TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS SUNDAY, FEB. 26, the 57th day of 2023. There are 308 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 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.)
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 1987, the Tower Commission, which had probed the Iran-Contra affair, issued its report, which rebuked President Ronald Reagan for failing to control his national security staff.
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 2020, the World Health Organization reported that the number of new coronavirus cases outside China had exceeded the number of new infections in China for the first time.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Rock musician Jonathan Cain (Journey) is 73. Singer Michael Bolton is 70. The president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is 69. Actor Greg Germann and Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., are 65. Bandleader John McDaniel is 62. Actor-martial artist Mark Dacascos is 59. Actor Jennifer Grant is 57. Rock musician Tim Commerford (Audioslave) is 55. Singer Erykah Badu is 52. Actor Maz Jobrani (TV: “Superior Donuts”) and R&B singer Rico Wade (Society of Soul) are 51. Olympic goldmedal swimmer Jenny Thompson is 50. R&B singer Kyle Norman (Jagged Edge) is 48. Actor Greg Rikaart is 46. Latin singer Natalia Lafourcade is 39. Actor Teresa Palmer is 37.