1815 – Sunday observance in Netherlands regulated by law
1913 – David Beatty becomes Rear-Admiral Commanding the Royal Navy’s 1st Battlecruiser Squadron
1941 – German troops invade Bulgaria
1976 – 11th Academy of Country Music Awards: Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn win
1990 – Steve Jackson Games is raided by the United States Secret Service, prompting the later formation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
1993 – New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner is reinstated as general partner of the team; banned because of his relationship with convicted gambler Howie Spira
1997 – “Mandy Patinkin in Concert” opens at Lyceum Theater, NYC; runs for limited run of 16 performances
2016 – MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred sends a strong message on the issue of domestic violence; issues a 30-game suspension to NY Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman
Category: Historical Events
Historical Events for 28th February 2026
1749 – 1st edition of Henry Fielding’s novel “Tom Jones” is published
1882 – 1st US college cooperative store opens, at Harvard University
1900 – General Buller’s troops relieve Ladysmith in Natal
1904 – Vincent d’Indy’s 2nd Symphony in B, premieres
1914 – Rida Johnson Young, James Royce Shannon, and Chanucy Ollcot’s musical “Shameen Dhu” closes at the Opera House, NYC, after a limited engagement of 32 performances
1981 – Columbia Records releases “Seven Year Ache,” the third studio album by Rosanne Cash; it is her commercial breakthrough and goes to #1 on the country music chart
1998 – “View From the Bridge” closes at Criterion Theater NYC
2016 – Explosion at Severnaya coal mine in Vorkuta, Russia kills 36, including 5 rescuers
Historical Events for 27th February 2026
1900 – Battle of Paardeberg: Boer General Piet Cronjé surrenders to the British after a prolonged siege
1901 – National League Rules Committee for baseball decrees that all fouls are to count as strikes except after two strikes
1997 – British singer Sade arrested in Jamaica for disobeying a police officer
1998 – FBI arrests 10 most wanted suspected serial killer Tony Ray Amati
1998 – 14th Soap Opera Digest Awards – General Hospital wins
2007 – Mark Messier’s #11 jersey is retired by the Edmonton Oilers
2014 – Chaos erupts after the Swedish Public Employment Service mistakenly invites 61,000 people to a job interview in Stockholm
2014 – Unmarked Russia special forces invade neighboring Crimea, Ukraine to assist pro-Russian nationalists, occupying government buildings in preparation for annexation
Historical Events for 26th February 2026
1917 – First jazz records are recorded: “Dixie Jazz Band One Step” and “Livery Stable Blues” by the Original Dixieland Jass Band for the Victor Talking Machine Company in NYC
1917 – Russian February Revolution: Tsar Nicolas II orders army to quell civil unrest in Petrograd – army mutinies [NS Mar 11]
1955 – Leigh, Charlap, Styne, Comden and Green’s musical “Peter Pan”, starring Mary Martin and Cyril Ritchard, closes at Winter Garden Theater, NYC, after 152 performances
1983 – Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” album goes #1 and stays #1 for 37 weeks
1991 – Signs of Iran crude now an option for US refiners, but no imports from Iran likely in near future
2004 – US lifts a ban on travel to Libya, ending restrictions that had lasted for 23 years
2017 – 59th Daytona 500: Kurt Busch wins after Kyle Larson runs out of gas on last lap; Jeffrey Earnhardt makes NASCAR history, 1st ever 4th generation driver to compete in Daytona 500
2023 – Dilbert comic strip creator Scott Adams faces widespread condemnation for his comments about African Americans in a YouTube show, prompting his strip and up-coming book to be cancelled
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
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
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
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
Historical Events for 21st February 2026
1821 – Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire begins
1861 – Steeple of Chichester Cathedral collapses despite the desperate efforts of 70 workmen
1921 – Constituent Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Georgia adopts the country’s first constitution
1931 – Alka Seltzer introduced
1957 – Dodgers (Fort Worth) and Cubs (LA) “trade” minor league franchises
1987 – Syrian army marches into Beirut
1991 – Neil Simon’s stage comic-drama “Lost in Yonkers”, starring Mercedes Ruehl and Kevin Spacey, opens at Richard Rodgers Theater, NYC; runs for 780 performances, winning 5 Tony Awards and a Pulitzer Prize
2022 – 60 people die in an explosion at an unregulated gold mine near Gaoua, Burkina Faso
Historical Events for 20th February 2026
1941 – Romania breaks relations with Netherlands
1952 – Britain’s Jeannette Altwegg wins the Olympic women’s figure skating gold medal at the Olso Winter Games ahead of American Tenley Albright, who goes on to win in Cortina d’Ampezzo (1956)
1972 – 14th Daytona 500: A. J. Foyt dominates the race, winning by almost 2 laps over his closest competitor Charlie Glotzbach
1978 – Bob Backland beats “Superstar” Billy Graham in NYC, to become WWF wrestling champion
1980 – Soviet cross-country skier Nikolay Zimyatov wins his 2nd gold medal of the Lake Placid Winter Olympics as part of the 4 x 10k relay; also wins 30k and 50k gold
1994 – Johann Olav Koss skates world record 10 km (13:30.55)
2011 – 53rd Daytona 500: 20-year-old Trevor Bayne, driving for Wood Brothers Racing, wins to become the youngest Daytona 500 winner
2021 – Bloodiest day of protests in Myanmar since its coup after security forces open fire, killing two people with 40 wounded in Mandalay