TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Monday, Feb. 26, the 57th day of 2024. There are 309 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History: On Feb. 26, 1993,
a truck bomb built by Islamic extremists exploded in the parking garage of the North Tower of New York’s World Trade Center, killing six people and injuring more than 1,000 others. (The bomb failed to topple the North Tower into the South Tower, as the terrorists had hoped; both structures were destroyed in the 9/11 attack eight years later.)
On this date: In 1815,
Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from exile on the Island of Elba and headed back to France in a bid to regain power. In 1904, the United States and Panama proclaimed a treaty under which the U.S. agreed to undertake efforts to build a ship canal across the Panama isthmus. In 1952, Prime Minister Winston Churchill announced that Britain had developed its own atomic bomb. In 2005, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak ordered his country’s constitution changed to allow presidential challengers in an upcoming fall election. In 2012, Trayvon Martin, 17, was shot to death in Sanford, Florida, during an altercation with neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, who said he acted in self-defense. (Zimmerman was later acquitted of second-degree murder.) In 2016, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie stunned the Republican establishment by endorsing Donald Trump for president. In 2018, President Donald Trump, who had been highly critical of the law enforcement response to the Florida school shooting, told a roomful of governors at the White House that if he had been there, he would have rushed in, unarmed. Today’s birthdays: Rock musician Jonathan Cain (Journey) is 74. Singer Michael Bolton is 71. Actor Greg Germann is 66. Sen. Bandleader John McDaniel is 63. Actor-martial artist Mark Dacascos is 60. Actor Jennifer Grant is 58. Olympic gold medal swimmer Jenny Thompson is 51. R&B singer Kyle Norman (Jagged Edge) is 49. Actor Greg Rikaart is 47. Rock musician Chris Culos (O.A.R.) and R&B singer Corinne Bailey Rae are 45. Pop singer Nate Ruess (fun.) and former tennis player Li Na are 42. Latin singer Natalia Lafourcade is 40. Actor Teresa Palmer is 38.