Today in History, 2/26

1564: Christopher Marlowe is born. He was a contemporary playwright of Shakespeare's.
1797: The Bank of England issues the first one-pound notes.
1802: Victor Hugo is born. He wrote Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
1815: Napoleon Bonaparte escapes from Elba to begin his second conquest of France.
1829: Levi Strauss, inventor of blue jeans, is born.1846: Buffalo Bill Cody is born.
1852: John Harvey Kellogg is born. Check out Anthony Hopkins' portrayal of him in The Road to Wellville.1863: President Abraham Lincoln signs the National Banking Act into law.
1866: Herbert Henry Dow, founder of Dow Chemicals, is born.1870: In New York City, the first pneumatic subway opens.
1882: Husband E. Kimmel is born. He was commander of the Pacific Fleet during the Pearl Harbor attacks and that pretty much finished his career. During the attack he was grazed by a 50 caliber bullet and is reported to have said, "It would have been merciful had it killed me."1887: William Frawley is born. He played Fred Mertz on I Love Lucy.1908: Tex Avery is born.

1916: Jackie Gleason is born.
1917: The Original Dixie Land Jass Band records the first even jazz record for the Victor Talking Machine Company.
1918: Theodore Sturgeon is born. He was a titan of the golden age of science fiction and also is credited with inventing pon farr: the Vulcan mating ritual on Star Trek
1919: Congress establishes most of the Grand Canyon as a National Park.
1920: Tony Randall is born. I won't curse you with another musical number from Hello Down There!1928: Fats Domino is born.
1932: Johnny Cash is born.

1935: The Luftwaffe is reformed.
1935: Robert Watson-Watt carries out a demonstration that would lead directly to the invention of radar.
1951: The 22nd Amendment is ratified, limiting a president to two terms in office.
1952: Prime Minister Winston Churchill announces that the United Kingdom has the bomb.
1990: The Sandinista are defeated in Nicaraguan elections.
1991: Tim Berners-Lee introduces the first World Wide Web browser.1993: The first World Trade Center bombing.
2001: The Taliban destroys two giant Buddha statues in Bamyan, Afghanistan.Today in History elements mostly cribbed from The History Channel, Wikipedia, The New York Times, The Jewish World Review, The Writer's Almanac and anything else I can dig up.