Today in history

Today’s highlight

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.

On this date

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.

1945: Authorities ordered a midnight curfew at nightclubs, bars and other places of entertainment across the nation.

1952: Prime Minister Winston Churchill announced that Britain had developed its own atomic bomb.

2005: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak ordered his country’s constitution changed to allow presidential challengers in an upcoming fall election.

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.

2014: Republican Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed a bill pushed by social conservatives that would have allowed people with sincerely held religious beliefs to refuse to serve gays.

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.

2022: Kyiv residents braced for another night of sheltering underground, as Russian troops closed in on Ukraine’s capital and skirmishes were reported on the outskirts. Ukraine’s leader, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, vowed to continue fighting the Russian assault as he appealed for more outside help.

Today’s birthdays

Singer Michael Bolton is 70.

Singer Erykah Badu is 52.

Actor Maz Jobrani (TV: “Superior Donuts”) is 51.

Olympic gold medal swimmer Jenny Thompson is 50.

Pop singer Nate Ruess (fun.) is 41.

Former tennis player Li Na is 41.

Latin singer Natalia Lafourcade is 39.