Now & Then ANNIVERSARIES
26 FEBRUARY
1531: Earthquake in Portugal killed tens of thousands of people and flattened much of Lisbon and other cities.
1672: Naturalisation granted to Philip van der Straten, a Fleming who set up a factory in Kelso to begin the Border woollen industry. 1797: £1 notes first issued by the Bank of England.
1815: Napoleon escaped from exile on the island of Elba and returned to France.
1839: The first official Grand National steeplechase, run at Aintree, Liverpool. The race was won by Jem Mason on the Lottery. 1852: Troopship Birkenhead sank off Simon’s Bay, South Africa, and 485 died.
1871: Preliminary Peace of Versailles was signed between France and Germany.
1935: Radar – radio detection and ranging – was first demonstrated in Daventry by Robert Watson-watt. 1936: The Volkswagen car factory was opened in Saxony by Adolf Hitler.
1952: Winston Churchill announced that Britain had produced its own atomic bomb. 1974: Ethiopian army units seized Asmara, second largest city in Ethiopia (now in Eritrea), and demanded better pay and living conditions.
1980: Diplomatic relations were established between Israel and Egypt.
1987: SDP political novice Rosie Barnes captured Greenwich, held by Labour for 50 years, with a majority of 2,141.
1989: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini met Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze for talks centring on Islam.
1989: Burke’s Peerage stated that King Arthur’s Round Table had been found near Stirling, on the banks of the Carron river.
1990: Nicaragua’s 14-party opposition coalition led by Violeta Barrios de Chamorro scored a stunning upset victory over Daniel Ortega’s Sandinistas.
1990: The Welsh town of Towyn, population 2,000, was evacuated with 20 minutes to spare before high tide caused devastation. 1992: Dublin Supreme Court ruled that 14-year-old Irish schoolgirl who became pregnant after being raped, could travel to London for an abortion, reversing High Court ban. 1993: Five people were killed by a car bomb in underground car park at World Trade Centre in New York. 1995: Barings Bank crashed after one of its Far East traders, Nick Leeson, lost more than £500million in unauthorised dealing on the Tokyo stock exchange.
1997: A report said that Parliament had been repeatedly misled over the widespread use of dangerous organophosphate pesticides by British troops during the Gulf war. 2004: Republic of Macedonia president Boris Trajkovski was killed in a plane crash near Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
2010: Scottish rugby legend Ian Mcgeechan was knighted for a glittering sports career as both player and coach.
2012: A train derailed in Burlington, Ontario, Canada, killing three people and injuring 45. 2013: A hot air balloon crashed near Luxor, Egypt, killing 19 people. 2014: Michael Adebolajo was given a whole-life term and Michael Adebowale was jailed for a minimum of 45 years for murdering Fusilier Lee Rigby.
BIRTHDAYS
Erykah Badu, singer, 53; Michael Bolton, American singer, 71; Lynda Clark, QC, Baroness Clark of Calton, Senator of the College of Justice in Scotland, 75; Carmen Du Sautoy, British actress, 74; David Edgar, British playwright, 76; C Dame Carolyn Emma Kirkby DBE, British soprano, 75; Corinne Bailey Rae, soul singer, 45; Sandie Shaw, British singer, 77; Brian Simmers, Scottish rugby player, 84; Colin Telfer, Scottish rugby player and coach, 77.
Births: 1802 Victor Hugo, poet and novelist; 1846 William Cody, American frontiersman and showman, known as Buffalo Bill; 1928 Fats Domino, American R&B singer and pianist; 1932 Johnny Cash, singer and songwriter; 1931 Ally Mcleod, football manager. Deaths: 1723 Thomas d’urfey, satirist and songwriter;1802 Alexander Geddes, biblical critic and poet; 1834 Aloys Senefelder, inventor of lithography; 1898 Frederick Tennyson, poet; 1950 Sir Harry Lauder, music hall singer and comedian; 2004 Russell Hunter, actor.