (1950)
    1876 Pauline Musters shortest known adult (58.9 cm, 1' 11.2")
    1869 Nadezhda K Krupskaya Russian revolutionary/wife of Lenin
    1861 Ferdinand I Vienna, first tsar of modern Bulgaria (1908-18)
    1857 Emile Coué French pharmacist (recovery by auto suggestion)
    1852 Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, who would become a surgeon, health authority, developer of the Battle Creek Sanitarium and founder of the food business which later became the W. K. Kellogg Company. He would die on 14 December 1943.
    1848 The Communist Manifesto is published by Marx and Engels.
    1846 William F "Buffalo Bill" Cody Davenport IA, killed 4000 buffaloes
    1845 Alexander III St Petersburg, Russian tsar (1881-94)
    1843 Geiser, mathematician.
    1842 Camille Flammarion Mars researcher and popularizer of astronomy
    1808 Honoré Daumier France, painter/lithographer/caricaturist
    ^ 1802 Victor Hugo, in Besançon, France
          Hugo, the son of one of Napoleon's officers, decided while still a teenager to become a writer. Although he studied law, he also founded a literary review to which he and other emerging writers published their work. In 1822, Hugo married his childhood sweetheart, Adèle Foucher, and published his first volume of poetry, which won him a pension from Louis XVIII.
          In 1823, Hugo published his first novel, Han d'Islande. About this time, he began meeting regularly with a group of Romantics. His 1827 play, Cromwell, embraced the tenets of Romanticism, which he laid out in the play's preface. The following year, despite a contract to begin work on a novel called Notre Dame de Paris, he set to work on two plays. The first, Marion de Lorme (1829), was censored for its candid portrayal of a courtesan purified by love. The second, Hernani ou L'honneur castillan, became the touchstone for a bitter and protracted debate between French Classicists and Romantics. On 15 January 1831, he finally finished Notre-Dame de Paris, which pleaded for an aesthetic that would tolerate the imperfect, the grotesque. The book also had a simpler agenda: to increase appreciation of old Gothic structures, which had become the object of vandalism and neglect
          In the 1830s, Hugo wrote numerous plays, many of which were written as vehicles for the actress Juliette Drouet, with whom Hugo was romantically connected starting in 1833. In 1841, Hugo was elected to the prestigious Académie Française, but two years later he lost his beloved daughter and her husband when they were drowned in an accident. His expressed his profound grief in a poetry collection called Les Contemplations (1856). Hugo was forced to flee France when Napoléon III came to power; he did not return for 20 years. While still in exile, he completed Les Misérables (1862), which became a hit in France and abroad. He returned to Paris during the Franco-Prussian War and was hailed a national hero. Hugo's writing spanned more than six decades, and he was given a national funeral and buried in the Pantheon after his death on 22 May 1885.
         Victor Hugo was also an artist who produced some 4000 drawings. — MORE ON  HUGO THE ARTIST AT ART “4” FEBRUARY — HUGO ART LINKS — Octopus with the initials V. H. — Planète — Tache d'encre légèrement retouchée sur papier plié — Landscape with Castle — L'Éclair
    AUTHOR HUGO ONLINE:
  • Hernani ou L'honneur castillan : drame, [Paris, Français, 25 février 1830]
  • Le télégraphe : satire
  • Odes et poésies diverses
  • Lucrèce Borgia : drame, [Paris, Porte-Saint-Martin, 2 février 1833]
  • Marie Tudor
  • Napoléon le Petit
  • Les travailleurs de la mer. Tome premier
  • Les travailleurs de la mer. Tome deuxième
  • Les travailleurs de la mer. Tome troisième
  • Han d'Islande
  • Notre-Dame de Paris
  • Notre-Dame de Paris
  • Les Misérables. [Tome V à IX]
  • Les Misérables. [Tome V à IX]
  • Les Misérables. [Tome V à IX]
  • Les Misérables. [Tome V à IX]
  • Les Misérables. [Tome V à IX]
  • Les travailleurs de la mer. [Tome X-XI]
  • Les travailleurs de la mer. [Tome X-XI]
  • L'homme qui rit. [Tome XII-XIII]
  • L'homme qui rit. [Tome XII-XIII]
  • Quatre-vingt-treize. [Tome XIV]
  • Ruy Blas
  • Les Contemplations
    		• IN ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS:
  • Les Miserables volume I
  • volume II
  • volume III
  • volume IV
  • volume V
  • Les Miserables (complete: 3.2 MB)
  • The Memoirs of Victor Hugo
  • Notre-Dame de Paris
  • Notre Dame de Paris
    • 1786 François Arago, mathematician. He died in 1853.
    1361 Wenceslas of Bohemia Holy Roman Catholic German emperor (1378-1400)
    Saint Nestor, évêque en Pamphilie, au sud de la Turquie actuelle, fut crucifié à l'occasion d'une persécution ordonnée par l'empereur Dèce, en 251.
    DICTIONNAIRE TICRANIEN: tondra: ce que tu mets sur ton lit.
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