February 26th
Today in America's Present Past
1732 | Civil Rights: First Catholic Church to celebrate mass, St. Joesph’s, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1803 | Admiral Esek Hopkins died.
1813 | Founding: Founder Robert Livingston died.
1829 | Entrepreneur Levi Strauss was born.
1832 | Historian John George Nicolay was born.
1839 | Sybil Ludington, War for Independence heroine, died.
1846 | Explorer and entertainer William “Buffalo Bill” Cody was born.
1852 | Entrepreneur and physician John Harvey Kellogg was born in Tyrone, Michigan.
1862 | Civil War: Battle of Woodburn, Kentucky.
1863 | POTUS: Republican President Lincoln signed the National Currency Act, creating a single U.S. currency.
1866 | Entrepreneur and chemist Herbert Henry Dow was born.
1869 | 15th Amendment submitted to the states for ratification.
1870 | Civil Rights: Wyatt Outlaw was lynched by the KKK in North Carolina.
1871 | Painter Sophia Hawthorne died.
1882 | Admiral Husband Kimmel was born.
1903 | Entrepreneur Richard Jordan Gatling died.
1907 | Congress: Raises its annual salary to $7,500.
1914 | The New York Museum of Science & Industry is formed.
1916 | Actor Jackie Gleason was born.
1919 | Congress: Authorizes the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona.
1920 | Actor Tony Randall was born.
1928 | Entertainer Fats Domino was born.
1929 | POTUS: Republican President Calvin Coolidge established Grand Teton National Park.
1930 | First Green and Red traffic signals operate in New York City, New York.
1931 | Journalist Robert Novak was born.
1932 | Musician Johnny Cash was born.
1933 | Groundbreaking on the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge.
1940 | The US Air Defense Command is established.
1944 | Civil Rights: The first female Navy captain, Sue Dauser, was appointed head of the Nursing Corps.
1945 | Musician Mitch Ryder was born in Hamtramck, Michigan.
1945 | WWII: US forces begin bombing Berlin, Germany.
1946 | Civil Rights: Columbia, Tennessee race riots.
1949 | Author Elizabeth George was born.
1949 | The first nonstop transworld flight was started by the USAF.
1965 | Civil Rights: Jimmie Lee Jackson was killed in Alabama.
1975 | TV: The first televised kidney transplant surgery on the Today Show.
1987 | Congress: Probes into the “Iran-Contra” affair begin.
1991 | Gulf War: Battle of 73 Easting.
1993 | War on Terror: World Trade Center truck bomb explodes in New York City, New York.
1993 | Actress Taylor Dooley was born in Grosse Pointe, Michigan.
1994 | Entrepreneur and inventor Avery Fischer died.
2004 | POTUS: Republican President George W. Bush lifts travel ban on Libya.
2017 | Entertainer and judge Joseph Waper died.