A Brief History
This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on February 26th. For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event.
Digging Deeper
On February 26, 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte, aka Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, escaped from his forced exile on the island of Elba and made his way back to France, seeking to regain his throne.
On February 26, 1903, Michael Joseph Owens was granted a patent for a glass blowing machine, one of five inventions he patented for the mass production of glass objects such as light bulbs and bottles.
On February 26, 1906, The Jungle, a novel written by the American journalist and novelist Upton Sinclair (1878–1968), was published.
On February 26, 1935, the militant German nationalist leader Adolf Hitler defied the terms of the Treaty of Versailles and ordered the reestablishment of the German Air Force, known as the Luftwaffe.
On February 26, 1935, British scientist Dr. Robert Watson-Watt performed a demonstration that was to lead directly to the development of radar by the British, a concept long anticipated by previous scientists and first demonstrated by German inventor Christian Hülsmeyer in 1904.
On February 26, 1991, English computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN of Switzerland) introduced his invention of the WorldWideWeb to the public, the first publicly available internet browser.
On February 26, 1993, New Yorkers were shaken during their lunch break by the explosion of a giant bomb!
On February 26, 2013, a sightseeing hot air balloon over Luxor, Egypt, was carrying 20 passengers and the pilot when something went horribly wrong.
On February 26, 2021, live-action/computer-animated slapstick comedy Tom & Jerry was scheduled to be released in the United States by Warner Bros. Pictures in both theaters and on HBO Max for 31 days from theatrical release.
On February 26, 2023, the Wall Street Journal said that the US Department of Energy reported that the origin of the world-wide pandemic of COVID-19 in all probability did indeed come from a leak at the Wuhan, China, biological lab that was the epicenter of the outbreak in late 2019.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Andrews, John and Matt Baker. Timeline of World History. Thunder Bay Press, 2020.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.
