Today in History for 26th February 2026

Historical Events

1929 – US President Calvin Coolidge establishes Grand Teton National Park
1941 – Cowboys’ Amateur Association of America organized (California)
1954 – First typesetting machine (photo engraving) used in Quincy, Massachusetts
2013 – A rocket launched from the Gaza strip into Israel ends the ceasefire since November 2012
2025 – First death from measles in the US occurs in Texas in a decade, and the first child to die in 22 years amid an outbreak affecting 124 people

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Famous Birthdays

1939 – Josephine Tewson, British actress (Keeping Up Appearances; Last Of The Summer Wine, 2003-10), born in Hampstead, England (d. 2022)
1945 – Peter Brock, Australian auto racer (3 x Australian Touring Car C’ship; 9 x Bathurst 500/1000; 9 x Sandown Endurance), born in Melbourne, Australia (d. 2006)
1950 – Billy Steinberg, American lyricist and songwriter (with Tom Kelly – “Like A Virgin”; “True Colors”; “I Touch Myself”), born in Palm Springs, California (d. 2026)
1957 – David Muldrow Beasley, American politician, born in Darlington, South Carolina
1959 – Rolando Blackman, American basketball guard (NBA All-Star 1985, 86, 87, 90; Dallas Mavs, NY Knicks; Italian Cup MVP 1996 Olimpia Milano), born in Panama City, Panama

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Famous Deaths

1802 – Esek Hopkins, American Revolutionary War admiral and Commander in Chief of the Continental Navy, dies at 83
1933 – Princess Thyra, Danish princess, daughter of Christian IX of Denmark, dies at 79
1960 – Aleksandar Belic, Serbian linguist, dies at 83
2008 – Glory Mukwati, Zimbabwean politician
2023 – Fred Shabel, American basketball coach (Connecticut Huskies 1963-67) and executive (AD University of Pennsylvania 1967-75; Comcast Spectacor), dies at 90

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Famous Deaths for 25th February 2026

1805 – Thomas Pownall, British colonial statesman (b. 1722)
1865 – Otto Ludwig, German playwright and writer (Between Heaven and Earth), dies at 47
1906 – Anton Arensky, Russian composer and conductor, dies of tuberculosis at 44
1964 – Grace Metalious, American writer (b. 1924)
1967 – John Griggs, American actor (The Joey Bishop Show; Fearless Fosdick), dies at 58
1992 – Ollie O’Toole, American comedian, impressionist, and actor, dies after long illness at 79
1994 – Baruch Goldstein, American-Israli physician and mass murderer (at least 55 dead in shooting at Hebron Ibrahimi Mosque), lynched at 42
1998 – Rockin’ Sidney [Simien], American zydeco and RandB singer-songwriter, accordionist, guitarist, organist, and harmonica player (“My Toot-Toot”; “You Ain’t Nothing But Fine”), dies of throat cancer at 59
2005 – Edward Patten, American soul singer (Gladys Knight and the Pips – “Midnight Train to Georgia”, “I Heard it Through the Grapevine”), dies of a stroke at 65
2021 – John Geddert, American gymnastics coach (US head coach London Olympic Team 2012), dies from self-inflicted gunshot wounds at 63

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Historical Events for 25th February 2026

1746 – The Duke of Cumberland’s troops occupy Aberdeen
1892 – J. M. Barrie’s stage play “Walker London” premieres in London
1960 – John Cage’s musical composition “Music for Amplified Toy Pianos” premieres in Middletown, Connecticut
1980 – Coup ousts PM Henck Arron of Suriname
1981 – Rita Jenrette, wife of US “Abscam” congressman, appears on “Donahue” TV talk show
1981 – Exec Board of Baseball Players’ Association votes unanimously to strike on May 29 if the issue of free-agent compensation remains unresolved
1991 – Businessman Bruce McNall, hockey legend Wayne Gretzky and actor John Candy buy CFL’s Toronto Argonauts
2013 – Italy Common Good, a centre left alliance, wins the Italian general election

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Today in History for 25th February 2026

Historical Events

1925 – US Men’s Figure Skating championship won by Nathaniel Niles
1961 – Paul Bikle in glider climbs from 1,208 m at release to record altitude of 1,410m
1961 – Niagara ends St Bonaventura’s 99-game home college basketball win streak
1968 – 10th Daytona 500: Cale Yarborough driving for Wood Brothers Racing wins by less than a second from LeeRoy Yarbrough; grid set exclusively by qualifying times
1995 – PBA National Championship Won by Scott Alexander

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Famous Birthdays

1735 – Ernst Wilhelm Wolf, German composer, born in Grossen Behringen, Thuringia, Electorate of Saxony (d. 1792)
1902 – Max Kommerell, German literary critic (Die Gefangenen), born in Münsingen, Germany (d. 1944)
1966 – Nancy O’Dell, American reporter and television personality (Entertainment Tonight), born in Sumter, South Carolina
1980 – Christy Knowings, American actress and member of the “All That” sketch comedy show (1997-2000), born in the Bronx, New York
1985 – Benji Marshall, New Zealand rugby league halfback-five eighth (31 Tests; Wests Tigers, St. George, South Sydney) and coach (Wests Tigers), born in Whakatane, New Zealand

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Famous Deaths

1655 – Daniel Heinsius, Flemish scholar and poet (Poetics), dies at 74
1860 – Chauncey Allen Goodrich, American clergyman, educator and lexicographer (edited Webster’s Dictionary), dies at 69
1953 – Jesus Garcia Leoz, Spanish orchestral and film composer (The Sun Comes Out Every Day), dies at 49
1996 – Marion Farouk Political scientist-Sluglett, dies at 59
2009 – Ian Carr, Scottish jazz musician (Nucleus), dies after suffering Alzheimer’s disease at 75

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Famous Deaths for 24th February 2026

1525 – Guillaume Gouffier, seigneur de Bonnivet, French soldier
1969 – Kenneth Green, actor (Penrod), dies of a heart attack at 61
1984 – Uwe Johnson, writer, dies at 59
1991 – John Charles Daly, American, newscaster and TV game show host (What’s My Line), dies at 77
1994 – Donald Phillips, pianist and composer, dies at 80
1998 – Henny Youngman, American comedian and violinist (Take my wife … please), dies at 91
2020 – Jan Kowalczyk, Polish equestrian rider (Olympics gold show jumping individual; silver team 1980), dies at 78
2020 – Ben Cooper, American western actor (The Rose Tattoo; Outcast; Arizona Raiders), dies at 86
2020 – Mario Bunge, Argentine-Canadian philosopher and physicist (pioneering work in epistemology), dies at 100
2024 – Kenneth Mitchell, Canadian actor (Star Trek: Discovery), dies of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis at 49

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Historical Events for 24th February 2026

1826 – The signing of the Treaty of Yandaboo marks the end of the First Burmese War
1927 – John Golden Theater (Theatre Masque) opens at 252 W 45th St NYC
1969 – Northern Ireland Stormont parliament elections are held; the Unionist party fragments into ‘Official Unionist’ and ‘Unofficial Unionist’
1969 – Mariner 6 launched for Mars flyby to study planet’s atmosphere
1982 – Boston Celtics begin an 18 NBA game winning streak
1988 – US Supreme Court votes 8-0 Jerry Falwell cannot collect for Hustler parody
1988 – South African apartheid regime bans the UDF
2018 – Japanese speed skater Nana Takagi wins her 2nd gold medal of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in the women’s mass start event; also member Japan’s successful pursuit team

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Today in History for 24th February 2026

Historical Events

1857 – LA Vineyard Society organized
1950 – Labour wins UK parliamentary election by 5 seats
1956 – Walter Piston’s 5th Symphony, commissioned by the Juilliard School of Music for their 50th anniversary, premiere performance by the Juilliard Orchestra, conducted by Jean Morel
1999 – State of Arizona executes convicted murderer and bank robber, German national Karl LaGrand, despite international legal action by Germany to save him
2020 – Scientists identify the first animal that doesn’t need oxygen to breathe: a tiny parasite living in salmon tissue, reported in the journal PNAS

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Famous Birthdays

1910 – Clyde Hart, American swing and bebop jazz piano player and arranger (Stuff Smith; Lionel Hampton; Roy Eldridge), born in Baltimore, Maryland (d. 1945)
1917 – Myra Taylor (née Render), American jazz singer (“Spider and the Fly”; Wild Women of Kansas City), songwriter, and actress, born in Bonner Springs, Kansas (d. 2011)
1940 – Denis Law, Scottish soccer striker (55 caps; Manchester United 309 games; Ballon d’Or 1964; World Soccer World XI 1964), born in Aberdeen, Scotland (d. 2025)
1956 – Eddie Murray, American MLB Hall of Fame first baseman, 8x All-star, 3x Golden Glove (Baltimore Orioles, 1977-88 and 96; L.A. Dodgers, 1989-91 and 97, and three other teams), born in Los Angeles, California
1981 – Mohammad Sami, Pakistani cricket fast bowler (36 Tests, 85 wickets, BB 5/36; Karachi, Kent CCC, Sussex CCC), born in Karachi, Pakistan

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Famous Deaths

1856 – Nikolai Lobachevsky, Russian mathematician (Lobachevskian geometry), dies at 63
1919 – Josephine McGill, composer, dies at 41
1990 – Malcolm Forbes, American publisher of Forbes magazine, politician, and son of B.C. Forbes, dies of a heart attack at 70
2011 – Anant Pai, Indian educationalist and creator of comics (b. 1929)
2012 – Jan Berenstain [Janice Marian Grant], American children’s literature author (The Berenstain Bears), dies from a stroke at 88

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Famous Deaths for 23rd February 2026

1572 – Pierre Certon, French composer
1781 – George Taylor, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (for Pennsylvania), dies at about 64 or 65
1955 – Paul Claudel, French poet and playwright (L’otage-1909), dies at 86
1980 – Robert Vandekerckhove, Belgian politician, dies at 62
1990 – Annelien Kappeyne van de Coppello, Dutch lawyer and politician (Liberal), dies of cancer at 53
1992 – Jacquelyn Hyde, American actress (Dark, House of Terror), dies at 61
1995 – Peter Wykeham, Royal Air Force fighter pilot, dies at 79
1997 – Oscar Lewenstein, British theater impresario (Bertolt Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera), and film producer (The Knack …and How to Get It), dies of heart failure at 80
1997 – Tony Williams, American jazz drummer (Miles Davis), dies at 51
2000 – Ofra Haza, Israeli singer (b. 1957)

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Historical Events for 23rd February 2026

1668 – Fire in the Hofburg in Vienna, Emperor Leopold I rescued
1904 – Fiordland National Park in New Zealand is created, home to the Milford Track and at 4,600 square miles (12,000 square km), one of the world’s largest
1923 – German Republic day with laws against worker
1954 – First mass inoculation against polio with the Jonas Salk vaccine takes place at Arsenal Elementary School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1970 – Guyana becomes a republic (National Day)
1976 – Final meeting between Chinese Communist party Chairman Mao Zedong and former US President Richard Nixon, in Beijing, China
1999 – British TV drama “Queer as Folk” written by Russell T. Davies, starring Aidan Gillen, Craig Kelly and Charlie Hunnam premieres on Channel 4
2019 – Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir declares a national emergency, dismisses the federal government and sacks all state governors

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Today in History for 23rd February 2026

Historical Events

1854 – Great Britain and Orange Free state sign Convention of Bloemfontein
1966 – Military coup in Syria ends Bitar government
2007 – A train derails on an evening express service near Grayrigg, Cumbria, England, killing one person and injuring 22. This results in hundreds of points being checked over the UK after a few similar accidents.
2014 – 56th Daytona 500: Dale Earnhardt Jr. breaks a 55-race winless streak to win his 2nd Great American Race
2019 – Sri Lanka becomes first Asian cricket team to clinch a Test series in South Africa chasing down 197 in the 2nd Test in Port Elizabeth; Kusal Mendis 84no, Oshada Fernando 75no

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Famous Birthdays

1615 – Nicolas Fouquet, French politician and Superintendent of Finances (1653-61) who became fabulously wealthy and later imprisoned for maladministration of state funds, born in Paris (d. 1680)
1744 – Mayer Amschel Rothschild, German Jewish banker and founder of the Rothschild banking dynasty, born in Frankfurt (d. 1812)
1803 – John Sutter, German-Swiss-American colonist who established Sutter’s Fort in what is now Sacramento and where gold was first discovered in California, born in Kandern, Margraviate of Baden, Holy Roman Empire (d. 1880)
1933 – Donna J. Stone, American poet (Wielder of Words), born in Ohio (d. 1994)
1947 – Shakira Caine, British-Guyanese actress and model (Man Who Would Be King), born in St. Cuthbert’s Mission, British Guiana

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Famous Deaths

1792 – Joshua Reynolds, English portrait painter (Simplicity), dies at 68
1974 – Florence Rice, American actress (Fast Company, Double Wedding, Riding on Air), dies from lung cancer at 67
2012 – Bruce Surtees, American cinematographer (Dirty Harry, Lenny), dies at 74
2016 – Lennie Baker, American rock saxophonist musician (Sha Na Na, 1970-99), dies at 69
2020 – Stefan Florenski, Polish soccer defender (11 caps; Górnik Zabrze), dies at 86

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