Author: gil7

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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Famous Deaths for 22nd February 2026

556 – Maximianus of Ravenna, Byzantine bishop (Basilica San Stefano), dies at about 56 [birthdate uncertain]
1827 – Charles Willson Peale, American painter remembered for portraits of leading American Revolution figures (George Washington), dies at 85
1892 – Herman Koeckemann, German Catholic prelate (b. 1828)
1911 – William Lewis Cabell “, Old Tige” American Brigadier General (Confederate Army) and Mayor of Dallas, dies at 84
1913 – Ferdinand de Saussure, Swiss linguist (Mémoire sur le système primitif des voyelles dans les langues indo-européennes), dies at 55
1936 – John Hope, American educator (President of Atlanta Baptist/Morehouse College,1906-36 and Atlanta University, 1929-36), dies at 67
1980 – Oskar Kokoschka, Austria-British painter and graphic artist, dies at 93
1982 – Josh Malihabadi, Urdu poet of India and Pakistan, dies at 83
1995 – Emmanuel Roblès, Algerian-French novelist and playwright (Lesson Hauteurs), dies at 80
2017 – Fritz Koenig, German sculptor (Sphere at World Trade Center), dies at 92

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Historical Events for 22nd February 2026

1633 – St. Peter’s Baldachin, the cathedral’s sculptural centerpiece, by Gian Lorenzo Bernini is inaugurated by Pope Urban VIII in Rome
1860 – Shoe-making workers of Lynn, Massachusetts, strike successfully for higher wages
1916 – The House-Grey Memorandum, drafted by US and Britain, states: ‘Should the Allies accept [the American idea of a conference to end the war] and should Germany refuse it, the United States would “probably” enter the war against Germany’
1941 – Paul Creston’s 1st Symphony premieres
1950 – Wallace Brockway and Herbert Weinstock’s revised and expanded edition of reference book “Men of Music: Their Lives, Times and Achievements” is published
2013 – The UK’s AAA credit rating is downgraded by Moody’s Investors Service to AA+; the agency expects growth to “remain sluggish over the next few years”
2014 – Dutch speed skaters Jorien ter Mors (1,500m champion) and Ireen Wüst (3,000m winner) each claim their 2nd gold medal of the Sochi Winter Olympics as part of the women’s pursuit team
2020 – Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo marks his 1,000th senior appearance by scoring in Juventus’ 2-1 Serie A win over SPAL; 725 career goals in 836 club games and 164 internationals

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Today in History for 22nd February 2026

Historical Events

1860 – Shoe-making workers of Lynn, Massachusetts, strike successfully for higher wages
1928 – First solo flight from England to Australia lands in Darwin 15½ days after takeoff, piloted by Australian aviator Bert Hinkler
1936 – Sonja Henie of Norway follows up her Winter Olympics victory with an incredible 10th consecutive women’s World Championship figure skating gold medal in Paris, France
1960 – German skier Georg Thoma becomes the first non-Nordic athlete to win the Nordic combined event at the Squaw Valley Winter Olympics
1982 – NYC Mayor Koch announces he will run for NY governor (unsuccessful)

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Famous Birthdays

1542 – Santino Garsi da Parma, Italian lutenist and composer, born in Parma, Papal States (d. 1604)
1920 – Del Wood [Adelaide Hazelwood], American country musician, born in Nashville, Tennessee (d. 1989)
1950 – Miou-Miou [Sylvette Herry], French actress (Dog Day, My Other Husband), born in Paris, France
1969 – Joaquín Cortés, Spanish dancer, born in Córdoba, Spain
1971 – Mohammed Sylla, Guinean football player (Willem II, FC Martigues), born in Conakry, Guinea (d. 2010)

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Famous Deaths

1968 – Omer CFL Tulippe, Belgian geographer, dies at 71
2001 – John Farley, American folk singer and guitarist (Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death), dies at 61
2002 – Charles “Chuck” Jones, American animator and cartoonist best known for his work with Warner Bros. (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Wile E. Coyote, Road Runner, Porky Pig), dies of congestive heart failure at 89
2024 – Jean-Guy Talbot, Canadian ice hockey defenceman (7 x Stanley Cup Montreal Canadiens; 6 x NHL All Star) and coach (St. Louis Blues, NY Rangers), dies at 91
2025 – Joe Fusco, American College Football HOF coach (Westminster College 1972-90), dies at 87

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