February 26 in history — What Happened Today in History

The Superliner railcar enters revenue service with Amtrak.

U.N. Secretary-General U Thant signs United Nations proclamation of the vernal equinox as Earth Day.

Apollo program: Launch of AS-201, the first flight of the Saturn IB rocket.

A New York-bound Alitalia airliner crashes into a cemetery in Shannon, Ireland, shortly after takeoff, killing 34 of the 52 persons on board.

A Kyiv-bound Aeroflot airliner crashes on approach to Snilow Airport in Lviv, killing 32 of the 33 people on board.

Vincent Massey is sworn in as the first Canadian-born Governor General of Canada.

World War II: US troops reclaim the Philippine island of Corregidor from the Japanese.

In the February 26 Incident, young nationalist Japanese military officers assassinate multiple cabinet statesmen and start a rebellion in downtown Tokyo, which is ended 3 days later.

Adolf Hitler orders the Luftwaffe to be re-formed, violating the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles.

Robert Watson-Watt carries out a demonstration near Daventry which leads directly to the development of radar in the United Kingdom.

President Calvin Coolidge signs legislation establishing the 96,000 acres (390 km2) Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.

President Woodrow Wilson signs an act of Congress establishing the Grand Canyon National Park.

HMHS Britannic, sister to the RMS Titanic, is launched at Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast.

Kinemacolor, the first successful color motion picture process, is first shown to the general public at the Palace Theatre in London.

Japan and Korea sign the Treaty of Kangwha, which grants Japanese citizens extraterritoriality rights in Korea, opens three Korean ports to Japanese trade, and ends Korea's status as a tributary state of Qing dynasty China.

The Beach Pneumatic Transit in New York City, intended as a demonstration for a subway line, opens.

Napoleon Bonaparte escapes from exile on the island of Elba.

The first Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen burns down.

The British East India Company factory on Balambangan Island is destroyed by Moro pirates.

Galileo Galilei is formally banned by the Roman Catholic Church from teaching or defending the view that the earth orbits the sun.

The Janszoon voyage of 1605–06 becomes the first European expedition to set foot on Australia, although it is mistaken as a part of New Guinea.

Takanoiwa Yoshimori, Mongolian sumo wrestler

Gabriel Obertan, French footballer

Mārtiņš Karsums, Latvian ice hockey player

Hannah Kearney, American skier

Fernando Llorente, Spanish footballer

Emmanuel Adebayor, Togolese footballer

Beren Saat, Turkish actress

Jerome Harrison, American football player

Pepe, Brazilian-Portuguese footballer

Li Na, Chinese tennis player

Matt Prior, South African-English cricketer

Kevin Dallman, Canadian-Kazakhstani ice hockey player

Kertus Davis, American race car driver

Simon Li, Hong Kong judge and politician (born 1922)

Richard Carpenter, English actor and screenwriter (born 1929)

Arnošt Lustig, Czech author, playwright, and screenwriter (born 1926)

Jun Seba, also known as "Nujabes", Japanese record producer, DJ, composer and arranger (born 1974)

Johnny Kerr, American basketball player, coach, and sportscaster (born 1932)

Wendy Richard, English actress (born 1943)

Norm Van Lier, American basketball player, coach, and sportscaster (born 1947)

Bodil Udsen, Danish actress (born 1925)

Georgina Battiscombe, British biographer (born 1905)

Jef Raskin, American computer scientist, created Macintosh (born 1943)

Adolf Ehrnrooth, Finnish general (born 1905)

Boris Trajkovski, Macedonian politician, 2nd President of the Republic of Macedonia (born 1956)

Lawrence Tierney, American actor (born 1919)